Carlos Saura

Born 4 January 1932, Spanish film director, photographer and writer. Along with Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, he is counted among Spain’s three most renowned filmmakers. He has a long and prolific career that spans over half a century. Several of his films have won many international awards.

Saura began his career in 1955 making documentary shorts. He quickly gained international prominence when his first feature-length film premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 1960. Although he started filming as a neorealist, Saura quickly switched to films encoded with metaphors and symbolism in order to get around the Spanish censors. In 1966, he was thrust into the international spotlight when his film La Caza won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In the following years, he forged an international reputation for his cinematic treatment of emotional and spiritual responses to repressive political conditions.