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). His films are sophisticated expression of time and space fusing reality with fantasy, past with present, and memory with hallucination. In the last two decades of the 20th century, Saura concentrated on works uniting music, dance and images.
| 2023 | Las paredes hablan - Director |
| 2023 | Las paredes hablan - Writer |
| 2021 | El Rey de todo el mundo - Director |
| 2021 | El Rey de todo el mundo - Screenplay |
| 2021 | Goya 3 de mayo - Director |
| 2021 | Rosa Rosae. La guerra civil - Director |
| 2021 | Rosa Rosae. La guerra civil - Editor |
| 2021 | Rosa Rosae. La guerra civil - Screenplay |
| 2018 | Renzo Piano, an Architect for Santander - Director |
| 2018 | Renzo Piano, an Architect for Santander - Writer |
| 2016 | Flamenkonun Ötesinde - Director |
| 2016 | Flamenkonun Ötesinde - Writer |
| 2015 | Zonda: folclore argentino - Director |
| 2015 | Zonda: folclore argentino - Writer |
| 2010 | Flamenco Flamenco - Director |
| 2009 | Io, Don Giovanni - Director |
| 2009 | Io, Don Giovanni - Writer |
| 2008 | Sinfonía de Aragón - Director |
| 2008 | Sinfonía de Aragón - Writer |
| 2007 | Fados - Director |
| 2007 | Fados - Production Design |
| 2007 | Fados - Writer |
| 2005 | Iberia - Director |
| 2004 | El séptimo día - Director |
| 2002 | Salomé - Director |
| 2002 | Salomé - Set Designer |
| 2002 | Salomé - Writer |
| 2001 | Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón - Director |
| 2001 | Buñuel y la mesa del rey Salomón - Screenplay |
| 1999 | Goya - Director |
| 1999 | Goya - Writer |
| 1998 | Tango - Director |
| 1998 | Tango - Writer |
| 1997 | Pajarico - Director |
| 1997 | Pajarico - Writer |
| 1996 | Taxi - Director |
| 1995 | Flamenco - Director |
| 1995 | Flamenco - Writer |
| 1993 | ¡Dispara! - Director |
| 1993 | ¡Dispara! - Writer |
| 1993 | Marathon - Director |
| 1992 | El sur - Director |
| 1992 | Sevillanas - Director |
| 1991 | The King of Ads - Director |
| 1990 | ¡Ay, Carmela! - Director |
| 1990 | ¡Ay, Carmela! - Screenplay |
| 1989 | La noche oscura - Director |
| 1989 | La noche oscura - Screenplay |
| 1988 | El Dorado - Director |
| 1988 | El Dorado - Writer |
| 1986 | El amor brujo - Director |
| 1986 | El amor brujo - Writer |
| 1984 | Los zancos - Director |
| 1983 | Carmen - Choreographer |
| 1983 | Carmen - Director |
| 1983 | Carmen - Writer |
| 1982 | Antonieta - Director |
| 1982 | Antonieta - Writer |
| 1982 | Dulces horas - Director |
| 1982 | Dulces horas - Writer |
| 1981 | Bodas de sangre - Director |
| 1981 | Bodas de sangre - Writer |
| 1981 | Deprisa, deprisa - Director |
| 1981 | Deprisa, deprisa - Writer |
| 1979 | Mamá cumple 100 años - Director |
| 1979 | Mamá cumple 100 años - Writer |
| 1978 | Los ojos vendados - Director |
| 1978 | Los ojos vendados - Screenplay |
| 1977 | Elisa, vida mía - Director |
| 1977 | Elisa, vida mía - Screenplay |
| 1977 | Elisa, vida mía - Story |
| 1976 | Besle Kargayı - Director |
| 1976 | Besle Kargayı - Screenplay |
| 1976 | Besle Kargayı - Screenstory |
| 1974 | La prima Angélica - Director |
| 1974 | La prima Angélica - Screenplay |
| 1973 | Ana y los lobos - Director |
| 1973 | Ana y los lobos - Writer |
| 1970 | El jardín de las delicias - Director |
| 1970 | El jardín de las delicias - Writer |
| 1969 | La Madriguera - Director |
| 1969 | La Madriguera - Idea |
| 1969 | La Madriguera - Screenplay |
| 1968 | Stress-es tres-tres - Director |
| 1968 | Stress-es tres-tres - Screenplay |
| 1968 | Stress-es tres-tres - Story |
| 1967 | Peppermint frappé - Director |
| 1967 | Peppermint frappé - Screenplay |
| 1966 | La caza - Director |
| 1966 | La caza - Screenplay |
| 1964 | Llanto por un bandido - Director |
| 1964 | Muere una mujer - Writer |
| 1960 | Los golfos - Director |
| 1960 | Los golfos - Screenplay |
| 1958 | Cuenca - Cinematography |
| 1958 | Cuenca - Director |
| 1958 | Cuenca - Screenplay |
| 1958 | Cuenca - Story |
| 1957 | La tarde del domingo - Director |
| 1957 | La tarde del domingo - Writer |
| 1956 | El pequeño Río Manzanares - Director |
| 1955 | El proceso - Director of Photography |
| 1955 | Antes del desayuno - Director of Photography |
| 1955 | Carta de Sanabria - Assistant Camera |
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