Carla Simón

Director and scriptwriter

She grew up in a small Catalan village. She studied Audiovisual Communication at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB) and later at the University of California, where she made the experimental short films Women (2009) and Lovers (2010) with Marco Businaro. In 2011, she received a grant from "La Caixa" to study a master's degree at the London Film School, where she directed the short films Born Positive (2012), Lipstick (2013), Those little things (2014) and Llacunes (2016).

Estiu 1993 (2017) is her autobiographical debut on the big screen. It premiered at the Berlinale 2017, where it was awarded Best First Film and the Grand Jury Prize at the Generation Kplus. The film has won more than 30 awards worldwide, represented Spain at the 2018 Oscars, was nominated for the EFA and won three Goya awards, including the Goya for Best New Director. 

She has also been awarded as an emerging talent at the Women in Motion Cannes 2018. Her latest short films are Después también (2019) and Correspondencias (2020), an epistolary conversation with Dominga Sotomayor, premiered at the Visions du Réel, the New York Film Festival and the San Sebastian Film Festival, among others.

Alcarràs (2022) is her second feature film, with its international premiere in the Official Selection of the 72nd Berlinale, where she received the Golden Bear and became the first Spanish woman to win the golden statuette in Berlin. After the German festival, Alcarràs was presented at the Malaga Festival, in the Official Selection out of competition. In April, it was released in commercial cinemas in Spain and has reached more than 350,000 spectators.

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