Alejandro Amenábar's Birthday
On March 31, 1972, in Santiago, Chile, the second son, Alejandro Fernando, was born in the family of Hugo Ricardo Amenábar, a Chilean, and his Spanish wife Josefina Cantos. Alejandro's dad worked as a technician at one of the enterprises of the General Electric company, mother, being a housewife, devoted herself to raising children. In August 1973, due to the tense socio-political situation in Chile, the Amenábar family, just a few days before the military coup carried out by Pinochet, moved to Spain. For several years the family lived in a trailer. Hugo Amenábar worked for OSRAM. In 1978, the Amenábars moved to normal housing in the suburbs of Madrid - the town of Paracuellos de Jarama.
From childhood, Alejandro showed the ability to write stories and compose music. After leaving school, Alejandro worked briefly as a warehouseman and gardener to earn money for a video camera. In 1990, he entered the Faculty of Information Sciences at the Complutense University of Madrid, but he left it very soon, considering the university education too out of touch with practical reality. Between 1991 and 1995, Alejandro Amenábar made four short films, which were subsequently included, in whole or in part, in his feature films.
In 1996, together with Mateo Gil, whom he became friends with during his short student years, he wrote the script and shot his first full-length feature film, "Thesis", based on it. By his 50th birthday, Alejandro Amenábar has 7 full-length feature movies in his filmography, not counting short films and television films. Three of the seven films shot by Amenábar entered the Golden Thousand. Thanks to this indicator, Alejandro Amenábar is included in the list of the 100 greatest directors of world cinema, compiled by FilmGourmand.
To date, Alejandro Amenábar's filmmaking activity has been awarded 61st film awards, including such prestigious ones as the Italian Film Academy Award David di Donatello, the European Film Academy Award, the Grand Prix of the Tokyo International Film Festival, the Grand Special Jury Prize of the Venice International Film Festival, and also 4 Goya Awards of the Spanish Film Academy.
In honor of the significant anniversary of the outstanding film director, I would like to remind fans of his work shots from his best films.
