Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born 31 March 1972) is a Chilean-Spanish film director, screenwriter and composer. He has won nine
Goya Awards—including
Best Director for his 2001 film ''
The Others''—and two
European Film Awards
The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the mos ...
among other honors; he also accepted an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
for
Best Foreign Language Film on behalf of Spain for ''
The Sea Inside''. He has written (or co-written) the screenplays to all seven of his films and composed almost all of their soundtracks.
Early life
Amenábar was born in
Santiago
Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...
, Chile, to a Chilean father, Hugo Ricardo Amenábar, and a Spanish mother, Josefina Cantos.
He has both
Chilean and
Spanish citizenship. His father worked as a technician at General Electric, while his mother decided to stay at home and take care of the children.
Alejandro is the younger of two brothers; his older brother, Ricardo, was born in 1969.
Josefina's older sister had moved to the capital of Chile, Santiago, and she invited Josefina to join her there. In Santiago, Josefina met Hugo. Alejandro was born there in 1972.
In August 1973, his family moved to Spain. The family settled 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 ...
, living in a camping caravan. When Alejandro was six years old, they moved to a complex on the outskirts of the town of
Paracuellos de Jarama (
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 ...
).
Studies
Alejandro and his brother did not watch much television. From the age of 15, Alejandro would dedicate his time to going to the cinema to watch movies. Other than theater, his passions were writing stories and reading books. According to Alejandro's mother, Alejandro had the capacity to absorb everything he read. As a child, he also composed melodies with the keyboard and guitar with the same ease as when he wrote his stories.
Alejandro started his studies at the
Padres Escolapios de
Getafe
Getafe () is a municipalities in Spain, municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality.
Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city c ...
school. In his second year of high school, he transferred to the
Alameda de Osuna Institute, in the north-east of Madrid. The school was not close to where Alejandro was living; however, his parents, who were very concerned about his education, decided to enroll him in that institute because it was known as one of the best schools in Madrid.
Before he became a director, Alejandro worked as a stock boy in a warehouse and as a gardener, until he had enough money to buy his own home camera. He did not want to start his university studies in cinema before ever having touched a camera. Amenábar entered the Information Sciences Faculty at Madrid's
Complutense University, where after numerous scholastic failures he decided to give up studying cinema and he began directing. The advantage from having attended university was that he met people who later in life would become very important throughout his career (that was the case for Sergio Rozas and
Carlos Montero, through whom he met
Eduardo Noriega). At university, he also met
Mateo Gil, a friend and companion, and the pair made a pact to always support each other's projects.
Film career
Between 1991 and 1994, Amenábar made three short films which in a very significant way influenced his first full-length films: ''La Cabeza'', ''Himenóptero'', and ''Luna''.
Knowing
José Luis Cuerda helped Alejandro greatly in his career. A friend of José Luis Cuerda gave him the script of ''Himenóptero'' so he would give his opinion. Thereafter, Cuerda was interested in Amenábar's work. This led to him becoming the producer of ''
Thesis
A thesis (: theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: D ...
'' (1996), which is one of Amenábar's most recognized films, putting his name on the map. ''Thesis'' was a thriller set in the School of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid. Through this film, he gained the attention of critics in the Berlin Film Festival and won seven Goyas, including Best Picture and Best New Director.
In 1997 he made ''
Abre Los Ojos'', a science fiction movie that had notable success at international festivals such as Berlin and Tokyo. Impressed by the movie,
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and film producer. Regarded as a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood icon, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Tom Cruise, various accolades, includ ...
bought the rights to adapt and produce the film, starring in a remake, ''
Vanilla Sky''.
His third full length film was ''
The Others'', a ghost story starring
Nicole Kidman
Nicole Mary Kidman (born 20 June 1967) is an Australian and American actress and producer. Known for Nicole Kidman on screen and stage, her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world ...
. It was very successful at an international level, especially in Spain, where it was the most viewed film that year. ''The Others'' was also very popular in the United States, where it was at the top of the box office for several weeks. The film premiered at the
Venice Film Festival
The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
in 2001, won eight Goyas, including the Best Picture and Best Director, and was nominated for best European Film Movie.
In 2004 Amenábar released ''
The Sea Inside'', a real life-story about a
quadriplegic
Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of Motor control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...
Ramón Sampedro (played by
Javier Bardem), which addressed issues such as euthanasia, abortion, or “the right to a dignified life.” The movie won 14 Goyas, including best movie and best director, and an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
for
Best Foreign Language Film in 2004.
In 2008 Amenábar released his next film, called ''Mists of Time''; however he later changed the name to ''
Agora
The agora (; , romanized: ', meaning "market" in Modern Greek) was a central public space in ancient Ancient Greece, Greek polis, city-states. The literal meaning of the word "agora" is "gathering place" or "assembly". The agora was the center ...
''. The film starred big-name actors including Rachel Weisz and Max Minghella. Agora premiered on October 9, 2009, and with a budget of 50 million euros, it is the most expensive Spanish film in history.
After a hiatus of almost seven years, Amenábar returned in 2015 with the thriller ''
Regression'', starring
Ethan Hawke
Ethan Green Hawke (born November 6, 1970) is an American actor, author, and film director. He made his film debut in ''Explorers (film), Explorers'' (1985), before making a breakthrough performance in ''Dead Poets Society'' (1989). Hawke starr ...
and
Emma Watson. The film had its world premiere at the San Sebastián International Film Festival in September 2015, where reviews were lukewarm.
Amenábar is also the composer of the soundtrack of his films, as well as others, such as ''
Butterfly's Tongue'' directed by José Luis Cuerda and ''
Nobody Knows Anybody'' directed by Mateo Gil.
Personal life
In 2004, Amenábar
came out as
gay. On 18 July 2015, he married David Blanco. Their divorce was finalised in 2019. Amenábar was raised
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
, but later became
agnostic and is now
atheist
Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
.
ALEJANDRO AMENÁBAR: "FUI CATÓLICO, DESPUÉS AGNÓSTICO Y AHORA SOY ATEO".
Fotogramas, 6 October 2009.
Filmography
Film
Short film
Television
References
Further reading
*
External links
*
A monographic article in Spanish about Amenabar's films
Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
Alejandro Amenábar, by Santiago Juan-Navarro (Paris: Cinéastes, 2003)
(in French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Amenabar, Alejandro
1972 births
Living people
Directors of Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award winners
Best Director Goya Award winners
European Film Award for Best Director winners
Chilean people of Spanish descent
Chilean emigrants to Spain
Complutense University of Madrid alumni
Spanish LGBTQ film directors
Chilean gay writers
Chilean gay musicians
Spanish gay writers
Spanish gay musicians
Spanish LGBTQ screenwriters
People from Santiago, Chile
Chilean film directors
Spanish film directors
Chilean film score composers
Spanish film score composers
Spanish male film score composers
Male film score composers
Former Roman Catholics
Spanish atheists
Chilean atheists
Chilean LGBTQ screenwriters
Gay screenwriters
21st-century Chilean LGBTQ people
21st-century Spanish LGBTQ people
20th-century Spanish screenwriters
20th-century Spanish male writers
21st-century Spanish male musicians
21st-century Spanish screenwriters