Alberto Rodríguez

Spanish-born filmmaker Alberto Rodriguez won major cinema awards from both his native country and international festivals for his dark, character-driven crime dramas "7 Virgins" (2005), "Unit 7" (2012) and "The Man with a Thousand Faces" (2014). Born in Seville, Spain, he trained at Seville University and began his career as a cinematographer and producer for television before making his directorial debut with the award winning short "Bancos" (2000). That same year Rodriguez teamed with Santi Amodeo to direct the feature-length comedy caper-drama "The Pilgrim Factor" (2000), about an international quartet of men who overcome language barriers to collaborate on a wild business deal. Rodriguez took sole directorial credit for his next feature, "The Suit" (2002), which again addressed issues of culture and identity in a story of an African immigrant whose receipt of a new suit allowed him to escape external and self-imposed barriers. In 2005, he directed "7 Virgins," a drama about blue-collar Spanish teens pushing against legal and cultural restraints; the feature, which starred a largely non-professional cast, earned nominations for Rodriguez from the Goya Awards and San Sebastian Film Festivals. Crime and class, and the impact of one upon the other, continued to serve as the focus of subsequent film efforts: "Unit 7" (2012), which earned a Jury Award nomination from the Tribeca Film Festival, examined moral complexities on both sides of the drug trafficking industry in Seville, while "Marshland" (2014), about the hunt for a serial killer, brought Rodriguez his first Goya for directing. He received the Feroz Zinemaldia Award for Best Film from the San Sebastian Festival in 2016 for "The Man with a Thousand Faces" (2016), the story of a real-life scandal involving Spanish Civil Guard head Luis Roldan and spy Francesco Paesa.