Mandico has directed short films, medium-length films, experimental essays, and feature films. Mandico has an unusual working method. He prefers to create the audio for his films in post-production. Actors post-synchronize themselves, and the environmental sounds and music are layered on. However, he always shoots his images on color film, with no post-production images. Background projection and superimposition are done during the shoot. Mandico's first animated short film,
The Blue Cavalier, won the Annecy Prize Grant in 1998. often casting women to play male characters. He was named best director at the
Vilnius International Film Festival in 2018 for
The Wild Boys (2017), in which all five male protagonists were played by women. It was also named the
best film of 2018 by French film magazine
Cahiers du Cinéma. In 2021, he wrote and directed the science fiction film
After Blue. In 2024, he wrote and directed the experimental film
Dragon Dilatation, combining two film essays: an adaptation of
Igor Stravinsky's ballet
Petrouchka, and footage from a cancelled stage production rehearsed at the
Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers titled
The Deviant Comedy. His upcoming fifth feature film,
Roma elastica, starring
Marion Cotillard, was shot in 2025. == Personal life ==