In recent years, the Spanish film industry has achieved great recognition as a result of its technical and creative excellence. The first director to achieve universal recognition, in the long history of Spanish cinema, was Luis Buñuel, followed by Pedro Almodóvar in the 1980s. Spanish cinema has also seen international success over the years with films by directors like Segundo de Chomón, Juan Antonio Bardem, Florián Rey, Luis García Berlanga, Julio Médem, Carlos Saura and Alejandro Amenábar.

Woody Allen, upon receiving the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in 2002 in Oviedo remarked:

“when I left New York, the most exciting film in the city at the time was Spanish, Pedro Almodovar’s one. I hope that Europeans will continue to lead the way in film making because at the moment not much is coming from the United States.”

Actors, Screen Writers and Cast

Non-directors have also attained international notability like the cinematographer Néstor Almendros, the Art director Gil Parrondo, the screenwriter Rafael Azcona, the actresses Maribel Verdú and, especially, Penélope Cruz. Other actors including Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem and Fernando Fernán Gómez have obtained significant recognition outside Spain. Twelve Spanish films or co-productions are represented in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, namely All About My Mother, Chimes at Midnight, City of God, Cría cuervos, Las Hurdes: Tierra Sin Pan, The Spirit of the Beehive, Open Your Eyes, Pan’s Labyrinth, Talk to Her, Tristana, Viridiana and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Today, 10-20% of box office receipts in Spain are generated by domestic films, a situation that repeats itself in many nations of Europe and the Americas. The government of Spain has therefore implemented measures aimed at supporting local film production and cinemas, which include the assurance of funding from the main national TV stations. The trend is being reversed with the recent screening of productions such as the €30 million film Alatriste (starring Viggo Mortensen), the Academy Award winning Spanish/Mexican film Pan’s Labyrinth (starring Maribel Verdú), Volver (starring Penélope Cruz and Carmen Maura), and Los Borgia (starring Paz Vega), all of them sold-out blockbusters in Spain.

English Language Spanish Films

Another aspect of Spanish cinema relatively unknown to the general public is the appearance of English-language, Spanish films such as The Machinist (starring Christian Bale), The Others (starring Nicole Kidman), and Milos Forman’s Goya’s Ghosts (starring Javier Bardem and Natalie Portman). All of these films were produced by Spanish film companies with international casting. This attests to the dynamism and creativity of Spanish directors and producers.

The Civil War and Francisco Franco Regime

Cerca 1936, both sides of the Civil War began using Spanish cinema as a means of propaganda. A classic example of this is Luis Buñuel’s España (1936), which also contains a lot of rare newsreel footage. The pro-Franco side founded the National Department of Cinematography, causing many actors to go into exile.

The Franco regime began to impose obligatory dubbing to highlight directors such as Ignacio F. Iquino, Rafael Gil (Huella de luz (1941)), Juan de Orduña (Locura de amor (1948)), Antonio Román (Los últimos de Filipinas), José Luis Sáenz de Heredia (Raza (film)) (1942)) with scripts of Franco’s and Edgar Neville’s. Cifesa produced Ella, él y sus millones as well as Fedra (1956), by Manuel Mur Oti.

For its part, Marcelino pan y vino (Marcelino, Bread and Wine) (1955) from Ladislao Vajda would trigger a trend of child actors, such as those who would become the protagonists of “Joselito,” “Marisol,” “Rocío Durcal” or “Pili y Mili.”

Finally, in the 1950s, the influence of Neorealism became evident in the works of new directors such as Antonio del Amo, Antonio Nieves Conde’s masterpiece Surcos, Juan Antonio Bardem’s (Muerte de un ciclista and Calle mayor), and Luis García Berlanga (Bienvenido Mister Marshall, Plácido).

Juan de Orduña would later have an enormous commercial hit with El Último Cuplé (The Final Variety Song) (1957), with leading actress Sara Montiel.

Buñuel sporadically returned to Spain to film the shocking Viridiana (1961) and Tristana (1970), two of his best films.

The Cinema of the Democratic Era

With the end of dictatorship, censorship was greatly loosened and cultural works were permitted in other languages spoken in Spain besides Spanish, resulting in the founding of the Catalan Institute of Cinema, among others.

At the beginning, the popular phenomena of striptease and landismo (from Alfredo Landa) triumph. During the democracy, a whole new series of directors base their films either on controversial topics or on revising the country's history. Jaime Chávarri, Víctor Erice, José Luis Garci, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Eloy de la Iglesia, Pilar Miró and Pedro Olea were some of these who directed great films. Montxo Armendáriz or Juanma Bajo Ulloa's "new Basque cinema" has also been outstanding; another prominent Basque director is Julio Médem.

The Spanish cinema, however, depends on the great hits of the so-called Madrileño comedy by Fernando Colomo or Fernando Trueba, the sophisticated melodramas by Pedro Almodóvar, Alex de la Iglesia and Santiago Segura's black humour or Alejandro Amenábar's works, in such a manner that, according to producer José Antonio Félez, "50% of total box office revenues comes from five titles, and between 8 and 10 films give 80% of the total" during the year 2004.

Awards

In 1987 Spain created the Goya awards and an emulator of the Academy Award for Spanish cinema. It should be noted also that Spanish cinema is not cinema U.S. has won more Academy Awards since 1978.

Awards also highlight that give the most relevant international film festivals in Spain: International Film Festival of San Sebastian and the International Film Festival of Valladolid .

Festivals

Spain has seen a boom in festivals in recent years dedicated to many aspects of the film industry. Some have many years behind them, as the International Film Festival San Sebastian, the Seminci or Gijon Film Festival, and many others, especially the more specialised Animadrid, Festival Punto de Vista, Docúpolis or Festival Peniscola Comedy Film are newly created, with a more specialised field.

The Sitges Film Festival , now known as the International Film Festival of Catalonia was inaugurated in 1967 , and is ranked number one in the specialty of fantasy films . Within this genre emphasises Jesus Franco , director widely known outside Spain with pseudonyms such as Jess Franco.

But more importantly for the renovation and the projection of Spanish cinema abroad was the creation of the International Film Festival San Sebastian , driven in 1953 by local businesses as an advertising platform in the city. It is the only festival of class A accredited by the FIAPF of Spain. In the more than fifty years of history, has become one of the first festival in the world.

The Seminci, International Film Festival of Valladolid, founded in 1956 as "Week of Valladolid religious cinema", was celebrated at Easter, was evolving into one of the major film festivals in Spain. For many years, the International Film Festival of San Sebastian was in charge of the glamor and the big names and the Seminci was more concerned with collecting interesting films, whether they had already premiered at other festivals. But in 2006 , with the change of management, seems to have taken a new direction, and give more to a program of "releases" new films have not already covered by previous festivals.

The Gijón International Film Festival is one of the oldest, who has known in recent years a revival thanks to its conversion to more contemporary arthouse and experimental. Highlights have been, for example, authors such as retrospectives of Abbas Kiarostami , Aki Kaurismäki , Todd Haynes , Pedro Costa , Paul Schrader , Hal Hartley , Lukas Moodysson , Tsai Ming-liang , Claire Denis or Todd Solondz , authentic spearheads the world cinema, and almost inaccessible in Spain were it not for the work of this festival.

Among the most significant highlights recent Spanish Film Festival of Malaga , dedicated to the Spanish film production.

The latest proposal in festivals, the FIC-CAT, the International Festival Curtmetratges in Català, a festival aimed at filmmakers Catalans or anywhere in the world as long as the works are dubbed or subtitled in Catalan, in all its variants.