Fernando León de Aranoa (born 26 May 1968) is a Spanish screenwriter and film director.
León de Aranoa entered the film industry as a screenwriter. He made his feature film directorial debut with Familia, which won him the Goya Award for Best New Director. He is together with Pedro Almodóvar the awardee with most Goya Awards for Best Director (3), which he won with Barrio (1998), Mondays in the Sun (2002), and The Good Boss (2021).
Career Born on 26 May 1968 in Madrid, Fernando León de Aranoa was drawn to painting since early childhood and wanted to become an artist. He was good at music and sports and had a passion for comics. Because of an administrative mistake, he enrolled into a degree in Image and Sound instead of an intended degree in Fine Arts.
It was while taking classes of Image that his interest in films was awakened. He also studied literature and writing; Joaquín Oristrell was one of his teachers. He began to write short stories, winning awards for his narratives. Meanwhile, he had a job drawing for an advertising agency, but quit the job to pursue a career as a screenwriter. With help from his literature and writing teachers, he found a job writing scripts for television. He became involved in films for the first time as a screenwriter on three undistinguished films directed by Antonio del Real. León de Aranoa then moved on to become a director, making the short film Sirenas (1994) which received a number of awards.
His first feature film was Familia (1996), for which he also wrote the screenplay. For this film León de Aranoa was given the Goya Award for Best New Director, as well as the Audience Award and Special Mention from FIPRESCI at the Valladolid SEMINCI festival. The screenplay was later adapted into a theatrical play produced in several countries.
In 1998 he wrote and directed Barrio, a portrait of the lives of three young teens in a slum. Thanks to this film, León de Aranoa received the Goya Awards for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. The film was presented in the official section of the San Sebastian Festival, where León de Aranoa earned the Silver Shell for Best Director. The film received other major awards such as the FIPRESCI Prize, the Fotogramas de Plata Award for Best Spanish Film, the José María Forqué Prize, the Sant Jordi Award and the Turia Award.
In 2002 he directed Mondays in the Sun, starring Javier Bardem, which became a major winner at the Goya Awards that year, winning five awards including Best Picture and Best Director. The film also triumphed in the San Sebastian Film Festival, winning the Golden Shell for Best Film. The Spanish Academy of Arts and Cinematographic Sciences selected the film to represent Spain at the Oscars in the category of Best Foreign Language Film, although it ended up not being one of the five films nominated.
Princesses (2005) would be his fourth film as director and screenwriter, and his debut as a producer after he created his own production company, Reposado. The film was seen by more than a million viewers, and received three Goya Awards from the Spanish Academy of Cinema, for Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Original Song, composed by Manu Chao. The Ondas Awards gave Princesses its Film of the Year Award and Best Film Actors Award. The film was also part of the official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.
As a documentary filmmaker León de Aranoa directed the Mexican film Walkers (2001), which won festival awards in Havana, Los Angeles, New York City and Alcalá de Henares. In 2007 he took part in the documentary Invisibles directing the chapter entitled "Buenas Noches, Ouma". This documentary also featured the participation of the directors Mariano Barroso, Isabel Coixet, Wim Wenders and Javier Corcuera and was given the Goya Award for Best Documentary. In addition, in 1994 he collaborated in the direction of Izbieglize, and in 2000 he wrote the script for the documentary The Back of the World.
In addition to writing his own films, León de Aranoa has worked as a screenwriter for other directors; he wrote the screenplays for Crazy Heart (1997) and Fausto 5.0 (2001). He has published several short stories, having received by Antonio Machado Prize twice. He has also worked as a cartoonist and illustrator.
His film A Perfect Day was selected to be screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.
Filmography Film YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerNotes 1994 ¡Por fin solos! 1995 Los hombres siempre mienten Sirenas Short film 1996 Familia 1997 Corazón loco 1998 Insomnio Cha-cha-chá Barrio 2000 Living It Up 2001 Fausto 5.0 2002 Los lunes al sol 2005 Princesas 2010 Amador 2015 A Perfect Day 2017 Loving Pablo 2021 El buen patrón
Documentary YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerNotes 2000 La espalda del mundo 2001 Caminantes (Walkers) 2002 La guerrilla de la memoria 2007 Invisibles Segment "Buenas noches, Ouma" 2016 Política, manual de instrucciones 2022Sintiéndolo mucho
Awards and nominations Year Work Award Category Result Ref(s)1996Familia Valladolid International Film FestivalBest New Director1997MystfestBest Film1998Goya AwardsBest Original Screenplay Best New DirectorCEC MedalsRevelation AwardBarrioSan Sebastián International Film FestivalGolden ShellSilver Shell for Best DirectorCEC Award1999CEC MedalsBest DirectorGoya AwardsBest Director Best Original Screenplay2002Los lunes al sol San Sebastián International Film FestivalGolden ShellFIPRESCI AwardSIGNIS AwardOndas AwardsBest Spanish FilmEuropean Film AwardsBest Director - Audience Award2003CEC MedalsBest Director Best Original ScreenplayGoya AwardsBest Director Best Original Screenplay2004Ariel AwardsBest Ibero-American FilmDavid di DonatelloBest European Film2006PrincesasSundance Film FestivalWorld Cinema Jury Prize: DramaticForqué AwardsBest Film CEC MedalsBest FilmBest Director Best Original ScreenplayGoya AwardsBest Film Best Original Screenplay 2008InvisiblesForqué AwardsBest Documentary or Animated Film Goya AwardsBest Documentary2016 A Perfect DayFeroz AwardsBest Comedy FilmBest DirectorBest ScreenplayGoya AwardsBest FilmBest DirectorBest Adapted ScreenplayDavid di DonatelloBest European Film2021El buen patrón San Sebastián International Film FestivalGolden Shell CiBRA Festival Best Original Screenplay Forqué Awards Best Film 2022 Feroz Awards Best Comedy Film Best Director Best Screenplay CEC Medals Best Film Best Direction Best Original ScreenplayGoya AwardsBest Film Best DirectorBest Original Screenplay Satellite Awards Best Foreign Language Film Spanish Screenwriters' Union Awards Best Screenplay in a Comedy Feature Film Platino Awards Best Ibero-American Film Best Director Best Screenplay Ariel Awards Best Ibero-American Film European Film Awards Best European Comedy Sintiéndolo MuchoForqué Awards Best Documentary or Animated Film 2023Goya AwardsBest Documentary
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