Paz Fábrega (born 1979) is a

Costa Rica Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...

n film director, scriptwriter and producer. She has directed two feature films and several shorts. Her film ''Agua fría de mar'' (Cold Water of the Sea) earned the

Tiger Award The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

at the Rotterdam International Film Festival, one of the most prominent awards won by a

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

n film. Her works deal with loneliness and the vulnerability of youth.

Early life

Fábrega was born in

San José San José or San Jose (Spanish for Saint Joseph) most often refers to: *San Jose, California, United States *San José, Costa Rica, the nation's capital San José or San Jose may also refer to: Places Argentina * San José, Buenos Aires ** San ...

, Costa Rica. She lived in New York City from ages 10–14 as her mother worked on her doctorate. She studied communications at the

University of Costa Rica The University of Costa Rica (Spanish: ''Universidad de Costa Rica,'' abbreviated UCR) is a public university in the Republic of Costa Rica, in Central America. Its main campus, Ciudad Universitaria Rodrigo Facio, is located in San Pedro Mo ...

, photography at the Colegio Universitario de Alajuela, and film at the

London Film School London Film School (LFS) is a film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, neighbouring Soho, a hub of the UK film industry. It is the oldest film school in the UK.

, graduating from the latter in 2006.

Career

Fábrega's graduation film ''Temporal'' was shot in rural Costa Rica in 2006. It competed at several international film festivals and won the Grand Prix at the

Biarritz Film Festival The Biarritz Festival Latin America (french: Festival Biarritz Amérique Latine) is an international film festival held annually in the French city of Biarritz, since 1979 to promote the Latin American cinema and culture with the French people ...

. Her second short, ''Cuilos'', premiered in 2008 at the

Locarno Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, s ...

and received four awards at the Icaro Film Festival in Guatemala. She wrote the script for her first feature, ''Agua fría de mar'', at residencies in the Binger Filmlab and the Sundance Screenwriters Lab. It was screened at more than 40 international film festivals and received prizes in Lima, London and Paris. It was a finalist for the Sundance NHK Award and won the

at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Later, Fábrega was selected for the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

Residence de la Cinefondation in 2009. ''Viaje'', her second feature film, won the Cine en Construcción prize at the Costa Rica Film Festival in 2014 and premiered at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. It was the first Central American film to premiere at Tribeca. It was also selected to screen at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. She established her production company, Temporal Films, in 2006. The company helped produce both ''Viaje'' and ''Agua fría de mar.'' Fábrega has cited the influences of Wim Wenders, Terrence Malick, Bob Raffelson, Lynne Ramsay, David Lynch, Michelangelo Antonioni, Lucrecia Martel, Asghar Farhadi and Richard Linklater.

Filmography

* '' Viaje'' (feature film) - 2015 * ''Agua fría de mar'' (Cold Water of the Sea, feature film) - 2010 * ''Cuilos'' (short) - 2008 *Los justicieros (short) - 2006 *''suicide'' - 2006 *The red and the black (short) - 2006 *''8'' - 2006 *''Temporal'' (short) - 2006 *''Situations Vacant'' (short) - 2005 *''Proyecto La Sala'' (short) - 2001

References

Costa Rican film directors 1979 births Living people 21st-century Costa Rican women writers 21st-century Costa Rican writers Alumni of the London Film School Costa Rican women film directors {{NorthAm-film-director-stub