Why This Oscar Nominee Calls Pedro Almodovar His Professional “Godfather”

This story first appeared in the Feb. 27 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

“I met him the best way a mentor should meet his pupil, as a spectator of one of his films — On Probation, which I liked a lot. It surprised me,” says Spanish director Pedro Almodovar of Argentine auteur Damian Szifron. “He is a very good director, but he has something very special that adds value for a producer: He is accessible as a director.”

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This story first appeared in the Feb. 27 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

“I met him the best way a mentor should meet his pupil, as a spectator of one of his films — On Probation, which I liked a lot. It surprised me,” says Spanish director Pedro Almodovar of Argentine auteur Damian Szifron. “He is a very good director, but he has something very special that adds value for a producer: He is accessible as a director.”

Value, indeed. Szifron’s best foreign-language film Oscar nominee, Wild Tales, which was co-produced by El Deseo, the company Almodovar runs with his brother Agustin, became Argentina’s highest-grossing movie ever. Joining forces with Almodovar was “a great moment in my life,” says Szifron, 39, adding that the acclaimed director’s name opened doors all over the world.

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Almodovar, 65, who won a best screenplay Oscar for 2002’s Talk to Her, notes that Szifron faces a tough field: “This year, the non-English-language-speaking filmmaking is qualitatively superior, and there are very important contenders.” But Szifron’s professional “god­father” has faith in Wild Tales — an anthology of six shocking, funny and perversely satisfying tales of revenge — calling it a “miraculous film.”