Diego Galan

Born in Tangier, Morocco, on October 13, 1946, Diego Galán Fernández began his career as an administrator and accountant for various companies. Passionate about the Seventh Art, he began to direct the Cine-Club JAASA (Youth Alumni of the San Antón School), in Madrid, between 1966 and 1968, after which he was appointed a member of the board of directors of the National Federation of Cinema- Clubs. Shortly after, he began writing film criticism for the magazine Nuestro Cine.

Assistant director in television programs such as 10 Basque Melodies , by Pedro Olea , Diego Galán writes and directs four shorts:  Note on Ana , edited by Ángel Fernández Santos , The world within three days , produced by José Luis Borau , Your friend Marilyn and An afternoon with Dorita Amor . However, he is disappointed in the work of realization. “At the short fourth I decided that this was not for me…”, he recalled in an interview. “I decided that being a critic could be an interesting, fun and enough job.” In any case, he directs two prestigious documentary series for RTVE,Memories of Spanish cinema and Dear comedians . He also signed numerous books, among them “Jack Lemmon never dined here”, an interesting compilation of anecdotes related to the organization of the San Sebastian contest, written with great irony.

He directed the San Sebastián Film Festival during two stages (1986-1989 and 1995-2000), and continued to be linked to the event as a director many years later. In 2005 he concluded the documentary Pablo G. del Amo, an illusion assembler , about this prestigious professional, and in 2012 Con la pata quebrada , about the marginalization of women. He was also a contributor to the newspaper El País, where he wrote a weekly column until a few days before his death.

He was already ill when, in October, the Film Academy awarded him the institution’s Gold Medal: “No one excites me and you have achieved it. Now with a wine it will go away, ”he declared with a laugh. “My enthusiasm for Spanish cinema, which was born as a child at the Cervantes Theater in Tangier, has not died. I saw the films several times, so I became a specialist in great figures of our cinematography”.