Click here to read the Spanish version.
Director, screenwriter and actor Agustí Villaronga died early Sunday morning at the age of 69 in Barcelona, the Acadèmia del Cinema Català confirmed. Villaronga, born in Palma, Mallorca, lived most of his life in Barcelona. The Mallorcan director stood out for his particular way of capturing some of his personal experiences in the films he directed.
One of his most acclaimed films was Pa negre (2010), (Black Bread), based on the novel by Emili Teixidor. The name of the film alludes to ‘Pa negre’ or ‘post-war bread’, which became popular in the years after the Civil War, since in order to eat bread, the population would grind whatever cereal they had within reach (sometimes wheat, rye or oats), and because of its dark color it was known as “black bread”.
Pan Negro was presented at the San Sebastian Film Festival and won 9 Goya Awards (including Best Director) out of a total of 14 nominations. The film was also nominated by the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences as a candidate for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the LXXXIV edition of the 2012 Oscars, but was eliminated in the pre-selection.
Also outstanding from his career are films such as El niño de la Luna (1989), with which he won a Goya for best original screenplay; Incerta Glòria (2017), and El ventre del mar (2021). His latest film, Loli Tormenta, is a comedy starring Susi Sánchez that is now in the editing phase, and is thought to reach the big screen this 2023.
To his credit, Villaronga won several awards, such as the National Cinematography Award, the honorary award of the International Gay-Lesbian and Trans Film and Performing Arts Festival of Bilbao (Zinegoak), the Jordi Dauder Award of the Latin American Film Festival of Catalonia, and a tribute from the Spanish Cinema Now in New York.
