Gerardo Herrero

Biography

Gerardo Herrero (born in Madrid in 1953) is a Spanish film producer, director and screenwriter who has been one of the most active figures in Spanish cinema since the late 1980s. He co-founded the production company Tornasol Films with Javier López Blanco and has long championed co-productions between Spain and Latin America.

His career began on the production side with La boca del lobo (1988), directed by Francisco J. Lombardi, and his first major success came with Guantanamera (1995), directed by Tomás Gutiérrez Alea and Juan Carlos Tabío. He made his directing debut with Malena Is a Name from a Tango (1995), based on a novel by Almudena Grandes, and later shot Comanche Territory (1997), adapted from Arturo Pérez-Reverte's novel. He has worked repeatedly with Argentine filmmakers, including Adolfo Aristarain on Martín (Hache) and Lugares comunes, and Juan José Campanella on The Secret in Their Eyes.

Outside filmmaking, he chaired the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain in the early 1990s and has promoted Ibermedia, a fund for the Ibero-American audiovisual industry. His legacy lies in the idea of Spanish-language cinema that crosses borders, and he remains active, with projects such as The Beach of the Drowned (2015).

Key films

• Malena Is a Name from a Tango (1995), his debut as a director
• Guantanamera (1995), his first major success as a producer
• Comanche Territory (1997), a drama about war correspondents in Sarajevo
• Martín (Hache) (1997), directed by Adolfo Aristarain and produced by Herrero
• The Secret in Their Eyes (2009), produced by Juan José Campanella