Carlos Saura

Carlos Saura Atarés (4 January 1932 – 10 February 2023) was a Spanish film director, photographer and writer. With Luis Buñuel and Pedro Almodóvar, he is considered to be among Spain's great filmmakers. He had a long and prolific career that spanned over half a century, and his films won many international awards.

Saura began his career in 1955 making documentary shorts. He gained international prominence when his first feature-length film premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 1960. Although he started filming as a neorealist, Saura 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 The Hunt 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.

By the 1970s, Saura was the best known filmmaker working in Spain. His films employed complex narrative devices and were frequently controversial. He won Special Jury Awards for Cousin Angelica (1973) and Cría Cuervos (1975) in Cannes, and he received an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film nomination in 1979 for Mama Turns 100.

In the 1980s, Saura was in the spotlight for his Flamenco trilogy – Blood Wedding, Carmen and El amor brujo, in which he combined dramatic content and flamenco dance forms. His work continued to be featured in worldwide competitions and earned numerous awards. He received two nominations for Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film for Carmen (1983) and Tango (1998). In the last two decades of the 20th century, Saura concentrated on works uniting music, dance and images.

Early life

Saura was born in Huesca, Aragon on 4 January 1932. His father, Antonio Saura Pacheco, who came from Murcia, was an attorney and civil servant. His mother, Fermina Atarés Torrente, was a concert pianist. The second of their four children, Carlos had an older brother, Antonio Saura, and two younger sisters, María del Pilar and María de los Ángeles. Antonio became a well-known abstract expressionist painter. From their parents, the four siblings received a liberal understanding education. Because his father worked for the Ministry of the Interior, the Saura family moved to Barcelona, Valencia, and, in 1953, to Madrid. Saura's childhood was marked by the Spanish Civil War, during which the Nationalists fought against the Republicans.

Saura had vivid recollection of his childhood during the war. He later evoked some of them in his films – the games he played, and the songs he sang, as well as darker memories of bombings and hunger, blood and death. He was taught to read by a priest, a relative whom his parents sheltered from anticlerical extremists. At the war's end, Saura was separated from his parents and sent back to Huesca to live with his maternal grandmother and aunts. He described these relatives as "right wings and very religious" who imposed in the child the very antithesis of the liberal education he had received in the republican zone. After having studied civil engineering he began a career in the film industry on the advice of his brother Antonio Saura. In 1967, his film Peppermint Frappé received the Silver Bear for Best Director at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival. He won the Golden Bear in 1981 at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival for his film Deprisa, Deprisa.

Saura become known for movies featuring flamenco and other traditional dances. His Flamenco Trilogy of the 1980s includes Bodas de Sangre (Blood Wedding), Carmen, and El amor brujo featuring the work of Spanish flamenco dancer Cristina Hoyos. He later made the movies Flamenco (1995), Tango (1998), and Fados (2007).

His 1989 film La noche oscura was entered into the 39th Berlin International Film Festival.

Saura considered his film on surrealist master Luis Buñuel to be his best cinematic work. In an interview with an online film magazine, he said about Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón (Buñuel and the table of King Solomon – 2001): "That's the greatest film I’ve ever made. I like the film but nobody else seems to like it. I’m sure Buñuel would have loved this film. But perhaps only he would have loved it. Everything you see in the film is actually based on conversations I had with him."

In 1990, he received the Goya Award for the best director and best script for ¡Ay, Carmela!. He was chosen as director for the official film of the 1992 Olympic Games of Barcelona, Marathon (1993).

In 2008, Carlos Saura was honoured with a Global Life Time Achievement Award at the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival, organized by the Mumbai Academy of the Moving Image.

In 2013, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 18th International Film Festival of Kerala.

Personal life and death Carlos Saura was married three times. He first married Adela Medrano. They had two sons, Carlos and Antonio. He was the father of a daughter named Anna from his third marriage to actress Eulàlia Ramon, whom he began a relationship in the wake of the shooting of Outrage. His daughter Anna was his agent (as well as right hand and producer of his films) in his late years.

He was an avid photographer and had a collection of over 600 cameras.

Saura was a close friend of fellow Aragonese filmmaker Luis Buñuel. They met at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

Saura lived in Collado Mediano since the early 1980s.

Saura died of respiratory failure in his residence of Collado Mediano on 10 February 2023 at the age of 91. He was due to receive the life-achievement Goya honorary award the following day during the 37th Goya Awards.

Filmography Film

Short film

Feature film

Documentary works Short film

Film

Selected awards and nominations Academy Awards 1980 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Mamá cumple 100 años 1984 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Carmen 1999 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Tango

BAFTA Award 1983 – Won: BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film – Carmen

Berlin Film Festival 1964 – Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear – Llanto por un bandido 1966 – Won: Silver Bear for Best Director at the 16th Berlin International Film Festival for his film La caza 1966 – Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear – La caza 1968 – Won: Silver Bear for Best Director at the 18th Berlin International Film Festival for his film Peppermint Frappé 1968 – Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear – Peppermint Frappé 1969 – Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear – La madriguera 1981 – Won: Golden Bear at the 31st Berlin International Film Festival for his film Deprisa, deprisa 1989 – Nominated: Golden Berlin Bear – La noche oscura

Camerimage 1998 – Won: Special Award (Film Direction with a Special Visual Sensitivity) 2009 – Won: Cinematographer-Director Duo Award (shared with Vittorio Storaro)

Cannes Film Festival 1960 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Los golfos 1973 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Ana y los lobos 1974 – Won: Jury Prize at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival for his film La prima Angélica 1974 – Nominated: Golden Palm – La prima Angélica 1976 – Won: Grand Prix of the Jury at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival for his film Cría cuervos... 1976 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Cría cuervos... 1977 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Elisa, vida mía 1978 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Los ojos vendados 1983 – Won: Technical Grand Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival for his film Carmen 1983 – Won: Award for Best Artistic Contribution at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival for his film Carmen 1983 – Nominated: Golden Palm – Carmen 1988 – Nominated: Golden Palm – El Dorado

European Film Awards 2004 – Won': Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 – Nominated: Best Documentary Award – Fados

Golden Globe Awards 1978 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Cría cuervos... 1984 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Carmen 1999 – Nominated: Best Foreign Language Film – Tango

Goya Awards 1991 – Won: Goya Award for Best Director – ¡Ay, Carmela! 1991 – Won: Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (shared with Rafael Azcona) – ¡Ay, Carmela! 2005 – Nominated: Best Director – El 7º día 2006 – Nominated: Best Documentary – Iberia 2008 – Nominated: Best Documentary – Fados 2022 – Won: Honorary Goya Award

Karlovy Vary International Film Festival 1982 – Won: Special Prize of the Jury – Bodas de sangre 2000 – Won: Special Prize for Outstanding Contribution to World Cinema

Montréal World Film Festival 1983 – Won: Most Popular Film of the Festival – Carmen 1986 – Won: Prix Special du Festival for his trilogy (Bodas de sangre, Carmen, El amor brujo), on the occasion of the presentation of El amor brujo 1995 – Won: Grand Prix Special des Amériques ("On the occasion of the centennial of cinema, for his exceptional contribution to the cinematographic art") 1997 – Won: Best Director – Pajarico 1997 – Nominated: Grand Prix des Amériques – Pajarico 1999 – Won: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury – Goya en Burdeos 1999 – Won: Best Artistic Contribution – Goya en Burdeos 1999 – Nominated: Grand Prix des Amériques – Goya en Burdeos 2002 – Won: Best Artistic Contribution – Salomé 2002 – Nominated: Grand Prix des Amériques – Salomé 2004 – Won: Best Director – El 7º día 2004 – Nominated: Grand Prix des Amériques – El 7º día

San Sebastián International Film Festival 1958 – Won: Special Mention – Cuenca 1979 – Won: Special Prize of the Jury – Mamá cumple cien años 1996 – Nominated: Golden Seashell – Taxi 2001 – Nominated: Golden Seashell – Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón

Venice Film Festival 1968 – Nominated: Golden Lion – Stress-es tres-tres 1984 – Nominated: Golden Lion – Los zancos 1993 – Nominated: Golden Lion – ¡Dispara!

Other awards and honours 1977 – Won: Prix Léon Moussinac – Best Foreign Film at the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics for his film Cría cuervos... 1984 – Won: Best European Film at the 1984 Bodil Awards for his film Carmen 1985 – Won: Guild Film Award – Silver: Foreign Film at the Guild of German Art House Cinemas for his film Carmen 1991 – Won: ADIRCAE Award – Best Director for his film ¡Ay, Carmela! 1999 – Won: Jules Verne Award at the Nantes Spanish Film Festival for his film Pajarico 1999 – Won: SDFCS Award – Best Foreign Language Film at the San Diego Film Critics Society AwardsWon: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival 2002 – Won: Lifetime Achievement Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival 2002 – Won: Special Career Award at the Fantasporto 2007 – Won: International Award at the Barcelona Film Awards 2008 – Won: International Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bombay International Film Festival 2011 – Won: Special Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Fotogramas de Plata 2013 – Won: Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival of Kerala 2015 – Won: Premio Feroz de Honor 2022 – Won': Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Film Festival of India.

Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain

1970 – Won: CEC Award; Best Director – La madriguera. 1977 – Won: CEC Award; Best Director – Cría cuervos... 1978 – Won: CEC Award; Best Director – Elisa, vida mía 1984 – Won: CEC Award; Best Director – Carmen

Sant Jordi Awards

1967 – Won: Sant Jordi; Best Film – La caza 1968 – Won: Sant Jordi; Best Film – Peppermint Frappé 1972 – Won: Sant Jordi; Best Film – El jardín de las delicias 1975 – Won: Sant Jordi; Best Film – La prima Angélica 2000 – Won: Sant Jordi; Best Film – Goya en Burdeos