AMPAS to Host Pedro Almodovar Celebration in London

LONDON - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will host an intimate evening celebration of the work of Oscar-winning filmmaker Pedro Almodovar in the British capital later this month.

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The event will feature a conversation with Almodovar and discussions with friends, colleagues and family members including Agustin Almodovar, filmmaker Stephen Frears, fashion guru Jean-Paul Gaultier, singer Alberto Iglesias and scriptwriter Peter Morgan.

The AMPAS event, scheduled for the Curzon Soho theater in London's west end, promises excerpts from the filmmaker's canon.

Almodovar was a significant figure in La movida madrilena, the pop culture movement of late 1970s and early 1980s Madrid.

He made his first feature-length film Pepi, Luci, Bom in 1980, but his breakthrough came in 1988 with the release of Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown.

Nominated for a best foreign language Oscar, it brought him international recognition and virtually secured worldwide releases for his subsequent works.

In 1999 All about My Mother won the foreign language Oscar and in 2002 Talk to Her secured the filmmaker a directing nomination as well as an Oscar for original screenplay.

Almodovar most recently delivered the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' annual David Lean film lecture.

Last year the American Academy hosted a similar evening to celebrate Vanessa Redgrave’s career in movies.