Ventura Pons

Ventura Pons Sala is a Catalan movie director. After a decade as a theatre director, Ventura Pons directed his first film in 1977, 'Ocaña, an Intermittent Portrait', which was officially selected by the 1978 Cannes Film Festival. Some of his movies have been produced by his own company Els Films de la Rambla, S.A., founded in 1985 and he has become one of the best-known Catalan film directors. His work has been shown at the best international film festivals, most notably at the Berlin International Film Festival for many consecutive years. He began his movie career making comedies about local customs. Since 1995 he has chosen to adapt dramatic and comic texts of Catalan writers like Quim Monzó, Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, Sergi Belbel, Lluís-Anton Baulenas, Jordi Puntí, Ferran Torrent and Lluïsa Cunillé. In 1995 he was awarded the National Cinema Prize by the Government of Catalonia, which also awarded him the Creu de Sant Jordi in 2007.