Pedro Almodóvar
Writer / Director
PAIN AND GLORY is Pedro Almodóvar’s 21st full-length feature film as Director.
Pedro was born in Calzada de Calatrava, province of Ciudad Real, in the heart of La Mancha, in the 50s. When he was eight, he emigrated with his family to Estremadura. There he studied for his elementary and high school diplomas respectively with the Salesian Fathers and the Franciscans. At seventeen, he left home and moved to Madrid, with no money and no job, but with a very specific project in mind: to study cinema and direct films. It was impossible to enroll in the Official Film School because Franco had just closed it. Despite the dictatorship that was suffocating the country, for an adolescent from the provinces, Madrid represented culture, independence and freedom.
He worked many, sporadic jobs but couldn’t buy his first Super8mm camera until he got a “serious” job at the National Telephone Company of Spain in 1971. He worked there for twelve years as an administrative assistant, sharing this job in the mornings with other multiple activities which provided his real training as a filmmaker and as a person. In the mornings, at the Telephone Company, he got an in-depth knowledge of the Spanish middle class at the start of the consumer era, the seventies, its dramas and its misfortunes, a real gold mine for a future storyteller. In the evenings and nights, he wrote and acted with the mythical independent theatre group Los Goliardos and made films in Super- 8 (his only school as a filmmaker). He collaborated with various underground magazines and wrote stories, some of which were published. He was a member of a parodic punk-rock group, Almodóvar and McNamara, etc. And he had the good fortune that his personal explosion coincided with the explosion of the democratic Madrid of the late seventies, early eighties. That was the period the world knew as La Movida.
His films are the heirs and witnesses of the brand new born Spanish democracy. After a year and a half of eventful shooting on 16mm, in 1980 he opened PEPI, LUCI, BOM, a no-budget film made as a cooperative effort with the rest of the crew and the cast, all beginners, except for Carmen Maura. In 1986, he founded the production company El Deseo S.A. with his brother Agustín. Their first project was LAW OF DESIRE. Since then, over the past 30 years, they have produced all the films that Pedro has written and directed, and have also produced other young directors. In 1988, WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN brought him international recognition. Since then, his films have opened all around the world. With ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER he won his first Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and also the Golden Globe, the César, 3 European Film Awards, the David de Donatello, 2 BAFTAs, 7 Goyas and 45 other awards. Three years later, TALK TO HER had the same or better fortune (Academy Award for Best Script, 5 European Film Awards, 2 BAFTAs, the Nastro de Argento, the César and many other awards throughout the world but not in Spain). He produced four very special films, highly rated throughout the world for their valor and delicacy (MY LIFE WITHOUT ME, THE HOLY GIRL, THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS and THE HEADLESS WOMAN, by Isabel Coixet and Lucrecia Martel alternatively).
In 2004, BAD EDUCATION was chosen to open the Cannes Festival. It received extraordinary reviews throughout the world. It was nominated for numerous awards (Independent Spirit Awards, BAFTAs, César, European Film Awards) and won the prestigious Award for Best Foreign Film given by the New York Critics’ Circle and also the Nastro de Argento. In 2006 he was awarded with the Prince of Asturias Award to the Arts. That very same year he presented VOLVER in competition in the Cannes Film Festival, where it got the Best Screenplay Award as well as the Best Actress Award for the six actresses of the film, led by Penélope Cruz. The film received 5 EFA awards, 5 Goya awards, the Fipresci award, the National Board of Review, and many others (up to 72). Penélope was nominated for the Best Actress Academy Award, which was the first time a Spanish actress was nominated for a Spanish speaking film. Up to now, VOLVER has been his most popular film in terms of box office.
In 2009, BROKEN EMBRACES starring Penélope Cruz and Lluis Homar was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe as well as the Best Film Not in the English Language BAFTA. In 2011, THE SKIN I LIVE In starring Antonio Banderas, Elena Anaya and Jan Cornet won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Golden Globe Award as well as multiple Goya Awards in Spain. In 2013, he returned to comedy with “I’m So Excited”, starring Javier Cámara, Hugo Silva, Antonio de la Torre, and Miguel Ángel Silvestre. In 2014, he produced the Argentinean film WILD TALES, which was nominated for the Best Foreign Film Academy Award, and won the BAFTA for Best Film Not in the English Language, as well as multiple awards and prizes around the world.
He was awarded the Prince of Asturias Award to the Arts, as well as a Doctor of Letters, honoris causa from Oxford University, and his work and the Spanish Cinema that inspired him was the subject of a retrospective organized by the British Film Institute in 2016. He was previously awarded an Honorary Degree from Harvard University in 2009; SAG's Jean Renoir Award for International Screenwriting Achievement in 2015; and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Some of his films have been adapted into plays (All About My Mother) and even into musicals (Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).
FILMOGRAPHY
1974-79 Various films of differing lengths on super-8mm, including some on 16mm (SALOMÉ)
1980 PEPI, LUCI, BOM
1982 LABYRINTH OF PASSIONS
1983 DARK HABITS
1984-85 WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS?!
1985 TRAYLER PARA AMANTES DE LO PROHIBIDO (MEDIUM LENGTH, ON VIDEO, FOR TVE)
1985-86 MATADOR
1986 LAW OF DESIRE
1987 WOMEN ON THE VERGE OF A NERVOUS BREAKDOWN
1989 TIE ME UP, TIE ME DOWN
1991 HIGH HEELS
1992 ACCIÓN MUTANTE (PRODUCER)
1993 KIKA
1995 THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET
1997 LIVE FLESH
1999 ALL ABOUT MY MOTHER
2000 THE DEVIL’S BACKBONE (PRODUCER)
2001 TALK TO HER
2002 MY LIFE WITHOUT ME (PRODUCER)
2003 CHILL OUT! (PRODUCER)
2003 BAD EDUCATION
2004 THE HOLY GIRL (PRODUCER)
2005 THE SECRET LIFE OF WORDS (PRODUCER)
2006 VOLVER
2008 THE HEADLESS WOMAN (PRODUCER)
2009 BROKEN EMBRACES
2011 THE SKIN I LIVE IN
2013 I’M SO EXCITED!
2014 WILD TALES (PRODUCER)
2016 JULIETA
2019 PAIN AND GLORY