Born in March 1971 in Toulouse, he joined CFT Gobelins in Paris where he graduated from “animation cinema” in 1993. However, he only directed one animated short film: The Blue Horseman, featuring a surreal, organic and lyrical pagan rite.
He extended his visual experiments by designing faked miniatures for Arte.
Inventor of dazzling, crepuscular, humorous and sensitive universes, he works on cinematographic and narrative material by revisiting genres. He writes and directs numerous short and medium-length films selected and awarded in a large number of festivals or retrospectives. In 2011 for example, Boro in the Box is presented at the Directors’ Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. Freely inspired by the life of Walerian Borowczyk, the film echoes a retrospective he piloted in Warsaw. Bertrand Mandico’s researches are polymorphic (texts, photos, drawings, assemblages) and some of his films (Living Still Life) are exhibited in art centers.
Bertrand Mandico is also working on a 21-film project in 21 years with Elina Löwensohn, reflection on the bodily states of the actress and fiction, where dream lives and cinema mingle.
At the same time, he wrote and produced a science fiction series, Prairie, intended for Belgium and Norway. In February 2018 released his first feature film The Wild Boys after a successful festival tour. The same year he directed the medium-length film Ultra Pulpe presented at Cannes Critics’ Week. After Blue (Dirty Paradise) is his second feature length motion picture.