Film projects

Public interviews and DVD contributions

Maria has conducted many public interviews with actors and directors from the Spanish-speaking world (including Alfredo Castro, Carmelo Gómez, Isabel Coixet, Alfonso Cuarón, Álex de la Iglesia, Carla Simón, Lucrecia Martel, and Carlos Saura) for a range of cinemas, film organisations, museums and festivals in the UK.

Pedro Almodóvar: David Lean Lecture 2012.
Photography by Jamie Simmonds, courtesy of BAFTA

Since the UK release of Volver in 2006, she has conducted a number of public conversations with Pedro Almodóvar. These include a Guardian/NFT interview with Almodóvar and Penélope Cruz; a BFI/Independent event on the release of Los abrazos rotos/Broken Embraces, the hosting of Almodóvar’s 2012 David Lean Lecture at BAFTA, (Recorded and available to watch on www.bafta.org), a further interview on casting and craft for BAFTA's guru website (Click here to watch), a concluding interview as part of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences [AMPAS] tribute to Almodóvar in December 2012, and a BFI Masterclass on Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown in 2015.

Her 2016 interview with Pedro Almodóvar for the BFI Season of his work covers both his film Julieta and his wider career in filmmaking. A 2019 interview at the BFI looks at the genesis and realization of Pain and Glory.

Pedro Almodóvar: A.M.P.A.S. tribute.
Photograph by Simon Liebowitz © A.M.P.A.S.

She has produced DVD articles and interviews for Abel (dir. Diego Luna, Network Releasing), Cría Cuervos/Raise Ravens (dir. Carlos Saura, BFI Releasing), La noche de los girasoles/The Night of the Sunflowers (dir. Jorge Sánchez Cabezudo, Yume Pictures), Gloria (Network Releasing), Pelo Malo (Axiom). Lake Tahoe (dir. Fernando Embecke, Yume Pictures), The Club (dir. Pablo Larraín), Neruda (dir. Pablo Larraín), Zama (dir Lucrecia Martel), and Vitaliina Varela (dir, Pedro Costa).

For further details on Screentalks for the BFI, see the London Film Festival page.

For further information on her film reviews for Sight & Sound and BBC Radio see the “Reviews and Broadcasting” section.