Achero Mañas is a Spanish film director. He is a former actor that had filmed several successful short films before receiving awards and recognition with his feature film debut El Bola.
Biography
Mañas lives in Carabanchel, son of the writer Alfredo Mañas and the actress Paloma Lorena. He studied at Actors Studio in New York City thanks to a scholarship gained by his mother. He acted as a supporting actor in several films and television shows until he starred in Belmonte, as Juan Belmonte, or La Ley de la frontera. After the birth of his daughter Laura, he decided to stop acting and became a film maker. He has won several Goya Awards for Cazadores and El Bola, a film that was released worldwide. Achero Mañas Amyach was born in Madrid to the actress Paloma Lorena and playwright father Alfredo Mañas. His childhood and teenage years were spent in his neighborhood always surrounded by theatre, literature and art, which would profoundly mark his life and personality. He studied painting for 3 years in the Escuela de Artes y Oficios. At the same time, he acted in some stage productions and had sporadic roles in the cinema. In 1984, he started taking theatre classes in the Real Stage School in New York City. After that, he returned to his acting career and took part in several stage, film and TV productions. He has worked with many prestigious directors such as Adolfo Aristarain, Carlos Saura, Ridley Scott, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Jorge Grau, José Luis Cuerda, etc. He decided to abandon acting definitively when his daughter Laura was born. He wrote and directed his first short film, entitled Metro, in Barcelona in 1995. The film won the Luis Buñuel Prize for cinematography and the Best Short Film Prize in the Montecatini Terme International Film Festival. In 1996, he wrote, directed and produced his second short film, Cazadores, which won important awards, among them the Goya for Best Short Film that year. In 1997, he wrote, directed and produced his third and last short film, Paraísos Artificiales, which also won important national and international awards. El Bola, his first feature film, premiered in 2001 and was well received by both critics and the public. The film went on to receive many national and international awards, among them 4 Goya awards for Best Original Screenplay, Best New Actor, Best New Director and Best Film of the year. It also had several nominations from the European Academy and finally won The Fassbinder Award for Best Director. In 2002, he wrote, together with his brother, Federico Mañas, his second feature film, Noviembre, which won several prestigious awards both nationally and internationally, among them The Fipresci Award in the Toronto International Film Festival, The Youth Award from the San Sebastian International Film Festival and The Luis Buñuel Award for Cinematography. A year later, Canal Plus proposed that he direct a documentary on the peace process in Northern Ireland. There he interviewed the main players in the conflict, among them Sinn Féin President Gerry Adams, the Northern Irish Leader of the DUP Arlene Foster, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureates John Hume and David Trimble. His movie “Todo lo que tú quieras” was selected for World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival 2010.
