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Jhonny Obando is a former Ecuadorian professor, researcher, filmmaker and writer who also holds American citizenship. Son of Rika Obando, an Ecuadorian migrant who settled in Miami, since the 90s.

BS in Mass Communications at the University of Guayaquil, MFA in screenplay writing at the University of La Rioja, Spain and currently he is achieving MSC in advance studies of spanish and hispanic literture at the University of Barcelona, Spain.

He moved to Ecuador from Colombia at the age of 8th, finished high school in the province of Esmeraldas. When he was 18, he moved to Quito, where he started a short career as a magazine model. In 2001, he lived for two months in Guayaquil, and then, he moved to Miami, Florida in the United States with his mother. That year (2001) he won a contest at Baron Da Parre, modeling school, and in 2002, he won second place in a local modeling contest.

His acting career began at Miami Dade College with the Cuban teacher Sandra Garcia and then enrolled in CIFALC (School for the Performing Arts) where he spent 3 years of his life, preparing himself as an actor. After his graduation, in 2006 he moved to Hollywood, Florida. His film debut as an actor was a feature film called Lapsus (2007), in which he played a supporting role; then came other titles as Carpe Diem (2009), God bless the child (2009), Flea market finish line (2012, an official selection at the 2013 Cannes film festival, France), among many others.

While living in Hollywood, he became interested in creating stories, producing and directing them, and for that, he enrolled in the International Academy of TV and Film Production, Cebu, in which he made, after his graduation, his debut short film as a screenplay writer, producer, and director called Suddenly the sunrise (2008), version of the which, months before, he made an experimental version, that only close friends know. That year, 2008, he created his company Obandovision, which months later would become Renacer Films. From then on, he began his career as a filmmaker and cultural manager, writing, producing and directing several short films, music videos and short documentaries.

In 2011 he launched the campaign to support Iberoamerican cinema with the Foundation Breaking Frontiers, created by a group of Ecuadorians, Dominican, Colombian, Brazilian, and other Hispanic actors and filmmakers friends.

In 2012 he presented his opera prima, an 83-minutes feature film called With Elizabeth in Mount Dora, made in part with fellow emerging filmmakers and actors friends of his generation and new ones, from CIFALC, the acting school where he graduated. A year later he wanted to make a new short film and among many scripts of his authorship, he decided on Esperando (Time to be), a short film that opened many doors to him and is a hit on the internet.

In 2014 he moved back to Guayaquil, Ecuador to create the FestiCineGye Foundation, which was consolidated in 2018, the Foundation currently produces the Guayaquil International Film Festival, which he has directed since its first edition.

In 2015, he launched the film The path of the sun, which began in the United States and ended in Ecuador. The next few years, he dedicated himself exclusively to the film festival and university life, until in 2018 he released his third feature film entitled Nice guy Julio, and appeared as Alouqua in the feature film The lady in the veil, based in the popular Ecuadorian urban legend La dama tapada. As part of his graduation at the University of Guayaquil, he made a documentary film called On the road (2020), a scientific article about the History of Cinema in Guayaquil and he accepted to participate in the feature film American dream, which will be released in 2021.

Awards

Jhonny Obando

Miami Film Festival

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