Arturo M. Merelo

Arturo M. Merelo is a Spanish-born film director, producer, screenwriter and editor who has built his career in Mexico. His first three shorts were each shot in a different country and language: The Idiot (United Kingdom, 2010), awarded at several international festivals; En la frontera / On the Border (Chiapas, Mexico, 2018); and Quarume: Never Go Back (Sicily, Italy, 2018). Together they have been selected in more than 100 festivals worldwide, including Guanajuato, Oaxaca, Key West, Sunscreen Film Festival, the Fringe Festival Edinburgh or the European Cinematography Awards. En la frontera alone played more than forty international festivals during its 2018 and 2019 run. Beyond directing, Merelo has produced work that has built its own festival history, including the experimental short Impermanence and Two Options (Dos Opciones), by Gon Caride. In 2025 he returned to directing with two new short films now in active distribution: El Amor Adecuado / The Proper Love, a horrorfantasytrash piece starred by Jimena Cuarón, and Broken Clay Rainbow, shot in California with Mexican production. In parallel to his own film work, he has taught directing, narrative filmmaking and world cinema history at Universidad Descartes de Chiapas (affiliated with UNAM), and staged original theatrical work at the Microteatro in San Miguel de Allende.