Director's Works
The Mourning Of Merced Elizondo
Merced Elizondo is a Mexican-American filmmaker based out of Texas and Los Angeles.
After graduating from The University of Texas at Austin in 2016, Merced launched his filmmaking career by working on multiple productions all across Texas and served as a Producer with both AMS Pictures and DHD Films. Since then, he has devoted his attention to independent filmmaking and is is currently writing and developing his debut feature film, "The Thing About Elephants". His latest short, "The Mourning Of", is a proof-of-concept film that won Silver at the Young Director Award Dreampitch Competition (Cannes Lions) and was awarded a NewNarratives Filmmaker Grant through NewFilmmakers Los Angeles and Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022. It’s currently on the 2024-2025 festival circuit and won the “Best Live Action Short Film” award at the 2024 St. Louis International Film Festival, officially making it Oscar® Qualifying.
Merced was selected as a Directing Fellow for Ryan Murphy's Half Initiative in 2022, which is a program dedicated for emerging TV directors. In 2021, Merced was nominated for an Imagen Award and selected as a fellow for the Tomorrow’s Filmmakers Today program, presented by WarnerMedia and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. He has also been shortlisted for a Young Director Award at Cannes Lions and was selected as a mentee for the AICP (Association of Independent Commercial Producers) Mentoring Program, where he was paired with a mentor from Park Pictures. He was also honored as “Person of the Year” by the National Hispanic Institute in 2021.
His previous film, "MANOS DE ORO", is a black-and-white short film that stars Julio César Cedillo, who can be seen in works such as Netflix’s "Narcos: Mexico", "Sicario", and the Cannes-winning drama "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada". The film was acquired by Argo and has screened at festivals such as the the Oscar®-qualifying HollyShorts Film Festival, LA Shorts International, LALIFF, the Miami Film Festival, Bentonville Film Festival, and the “InFocus: Latinx & Hispanic Cinema” event, hosted by NewFilmmakers LA and The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
