Biography
Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born 31 March 1972) is a Spanish film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile to a Spanish mother and Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just one year after his birth. He studied cinema at Madrid's Universidad Complutense but eventually dropped out. In addition to writing and directing his own films, Amenábar has maintained a notable career as a composer of film scores, including the Goya Awards-nominated score for José Luis Cuerda's La leng...
Known For
Complete Filmography
The Captive
2025
Director, Music, Writer
1575 Algiers, Miguel de Cervantes, a wounded 28-year-old Spanish Navy soldier, is held prisoner by Ottoman corsairs. Faced with a ticking clock, a cru...
While at War
2019
Director, Producer, Screenplay
Salamanca, Spain, 1936. In the early days of the military rebellion that began the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), writer Miguel de Unamuno supports the ...
Danielle
2017
Director, Writer
A beautiful alien lands on earth and discovers love in the form of a Madrid native named Daniel. Realizing she can't make it on her own, he takes her ...
Regression
2015
Screenplay, Director, Producer
Minnesota, 1990. Detective Bruce Kenner investigates the case of young Angela, who accuses her father, John Gray, of an unspeakable crime. When John u...
Vale
2015
Director, Screenplay
A group of Spanish friends meet a girl who speaks English called Rachel. Victor is one of them but his English is not good enough to talk with Rachel.
Touching Death: Alejandro Amenábar on 'Tesis'
2014
as Self
Spanish Movie
2009
as Reflejo espejo
Large doses of humor, ingenious nods to Spain's most recent national cinema, an artistic cast highly linked to comedy and a high reserve of surprises ...
Agora
2009
Director, Writer
A historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning philosopher Hypatia of Alexandria and her relationship with her slave Davus, who is torn between his...
Spectre
2006
as Man Looking at Statue (uncredited)
After the sudden death of his wife, Tomás, a successful elderly writer who has been out of Spain during the last forty years, unexpectedly receives an...
The Sea Inside
2004
Producer, Screenplay, Director
Ramón Sampedro is a ship mechanic and part-time poet left a quadriplegic following a diving accident. Ramón fought for 30 years for the legal right to...
Vanilla Sky
2001
Original Film Writer
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribl...
The Others
2001
Original Music Composer, Writer, Director
Grace is a religious woman who lives in an old house kept dark because her two children, Anne and Nicholas, have a rare sensitivity to light. When the...
Nobody Knows Anybody
1999
Simón is an aspiring novelist who makes a living designing crossword puzzles for a newspaper. One day he receives a threatening message instructing hi...
Nobody Knows Anybody
1999
Original Music Composer
Simón is an aspiring novelist who makes a living designing crossword puzzles for a newspaper. One day he receives a threatening message instructing hi...
Butterfly
1999
Music
The film centres on Moncho and his coming-of-age experience in Galicia in 1936. Moncho develops a close relationship with his teacher Don Gregorio who...
Allanamiento de morada
1998
Music
Two salesmen arrive at an old woman's house to offer her a great deal.
Open Your Eyes
1997
Screenplay, Director, Original Music Composer
A very handsome man finds the love of his life, but he suffers an accident and needs to have his face rebuilt by surgery after it is severely disfigur...
Thesis
1996
Screenplay, Original Music Composer, Director
While doing a thesis about violence, Ángela finds a snuff video where a girl is tortured to death. Soon she discovers that the girl was a former stude...
Luna
1995
as Waiter
An early short by Alejandro Amenábar.
Luna
1995
Original Music Composer, Writer, Director
An early short by Alejandro Amenábar.
Himenóptero
1992
as Bosco
Himenóptero
1992
Director, Writer, Original Music Composer