Ángel Fernández-Santos (1934–2004) was a Spanish film critic and screenwriter. Born in Los Cerralbos,

province of Toledo Toledo () is a Province (Spain), province of central Spain, in the western part of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid Province, Madrid, Cuenca Province (Spai ...

, in 1934, he was the younger brother of Marxist philosopher . He studied for a brief spell at the in the early 1960s. As a committed anti-

Francoist Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

, he was expelled from the Escuela Oficial de Cine because of his left-wing positions. He went on to have an extensive career as a film critic, writing for ''Nuestro cine'' (1964–1971), ''

Cinemanía ''Cinemanía'' is a monthly film magazine based in Madrid, Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost po ...

'', '' Diario 16'', and ''

El País (; ) is a Spanish-language daily newspaper in Spain. is based in the capital city of Madrid and it is owned by the Spanish media conglomerate PRISA. It is the second-most circulated daily newspaper in Spain . is the most read newspaper in ...

'', where he worked from 1982 until his death. He also co-penned the screenplays of '' The Spirit of the Beehive'' (reputed to be among the best Spanish films ever) and also screenplays of films directed by Escuela Oficial de Cine acquaintance Francisco Regueiro. He died in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

on 6 July 2004. A compilation of his reviews edited by for Editorial Debate was published in 2007. An essay by José Antonio Planes Pedreño about the basics of Fernández-Santos' film criticism titled ''La crítica cinematográfica de Ángel Fernández-Santos'' was published by Shangrila Ediciones in 2017. His daughter Elsa is a journalist specialised in culture, reporting about cinema as well.

References

Spanish film critics People from the Province of Toledo Spanish male screenwriters 20th-century Spanish screenwriters 20th-century Spanish male writers El País people 1934 births 2004 deaths {{Film-critic-stub