Dany Saadia

Early life and education

Saadia was born in Mexico City to Victor Saadia and Lisette, both French citizens who moved to Mexico after World War 2. He speaks fluent Spanish, French and English; and Portuguese and Arabic to some degree.

Saadia graduated from the Lycée Franco-Mexicain in Mexico City, tried 3 different universities in Mexico, and then applied to the State University of New York at Stony Brook where he majored in Mathematics with a minor in Anthropology and French.

After graduating from college, he went back to Mexico, and studied Directing for Theater in the Centro de Arte Dramático AC (CADAC) with Héctor Azar, and after completing the two-year program, he moved back to New York and studied Filmmaking at the New York Film Academy, where he studied with Gael García.

Genesis 3:19

In 2003 he wrote and directed Genesis 3:19 a short film whose world premiere was at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival. The film won 'Best Screenplay' at the 2004 Rhode Island Film Festival, and 'Best Short Film' at the 2004 Austin Film Festival, among others. Genesis 3:19 went on to be in the short list for the 2006 Academy Awards nominations.

3:19 Nada Es Casualidad

In 2006 he wrote and directed his first feature film, 3:19 Nada Es Casualidad, a Spanish-Mexican production, in Valencia, Spain. It starred Miguel Angel Silvestre, Felix Gomez, Juan Diaz, Barbara Goenaga and Diana Bracho. The soundtrack was scored by Robin Guthrie, and edited by Ivan Aledo. edited "3:19".

The world premiere of 3:19 Nada Es Casualidad was during the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. The film earned a positive review from Variety film critic Robert Koehler.

During the festival run, 3:19 Nada Es Casualidad won 'Best Director' in the 2008 Málaga Spanish Film Festival, and won for 'Best Film' and for 'Best Actor' for Miguel Angel Silvestre in the 2008 Mostra de Valencia. 3:19 Nada Es Casualidad has been distributed in Spain, Mexico and other countries.

Faust Arp

In 2008 he entered the Aniboom In Rainbows Contest to create a full-length animated video clip for Radiohead, and his video clip submission Faust Arp was one of the finalists of the In Rainbows Animated Music Video Contest.

Saadia is currently working on a new script about time-travel.

Interactive entrepreneurship

In 1996, Saadia, Eric Descombes, Rafael Jimenez and Geraldina Jimenez founded Interfaz 401, an interactive agency that was sold to WPP Group in 1999 for an undisclosed amount, and later became Ogilvy Interactive Mexico.

In 2005, Saadia founded Dixo, the first and leading network of podcasts and blogs in Mexico. Dixo signed in 2007 an alliance deal with prodigy/msn, a joint venture between Microsoft and Telmex, for commercial distribution and sale of their content and catalog.

In 2008, Saadia and Rafael Jimenez, who resigned his position as CEO of Yahoo! Mexico, started 'Substance', an interactive agency that won the Interactive Agency of the Year 2009.

In 2016, Saadia, Joss Monzon, Fernando Benavides and Pablo Gil founded Octopus VR8, an agency dedicated to create cinematic experiences in Virtual Reality .

Recognition

In comparing 3:19 Nada Es Casualidad to Saadia's earlier work, Variety film critic Robert Koehler wrote "Saadia has built his feature on the groundwork of his 2004 short, Genesis 3:19, but the final work may be overbuilt," expanding, "Saadia's warm cast, full of youthful Spanish thesps (many direct from the Iberian tube), add a lightness of being to a film that gets a little too eager to fling ideas at the viewer." However, he granted that "Production values add considerable allure to the brainy entertainment, decked out with an interesting score by the Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie."

Awards and nominations