Luis Bunuel

About the Luis Bunuel

Luis Bunuel Portoleswas a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Bunuel’s works were known for their avant-garde surrealism which were also infused with political commentary.

Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Bunuel made films from the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali creating the films Un Chien Andalouwhich criticized the Francoist dictatorship. The film won the Palme d’Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. He then criticized political and social conditions in The Exterminating Angelthe latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He also directed Diary of a Chambermaidthe latter of which earned the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director.

Bunuel earned five Cannes Film Festival prizes, two Berlin International Film Festival prizes, and a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. Bunuel received numerous honors including National Prize for Arts and Sciences for Fine Arts in 1977, the Moscow International Film Festival Contribution to Cinema Prize in 1979, and the Career Golden Lion in 1982. He was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968 and 1972. Seven of Bunuel’s films are included in Sight & Sound’s 2012 critics’ poll of the top 250 films of all time.