Joyce Sherman Buñuel (; born October 20, 1941) is an American naturalized French film director and

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

Biography

Joyce Sherman was born on October 20, 1941, in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, New York, into a family of

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

emigrants who came from

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 1914. She told ''

Le Monde (; ) is a mass media in France, French daily afternoon list of newspapers in France, newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average print circulation, circulation of 480,000 copies per issue in 2022, including ...

'' in 1990, "You've seen ''

Radio Days ''Radio Days'' is a 1987 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Woody Allen. It is a nostalgic look at the golden age of radio during the late 1930s and 1940s, focusing on a working-class family living in Rockaway Beach, New York. ...

'', by

Woody Allen Heywood Allen (born Allan Stewart Konigsberg; November 30, 1935) is an American filmmaker, actor, and comedian whose career spans more than six decades. Allen has received many List of awards and nominations received by Woody Allen, accolade ...

, it was exactly that! I can't say it any better! That was my house, the unmarried woman, she was my aunt! The street that overlooks the sea, the neighbors, the school, the parents, the football, the baseball, all that was my life!" Her father, a

Menshevik The Mensheviks ('the Minority') were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) which split with Vladimir Lenin's Bolshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903. Mensheviks held more moderate and reformist ...

, fought in the

International Brigades The International Brigades () were soldiers recruited and organized by the Communist International to assist the Popular Front (Spain), Popular Front government of the Second Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War. The International Bri ...

during the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

. Buñuel was married to director

Juan Luis Buñuel Juan Luis Buñuel (9 November 1934 – 6 December 2017) was a French film and television director, screenwriter, and actor. His films include ''Expulsion of the Devil'' (''Au rendez-vous de la mort joyeuse'', 1973) and ''La Femme aux bottes ...

, the son of

Luis Buñuel Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...

. The couple lived 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 ...

and

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

, before moving to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

in the early 1960s. The couple divorced after she made her first film, ''La Jument vapeur'', in 1976. She had several children from this marriage, including

Diego Buñuel Diego Buñuel (born 21 July 1975 in Paris) is a French-American filmmaker and the host and director of the National Geographic Channel series ''Don't Tell My Mother''. He is also the host of a television news show in France called ''Les Nouveaux E ...

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bunuel, Joyce 1941 births Living people Filmmakers from Brooklyn American emigrants to France French women film directors French women screenwriters American women film directors American women screenwriters French people of Russian-Jewish descent American people of Russian-Jewish descent