Biography

Juanma Bajo Ulloa was born in Vitoria, a small town in northern Spain where he has set most of his movies.

From his childhood he has been in contact with the audiovisual business. His family owns a popular magazine in Vitoria specialized in photography.

At 14 he started making short movies in super-8 with his younger brother Eduardo. With titles like "Cruza la puerta" (1984), "El ultimo payaso" (1985), "A kien pueda interesar" (1986) or "100 aviones de papel" (1987) he won a huge number of awards in many festivals. Some producers of the spanish TV saw those movies and offered him to produce his next short movie called "Akixo" and shot in 16 mm.

In 1989 he shot his first short movie in 35 mm, "El reino de Victor" that won the Goya of the Spanish academy to the best short movie.

In 1991, after two years of writing, he produced and directed his first long movie "Alas de mariposa". Released in the Festival de Cine de San Sebastian it won the first prize. Later came 3 Goyas of the spanish academy (best first movie, actress and original screenplay). That movie caught the attention of the Spanish media and audience because of its shocking visual style and the crude description of a drama inside a problematic family.

In 1993, he directed his second movie, considered his best by many of his fans, "La madre muerta". It won awards in many international festivals like Venice and Montreal.

After the release of "La madre muerta" he started directing music videos for many popular spanish singers and groups like Joaquínn Sabina, Barricada or Golpes Bajos.

In 1996, his third movie, "Airbag", an action road-movie, became the biggest Spanish box-office hit of all time. However it disappointed some of his longtime fans who preferred the darkness of his first movies.

However this success, he has been unable to make any other movie in the last 8 years. He tried to adapt the spanish comic heroe "Capitán Trueno" but the producers turned him down. Others projects couldn't be financed due to creative differences with producers. In all those years he has make a living working in music videos and commercials.

In 2004 he shot in secret, and with his own money, his fourth movie, "Fragil", that will be released in 2005.