Having worked his way up since he was 16 years old , in film production, he was lucky enough to learn and performed in almost every position available on a film set.

Right after graduating from high school, Mario attended college to obtain a degree in Advertising just to move on to Canada to become the only “Certificate of Excellence” in his class at Vancouver Film School in 1993, working as a Director of Photography ever since then, having shot and produced in every country from Canada all the way down to Colombia, among some of his clients are: Coca Cola Interamerican Corp., Mc Donald´s, Heineken, Sprite, Texaco, UNICEF, Pepsi, Toyota, Bell South, TACA Air Lines, Sprint, Colgate, Smith Kline Beecham, etc.

Awards Obtained:

1993 Director of Photography Short film “MEETING DAD”, Best Photography Gold Award at The Houston World’s Film Fest. USA

1997 Director of Photography Short film “LA CALERA”, Best Photography at the VII Costa Rican Film Festival

2003 Director of Photography 2nd unit Feature Film “100 Days in The Jungle”, Canadian Gemini – Best Film of the Year

2003 Director of Photography 30” Spot “KAMASUTRA” Winner of the “Gold Volcano”, at the Central American Golden Volcanoes Festival

2005 Director of Photography Music Video “Señor Caballero” for Gandhi, Best Music Video of the Year, at the ICARO Festival, Guatemala

2005 Director of Photography Short film “ Mon Amour” for Cowbell Productions Presented at Cannes Film Festival, France 2006

2006 Director of Photography Short film “Melanges” for Cowbell Productions, Presented at Cannes Film Festival, France 2006

2006 Director of Photography Short film “Bonne Annee” for Cowbell Productions Presented at Cannes Film Festival, France 2006

2006 Director of Photography Music Video “Señor Caballero” for Gandhi, Best Music Video of the Year, at the ACAM Awards, Costa Rica

2006 Executive Producer, Director, Director of Photography, Screenplay for “Costa Rica, upgrade your game project” for the Costa Rican Goverment requested for Mr. President, Oscar Arias to be presented by himself at the World Cup, Germany 2006

2006 Director of Photography for the First Season, 12 units multi million dollar production of “BODOG FIGHT COSTA RICA” for Bodog Entertainment from Canada.

Mario Araya is the first and still the only local DP to be hired by a North American Production Company to be hired as responsable for the whole project’s cinematography.

2007 Director of Photography for the Second Season 10 units shoot of “BODOG FIGHT COSTA RICA” for Bodog Entertainment from Canada. Also a multi million dollar production shot entirely in Costa Rica.

Ratings showed an audited 180 million homes reached in Europe, Canada and the United States of America,  which means an estimated of 540.000.000 viewers.