Biography

Nicolás Ciganda was born in Montevideo, Uruguay on June 16th, 1977. He was a big fan of movies, literature, comics and music since childhood, creating his first comics at age 8. At 13 he performs in a musical duo called "Miami Hitcliff" with Facundo Fernandez Luna. This amateur duo has influences from authors like Leo Masliah, "Los Tontos", "El Cuarteto de Nos" and the argentine group "Les Luthiers". Nicolás was a teenage DJ and co-founder of "La Hermandad" (the Brotherhood), a group of young talents which also included Martín Barea Mattos, Christian Zagia, Federico Álvarez, Román Varela, Pablo Eguez y Facundo Fernández Luna.

Between 1993 and 1999 the group performed short films, Fanzines, rock bands, pop bands and experimental music. Almost all the group members are related to the arts up to today. Nicolás enrolls in Universidad Católica del Uruguay in 1999 attending the Social Communication degree ("Licenciatura de Comunicación Social") and specializes in Creative Narration ("Narración Creativa"). He completes all courses in year 2002.

Filmmaking

In 1996 Nicolás co-writes and directs his first short film, "Aventuras en Shanghai 4" (Shanghai adventures 4): a low budget homage to 70's Asian Martial Arts Movies, winner of the 5th "Video Relámpago" young talent/indie video contest organized by "Cinemateca Uruguaya" (Uruguay's Film Library)

In 2001 makes his second short film "Un Día Mas" (Another Day) - A Science Fiction dramatic comedy about an impending doomsday.

In 2003 makes the medium length film "Cuareim 1080", a historical documentary about the mythical "Conventillo Mediomundo", a tenement house that was the cradle of numerous artists, musicians, actors and poets. The film "Cuareim 1080" received the Best Documentary award in the first "Festival Internacional de Escuelas de Cine" (Internacional Festival of Movie Schools), organized by ECU and "Cinemateca Uruguaya". The film competed with documentaries from more than 20 countries.

In 2004 writes and directs his third short film, the internationally awarded "El Gol de Morena" (Morena's goal), a black comedy about the passion of soccer fans. "El Gol de Morena" was one of the winners of the "Shoot Goals, Shoot Movies" event organized by the International Berlin Movie Festival (Berlinale) and FIFA for the 2006 Germany World Cup. The film had its premiere at the 52nd Berlinale in Berlin, Germany on February 16th, 2005. The winner films were amalgamated into the film "Das runde in eckige" which was exhibited on TV (Germany, France, Mexico, Brazil), Movie theathers and Goethe centers worldwide. "Das runde in eckige" had an estimated 50 million viewers worldwide.

In May 2010 the musical short film "Despedida" starring the musician Juan Ravioli has its premiere at Buenos Aires, Argentina. The movie was filmed in Montevideo with RedCAM format, based on a story created by Juan Ravioli and Nicolás Ciganda. In September 2010 is the Buenos Aires premiere of "Perdido (Perro de Casa)" a second clip by the argentine musician Juan Ravioli

Currently Nicolás is working in the production of the documentary "En fin ... La mojigata" a musical documentary about the artistic group "La Mojigata" from its beginnings to today. Is working in the script of his feature film: "Chau!"

In December 2010 is selected to be a feature artist of Talenthouse

In January 2011 is selected to be the director of the new Coca Cola spot in Uruguay
- IMDb mini biography by: Talenthouse