Pedro Almodóvar

Pedro Almodovar entered cinema out of La Movida Madrilena, the cultural movement that erupted in Spain after Franco's death. His films hold striking images, characters larger than life, women pushed to the limit of endurance, questions of gender and sexuality and a celebration of LGBT lives, all of it inside comedies that can make people laugh anywhere in the world. All About My Mother brought him an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe and is counted among the most affecting melodramas of recent decades. Talk to Her won the screenplay Oscar. Carmen Maura, Julieta Serrano, Rossy de Palma and Chus Lampreave appeared in his films again and again; Penelope Cruz was in the lead of Volver, and Antonio Banderas began his career in a film of his.