With birth name Javier Angel Encinas Bardem, he is the first Spanish actor to be nominated for the Oscar (Best Actor) following a distinguished career in the domestic Spanish film industry.

Coming from an entertainment-industry family, his venture into acting was no surprise; however, with each leading role, Bardem’s acting skill just emerged to earn international recognition.

Born in March 1st, 1969, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain, Javier Bardem’s mother, father and grandfather were filmmakers and actors. He made his acting debut with the film El Picaro (The Scoundrel) at the mere age of six.

Although he appeared in some television series after his first release, Bardem preferred to move to pursue his artistic interest by learning painting at Madrid’s Escuela de Artes y Officios, and even played rugby for the Spanish National Team, before coming back to acting.

Staring alongside Penélope Cruz in the film “Jamon Jamon” (1992), he earned the popularity with the Spanish Actors Union Newcomer Award and a nomination for Goya Award for Best Actor. This opened Bardem’s way to work with some of the finest filmmakers in Spanish cinema and between 1993 and 1999; he appeared in over a dozen of films to garner a number of prestigious awards.

However, Javier Bardem got the major breakthrough with the release of 2000’s “Before Night Falls” as Cuban poet Reinaldo Arenas. For such an intense role he received as many as five Best Actor awards and a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Bardem then acted as detective Agustin Rejas in “The Dancer Upstairs” (2002), the directorial debut of John Malkovich, followed by Spanish film “Los Lunes al Sol” (Monday’s in the Sun) in the same year. The film won five Goya Awards, including the Best Lead Actor that went to Bardem.

In 2004 he won Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for his role in 2004′s “Mar Adentro” (The Sea Inside). Based on a real life story of Ramón Sampedro and his fight to obtain the right to end his life, the plot was yet again another powerful drama, and Bardem delivered his best.

His other major releases came in 2007 with “No Country for Old Men” (directed by Joel and Ethan Coen). This film was honoured with numerous awards, including four Academy Awards. Javier Bardem was awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. With this, he also became the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar award.

Among others, he acted in the ‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ (2007), Extasis, ‘Killing Pablo’ and the Woody Allen directed romantic comedy-drama film Vicky Cristina Barcelona in 2008. In 2010 Javier Bardem was awarded Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu directed “Biutiful”.

The actor in early July 2010 married his long-time friend and Oscar-winning Spanish film star Penelope Cruz. Although they were good friends since their first film together in “Jamon Jamon” in 1992, they reunited in the sets of the Woody Allen film ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona,’ for which Cruz received an Oscar award (Best Supporting Actress).

Penélope Cruz Sánchez is a well-known Spanish actress who has managed to make her mark in the international movie circuit. As a trained Spanish ballet and flamenco dancer, she certainly has the inclination towards acting and for years, throughout 90s, she worked consistently in Spain.

Born in Madrid on April 28, 1974, to a hairdresser and an auto mechanic, Cruz is the oldest of three siblings with a younger brother, Eduardo, who is a singer and a younger sister, Monica Cruz, who is a professional flamenco dancer and actress.

After her training in classical ballet for almost nine years and four years of theatre, she got the opportunity to host the Spanish television talk show La Quinta Marcha in 1990-91. She then got her big break in the Spanish film industry in 1992 with “Jamon Jamon“, in which she played a young woman (Silvia) and her role earned much critical acclamation.

Jamon Jamon nominated her for the Goya Award for Best Actress and the Spanish Actors Union Newcomer Award. The same year, she also featured in another Spanish movie, “Belle Époque”, which proved her versatility in acting.

Even before the release of these two, she had filmed “El Laberinto griego” (The Greek Labyrinth) in 1991, but the release was delayed till 1993. In the next four years she appeared in a dozen of Spanish and Italian films.

However, she caught the attention of Oscar-winning Pedro Almodovar who casted her in various native films including the 2006 “Volver” for which Penelope was nominated for the 2007 Academy Award for Best Actress. And, she also shared the Best Actress Award with five of her co-stars, as well as receiving a Goya Award and nomination for the Golden Globe and BAFTA.

Although she failed to consolidate her position in American film industry, films like Todo es mentira (It’s All Lies) in 1994, The Hi-Lo Country (1998), Todo sobre mi madre (All About My Mother) in 1999, Fanfan la Tulipe (2003) along with some other, shaped her acting career which further helped her to garner some big budget Hollywood productions.

The other major success comes her way in 2008 with the film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and also Best Actress in a Supporting Role awards at BAFTA, Goya, among various other nomination and awards at different award functions.

In 2009, her performance again came into notice with the release of Spanish film Los abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces) and American/Italian musical-romantic film “Nine”; the latter earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Apart from her acting, she’s been greatly active in charity activity with her works in Nepal, India and Uganda. She even supported Mother Teresa’s mission in India by funding for the homeless girls in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta).

In July 2010, Penelope Cruz married actor Javier Bardem, her co-star in the “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”, in a private ceremony at a friend’s house in the Bahamas. Interestingly, Cruz and Bardem have been friends for nearly 20 years, after working together on the Spanish film Jamon Jamon.

On Tuesday, July 13, under the ongoing Spanish movie festival in Marbella, Mapas de los sonidos de Tokio (English title: Map of the Sounds of Tokyo) is scheduled to be screened at the Plaza de la Libertad, San Pedro Cultural Centre.

It is a part of seven movies being screened in promotion of Spanish cinema by the municipal body. This has certainly brought a great chance for movie lovers to catch some of the latest and nicest movies of Spanish film industry.

“Mapas de los sonidos de Tokio” is a 2009 Spanish drama film directed by Isabel Coixet. The film that features actor Sergi Lopez is filmed in Japan’s capital city Tokyo and it even went for competition in the main categories of the 62^nd Cannes Film Festival.

Synopsis

The plot of the movie revolves around Ryu, a solitary girl who leads a double life, working at a fish market in Tokyo while taking on jobs as a hit-woman. On the other side, Mr Nagara whose daughter Midori has committed suicide, blames a wine shop owner David.

It takes the turn, when Mr Nagara’s employee, Ishida, who was silently in love with Midori, hires Ryu to murder David. The movie tells you a different kind of love story with high drama and emotions.

Hour: 20:00 and 22:15 hours.
Entrance Fee: 3€.
Location: San Pedro Alcantara San Pedro Centro Cultural. Liberty Square
Contact: +34 952 774 638

—- Read all latest film screenings at Costa del Sol Cinemas

Sara Rome

This week, the Town Hall of Marbella through the Municipal delegation of Culture and Education has organised a talk on cinema titled “Perverse, ugly, evil and seductive (or Perversas, feas, malvadas y seductoras) women in Cinema” by Sara Rome, PhD in Audiovisual Communication.

The chat show will first take place in the District of Las Chapas on Tuesday (March 23^rd), at 19.00 and then the next day on March 24^th, at the same hour, in the Foundation District Banús Nueva Andalucía.

Core emphasis of the seminar will be on the emergence of women in American cinema with darker characterisation away from the conventional portrayal of masculine men as elements of horror.

Throughout the thirties and forties, men only dominated the scene as far as horrific personality is concerned in various roles such as a private detective, the corrupt police officer, the gangster or the proprietor of a night club. But with time, the character portrayal changed dramatically to femme fatale.

Actresses like Bette Davis and Lana Turner changed the whole filmmaking style with strong personality, very attractive and sexually provocative images. They became popular with their forceful and intense style. Numerous characters played by different actresses created horror on the scenes through a mixture of malice and strong sexuality that frightens men, but that ultimately attracts them irresistibly.

Sara Rome, who lives in Marbella, will discuss on the evolution of cinema and how such personation of women broke the jinx of conventional powerful male characters in films. She has a PhD in Audiovisual Communication at the School of Communication Sciences of Malaga, with a thesis on “The characterization of characters in the classic horror film.” With her knowledge and study on cinemas, she will discuss on how femme fatale represents a changing social norms and morals.

As a specialist in horror films, Sara regularly collaborates with various media houses and gives lectures and presentations nationally. She is also a member of the Spanish Association of Historians of Cinema and the Association of Historical Studies on Women. For more information about Sara Rome and details about her research works, you may visit her official website dedicated to horror movies: www.lagorgona.es.

Born as José Antonio Domínguez Banderas on August 10, 1960, he is one of the eminent Spanish faces known for his acting skills in many native and Hollywood movies. Leaving his soccer dream behind following a foot injury at the age of 14, Antonio joined drama classes at the School of Dramatic Art in Malaga which eventually brought him to the fore of theatre and drama.

Antonio got the opportunity to join the National Theatre of Spain after taking part as an amateur artist with a small theatre troupe that toured all over Spain. While performing with the theatre, director Pedro Almodóvar spotted and cast him in a series of movies which include the 1982 “Laberinto de Pasione” (Labyrinth of Passion) and the “La Ley del Deseo” (Law of Desire) in 1984.

After delivering some outstanding performances in Spanish films like “Matador” (1986), “Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios” (1988) and Atame! (Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!) in 1989, Banderas made his Hollywood debut in the year 1992 with “The Mambo Kings” .

He, however, gained much acclamation for his sensitive but sensational character portrayal as a gay lover of Tom Hanks’ AIDS-infected lawyer in “Philadelphia” (1993). The actor then associated with many other international projects such as the1995 action thriller “Desperado” alongside Salma Hayek, and co-starring in “Evita” opposite Madonna, and the “The Mask of Zorro” (1998).

In few years of his introduction to American film industry, Antonio Banderas established himself as a talented and frontline actor in Hollywood mainstream. He even went to producing and directing a film named “Crazy in Alabama” (1999) starring his wife, Melanie Griffith, albeit it was not that successful.

The other film which brought acknowledgment for him is the Salma Hayek starrer “Frida” (2002) in which Banderas played the role of a Mexican artist. In 2003, Antonio and Salma returned together with “Once Upon a Time in Mexico”.

Coming out from his comfort zone, Antonio’s acting talent and theatre background came into play in animated films like “Shrek2” and “Shrek the Third” where he entertained the children with his voice role for the cat ‘Puss in Boots’. Besides, he starred in many other movies: The Legend of Zorro, Take the Lead, Bordertown, etc.

The Latino star with his Casanova like appeal and charismatic look was chosen as one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by the People Magazine in 1996. He has also won many awards and recognitions for his acting, including three ALMA awards, Gabi award, along with three Golden Globe nominations, among many others.