ISABEL COIXET

Born in Sant Adrià del Besos in 1960, the flame of love for film was soon kindled in her when on her First Communion her parents presented her with a Super8 camera.

In 1984 she released the short ‘Mira y verás’, and worked as creative director for adverting firms like J.W.T. and Target before founding in 1990, together with Lluis Miñarro and Juan Peláez, the production company Eddie Saeta. In 1987 she made her feature-length debut with ‘Too Old to Die Young,’ which earned her her first Goya nomination, and since then she has garnered eight Goya Awards in the major categories.

After focusing on advertising for years, in 1996 she went back behind the camera to film ‘Things I Never Told You’, which was followed in 1999 by ‘Those who love’, and a year later she founded her own production company, Miss Wasabi Films , before reaching international recognition with ‘My Life Without Me’ (2003) and ‘The Secret Life of Words’ (2005).

In 2005 she took part in the collective film ‘Paris, je t’aime’ and directed the promotional short that commemorated the Film Week’s 50th anniversary. Her films have been selected at the best festivals around the world, from Cannes to Venice and including Berlin, where she has screened her films up to seven times. Her success in the documentary genre is also remarkable, having directed titles like ‘Invisibles’ (2007), ‘Viaje al corazón de la tortura’ (2003), and ‘Escuchando al juez Garzón’ (2011), the winner of a Goya Award.

In 2015 she was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, and that same year she opened the Berlinale with ‘Nobody Wants the Night’, which months later would close the Valladolid Festiva, where l she also delivered an unforgettable master class. She returned to Valladolid two years later to start our festival with ‘The Bookshop’. Only a few weeks ago, she received Spain’s 2020 National Film Award for having spent «more than three decades breaking new ground in Spanish cinema», and this year she once again opens Valladolid’s Film Festival with her latest work ‘It Snows in Benidorm’.