Miguel Ángel Lamata - Vanessa Montfort
Miguel Ángel Lamata was born in Zaragoza on July 13, 1967.
His childhood passes without too many ups and downs. But on Christmas 1975, an event takes place that marks a before and after (and above all a “during”) in his short life: in the afternoon session of the Fleta cinema, and accompanied by his father, he sees “Jaws.” by Steven Spielberg. That was probably the moment when he decided to dedicate himself, or at least try, to making films.
During the 80s, Lamata spent most of his time compulsively going to the movies. He is going to see everything: art and essay, pure and simple entertainment, classics, modernities, comedies, tragedies, American, Spanish… The curious thing is that his academic records do not suffer too much from this unhealthy cinephilia. His sentimental life, on the other hand, does. But that is another story.
In the 90s he got down to work and directed some short films and several plays with the Zaragoza company Zíngaras Teatro.
The shorts, all with ridiculous budgets, were called “Visceral Resentment,” “Who Are You Asking?” and “Stealing Rock and Roll.” Against all odds, Lamata reaped some success with them: television channels such as Plus or TVE bought the broadcast rights for the first two. And “Robando el rock and roll”, perhaps the most provocative of the three, wins several awards at various festivals.
At the end of the nineties, Lamata is abducted by the world of television. In what was Antena Aragón in 1998 and today is Aragón TV, Lamata directs and presents several programs that address current cultural events in the Aragonese community in a humorous way. And from there it jumps to general television. First Antena 3, then Tele 5. In this medium he has worked with professionals such as, among others, Florentino Fernández and Javier Capitán (for whom he was a scriptwriter in “El informal”), Pepe Navarro and Juan Ramón Lucas (with whom he was head of their script teams). He has also written some chapters for series, among which “Brothers and Detectives” stand out. And he even participated as a scriptwriter in the Goya gala presented by Carmen Machi.
In 2004, Lamata made one of his greatest dreams come true and shot his first film: “Una de Zombies”, produced by Santiago Segura. They premiered it at the Sitges Festival, the same one where they met ten years before. “One of Zombies” (Amiguetes Entertainment, Atresmedia) was a great financial success that Christmas, it won several national and international awards and was sold to half the world (we have proof: if you want to have a laugh, we will give you the DVDs of the German and Italian version of the movie; they have a completely hilarious dubbing).
In 2006, Andrés Vicente Gómez hired Lamata as scriptwriter and director of “Isi/Disi, Alto Voltaje” (Lola Films – Mediaset), starring Santiago Segura, Florentino Fernández and El Gran Wyoming.
“Isi / Disi, Alto Voltaje” provokes something that his director did not dream of even in his wildest fantasies: various Spanish producers offer him some project or another. But Lamata decides to concentrate on what is going to be his most personal film: “Unresolved Sexual Tension,” a romantically incorrect comedy as influenced by the universe of Woody Allen as by that of “Mission: Impossible.” This his third work is produced again by Santiago Segura, participated by TVE and distributed by Paramount.
The filming of “Unresolved Sexual Tension” took place in the summer of 2009 and was released on March 18, 2010. The film has performed very well at the box office and has even garnered good reviews (amazing, right?). In addition, it was sold to a good handful of countries (Russia, the United States, Italy, China and Korea, among others). Even a Californian production company, Taggart Productions, has bought the rights to carry out a remake in Hollywood, which, by the way, is imminent. And what’s more, another Bollywood company, I-Shape, also wants to make its own version for the large Indian market.
In 2015, Lamata writes, produces and directs his fourth feature film, “Our Lovers”, starring Eduardo Noriega, Michelle Jenner, Fele Martínez, Amaia Salamanca and Gabino Diego. This is the first production by BEMYBABY FILMS, a company formed by him and Vanessa Montfort. The film premieres in 2016 in 180 theaters with distribution from Filmax and is sold internationally to Russia, Germany and Turkey, among many other territories. Netflix acquires the rights for its worldwide television exploitation and RTVE broadcasts it free-to-air in the Spanish state.
In 2017, Lamata co-writes and directs the film adaptation of the extremely successful literary saga “Los Futbolísimos”, created by Roberto Santiago. The production is carried out by Wandermoon, Chester Media and Atresmedia Cine. Its premiere took place in the summer of 2018, with distribution by Paramount.
In 2018 he produced the feature film “Heroes: Silence and Rock and Roll”, nominated for the Forqué Awards and the Goya for Best Documentary. Its worldwide broadcast rights were acquired by Netflix.
In 2019 he directed the play “Signed: Lejárraga” for the National Dramatic Center, nominated for the Max for best playwriting, original by Vanessa Montfort. The work was performed by Cristina Gallego, Eduardo Noriega, Miguel Ángel Muñoz, Jorge Usón, Gerald Fillmore and Alfredo Noval. It premiered at the Teatro Valle Inclán, in the Mirlo Blanco room. Later it was recovered in the Valle Inclán room.
In 2024, after years of writing and developing various projects (which will soon see the light, as long as they say “let there be light”), he produces and directs the supernatural horror thriller “The Tree and the Nightingale.” Oh, and everything seems to indicate that he will also be directing and co-writing “Los Futbolísimos 2: the mystery of the pirate treasure.”
Vanessa Montfort (Barcelona, 1975) is a novelist, playwright and theater director, and is considered one of the outstanding and international voices of recent Spanish literature.
She has published the novels The Secret Ingredient (XI Ateneo Joven de Sevilla Award, 2006); Mythology of New York (XI Ateneo de Sevilla Prize, 2010); The Legend of the Voiceless Island (City of Zaragoza International Prize for Historical Novel. Plaza y Janés, 2014), and Women Who Buy Flowers (Plaza y Janés, 2016), with 29 editions in Spain and whose rights have been sold to more from 15 countries; The dream of the chrysalis (Plaza y Janés, 2019) and The woman without a name (Plaza y Janés, 2020), in which she recovers the writer María Lejárraga. This novel, like the play that preceded it, Signed Lejárraga, had a great impact on critics that culminated with its participation in the TVE documentary María Lejárraga: a las mujeres de España de TVE directed by Laura Hojman, nominated for the Goya, 2022. Her latest novel is The Brotherhood of Bad Daughters (Plaza y Janés, 2023).
Her theatrical work has translations into a dozen languages. Highlights include Flashback, The Courtesy of the Blind and Chalk Land, for the Royal Court Theater in London; the free adaptation of La Regenta (Teatros del Canal, 2012); The Greyhound (Teatro Anfitrione de Roma) Black Mermaid, adapted to film by Elio Quiroga (Sitges Festival, 2015); The Monster’s Home (CDN, 2016, also as director), or Signed Lejárraga (CDN, 2019, finalist for the 2020 Max Awards for Best Theatrical Authorship). In 2022 he premieres three new texts: The Copilot Syndrome (author and direction. Teatros del Canal, Madrid), Saúl, a radio theater medium-length film for the BBC within the series One five seven years (Directed by Nicolas Jackson), finalist for the awards from the BBC and La Toffana (Teatro La Abadía Madrid, 2022).
As a producer, she founded BEMYBABY FILMS in 2016 together with director Miguel Ángel Lamata with whom she produced the feature film Nuestros Amantes (2016) and the documentary Heroes, Silencio y Rock & Roll (Premiered on Netflix, nominated for the Goya Awards for Best Documentary).
