Juan Antonio Bayona

Juan Antonio Bayona (Barcelona 1975) graduated in directing from the ESCAC (the Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia), where he made the award-winning shorts My Holidays (1999) and The Spongeman (2002). He went on to teach at the ESCAC while at the same time working in advertising and music videos. In 2004, Sergio G. Sánchez offered him the script for The Orphanage. The film was received with a loud ovation at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, as well as winning him the Goya Award for the Best New Director.

He has subsequently directed several big-budget productions that have been very well received by audiences, including The Impossible (2012, Goya for Best Director), A Monster Calls (2016, winner of nine Goyas, including Best Director) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018). In 2014 he also directed the pilot episode and second episode of the series Penny Dreadful for the US television network Showtime. He won the 2012 Spanish National Film Award from the Ministry of Culture for The Impossible. In 2018, despite his young age, he also received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Malaga Film Festival and the Honorary Spike at the Valladolid Festival.

@FilmBayona