GRACIA QUEREJETA

She was born in Madrid in 1962 and studied dance before graduating in Geography and History from the Complutense University. The daughter of film producer Elías Querejeta, she had an early calling and at the age of 13 she made her debut as an actress in Emilio Martínez Lázaro’s ‘What Max Said’, the winner of the OCIC Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.

Later she participated as an actress in several short films and was Carlos Saura’s assistant director in ‘Sweet Hours’ (1981), before making her debut behind the camera in 1987 with the short film ’Tres en la marca‘, the first chapter of the series ‘7 huellas’, which premiered in the Official Section of the 32nd Valladolid Festival.

In 1990 she directed, together with Jesús Ruiz and Nacho Pérez de la Paz, the documentary short film ‘El viaje del agua’, which won a Goya Award, and that same year she wrote and directed ‘La adolescencia’, a chapter in the series ‘El hombre y la industria’. In 1992 she directed his first feature film, ‘Whistle Stop’, which won the Special Jury Prize at the 37th Seminci and premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. It was the beginning of a brilliant career as a screenwriter and director.

Her filmography includes feature films like ‘Robert Rylands’ Last Journey’ (1995), awarded for Best Film, Direction, Cinematography, Editing and Soundtrack by Spain’s Screenwriters Association (Círculo de Escritores Cinematográficos); ‘By My Side Again’, Special Jury Prize and Best Cinematography at the San Sebastian Festival and the recipient of eight Goya nominations; ‘Héctor’ (2004), awarded for Best Film and Best Actress at the Málaga Film Festival; ‘Seven Billiard Tabless’ (2007), Best Script and Best Actress at San Sebastián, and Goya awards for Best Leading and Supporting Actresses; ‘15 Years and One Day’ (2015), Best Film in Málaga and eight Goya nominations; ‘Happy 140’ (2015), nominated for two Goya awards; ‘Wave of Crimes’ (2018), the documentary ‘Tanto monta’ (2019) and the recent production ‘The Invisible’ (2020).