DREAM OF LIGHT

Filmmaker and writer Víctor Erice is regarded as one of the most renowned filmmakers from Spain. He was born in Carranza in 1940. At the age of 17 Erice moved to Madrid where he first studied economics and politics before turning to film directing at Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia. He has written for and was editor of the Spanish film journal Nuestro Cine. After making several short films, he shot his feature debut with the magical-realist classic The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), which would attain a legendary status within Spanish cinema. He then went on to make The South (1983), an adaptation of the novel by Adelaida García Morales. The Quince Tree Sun (1992), his documentary about painter Antonio López García, won both the Jury Prize and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes. In 2002, Erice filmed Lifeline, one of the episodes in the feature film Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet, in which other prominent international filmmakers also participated, including Aki Kaurismäki, Jim Jarmusch, Werner Herzog, and Spike Lee. In 2005, within the context of the exhibition titled Erice–Kiarostami. Correspondence, he started to direct the series of short films Letters to Abbas Kiarostami. At the 2014 Locarno Film Festival, Erice was awarded a Golden Leopard award for lifetime achievement. Close Your Eyes, his first feature film in thirty years, premiered in Cannes in 2023.