Alejandro Amenábar — biography, films, roles and trivia

Biography

Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born 31 March 1972) is a Spanish film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile, to a Spanish mother and a Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just a year after his birth. He studied cinematography at the Complutense University of Madrid, but eventually dropped out.

In addition to writing scripts and directing his own films, Amenábar has had a notable career as a film music composer, including the Goya Award-nominated score for José Luis Cuerda's film The Butterfly's Tongue.

In 2004 Amenábar received the Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival for the film The Sea Inside, and in February 2005 the same film received the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

In February 2004 Amenábar came out in the Spanish gay magazine Shangay Express.

Filmography

1

2025 The Captive Screenwriter · Composer · Director · Producer

Interesting facts

6

1
Alejandro studied at the Escolapios de Getafe Catholic school in Getafe (Madrid) and at the IES Alameda de Osuna school in Alameda de Osuna (Madrid).
2
In 1973, due to the worsening political situation in Chile, his family emigrated to Spain (they managed to do so two weeks before the coup organized by Augusto Pinochet).
3
Full name: Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos.
4
Alejandro was born to Josefina Cantos and Hugo Ricardo Amenábar; he has an older biological brother, Ricardo Amenábar.
5
Alejandro is openly gay.
6
In 1990 he enrolled at the Complutense University of Madrid in the Faculty of Information Sciences. However, he dropped out after starting to make short films.