Spanish film director Bigas Luna dies at 67

MADRID: One of Spain’s best known film directors, Juan Jose Bigas Luna, who shot actors Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem to fame in the 1990s has died of cancer at the age of 67.
Bigas Luna was known in Spain for his erotically charged films like Bilbao (1978) and had more recent success again outside his home country with My Name Is Juani.
Spain’s Academy for Cinematography Arts and Sciences said on its Twitter account yesterday:
“The Academy is sorry about the passing away of Bigas Luna yesterday ... The 67-year-old film director was working on his next film.”
Bigas Luna died at his home in Tarragona, near the northeastern city of Barcelona.
Spain’s Culture Minister, Jose Ignacio Wert, said most internationally famous Spanish actors had worked with the director.
“Bigas Luna’s films were always characterized by a very fresh vision, although sometimes with a touch of acidity about our environment,” Wert said in a statement.
Bigas Luna’s latest film was Di Di Hollywood, released in 2010. He was working on a film adaptation of a novel by Catalan author Manuel de Pedrolo.