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Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (Spanish: [ˈpeðɾo almoˈðoβaɾ kaβaˈʎeɾo]; born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and author. His films are distinguished by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives. Desire, LGBTQ issues, passion, family, motherhood, and identity are among Almodóvar's most frequently explored subjects. As one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have developed a cult following.
Almodóvar's career developed during La Movida Madrileña, a cultural renaissance that followed the end of Francoist Spain. His early films characterised the sense of sexual and political freedom of the period. In 1986, he established his own film production company, El Deseo, with his younger brother Agustín Almodóvar, who has been responsible for producing all of his films since Law of Desire (1987). His breakthrough film was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He achieved further success often collaborating with actors Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. He directed Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), High Heels (1991), and Live Flesh (1997). Almodóvar's next two films, All About My Mother (1999) and Talk to Her (2002), earned him an Academy Award each, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay, respectively. His later films Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011), Julieta (2016), Pain and Glory (2019), and Parallel Mothers (2021) were also praised. He is also known for directing several short films including The Human Voice (2020) and Strange Way of Life (2023). He made his first English-language feature film with The Room Next Door (2024), which won the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
Almodóvar has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and five Goya Awards. He received the French Legion of Honour in 1997, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1999, the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award in 2013, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2019. He has also received honorary doctoral degrees from Harvard University, in 2009 and from the University of Oxford in 2016.
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero was born on 25 September 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small rural town of the Province of Ciudad Real in Spain. He has two older sisters, Antonia and María Jesús, and one brother Agustín. His father, Antonio Almodóvar (d. 1980), was a winemaker, and his mother, Francisca Caballero (1916-1999), was a letter reader and transcriber for illiterate neighbours.
When Almodóvar was eight years old, the family sent him to study at a religious boarding school in the city of Cáceres, Extremadura, in western Spain, with the hope that he might someday become a priest. His family eventually joined him in Cáceres, where his father opened a gas station and his mother opened a bodega in which she sold her own wine. Unlike Calzada, there was a cinema in Cáceres. "Cinema became my real education, much more than the one I received from the priest", he said later in an interview. Almodóvar was influenced by Luis Buñuel.
Against his parents' wishes, Almodóvar moved to Madrid in 1967 to become a filmmaker. When the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, closed the National School of Cinema in Madrid, Almodóvar became self-taught. To support himself, Almodóvar had a number of jobs, including selling used items in the famous Madrid flea market El Rastro and as an administrative assistant with the Spanish phone company Telefónica, where he worked for 12 years.
In the early 1970s, Almodóvar became interested in experimental cinema and theatre. He collaborated with the vanguard theatrical group Los Goliardos, in which he played his first professional roles and met actress Carmen Maura. Madrid's flourishing alternative cultural scene became the perfect scenario for Almodóvar's social talents. He was a crucial figure in La Movida Madrileña (the Madrilenian Movement), a cultural renaissance that followed the death of Francisco Franco. Alongside Fabio McNamara, Almodóvar sang in a glam rock parody duo.
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Pedro Almodóvar
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero (Spanish: [ˈpeðɾo almoˈðoβaɾ kaβaˈʎeɾo]; born 25 September 1949) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter and author. His films are distinguished by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives. Desire, LGBTQ issues, passion, family, motherhood, and identity are among Almodóvar's most frequently explored subjects. As one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have developed a cult following.
Almodóvar's career developed during La Movida Madrileña, a cultural renaissance that followed the end of Francoist Spain. His early films characterised the sense of sexual and political freedom of the period. In 1986, he established his own film production company, El Deseo, with his younger brother Agustín Almodóvar, who has been responsible for producing all of his films since Law of Desire (1987). His breakthrough film was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
He achieved further success often collaborating with actors Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz. He directed Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! (1989), High Heels (1991), and Live Flesh (1997). Almodóvar's next two films, All About My Mother (1999) and Talk to Her (2002), earned him an Academy Award each, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay, respectively. His later films Volver (2006), Broken Embraces (2009), The Skin I Live In (2011), Julieta (2016), Pain and Glory (2019), and Parallel Mothers (2021) were also praised. He is also known for directing several short films including The Human Voice (2020) and Strange Way of Life (2023). He made his first English-language feature film with The Room Next Door (2024), which won the Golden Lion at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
Almodóvar has received numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, two Emmy Awards, five BAFTA Awards, and five Goya Awards. He received the French Legion of Honour in 1997, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1999, the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award in 2013, and the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in 2019. He has also received honorary doctoral degrees from Harvard University, in 2009 and from the University of Oxford in 2016.
Pedro Almodóvar Caballero was born on 25 September 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small rural town of the Province of Ciudad Real in Spain. He has two older sisters, Antonia and María Jesús, and one brother Agustín. His father, Antonio Almodóvar (d. 1980), was a winemaker, and his mother, Francisca Caballero (1916-1999), was a letter reader and transcriber for illiterate neighbours.
When Almodóvar was eight years old, the family sent him to study at a religious boarding school in the city of Cáceres, Extremadura, in western Spain, with the hope that he might someday become a priest. His family eventually joined him in Cáceres, where his father opened a gas station and his mother opened a bodega in which she sold her own wine. Unlike Calzada, there was a cinema in Cáceres. "Cinema became my real education, much more than the one I received from the priest", he said later in an interview. Almodóvar was influenced by Luis Buñuel.
Against his parents' wishes, Almodóvar moved to Madrid in 1967 to become a filmmaker. When the Spanish dictator, Francisco Franco, closed the National School of Cinema in Madrid, Almodóvar became self-taught. To support himself, Almodóvar had a number of jobs, including selling used items in the famous Madrid flea market El Rastro and as an administrative assistant with the Spanish phone company Telefónica, where he worked for 12 years.
In the early 1970s, Almodóvar became interested in experimental cinema and theatre. He collaborated with the vanguard theatrical group Los Goliardos, in which he played his first professional roles and met actress Carmen Maura. Madrid's flourishing alternative cultural scene became the perfect scenario for Almodóvar's social talents. He was a crucial figure in La Movida Madrileña (the Madrilenian Movement), a cultural renaissance that followed the death of Francisco Franco. Alongside Fabio McNamara, Almodóvar sang in a glam rock parody duo.