Famous Spanish Screenwriters

Pedro Almodovar is a Spanish screenwriter, filmmaker, and former actor. Regarded as one of the most successful Spanish filmmakers of all time, Almodovar has two Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and five British Academy Film Awards under his belt. His films are characterized by complex narratives, irreverent humor, and great music.

Álex Pina is a Spanish TV personality, writer, producer, director, and series creator. He is best known for creating one of the most popular heist crime drama series of all time, Money Heist. In 2019, Pina was named in The Hollywood Reporter magazine's Top International Showrunners of the Year list.

Xavier Cugat was a Spanish musician and bandleader. He studied classical violin as a child and began working in silent films to support his family. He grew up to become a successful musician and played a leading role in the spread of Latin music. Besides music, he was also a cartoonist and a restaurateur. He was married five times. 

Alejandro Amenabar is a Spanish-Chilean music composer, screenwriter, and film director. An influential and respected personality in the Spanish film industry, Amenabar has won nine Goya Awards and two European Film Awards among many other prestigious awards. 

Renowned Spanish director Carlos Saura is known for his iconic films, which include the Academy Award-nominated Carmen and Tango. The son of a concert pianist mother, he specialized in dance dramas and tragedies. He has also included his childhood memories of the Spanish Civil War in his works.

Writer, director and actor Nacho Vigalondo began his journey in 2001 with Código 7, not only writing and directing the short film, but also playing the part of Tipo in it. He received an Academy award nomination with his next work, 7:35 in the Morning.  Among his better known works are Timecrimes (2007), Extraterrestrial (2011) and Colossal (2016).

Javier Ambrossi is a Spanish actor, writer, and director. Ambrossi is renowned for creating the musical La llamada, which he also directed. He then went on to adapt the musical into a film titled Holy Camp, which he directed along with his partner Javier Calvo. In 2017, he was named in the most important LGBT people list by El Mundo.

David Trueba is a Spanish film director, novelist, and screenwriter. He is known for directing movies like The Good Life, Madrid, 1987, and Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed. The younger brother of Oscar-winning filmmaker Fernando Trueba, David Trueba has also directed several TV series. He is also known as the ex-husband of popular Spanish actress Ariadna Gil.

The Goya Award-winning director of cult films such as The Day of the Beast and Dance with the Devil, Álex de la Iglesia deals with macabre themes and dark comedy. Initially a comic book artist, he worked as a TV show decorator and art director before stepping into filmmaking.

Rodrigo Cortés is a Spanish film producer, director, writer, editor, and screenwriter. His 2010 English-language psychological thriller film Buried earned him international recognition as the film was premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Rodrigo Cortés is also known for directing the 2012 supernatural thriller film Red Lights, which starred popular actors like Robert De Niro, Sigourney Weaver, and Cillian Murphy.

Best known as the director of the Goya Award- and Academy Award-winning Spanish film Belle Époque, filmmaker Fernando Trueba initially worked as a film critic for El Pais. He also launched the journal Casablanca. His first foray in to animation, Chico and Rita, too was a huge success.

Spanish-born French author and playwright Fernando Arrabal is best known for his absurdist plays. While he initially studied law, he later switched to drama. He has written and directed films such as Viva la Muerte, and his characters are often murderers or prostitutes amid cruel and pornographic themes.

Spanish-born author and politician Jorge Semprún mostly wrote in French. He was educated at the Sorbonne and mostly lived in France. He soared to fame with the autobiographical novel The Cattle Truck, while his scripts for the films Z and The War Is Over earned him Academy Award nominations.

Juan Gómez-Jurado is a Spanish author and journalist. One of the most popular and successful Spanish authors of his generation, Gómez-Jurado has won several prestigious awards, including the Premio de Novela Ciudad de Torrevieja for The Traitor's Emblem. Juan Gómez-Jurado's work has been translated into more than 40 languages.

Renowned Spanish filmmaker Miguel Morayta had fought for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War but left Spain to move to eventually settle in Mexico, where he revolutionized filmmaking. He gathered experience as both a technician and a director and ended up directing over 80 films, such as Amor perdido.