Patricia Font

Patricia Font
Born1978 (age 47–48)
Barcelona, Spain
Education
Occupations
  • Film director
  • screenwriter

Patricia Font (born 1978) is a Spanish film director and screenwriter. After directing for television, she won the Goya Award for Best Fictional Short Film for Café para llevar (2014) and made her feature film debut with In Family I Trust (2019).

She later directed The Teacher Who Promised the Sea (2023), based on the life of teacher Antoni Benaiges. She then directed the Netflix romantic comedy Love, Divided (2024).

Early life and training

Font was born in Barcelona in 1978, graduated in film directing from the Escola Superior de Cinema i Audiovisuals de Catalunya (ESCAC) in 2002 and later completed her studies at Cuba's Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión. By 2016, Font was also teaching at ESCAC.

Career

Television and short films

Font directed the short film Duna y el ogro and four episodes of the second season of Polseres vermelles before making Café para llevar, her second short film, which starred Alexandra Jiménez and Daniel Grao. Her other television work included directing episodes of Cites, Cites Barcelona and La templanza, and writing for Cites. Font said the success of Café para llevar at festivals helped her move into feature films; she also said she feels more comfortable directing drama than comedy, which she considers more difficult.

Feature films

Font made her feature directorial debut with Gente que viene y bah (2019), an adaptation of Laura Norton's novel starring Clara Lago, Alexandra Jiménez and Carmen Maura; at producer Francisco Ramos's suggestion, the setting was moved from northern Spain to the Barcelona coast, which Font said helped her give the film the warm, gentle tone she wanted. Filming had begun in Caldes d'Estrac in October 2017, with a technical team drawn from the ESCAC.

Her second feature, El maestro que prometió el mar (2023), was adapted by Albert Val from Francesc Escribano's book about Antoni Benaiges and starred Enric Auquer as Benaiges and Laia Costa as Ariadna, a fictional character Font said connected the historical story with present-day searches for missing relatives. While preparing the film, Font visited Benaiges's former school, met his family and was shown surviving school notebooks and a printing press. Discussing the film at the 2024 London Spanish Film Festival, Font said she had chosen to imply the torture rather than show it in detail.

Font directed the Netflix romantic comedy Pared con pared (2024), a remake of the French film Tras la pared, starring Aitana as a pianist and Fernando Guallar as a game inventor who needs silence to work; although it was released after El maestro que prometió el mar, it had finished filming before the historical drama began production.

Font and Miguel Ibáñez created the HBO Max series Los huérfanos, which she is directing; it follows three siblings abandoned at a railway station and is scheduled for release in 2027.

Awards

Font won the Goya Award for Best Fictional Short Film for Café para llevar at the 2015 Goya Awards. The second season of Cites was nominated for Best Comedy Series at the 2017 Feroz Awards.

El maestro que prometió el mar received five nominations at the 38th Goya Awards: Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Score and Best Costume Design. It won the Audience Award at the 16th Gaudí Awards. It also won Best Spanish Film at the sixth Cine por Mujeres Madrid.

References

  1. ↑ "Patricia Font". Universitat de València (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  2. ↑ "RTVE.es estrena el tráiler de 'El maestro que prometió el mar', con Enric Auquer y Laia Costa" [RTVE.es releases the trailer for 'The Teacher Who Promised the Sea', with Enric Auquer and Laia Costa]. RTVE (in Spanish). 9 October 2023. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  3. ↑ "Pared con pared', remake de la película francesa 'Tras la pared' lanzada en 2015: parecidos y diferencia" ['Pared con pared', a remake of the 2015 French film 'Tras la pared': similarities and differences]. La Vanguardia (in Spanish). 12 April 2024. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  4. ↑ "El maestro que prometió el mar". Seminci. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  5. ↑ "El 33 se viste de corto" [Channel 33 presents a season of short films]. El Periódico (in Spanish). 18 October 2016. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  6. ↑ "La Academia apuesta por un corto de ficción en el que pasado, presente y futuro se funden en pocos centímetros" [The Academy chooses a fiction short in which past, present and future merge within a few centimetres]. Panorama Audiovisual (in Spanish). 8 February 2015. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  7. ↑ "Filmografía Patricia Font" [Patricia Font filmography]. SensaCine (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  8. ↑ "Patricia Font: "Cuando algo interesa, sí vamos al cine"" [Patricia Font: "When something interests us, we do go to the cinema"]. Rivas Ciudad (in Spanish). 10 March 2024. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  9. ↑ "'Gente que viene y bah': la búsqueda de la felicidad" ['Gente que viene y bah': the search for happiness]. El Periódico (in Spanish). 16 January 2019. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  10. ↑ "Patricia Font roda la seva òpera prima protagonitzada per Clara Lago a Caldes d'Estrac" [Patricia Font shoots her feature debut starring Clara Lago in Caldes d'Estrac]. La Vanguardia (in Catalan). 16 October 2017. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  11. ↑ Mela, Ainhoa (13 November 2023). "Patricia Font: "Es un orgullo dar voz a esta historia"" [Patricia Font: "It is an honour to give this story a voice"]. Nueva Tribuna (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  12. ↑ Gil Quintero, Elia (20 November 2023). "Patricia Font ('El maestro que prometió el mar'): "Los maestros son esenciales en nuestro crecimiento personal; cuantos más haya, mejor"" [Patricia Font ('The Teacher Who Promised the Sea'): "Teachers are essential to our personal growth; the more there are, the better"]. MAKMA (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  13. ↑ Bradbury, Sarah. ""The Teacher Who Promised the Sea", interview with director Patricia Font". Fred Film Radio. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  14. ↑ "Patricia Font: "La industria te encasilla muy fácilmente, ahora casi todo lo que me ofrecen son dramas históricos"" [Patricia Font: "The industry typecasts you very easily; now almost everything I am offered is historical drama"]. Kinótico (in Spanish). 12 April 2024. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  15. ↑ "HBO Max presenta Los huérfanos, la nueva serie española dirigida por Patricia Font con un elenco de lujo" [HBO Max presents Los huérfanos, a new Spanish series directed by Patricia Font with an all-star cast]. HobbyConsolas (in Spanish). 21 October 2026. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  16. ↑ "Café para llevar" [Coffee to Go]. Premios Goya (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  17. ↑ "Nominados a los Premios Feroz 2017" [Nominees for the 2017 Feroz Awards]. Informadores de Cine (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  18. ↑ "El maestro que prometió el mar" [The Teacher Who Promised the Sea]. Premios Goya (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  19. ↑ "Eduard Vallés, único tarraconense premiado en los Gaudí de 2024" [Eduard Vallés, the only Tarragona-born winner at the 2024 Gaudí Awards]. Diari de Tarragona (in Spanish). 5 February 2024. Retrieved 29 October 2026.
  20. ↑ "Las películas de Molly Manning Walker y Patricia Font, ganadoras del VI Cine por Mujeres Madrid" [Films by Molly Manning Walker and Patricia Font win at the sixth Cine por Mujeres Madrid]. CIMA (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 October 2026.