Pedro Almodovar Trivia | 40 facts about the Spanish director

Pedro Almodovar is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. He has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, and five BAFTA Awards.

Let’s find out more about him!

1. His full name is Pedro Almodóvar Caballero.
2. He was born on 25th September 1949.
3. He is a Spanish film director and screenwriter.
4. His films are marked by melodrama, irreverent humour, bold colour, glossy décor, quotations from popular culture, and complex narratives.
5. Desire, LGBT issues, passion, family, and identity are among Almodóvar’s most prevalent subjects in his films.
6. Acclaimed as one of the most internationally successful Spanish filmmakers, Almodóvar and his films have gained worldwide interest and developed a cult following.
7. Has expressed his desire to work with Marion Cotillard and Catherine Deneuve.
8. The Lady from Shanghai (1947) is one of his favourite films.
9. Turned down an offer to direct Sisteract (1992).
10. Celebrity chef Rachael Ray is a big fan of his and named a chicken dish after him.
11. By his own admission, he usually starts writing his movies with a really important scene that ends up placed in the middle of the movie.
12. Directed 2 actors in Oscar nominated performances: Penélope Cruz (twice) and Antonio Banderas.
13. Often films rehearsals of his movies and includes them in the movie if he likes the scene better that the one shot during proper production.
14. Especially in comedies, when the actors would improvise things.
15. If something would happen unexpectedly, they would incorporate it into the scene.
16. Was approached to direct at some point both Brokeback Mountain (2005) and The Paperboy (2012).
17. In the film Bad Education (2004), Almodóvar mix past and present, fiction and reality in a manner very similar to that used by writer Zlatko Topcic earlier in the hit film Remake (2003).
18. Mother Francisca Caballero and brother Agustín Almodóvar often appear in cameo roles in his movies.
19. Has been romantically involved with photographer Fernando Iglesias.
20. He frequently casts Fernando Iglesian in small roles in his films, since 2002.
21. Attended a Catholic boarding school in the 1960s where some of his fellow students were abused by priests. He asserts that he himself wasn’t abused.
22. 1992: Member of jury at the Cannes Film Festival.
23. Favorite American actress is Meryl Streep.
24. He was president of the jury at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival.
25. Born on the 24th of September, his parents officially registered him the next day.
26. Le doulos (1962) and Le cercle rouge (1970) are two of his favorite movies directed by Jean-Pierre Melville.
27. Even though he doesn’t watch TV, a lot of the main cast of 7 vidas (1999) have appeared on his movies: Blanca Portillo, Carmen Machi, Javier Cámara, Paz Vega, Guillermo Toledo, Leandro Rivera and Yolanda Ramos.
28. Toni Cantó and Anabel Alonso have also worked with him, but before the show started.
29. Lead singer of the infamous music duo “Almodóvar & McNamara”, a legendary bizarre project that personified the image of “la movida madrileña” during the early 1980s in Madrid. He appears in that role in his own film Laberinto de pasiones (1982) a.k.a. “Labyrinth of Passion”) wearing women’s clothes and lots of black makeup.
30. New York, NY: Interviewed by journalist Lorne Manly as part of TimesTalks series at the New York TimesCenter building. (June 2013)
31. Was judged Best Director at the 2002 European Film Awards.
32. Almodóvar’s career developed during La Movida Madrileña, a cultural renaissance that followed the end of Francoist Spain.
33. His early films characterised the sense of sexual and political freedom of the period.
34. In 1986, he established his own film production company, El Deseo, with his younger brother Agustín Almodóvar, who has been responsible for producing all of his films since Law of Desire (1987).
35. His breakthrough film was Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
36. He achieved further success often collaborating with actors Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz.
37. He is also known for directing several short films including The Human Voice (2020), and Strange Way of Life (2023)
38. Almodóvar has received numerous accolades including an Academy Award, five BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, nine Goya Awards.
39. He has also received the French Legion of Honour in 1997, the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts in 1999, and the European Film Academy Achievement in World Cinema Award in 2013, and was awarded the Golden Lion in 2019.
40. He’s also received an honorary doctoral degrees from Harvard University in 2009, and from University of Oxford in 2016.