Miguel Gaudêncio

Miguel Gaudêncio
Portrait of Miguel Gaudencio
Born	(1971-10-28) October 28, 1971 (age 45) Mozambique
Occupation	Director, Producer, writer, editor

Recognized across Europe for his award winning music videos, Miguel Gaudencio was recruited by major international brands, such as Mc Donald’s and Coca-Cola, to innovate their product commercials. In 2010 Miguel delved into the world of documentaries with "Desire for Beauty", on the issues of beauty and self-perception. The film starred Agata Kulesza, and leaded the "most seen documentaries" charts, once it was released in the main VOD platforms, namely Hulu and Amazon Prime. Recent ones include “Down, But Not Out!” about four amateur female boxers and “No Excuses” about the culture of crossfit. Both documentaries look at sports through a feminist lens.

Miguel Gaudencio directed more than two hundred music videos in Portugal before reaching the age of 30. His sharp, snappy directorial style earned him many awards: Try Again, for example, won the SOL TV Music Video award for the best music video of the year 2000. By 2001 advertising agencies were lining up to utlilise Miguel's talent and he began shooting commercials for leading multi-national clients such as McDonald's, Coca-Cola and Mercedes. By 2003 Miguel was working right across Europe; he has now directed commercials for a stable agency's across the continent and beyond, including Poland, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania and North of Africa (Maroco and Tunisia).

In 2004 he directed his first short-feature, The Hole, a 30-minute film that was the standout work in a ten-part Christmas-story special aired on Portuguese television. As his commercial work continued to go from strength to strength, Miguel directed his second 30-minute feature, a taught psycho-sexual thriller, Same Room Same Time, in 2006.

In 2008, Miguel directed his first full-length feature film, Second Life. With an international all-star celebrity cast (Piotr Adamczyk, Liliana Santos, Claudia Vieira) the film was the biggest production budget in Portuguese cinema history, an eight-week shoot on location in Portugal and Italy. The film received rave reviews and is the most commercially successful Portuguese film in the first six months of 2009.