Alejandro "Álex" de la Iglesia Mendoza (born 4 December 1965) is a Spanish film director, screenwriter, producer and former comic book artist.
De la Iglesia's films combine grotesque and very dark elements such as death and murder: most of his works are considered dark comedies, but are also often considered to have horror and/or drama elements. All his films, with the notable exceptions of The Last Circus (2010) and As Luck Would Have It (2011), were written together with Jorge Guerricaechevarría.
With a degree in philosophy from the University of Deusto, De la Iglesia began drawing comics in fanzines such as No, el fanzine maldito and Metacrilato, as well as in magazines such as Trokola, Burdinjaun and La Ría del Ocio. De la Iglesia always acknowledges Alex Raymond (creator of Flash Gordon) and Stan Lee (founder of Marvel Comics and co-creator of Spider-Man and The Hulk) as his main inspiration as a comics artist.
It was also around this time, between 1986 and 1989, when he founded in Bilbao one of the first role-game clubs in Spain: Los Pelotas.
In his debut in the film industry, De la Iglesia was art director in the short film Mamá (1988), by Pablo Berger, and again in Enrique Urbizu's feature Todo por la pasta (Anything for Bread (1991). De la Iglesia had already collaborated with Enrique Urbizu and Joaquín Trincado designing the poster for their first film, Tu novia está loca (1988).
Álex de la Iglesia's first short film, Mirindas asesinas (1991), got the attention of Pedro Almodóvar, whose production company, El Deseo, collaborated in De la Iglesia's first feature film, Acción mutante (the sci-fi actioner) (1993).
De la Iglesia's next movie would establish him as one of the most important directors of Spanish cinema: El día de la Bestia (1995), written with Jorge Guerricaechevarría, co-screenwriter in most of Álex de la Iglesia's films since then. Released internationally as "The day of the Beast", the film won six Goya awards, including the award for Best Director. This piece turned Santiago Segura into one of Spain's best-known actors and brought back actress Terele Pávez, her being a regular in his movies until her demise in 2017.
Subsequently, De la Iglesia has been combining productions aimed at an international audience, with others closer to the Spanish cultural taste, but all displaying his sublimely witted, often dark, and sometimes even grotesque, sense of humor. Many veteran Spanish actors and actresses have worked under his direction, from Carmen Maura to María Asquerino, as well as several Hollywood stars like Rosie Pérez, Elijah Wood, John Hurt or Salma Hayek.
He directed the performances of Javier Bardem, Rosie Pérez and James Gandolfini in Perdita Durango (1997); Santiago Segura and El Gran Wyoming in Muertos de risa ("Dying of Laughter", 1999); Carmen Maura, Manuel Tejada and Paca Gabaldón in La comunidad ("Common Wealth", 2000); Sancho Gracia, Ángel de Andrés López and Eusebio Poncela in 800 balas ("800 Bullets", 2002); Guillermo Toledo, Mónica Cervera and Kira Miró in Crimen ferpecto ("Ferpect Crime", 2004); and Elijah Wood, Leonor Watling and John Hurt in Los crímenes de Oxford ("The Oxford Murders", 2007).
His film, Balada triste de trompeta ("The Last Circus", 2010) was awarded two prizes at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, namely, an Osella for Best Screenplay and the Silver Lion for Best Direction. It was also nominated for fifteen Goya awards in 2011, including Best Director, Best Film And Best Original Screenplay. It got to receive the awards for Best Makeup and Best Special Effects. The New York Times praised the movie on a raving piece when the film opened theatrically in the US.
Box Office Hits: Las brujas de Zugarramurdi and Perfectos desconocidos
In 2011, De la Iglesia released La chispa de la vida ("As Luck Would Have It"), starring José Mota and Salma Hayek, and shot in the coastal Spanish town of Cartagena.
2013 was the year of Las brujas de Zugarramurdi ("Witching & Bitching"), one of Álex de la Iglesia's most successful movies, praised by audience and critics. He began shooting it in the fall of 2012 with an extensive cast that included Carmen Maura, Macarena Gómez, Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, Carolina Bang, Terele Pávez and Pepón Nieto, and some cameos by Santiago Segura and Carlos Areces. The film was released in Spain on September 27, 2013, and achieved relevant commercial success, grossing 14.6 million euros, with a total cost of 6M€. It was awarded eight Goyas, including Best Supporting Actress for the veteran actress, Terele Pávez.
De la Iglesia then surprised everyone with Mi gran noche ("My Big Night", 2015), an ensemble film that marked Spanish singer superstar Raphael's comeback to cinema after 40years. Raphael heads a huge cast that included Mario Casas, Pepón Nieto, Blanca Suárez, Carlos Areces, Luis Callejo, Carmen Machi, Jaime Ordóñez, Santiago Segura, Enrique Villén, Hugo Silva, Carolina Bang, Terele Pávez, Carmen Ruiz, Marta Guerras, Ana Polvorosa, Toni Acosta and Luis Fernández, among many others. Mi gran noche was another box-office success for its director, grossing almost three times the four million euros it cost.
In 2017, Álex de la Iglesia released two films: El Bar, with several of his already regular actors (Blanca Suárez, Mario Casas, Carmen Machi, Pepón Nieto, Terele Pávez), and the remake of the Italian film Perfetti sconosciuti, titled in Spanish Perfectos desconocidos ("Perfect Stragers" internationally), with another impressive cast including Belén Rueda and Eduardo Noriega. Perfectos desconocidos was the director's biggest box-office return to date, with almost 20 million euros grossed.
In 2009, producer Carolina Bang and Álex de la Iglesia established the production powerhouse Pokeepsie Films. Created to nurture a new generation of bold, daring and innovative filmmakers, Pokeepsie films have produced an impressive slate of successful features, such as Paper House's director Koldo Serra's 70 Bin Ladens ("70 Big Ones"), Eduardo Casanova's multi-awarded Pieles ("Skins") and La Pietà (released theatrically on January 13th, 2022), Esteban Roel and Juanfer Andrés' Musarañas ("Shrew's Nest"), starred by the outstanding Macarena Gómez, Alex de la Iglesia's El bar, Ignacio Tatay's The Chalk Line (nº2 non-English language film in Netflix for 2 weeks in October 2022), Jaume Balagueró's Venus, and recently HBO's massive hit 30 monedas ("30 coins"), seasons 1 and 2.
In February 2021, Álex de la Iglesia announced the shooting of a new film under his direction, produced by Mediaset España, together with his production company. The film is called El cuarto pasajero ("Four's a crowd") and stars Blanca Suárez, Ernesto Alterio, Alberto San Juan and Rubén Cortada. With "Four's a crowd" as international title, El cuarto pasajero was released in Spain in October 2022, with excellent box-office returns
In the recent years, Pokeepsie films expanded their activities with ambitious projects such as The Fear Collection, a partnership with Sony Pictures and Amazon Prime to produce a series of horror feature films co-produced by Pokeepsie Films. The movies will be directed by some notable Spanish filmmakers such as Jaume Balagueró, Paula Ortiz, and Álex de la Iglesia himself, among many others. The first film of The Fear Collection is Venicephrenia, directed by De la Iglesia. Venicephrenia had its world-premiere at the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia and was released in Spring 2022. The second feature of this collection is Venus, directed by prestigious Catalan helmer Jaume Balagueró. Venus had its world premiere at Toronto International Film Festival. Starring Ester Expósito, it was released theatrically on December 2, 2022.