Juan Antonio Bardem Muñoz (June 2, 1922–October 30, 2002) was an Oscar nominated Spanish director and screen writer.
Bardem was best known for Death of a Cyclist (Muerte de un ciclista), which won the FIPRESCI Prize at the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, and El puente, which won the Golden Prize at the 1977 Moscow International Film Festival.
In 1958, his film Vengeance (La Vanganza) was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, but did not win; the winner was the French entry, Mon Oncle.
In the 1950s, Bardem, with former classmate Luis-Garcia Berlanga, developed a filmmaking style known as “estetica franquista.” The movement attempted to avoid political censorship by couching criticisms of Franco’s dictatorial regime in satirical terms.
In 1953 he and Luis García Berlanga founded a film magazine, Objetivo, which existed until 1956.
A member of the Communist Party, Bardem was jailed after making the neorealist-influenced Death of a Cyclist (1955), a film which, along with Calle Mayor (1956), won him international acclaim.
Bardem was responsible, through his production company Uninci, for Luis Bunuel’s return to Spain after long exile for the making of Viridiana (1961).
His 1979 film Seven Days in January won the Golden Prize at the 11th Moscow Film Festival.
In 1981, he was a member of the jury at the 12th Moscow Film Festival.
In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin Film Festival.
Occupational Inheritance:
Bardem is the father of director Miguel Bardem and uncle of Oscar winning actor Javier Bardem.
Filmography:
Esa pareja feliz (1951, co-directed with Luis García Berlanga)
Cómicos (1954)
Felices pascuas (1954)
Death of a Cyclist (1955)
Calle Mayor (1956)
Vengeance (1957)
Sonatas (1959)
At Five O’Clock in the Afternoon (1961)
Los inocentes (1963)
Nunca pasa nada (1963)
Los pianos mecánicos (1965)
El último día de la guerra (1968)
Variety (1971)
La corrupción de Chris Miller (1973)
La isla misteriosa y el capitán Nemo (1973) (TV miniseries)
El puente (1977)
El Perro (1977)
Siete días de enero (1979) about the 1977 Atocha massacre
Lorca, muerte de un poeta (1987) (TV miniseries)
El joven Picasso (1993)
Resultado final (1997)
Screenwriter
Welcome Mr. Marshall! (1953)
Don Juan (1956)
A Bell from Hell (1973)
La Isla Misteriosa (1973)