Mercedes Sampietro

Born in Barcelona, her life has been linked to the acting profession since, as a very young woman, she got her career on track through her involvement with amateur theatre. The decision that changed her life was to study at the Barcelona Theatre Institute, which spawned the experimental theatre group Cátaro. In 1970 she made her stage debut as a professional actress with Ana Diosdado’s play ‘Olvida los tambores’, and since then she has performed in about twenty plays under the direction of professionals such as Ángel Facio,Mario Gas, Miguel Narros and Sergi Belbel.

In 1977 she made her film debut with ‘To an Unknown God’, directed by Jaime Chavarri. Since then, she has participated in more than fifty films, becoming one of the staple performers of Spanish cinema thanks to her work in films like Pilar Miró’s ‘Gary Cooper, Who Art in Heaven’, which earned awards for best female performance at the Moscow International Film Festival and the Taormina Film Festival. She has worked with filmmakers like Fernando Colomo, Miguel Picazo, Montxo Armendáriz, José Luís Garci, Gracia Querejeta, Gerardo Vera, Patricia Ferreira, Judith Colell, Adolfo Aristarain, Joaquín Oristrell, Manuel Gómez Pereira or Manel Huerga. Her latest jobs on the big screen have been ‘The Furies’, by Miguel del Arco, which opened our festival in 2016, and the more recent ‘El verano que vivimos’, by Carlos Sedes.

On the big screen, she can boast a Goya for Best Leading Actress for ‘Common Ground’ (Adolfo Aristaráin, 2002), which also earned her the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Festival, an award that she had previously won for her work in ‘Beyond the Walls’ (Miguel Picazo, 1985). In the theatre she has received, among others, the Max Award for Best Leading Actress for ‘Dissabte, diumenge i dilluns’. Her track record also includes the National Film Award in 2003 and the Honorary Award from the Catalan Film Academy in 2017. Additionally, she has been president of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She was the official presenter of Seminci in 1984, the first edition with Fernando Lara at the helm, and in 2008 she participated in our Official Section with the short film ‘Turismo’, her directorial debut, which would later win the Gaudí Award.