Sebastián Lelio

Sebastián Lelio
Lelio at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival
Born	(1974-03-08) March 8, 1974 (age 43) Mendoza, Argentina
Occupation	Film director, Screenwriter, Film producer, Film editor

Sebastián Lelio (Mendoza, Argentina, March 8, 1974) is an Argentinian-born Chilean film director, screenwriter, film producer and editor.

Lelio’s father is Argentinean, but he moved to Viña del Mar, Chile, as a child with his Chilean mother Valeria. He describes his early life as “nomadic”: “Up to the age of 21, I was moving between different cities in Chile. I lived for a time in the United States, and also in Viña del Mar; my maternal family is from Viña... essentially I was never more than two or three years in the same city”. After some years in Viña, his mother moved to Concepción; later, they lived for one year in North America; from the age of 12 to 17 he lived in Cholguán.

Born with the surname Lelio, he changed his surname to that of his adoptive father, Campos; but after having attained some fame with his first film, Lelio again took his biological father’s name.

After studying journalism for one year at Andrés Bello National University, Lelio graduated from the Chilean Film School (Escuela de Cine de Chile). He has directed many short films and musical videos. In 2003, he released Cero, a documentary based on unedited material from the 2001 September 11 attacks in New York, co-directing with Carlos Fuentes. He also directed two seasons of the successful documentary series Mi mundo privado (My private life) together with Fernando Lavanderos. The series followed the private lives of Chilean families from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and was nominated twice for the Altazor Awards and also the Emmy Awards.

In 2005, his debut feature film La Sagrada Familia (The Sacred Family) premiered at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. Filmed over three days and edited over a period of almost one year, the film screened in over one hundred festivals and received a number of national and international awards. In 2009, his second feature film, Navidad (Christmas), premiered at the Cannes Film Festival.