Iciar Bollaín Reviews the Female Characters in Her Films at the Closing of “Filming Lab”

The filmmaker from Madrid gave the final lecture of the meeting organized by the University of Granada and “Film in Granada”

The actress, screenwriter and director Icíar Bollaín has been in charge of closing the first edition of “Filming Lab” with a master class in which she has made an exhaustive tour of all her films through the female characters. The event took place at the Palacio Condes de Gabia for three hours and with full capacity.

The first vice-president and provincial deputy for Culture and Historical Memory, Fátima Gómez, said in her presentation that “Icíar has had the good sense, and the sense of smell, to discover great interpreters of Spanish cinema, such as Luis Tosar, Candela Peña, Antonio de la Torre and Anna Castillo, among others” and quoting the writer Manuel Vicent, she added: “Icíar is always behind the cameras pointing to just causes, played with a right delicacy”.

Icíar Bollaín debuted as a director and screenwriter with “Hola, ¿estás sola?” (1995) and so far she has directed 11 feature films, 10 of them fiction and one documentary. Among them, “Te doy mis ojos“, which received two Goya awards, “Flores de otro mundo”, “Mataharis”, “También la lluvia”, “Katmandú”, “El olivo”, “La boda de Rosa” and “Maixabel”, which obtained 14 nominations in the last Goya awards.

The Palacio de los Condes de Gabia, headquarters of the Cultural Delegation of the Provincial Council, has also hosted two of the professional workshops of Filming Lab: the Art Lab, led by Laia Colet and the Directing Lab, led by Icíar Bollaín, both with a great success of participation.  

In the “Art Lab” workshop, Art director Laia Colet taught participants where stories take place, how locations are chosen and who builds the sets, based on her work in “Talk to Her” (Pedro Almodóvar, 2002), “Perfume: The Story of a Murderer” (Tom Tykwer, 2006) and “Eva” (Kike Maíllo, 2011), a film that won the Gaudí Award for best art direction and was nominated for the Goya Awards.

Colet has a long career in the Art Department and has also worked with directors Ken Loach (Land and Freedom), Ridley Scott (Exodus: Gods and Kings), Steven Soderbergh (Che, el argentino) and Icíar Bollaín (Katmandú, El olivo and La boda de Rosa).

In “Directing Lab” the director and screenwriter Icíar Bollaín taught how to create a scene, choose a space and direct the actors. A very practical workshop, where the 30 attendees have been involved and have been left wanting more. Great experience!