Almodóvar to Receive the WGA West’s Jean Renoir Award

Pedro Almodóvar is the write man on top…

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker, who earned France’s Prix Lumiere in October for his lifetime of filmmaking achievements, will be feted as this year’s recipient of the Writers Guild of America West’s Jean Renoir Award, which celebrates an international writer who has advanced the literature of motion pictures and made outstanding contributions to the profession of screenwriting.

Pedro Almodovar

Almodóvar has written, directed, and produced more than 20 feature films over the last three decades and won the Original Screenplay Academy Award for 2002’s Talk To Her, for which he also received an Oscar nod for best director.

His other films include Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown, Volver, Bad Education, Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, High Heels, Kika, The Flower Of My Secret, Live Flesh and All About My Mother.

His most recent film was the 2013 comedy I’m So Excited, and he’s currently prepping his next film, Silencio.

“Almodóvar – the first name is almost unnecessary – is a genius, is a flower, is a guiding light: the last, best son of Buñuel and so much more than that,” said WGA West VP Howard Rodman in announcing the honor. “His screenplays, which he directs with passion and fine care, have taught us about the exteriors of his native land and the interiors of our own hearts.”

Almo will receive his special prize at the WGAW’s Awards ceremony on February 14.

Almodovar’s Next Project “Silencio” is “A Return to the Cinema of Women”

Pedro Almodovar is ready for a little silencio…

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker, who earned France’s Prix Lumiere in October for his lifetime of filmmaking achievements, has told Financial Times that his next project will be a film called Silencio.

Pedro Almodovar

“It’s a return to the cinema of women,” he said of the film, “of great female protagonists, and it’s a hard-hitting drama, which excites me.”

Almodovar, whose last film was 2013’s I’m So Excited, revealed that the Silencio script has been completed, with the film set to begin shooting in April.

He said that the film is currently casting but that the parts don’t quite fit for the actors with whom he typically works.

“It’s called Silencio because that’s the principal element that drives the worst things that happen to the main female protagonist,” he continued.

Almodovar won the best foreign-language film Oscar for 1999’s All About My Mother and the original screenplay Oscar for 2002’s Talk to Her.