Juan José Campanella

Born in Buenos Aires (Argentina) in 1959 of Spanish and Italian descent, he studied at the Avellaneda Institute of Film Art and the Film Professionals Group. Years later, he completed a Master’s Degree in Fine Arts at New York University with a PhD dissertation that earned him an important award which became his gateway to American television.

He then developed part of his career in the US, where he lived for 23 years and where in 1991 he directed ‘The Boy Who Cried Bitch’, which premiered in Spain at the 36th edition of Seminci, where the film’s young protagonist Harley Cross bagged the Best Actor award. In 1999 he returned to his native country to shoot ‘The Same Love, the Same Rain’, which won eight Condor de Plata awards, and marked the beginning of his fruitful collaboration with Ricardo Darín. The film also obtained the Youth Award in the Meeting Point section at Seminci.

After founding the film and television production company 100 Bares, he returned to Valladolid in 2001 with ‘Son of the Bride’, which won Valladolid’s Silver Spike and the Audience Award and kicked off a successful career in Spain’s movie theatres, where it was seen by over a million and a half viewers before being nominated for the Oscar.

In 2004 he opened the festival with ‘Avellaneda’s Moon’, and following the shooting of his miniseries ‘Vientos de agua’, he won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film in 2010 with‘The Secret in Their Eyes’, which also garnered thirteen awards from the Argentine Academy, eleven Condor de Plata awards, two Goya Awards and countless other international prizes.

In 2013 he directed ‘Underdogs’, his first animated film and a great success with Argentine audiences which also won the Goya for Best Animated Film. And in 2019 he brought together a spectacular cast to make ‘The Weasel’s Tale’ —his latest fiction feature film so far. On US television he has directed chapters of such successful series as ’Law and Order: Criminal Intent‘, ’House‘, ’Halt and Catch Fire’ or ‘Cannibals’, and is cocreator together with Marcela Guerty of the series ‘The Man of Your Dreams’.