Interview with Isabel Coixet

Spain's Isabel Coixet started making films when she received an 8mm camera for her first communion. After studying 18th- and 19th-century history at the University of Barcelona, she made a living in advertising and copywriting.  This led to making award-winning commercials and eventually to founding her own production company, Miss Wasabi Films.  In 1988, Coixet made her debut as a writer/director with Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven (Too Old To Die Young), earning her a Goya nomination for Best New Director. 

Her first English-language film came in 1996, with Cosas Que Nunca Te Dije (Things I Never Told You).  Starring an American cast led by Lili Taylor and Andrew McCarthy, the emotional drama earned Coixet her second Goya nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Joining up with a French production company, she returned to a Spanish-language script for her 1998 historical adventure, A Los Que Aman (Those Who Love).

Coixet's international breakthrough came in 2003 with the intimate drama My Life Without Me, based on a short story by Nanci Kincaid. Sarah Polley stars in the film as Ann, a young mother who chooses not to tell her family she has terminal cancer. A Spanish/Canadian co-production with help from Pedro Almodóvar's El Deseo production company, My Life Without Me won acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival.  Coixet continued her work with ...

Spain's Isabel Coixet started making films when she received an 8mm camera for her first communion. After studying 18th- and 19th-century history at the University of Barcelona, she made a living in advertising and copywriting.  This led to making award-winning commercials and eventually to founding her own production company, Miss Wasabi Films.  In 1988, Coixet made her debut as a writer/director with Demasiado Viejo Para Morir Joven (Too Old To Die Young), earning her a Goya nomination for Best New Director. 

Her first English-language film came in 1996, with Cosas Que Nunca Te Dije (Things I Never Told You).  Starring an American cast led by Lili Taylor and Andrew McCarthy, the emotional drama earned Coixet her second Goya nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Joining up with a French production company, she returned to a Spanish-language script for her 1998 historical adventure, A Los Que Aman (Those Who Love).

Coixet's international breakthrough came in 2003 with the intimate drama My Life Without Me, based on a short story by Nanci Kincaid. Sarah Polley stars in the film as Ann, a young mother who chooses not to tell her family she has terminal cancer. A Spanish/Canadian co-production with help from Pedro Almodóvar's El Deseo production company, My Life Without Me won acclaim at the Berlin International Film Festival.  Coixet continued her work with Polley on 2005's The Secret Life of Words, also starring Tim Robbins and Javier Cámara. The film won four Goya Awards, including Best Film, Best, Director, Best Production and Best Screenplay.

In 2005, Coixet joined 18 other prominent international filmmakers, including Gus Van Sant, Walter Salles and Joel and Ethan Cohen in the innovative collective work Paris Je T’aime, with each filmmaker exploring one district of the city of Paris. Coixet is also a documentary filmmaker of note on such thought-provoking works as Invisibles, a Panorama selection at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival about Doctors Without Borders and Viaje al corazón de la tortura, filmed  in Sarajevo during the Balkan war and winning an award at the Human Rights Film Festival in October 2003. She was a jury member at the 62nd Venice International Film Festival.