MONTXO ARMENDARIZ

Montxo Armendáriz 

One of Spain's hottest directors of the 1990s, Montxo Armendáriz directed the internationally acclaimed Secretos del Corazon, Silencio rotto, Obaba. Born in Navarra on 1949, before becoming a filmmaker, Armendáriz studied electronics in Pamplona. He started out making three short Basque films, and in 1984, made his feature film debut with Tasio (1984). Ranked among New Spanish cinema's more liberal filmmakers, Armendáriz's films frequently

Synopses OBABA

Lurdes, scarcely 25 years old, begins on a trip towards Obaba’s territories.

She is carrying a small video camera in her luggage. She wants to catch Obaba reality, its world and its people. She wants to catch the present, and show it the way it is. But Obaba is not the place that Lurdes had imagined, and she discovers that the people who live there, like Merche, Ismael o Tomás, are trapped in a past that they can not –or they do not want to- escape from.
 


San Sebastian International Film Festival, Opening

SELECTED BY THE SPANISH ACADEMY TO PARTICIPATE IN THE BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM AWARD CATEGORY

Toronto International Film Festival, Masters Section

Ten nominations to the Annual Spanish Academy Film Awards (Goyas)

 Best Film Award, ASSOCIATION OF ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS (ACE) of New York

SILENCIO ROTTO  synopses

Autumn 1944, 21-year-old Lucia returns to the small mountain village where her parents live. The town is split between Franco’s fascist supporters and the Republicans. Lucia falls in love with Manuel, a young blacksmith who supports the Maquis, guerrilla warriors hidden in the mountains, who do not accept Franco’s triumph. Manuel flees the village to join them, and Lucia discovers the harsh reality as silence, horror and fear populate the village’s empty streets.
 

Butaca Awards: Butaca for Best Catalan Film Actress

Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain: CEC Award for Best Supporting Actress

Mons International Festival of Love Films: C.I.C.A.E. Award

Nantes Spanish Film Festival: Jules Verne Award

Toulouse Cinespaña: Prix du Jury des Lecteurs de 'La dépêche du midi' for Best Film, Best Film
 

SECRETS OF THE HEARTS  synopses

Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, SECRETS OF THE HEART (SECRETOS DEL CORAZON) is an elegant and poignant tale of the mysterious and magical adult world as seen through the eyes of Javi, a nine-year-old child, growing up in a small provincial town in the 1960s.

Javi believes he can hear the voices of the dead and that they whisper to him their secrets, which were left unspoken in life. At his mother's house in the mountains, he is fascinated by the room in which his father died and which his mother carefully keeps locked. But, Javi also learns that the living have their secrets as well.
 

Nominated for the  Academy Awards, USA: Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film
Winner of Berlin International Film Festival: Blue Angel
Chicago International Film Festival: Audience Choice Award Goya Awards: Goya for Best Supporting Actress (Mejor Actriz de Reparto), Best Production Design (Mejor Dirección Artística), Best Sound (Mejor Sonido), Best New Actor (Mejor Actor Revelación)
 

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