Alejandro Amenábar
Director · Writer · Since 1996
Alejandro Amenábar is a Spanish-Chilean director born in Santiago, celebrated for atmospheric thrillers blending psychological tension with philosophical inquiry. Thesis and Open Your Eyes, made while he was still in his twenties, established his reputation within Spanish cinema for stylish, cerebral genre filmmaking, the latter remade in Hollywood as Vanilla Sky. The Others, an English-language ghost story starring Nicole Kidman, became an international commercial success built on a meticulously constructed twist, while The Sea Inside, a drama advocating for a quadriplegic man's right to die, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Agora, a historical epic set in Roman Egypt, showed his range into large-scale period filmmaking. Amenábar's combination of genre precision with genuine intellectual and ethical inquiry has made him one of Spanish cinema's most internationally successful directors.
Alejandro Amenábar
Director · Writer · Since 1996
11 Directed · 1 Series
Alejandro Amenábar is a Spanish-Chilean director born in Santiago, celebrated for atmospheric thrillers blending psychological tension with philosophical inquiry. Thesis and Open Your Eyes, made while he was still in his twenties, established his reputation within Spanish cinema for stylish, cerebral genre filmmaking, the latter remade in Hollywood as Vanilla Sky. The Others, an English-language ghost story starring Nicole Kidman, became an international commercial success built on a meticulously constructed twist, while The Sea Inside, a drama advocating for a quadriplegic man's right to die, won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Agora, a historical epic set in Roman Egypt, showed his range into large-scale period filmmaking. Amenábar's combination of genre precision with genuine intellectual and ethical inquiry has made him one of Spanish cinema's most internationally successful directors.
TV Shows
Latest Trailers
Watch Trailer
Spanish Movie
Photos
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Alejandro Amenábar and where are they from?
Alejandro Amenábar is 54 years old, born on March 31, 1972 in Santiago de Chile, Chile.
What are the most famous roles of Alejandro Amenábar?
Alejandro Amenábar is best known for directing The Others, Regression, Agora.
How many movies has Alejandro Amenábar directed?
Over a 34-year career (since 1992), Alejandro Amenábar has directed or written 11 films and worked on 1 TV shows.
What was Alejandro Amenábar's first movie?
The career of Alejandro Amenábar began with Himenóptero (1992).
What is Alejandro Amenábar's most recent movie or series?
Alejandro Amenábar's most recent release is The Captive, which premiered on September 12, 2025.
What TV shows has Alejandro Amenábar created or directed?
On television, Alejandro Amenábar has appeared in La Fortuna.
Alejandro Amenábar
1972-03-31 · Santiago de Chile, Chile
Alejandro Fernando Amenábar Cantos (born 31 March 1972) is a Spanish film director. Amenábar was born in Santiago, Chile to a Spanish mother and Chilean father, but the family moved to Spain just one year after his birth. He studied cinema at Madrid's Universidad Complutense but eventually dropped out.
In addition to writing and directing his own films, Amenábar has maintained a notable career as a composer of film scores, including the Goya Awards-nominated score for José Luis Cuerda's La lengua de las mariposas.
Amenábar was awarded the Grand Prix of the Jury at the International Venice Film Festival in 2004 for Mar adentro ("The Sea Inside"), and in February 2005 the same film won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In February 2004, Amenábar came out to the Spanish gay magazine Shangay Express.
Amenábar shot in 2008 an epic film called Ágora which he wrote with Mateo Gil. The film is set in Roman Egypt and is based on the life of philosopher and mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria.