Matías Bize (born

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 Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

, 9 August 1979) is a

an film director, producer and screenwriter. He has won important independent film awards including the Espiga de Oro for ''In Bed'' at the 2005

Valladolid International Film Festival The Valladolid International Film Festival, popularly known as Seminci (short for ; ), is a film festival held annually in Valladolid, Spain. First held in 1956 as ('Valladolid Religious Film Week'), the Seminci is one of the longest-standing fi ...

in Spain, and a

Goya Award The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards. They are presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain. The first ceremony was held in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Ar ...

in 2011 for ''The Life of Fish''.

Biography

Source: Bize studied at San Juan Evangelista School in

Santiago, Chile 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 ...

and then at the Chilean Film School. He made his first short films as a student: ''Carla and Max'' and ''Last Night'' (Spanish: La Noche Anterior) both in 1999 and ''The People are Waiting'' (Spanish: La Gente Está Esperando) in 2000. In 2002, at the age of 23 and not yet a graduate, he directed his first feature-length film, ''Saturday'' (Spanish: Sábado), a real time film. His short film ''Last Night'' was a prequel to ''Saturday'', starring the same actors (Blanca Lewin and Víctor Montero) in the same roles. Bizevisitamoneda

''Saturday'', a

tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragedy, tragic and comedy, comic forms. Most often seen in drama, dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the ov ...

about a wedding cancelled at the last minute, had its worldwide premiere at the 2003

International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg The Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival (), often referred to by the German-language initialism IFFMH, is an annual film festival established in 1952 hosted jointly by the cities of Mannheim and Heidelberg in Baden-Württemberg, the ...

where it won four awards, including the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize for Best Film “for its freshness, innovation and energy”, the Best Actress award and the Critics’ Prize. It also won the Jury's Prize for Best First Film at the 8th Cine Las Americas International Film Festival in

Austin, Texas Austin ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. It is the county seat and most populous city of Travis County, Texas, Travis County, with portions extending into Hays County, Texas, Hays and W ...

. Two years later, Bize directed the feature-length ''In Bed''(Spanish: En la Cama), a Chilean-German production that premiered at the

Locarno Locarno (; ; Ticinese dialect, Ticinese: ; formerly in ) is a southern Switzerland, Swiss List of towns in Switzerland, town and Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district Locarno (district), Locarno (of which it is the capita ...

International Film Festival in

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. The film won the Espiga de Oro at the

in Spain and Bize became the youngest director ever to win this award. In total, ''In Bed'' won more than 35 international awards and went on commercial release in many countries across the world. Meanwhile, Bize continued making fictional shorts as well as music videos and documentaries. Bize's third feature film, the Spanish production ''About Crying'' (Spanish: Lo Bueno de Llorar), tells the story of a breakup. It premiered at the

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno International Film Festival is a major international film festival, held annually in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narr ...

and went on release in

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 point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. With ''The Life of Fish'', Bize reconfirmed his place as a director of international stature. In 2011, the Spanish Film Academy named the film Best Foreign Spanish Language Film at the prestigious Goya Awards and in the same year, Bize won Best Director at the

Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival The Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) includes feature films, documentaries, and short films from the Spanish and Portuguese diaspora. The six-day festival was established in 1997. The festival was founded by Marlene Dermer (a ...

(LALIFF). In 2012, Bize was selected along with five other directors to take part in the Berlin International Film Festival's new residency programme to make his fifth feature film, ''The Memory of Water'' (Spanish: La Memoria del Agua). The script of this Chilean-German production was written in partnership with Julio Rojas. Jackie Di Crystal Matias Bize DSC 0798ws

Jackie Di Crystal Matias Bize DSC 0798ws

Filmography

Director

*''Carla and Max'' (Spanish: Carla y Max), short, 1999 *''Last Night'' (Spanish: La Noche Anterior), short, 1999 *''The People are Waiting'' (Spanish: La Gente Está Esperando), short, 2000 *''Saturday'' (Spanish: Sábado), feature-length, 2002 *'' In Bed'' (En La Cama), feature-length, 2005 *''Summer Game'' (Spanish: Juego de Verano), feature-length jointly directed with Fernando *Aljaro, Daniela González and Andrea Wasaff, 2005 *''Calling'' (Spanish: Llamando), short, 2005 *''Confession'' (Spanish: Confesión), short, 2006 *''About Crying'' (Spanish: Lo Bueno de Llorar), feature-length, 2006 *''The Mirror of Her Eyes'' (Spanish: El Espejo de sus Ojos), short, 2007 *'' The Life of Fish'' (Spanish: La Vida de los Peces), feature-length, 2010 *'' The Memory of Water'' (Spanish: La memoria del agua), feature-length, 2015 *'' The Punishment'' (Spanish: El castigo), feature-length, 2022

Writer

*Calling (Spanish: Llamando), 2005 *About Crying (Spanish: Lo Bueno de Llorar), feature-length, 2006 *The Life of Fish (Spanish: La Vida de los Peces), feature-length, 2010

Producer

*Saturday (Spanish: Sábado), 2002 *About Crying (Spanish: Lo Bueno de Llorar), feature-length, 2006

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bize, Matias Chilean film directors Chilean film producers Living people Chilean screenwriters Chilean male screenwriters 1979 births