Luis García Berlanga, the Spanish film-maker of international renown, was born in Valencia on the 12th June 1921. After schooling from the Jesuits, he began a degree in Philosophy and Arts at the University of Valencia, although he never finished it.

After working in painting and forming a cinema club in his home-town, he entered the Institute of Film Research, the name then given to what is now the Official Film School, in 1947. During this period he made some trial films, among which "El circo" is worthy of note, and also made some documentaries. he also wrote several scripts, receiving in 1950 the first prize in the National Entertainment Union Competition for his script "Familia provisional", written in cooperation with José Luis Colina.

Together with Juan Antonio Bardem, in 1951 he directed his first feature film, "Esa pareja feliz". The next year, by then on his own, he made "Bienvenido Mr. Marshall", one of the classics of Spanish cinema of the fifties, a prize-winner at the Cannes International Festival.

The work of García Berlanga, then recognised internationally, continued with a series of hits. In 1954 he made "Novio a la vista" and in 1956, "Calabuch", which won the first prize of the OCIC at the Venice Film Festival. "Los jueves milagro" is also from 1956 and "Plácido", which gained various international distinctions, among them an Oscar nomination, dates from 1961.

In 1963 he directed one of the episodes of the Franco-Italo-Spanish film "Las cuatro verdades" and "El verdugo", another classic of his career, made from a script written by himself and Rafael Azcona, which represented Spain at the Venice Festival, obtaining the Critics´ Prize at the festival, and later the Grand Prix for Black Humour, awarded by the critics of Paris.

In 1967 he directed "La boutique" in Buenos Aires and, the following year, "Vivan los novios", which was great hit. "Tamaño natural" is from 1972, a study of human loneliness in which the main character lives with a blow-up doll with which he talks constantly. Due to censorship,it would not be shown in Spain until six years later.

With "La escopeta nacional" in 1978 he denounces the corruption of public powers, and with "Patrimonio nacional" he represents Spain as a film which aspires to the Hollywood Oscars.

Luis García Berlanga has been Chairman of the National Film Library and holds important prizes and distinctions, among which are the National Film prize of 1980 and the Gold Medal for Fine Arts, which he was granted in 1982.

In 1985 he made "La Vaquilla", a comedy set in the Spain of the Civil War, which received a good reception from public and critics alike. In May 1987 he filmed "Moros y cristianos", the film which was presented at the opening of International Film Week in Valladolid on the 19th October that year. In February 1988 his film "Plácido" received warm applause from the audience in Paris, during the Spanish Film Festival.

The director, who was determined even as a young child to be a film-maker admits, however, to a constant longing to go unnoticed: "I thought I would manage to invent some chemical formula to manage it. I saw it as an heroic act: to disappear, lose all one´s marks of identity, the slightest day to day protagonism, so that nobody could talk to you and, on the other hand, to be able to get in anywhere, to permanently enjoy the show."

García Berlanga also directs the "Sonrisa vertical" collection of erotic literature, which annuals awards a prize of the same name to the best book or novel with an erotic content among those presented for the prize.

In 1989, Luis García Berlanga was admitted to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando, with a speech entitled "The cinema, an inexplicable dream" and was named doctor "honoris causa" by the Complutense University of Madrid.