Ventura Pons

Ventura Pons

Ventura Pons Sala (born 25 July 1945, in Barcelona, Catalonia) is a Catalan movie director.

After a decade as a theatre director, Ventura Pons directed his first film in 1977, Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait, which was officially selected by the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. With eighteen feature films, sixteen of which were produced by his own company Els Films de la Rambla, S.A., founded in 1985, he has become one of the best-known Catalan film directors.

His work has been shown at the best international film festivals, most notably at the Berlin International Film Festival for many consecutive years.

He began his movie career making comedies about local customs (The Vicary of Olot and What's your bet, Mari Pili?, for example). Since 1995 he has chosen to adapt dramatic and comic texts of Catalan writers like Quim Monzó (What It's All About), Josep Maria Benet i Jornet (Actresses, Amic/Amat), Sergi Belbel (Caresses, To Die (or not)), Lluís-Anton Baulenas (Anita Takes a Chance, Idiot Love), Jordi Puntí (Wounded animals), Ferran Torrent (Life on the edge) and Lluïsa Cunillé (Barcelona (a map)).

In 1995 he was awarded the National Cinema Prize by the Government of Catalonia, which also awarded him the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2007.