DIRECTOR · BORN 1949
Pedro Almodóvar
- Born
- 25 September 1949, Calzada de Calatrava, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain
- Known for
- Law of Desire (1987), Matador (1986), The Graham Norton Show (2007), What Have I Done to Deserve This? (1984)
36 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
All facts (36)
- #001
Pedro Almodóvar was born on 25 September 1949 in Calzada de Calatrava, a small rural town in Spain's Province of Ciudad Real.
- #002
Pedro Almodóvar has two older sisters, Antonia and María Jesús, and a brother named Agustín.
- #003
Pedro Almodóvar's father, Antonio Almodóvar, who died in 1980, worked as a winemaker.
- #004
Pedro Almodóvar's mother, Francisca Caballero, lived from 1916 to 1999 and read and transcribed letters for neighbours who could not read.
- #005
At the age of eight, Pedro Almodóvar was sent by his family to a religious boarding school in Cáceres, Extremadura, in western Spain, where they hoped he would one day become a priest.
- #006
Pedro Almodóvar's family later joined him in Cáceres, where his father opened a gas station and his mother ran a bodega selling wine she made herself.
- #007
Pedro Almodóvar said in an interview that cinema, rather than the education he received from priests, became his real education.
- #008
Pedro Almodóvar was influenced by Luis Buñuel.
- #009
Pedro Almodóvar moved to Madrid in 1967 with the aim of becoming a filmmaker, against his parents' wishes.
- #010
When Francisco Franco's regime shut down Madrid's National School of Cinema, Pedro Almodóvar pursued filmmaking as a self-taught artist.
- #011
To support himself, Pedro Almodóvar sold used goods at Madrid's El Rastro flea market.
- #012
Pedro Almodóvar spent 12 years as an administrative assistant at the Spanish telephone company Telefónica.
- #013
In the early 1970s, Pedro Almodóvar developed an interest in experimental cinema and theatre.
- #014
Pedro Almodóvar performed his first professional roles with the vanguard theatrical group Los Goliardos, where he also met actress Carmen Maura.
- #015
Pedro Almodóvar was a crucial figure in La Movida Madrileña, the Madrilenian cultural renaissance that followed Francisco Franco's death in 1975.
- #016
Pedro Almodóvar wrote articles for major newspapers and magazines including El País, Diario 16 and La Luna.
- #017
Pedro Almodóvar contributed comic strips, articles and stories to counterculture magazines such as Star, El Víbora and Vibraciones.
- #018
Pedro Almodóvar published a novella titled Fuego en las entrañas (Fire in the Guts).
- #019
Pedro Almodóvar continued writing stories that were later collected in a compilation volume called El sueño de la razón (The Dream of Reason).
- #020
Pedro Almodóvar purchased his first camera, a Super-8, using his initial paycheck from Telefónica.
- #021
Pedro Almodóvar was 22 years old when he bought his first camera and started making hand-held short films.
- #022
Pedro Almodóvar made his first short film around 1974.
- #023
By the end of the 1970s, Pedro Almodóvar's short films were being shown in Madrid's night circuit and in Barcelona.
- #024
Complementos, released in 1978, was Pedro Almodóvar's first film shot in 16mm.
- #025
Pedro Almodóvar recalled that he became very famous in Madrid because his early films had no sound, so he brought a cassette of music and personally performed the voices of all the characters, songs and dialogues.
- #026
Pedro Almodóvar showed his early films in bars and at parties, and said he could not add a soundtrack because the magnetic strip was very poor and very thin.
- #027
Pedro Almodóvar followed his first Super-8 feature with Salomé, his first 16 mm short.
- #028
Pedro Almodóvar's debut feature was the 1980 Spanish comedy film Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap.
- #029
The low-budget, raw underground style of Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap turned it into a cult classic and launched Pedro Almodóvar's career.
- #030
Pedro Almodóvar's Pepi, Luci, Bom and Other Girls on the Heap is described as a major symbol of the Movida Madrileña, a countercultural movement celebrating newfound personal freedom.
- #031
Pedro Almodóvar's second feature was Labyrinth of Passion, released in 1982.
- #032
Labyrinth of Passion was framed in Madrid during La Movida Madrileña, a period between the end of Franco's authoritarian regime and the beginning of AIDS consciousness.
- #033
Labyrinth of Passion marked Pedro Almodóvar's first collaboration with cinematographer Ángel Luis Fernandez.
- #034
Labyrinth of Passion was the first of several collaborations between Pedro Almodóvar and actor Antonio Banderas.
- #035
Pedro Almodóvar's Labyrinth of Passion premiered at the 1982 San Sebastian Film Festival.
- #036
Pedro Almodóvar said of Labyrinth of Passion that he likes the film even though it could have been better made, and that the main problem is that the two leads' story is much less interesting than those of the many secondary characters.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- Wikipedia Pedro Almodóvar — Wikipedia
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