Head of LolaFilms,
Andrés Vicente Gómez (Madrid, September 16th, 1943) is one of the
most successful and prolific film producers in Spain, and one of
the most respected in Europe. His extensive filmography, with more
than 100 films to his credit, reveals a certain coherence in the
never-ending search for quality, diversity, and, in most cases,
public approval.
Gómez
is the winner of an Oscar in the category of Best Foreign Language
film for "Belle Epoque". Together with the prizes won at festivals
like Berlin, Venice, Montreal and San Sebastian, Gomez´s near
annual presence at the Spanish Goya Film Awards make him the
Spanish producer with most national and international awards to his
name.
Many of
Spain´s most successful box-office hits have been produced by
Andrés Vicente Gómez, who has worked with directors of
unquestionable renown over the years, such as Fernando Trueba,
Pedro Almodovar, Carlos Suara, Bigas Luna, Vicente Aranda, Alex de
la Iglesia, Manuel Gutierrez Aragón, Pilar Miró, Santiago Segura,
Manuel Gómez Pereira, Jose Luis García Sanchez, John Malkovich, and
Ray Loriga, amongst others. In recognition for his work as one of
the producers most contributing to cinema, in 1998 the Cannes Film
Festival paid tribute to Gómez with a special homage.
In
1990, Gómez joined forces with LolaFilms, a film production company
originally founded in Barcelona by Jose Manuel Lara, Manuel
Lombardero, Vicente Aranda, Carlos Durán and Oriol Regas. Pablo
Atienza and investment company Gescapital entered to take part, and
in the mid ninteen nineties, a fruitful marriage with the Prisa
Group was sealed, before Telefónica finally acquired 70% of the
company.
In
recent years, Andrés Vicente Gómez has carried producing on a
constant stream of Spanish and English language films, such as
"Rain", co-produced with Martin Scorcesse, "The Dance Upstairs"
starring Javier Bardem and directed by John Malkovich; "Nearest to
Heaven" starring Catherine DeNueve; "Navidad en el Nilo" and
"Navidad en Nueva York" in co-production with Aurelio di
Laurentiis; "Soldados de Salamnina" by David Trueba, and "La Fiesta
del Chivo" de Vargas Llosa, starring Isbaella Rosellini; "Isi Disi"
starring Santiago Segura and "Manolete", starring Adrian Brody and
Penelope Cruz; "Lolita´s Club" by Vicente Aranda, and "Lo don
Giovani" by Carlos Saura; "El Consul de Sodoma" starring Jordi
Mollá; and "La Chispa de la Vida" directed by Alex de la
Iglesia.
As a
film distributor from the early 1970's onwards, Andrés Vicente
Gómez has brought an eclectic selection of international films to
Spanish audiences, with classics from directors like Buster Keaton,
Charls Chaplin, Jean-Pierre Melville, and Akira Kurosawa, as well
as Oscar scooping titles like "The Last Emperor", "Dances With
Wolves", "Driving Miss Daisy" and "Henry V".
Gómez
has distributed the work of numeorus cult dirtectors like Bernardo
Bertolucci, Robert Bresson, Claude Chabrol, Peter Greenaway, Shoei
Imamura, Krzysztof Kieslovski, Alain Resnais, François Truffaut,
Bertrand Tavernier, as well as introducing the independent voices
of directors like Peter Bogdanovich, Hal Hartley, Neil Jordan, Paul
Morrisey, Tim Robbins and Alan Rudolph.
In
addition to his extensive work as producer, Andrés Vicente Gómez is
President of the Media Business School, one of the most prestigious
devlopment and training centres of the European Union. He is also
member of the European Film Academy, and from 1994, of the Academy
of Motion Picture, Arts and Science of the Unites States of
America. He works actively for the FIAPF, and in 2003, was chosen
as President of that organization, a post he held until
2008.