Ventura Pons

Ventura Pons Sala (Catalan pronunciation: [bənˈtuɾə ˈpɔns]; born 25 July 1945, in Barcelona, Spain) is a Spanish movie director. He mainly directs films in Catalan but also in Spanish and English. Pons has directed 32 feature films and is one of the best-known Catalan film directors. His films are continuously programmed in the most prestigious International Festivals, almost 810 up to now, and distributed in many countries around the world.

Ventura Pons in 2016

He has been vice-president of the Spanish Film Academy and the subject of more than 34 international homages and retrospectives: London's ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), New York's Lincoln Center and in the world's foremost Cinematheques: Los Angeles, Mexico, Buenos Aires, Santiago, Caracas, Belgrade, Istanbul, Warsaw, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa, Mexico among many others.

Pons has also received international "lifetime achievement awards" in Chicago, Galway, Piestany, Lima, Torino, and Montpellier.

In Spain he has received the Catalan National Film Award, the Spain Fine Arts Gold Medal, the Catalan Sant Jordi Cross, the Catalan Film Academy Gaudi Honour Award, the Ondas Award, the City of Huesca Award, the Count Jaume d’Urgell 2018 Award, the Jordi Dauder Award, among many others.

In 2012 the University of Colorado at Denver (USA) held an academic Conference on his cinema. Vervuert has published a book about this conference: Ventura Pons: An exceptional gaze from the Catalan cinema.

He has published a book of memoirs Mine (and the others) (2011), and finished in 2017 another one I have tasted the fruits of the tree of life and also a World Tour diary, 54 days and a bit more (2012).

In September 2014 he recovered in Barcelona the old Texas Cinemes, to normalize the exhibition of international cinema always subtitled in Catalan. Europa Cinemas awarded it as the best "cinema on the move" in 2016.

In March 2017 he opened the AlbaTexas Cinemas in Valencia and in February 2018 the Las Vegas cinemas in Figueres.

At the same time, he founded the distribution company Albada Films.