José Luis García Sánchez, the Spanish film director whose Las truchas won the Golden Bear in Berlin and who co-wrote the Oscar-winning Belle Époque, has died at the age of 85. He died in Madrid on Sunday, October 25, 2026, the Spanish Film Academy confirmed.
Golden Bear and a long partnership with Rafael Azcona
García Sánchez was born in Salamanca in 1941 and studied law and sociology before attending film school. His 1978 film Las truchas won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. According to the Academy, its cast was made up largely of Argentine actors who had fled their country’s dictatorship, which caused friction with Spanish performers at the time.
He won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián festival for La corte de Faraón (1985), starring Ana Belén and Antonio Banderas. With his close friend, the writer Rafael Azcona, he won two Goya Awards for best screenplay: for Belle Époque (1992), written with Azcona and director Fernando Trueba, and for Tirano Banderas (1993).
Valle-Inclán, Vicent and a final film
A devotee of the writer Ramón del Valle-Inclán, he adapted his work Divinas palabras for the screen, and he also filmed Manuel Vicent’s novel Tranvía a la Malvarrosa (1997). His last film was Los muertos no se tocan, nene (2011), adapted from a novel by Azcona. He also received the Seminci festival’s Espiga de Honor.
Tributes
The Academy said he had spent almost 60 years “getting projects off the ground, watching films, caring for film heritage, winning awards and, above all, making friends”. Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, called him “a great director, producer and screenwriter, but above all a great friend and a good person”. García Sánchez was married to the singer Rosa León; their son, Víctor García León, is also a film director.