Carlos Saura, director of “La caza” and “Deprisa deprisa”, dies at 91 years old the day after receiving the Goya of Honor 2023

Social networks have not taken long to be a showcase for hundreds of heartfelt farewell messages from the world of culture, art or politics. It was known the death of the giant of Spanish cinema, Carlos Saura. One of the fundamental directors in the history of the seventh art has died at the age of 91 due to respiratory failure.

Carlos Saura, Goya of Honor 2023.


The author of “La caza”, “Deprisa deprisa” or “Peppermint Frappe” received a few days ago the Goya of Honor 2023 that was awarded to him last October, as a result of his extensive and personal contribution to the history of Spanish cinema in the last six decades. This was explained by the Film Academy in a statement in which it “deeply regrets the death of one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema”.

Farewell to the last classic director of Spanish cinema

His last film, the documentary “Las paredes hablan” (The Walls Speak), was released just a few days ago. With the death of Saura, the last classic director of the generation that modernized the Spanish cinema from the 60’s disappears. A creator on a par with very few Spanish directors, such as Berlanga, Buñuel or Almodóvar.

With some fifty feature films, his filmography connects the formal and thematic renovation of the 60s and 70s with the creative freedom of later decades. During the Franco regime, Saura used cinema as an allegory and thus managed to dodge censorship. He was the spearhead of the New Spanish Cinema and was recognized by the major European festivals. He won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale with “Deprisa, deprisa”, in 1981 and also the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes for “Cría cuervos”, in 1976.

Image: Academy of Arts and Sciences.