Biography

Carlos Morelli came to cinema sideways. First he was a violinist — trained at the Simón Bolívar conservatory in Venezuela, first violin in youth orchestras across Uruguay and Argentina. In 1999, a screenwriting course changed the direction entirely. He completed a BA in Audiovisual Production at Universidad ORT Uruguay, then a Master's in Feature Film Screenwriting at ESCAC in Barcelona (2004).

His early short films reached international festivals. Alguien debe morir (2002) screened in Official Competition at Rotterdam. Breve historia de cómo se conocieron... screened at Rotterdam, Leeds, and Tampere — and began a consistent pattern: comedies that open onto something more uncomfortable, dramas with a lightness that keeps them from collapse. In 2004, the Berlinale Talent Campus. In 2005, Artist-in-Residence at the Modern Art Museum of Shanghai.

From 2005 to 2009 he taught dramaturgy at the University of Guadalajara. In 2009, the DAAD Berlin Artists Programme brought him to Germany — and he stayed. The short film Warisover, made during that residency, won the ARTE Short Film Award at the International Short Film Festival Hamburg.

Mi Mundial (2017) was his feature debut — the most-watched Uruguayan film. Der Geburtstag (2019) followed: a black-and-white film noir made for ZDF. Instinto, co-directed with Andrés Varela, is his third feature. He co-edited Mi Mundial and edited Instinto.

He has worked as writer-director on two episodes of Temporario (Canal 10 Uruguay, created by Esther Feldman). He is Professor of Screenwriting and Directing at SRH University in Berlin and a story-development mentor at the DFFB, and has taught across Spain, Mexico, Chile, China and Uruguay.