Jaume Balagueró

Jaume Balagueró
Balagueró at the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Born	Jaume Balagueró i Bernat (1968-11-02) 2 November 1968 (age 48) Lleida, Catalonia, Spain
Occupation	film director and screenwriter

Jaume Balagueró i Bernat (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈdʒawme βalaɣeˈɾo]; born 2 November 1968) is a Spanish film director widely known for his horror films, most notably the acclaimed REC series.

Balagueró was born in Lleida, Spain, and grew up in Barcelona. He studied communications and photography at the University of Barcelona, graduating in 1991 with a degree in communication sciences. In 1992, Balagueró began work as a film journalist and radio host with the show “La espuma de los días” on Radio Hospitalet.

Balagueró began his filmmaking career with the short video projects El niño bubónico (1991) and La invención de la leche (1993). In 1994, Balagueró graduated to shooting on 35mm with the short film Alicia (1994). The film won the prize for Best Short film at the Sitges Film Festival. Balagueró returned with the short Days without Light (1995), which achieved similar success on the festival circuit.

Balagueró made his feature-length film debut with The Nameless (1999). Based on the novel by Ramsey Campbell, the film appeared at festivals worldwide, winning several awards including Best Film at the Fant-Asia Film Festival. He returned three years later with Darkness (2002). The film marked Balagueró's English-language debut, and was picked up by Miramax Studios, which released a heavily truncated version in US theaters in December 2004. 2005 saw the release of Balagueró's third film, the ghost story Fragile (2005) starring Calista Flockhart and Richard Roxburgh. Also in 2002, Balagueró co-directed the rock music documentary OT: la película (2002).