Luis Buñuel Portolés (Spanish: [ˈlwis βuˈɲwel poɾtoˈles]; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico, and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians, and directors to be one of the greatest and most influential filmmakers of all time. Buñuel's work was known for its avant-garde surrealism which was also infused with political commentary and social satire. Often associated with the surrealist movement of the 1920s, Buñuel made films from the 1920s through the 1970s. He collaborated with prolific surrealist painter Salvador Dali creating the films Un Chien Andalou (1929), which was made in the silent era and L'Age d'Or (1930). The two films are seen as the birth of Cinematic surrealism. From 1947 to 1960 he developed his skills as a director filming in Mexico making grounded and human melodramas such as Gran Casino (1947), Los Olvidados (1950), and Él (1953). Here is where he gained the fundamentals of storytelling. Buñuel than transitioned into making artful, unconventional, surrealist, and political satirical films. He earned acclaim with the morally complex arthouse drama film Viridiana (1961) which criticized the Francoist dictatorship. The film won the Palme d'Or at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival. He then criticized political and social conditions in The Exterminating Angel (1962), and The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoise (1972) the later of which won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He also directed Diary of a Chambermaid (1964), and Belle de Jour (1967), as well as his final film That Obscure Object of Desire (1977) the later of which earned the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director. Buñuel earned five Cannes Film Festival prizes, two Berlin International Film Festival prizes, and a BAFTA Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. Buñuel received numerous honors including National Prize for Arts and Sciences for Fine Arts in 1977, the Moscow International Film Festival Contribution to Cinema Prize in 1979, and the Career Golden Lion in 1982. He was nominated once for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1968. Seven of Buñuel's films are included in Sight & Sound's 2012 critics' poll of the top 250 films of all time.

Filmography

• 2026Short Cuts: “The Diary of a Chambermaid” by Luis Buñuel — Original Film Writer
• 2024Constel·lació Portabella — (archive footage)
• 2017The Metropolitan Opera: The Exterminating Angel — Original Story
• 2012Discovering Buñuel — Self/Archive Footage
• 2006Belle Toujours — Thanks
• 2000Eating Sea Urchins — Director
• 1997La novia de medianoche — Screenplay
• 1992Paco, mi padre
• 1984A Play About Remembering and Dying — Novel
• 1977That Obscure Object of Desire — Screenplay, Director
• 1974The Phantom of Liberty — Condemned Man (uncredited), Director, Writer, Sound Effects
• 1973Fall of a Body — Un invité (uncredited)
• 1972The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie — Director, Screenplay, Sound Effects
• 1972The Monk — Screenplay
• 1971Johnny Got His Gun — Writer
• 1970Tristana — Director, Producer, Screenplay
• 1969The Milky Way — (voice) (uncredited), Director, Writer, Original Music Composer
• 1967Belle de Jour — Man in Gardencafe - Left from the Duke (uncredited), Screenplay, Director
• 1965Simon of the Desert — Dialogue, Screenplay, Director, Story
• 1965There Are No Thieves in This Village
• 1964Diary of a Chambermaid — Director, Writer, Editor
• 1964Weeping for a Bandit — El verdugo
• 1962The Exterminating Angel — Dialogue, Screenplay, Director
• 1962Viridiana — Screenplay, Director, Editor
• 1960The Young One — Screenplay, Director
• 1959Fever Mounts at El Pao — Director, Writer
• 1959Nazarín — Director, Screenplay
• 1956Death in the Garden — Director, Screenplay
• 1956That Is the Dawn — Writer, Director
• 1955The Criminal Life of Archibaldo de la Cruz — Director, Writer
• 1954Illusion Travels by Streetcar — Director, Editor
• 1954Robinson Crusoe — Screenplay, Director
• 1954The River and Death — Writer, Director
• 1954Wuthering Heights — Adaptation, Story, Director
• 1953The Brute — Director, Writer
• 1953The Proud and the Beautiful — Smuggler (uncredited)
• 1953Él — Director, Adaptation, Screenplay
• 1952A Woman Without Love — Director, Screenplay
• 1952Mexican Bus Ride — Adaptation, Director
• 1951Daughter of Deceit — Director
• 1951Si usted no puede, yo sí — Writer
• 1951Susana — Director, Writer, Editor
• 1950The Young and the Damned — Director, Screenplay
• 1949The Great Madcap — Director
• 1947Gran Casino — Director
• 1938Espagne 1937 — Production Manager
• 1937Guard! Alert! — Production Director, Co-Director
• 1937Spain 1936 — Screenplay, Producer
• 1936Who Loves Me? — Production Director, Screenplay, Co-Director
• 1935Don Quintin the Bitter — Screenplay, Producer
• 1935The Daughter of Juan Simón — Production Director
• 1933Land Without Bread — Director, Producer, Editor, Screenplay
• 1930L'Âge d'or — (uncredited), Director, Editor, Original Music Composer, Screenplay
• 1929Montparnasse
• 1929Un Chien Andalou — Man in Prologue (uncredited), Screenplay, Editor, Producer, Director
• 1928The Fall of the House of Usher — Adaptation, Writer, Assistant Director
• 1927Siren of the Tropics — Assistant Director
• 1926Carmen — Contrebandier chez lillas pastia, Assistant Director
• 1926Mauprat — Monk / Guardsman, Production Assistant

Appearances as themselves (19)

• 2025Memoria de Los Olvidados — Self (archive footage)
• 2022Deneuve, la reine Catherine — Self (archive footage)
• 2020Le Fantôme de Laurent Terzieff — Self (archive footage)
• 2018Jeanne Moreau: Free Spirit — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2017The Incredible Mr. Piccoli — Self - Filmmaker (archive footage)
• 2015Tras Nazarin: Following Nazarin — Self (archive footage)
• 2010Catherine Deneuve, belle et bien là — Self (archive footage)
• 2001tvSSFBM EHKL — Himself (archive footage)
• 2000Buñuel in Hollywood — Self (archive footage)
• 2000Speaking of Buñuel — Self (archive footage)
• 1998Les paradoxes de Buñuel — Self (archive footage)
• 1997A Mexican Buñuel — Self (archival)
• 1984Buñuel — Self
• 1984The Life and Times of Don Luis Buñuel — Self
• Encyclopédie audiovisuelle du cinéma — Self (archive footage)
• 1971The Castaway on the Street of Providence — Self
• 1964Luis Buñuel : Un cinéaste de notre temps — Self
• Cinépanorama — Self
• Reflets de Cannes — Self