Elías Querejeta Gárate was born in Hernani, Guipúzcoa. He has been an outstanding Spanish film producer. He has also worked as a director and scriptwriter. He played football for Real Sociedad and is the father of film director and actress Gracia Querejeta.
Since 1963, when he began to produce films, he has produced more than fifty, many of which contributed to the renewal of Spanish cinema. The most recent were by Fernando León de Aranoa (Familia y Barrio), his daughter, Gracia Querejeta (Una estación de paso, El último viaje de Robert Rylands and Cuando vuelvas a mi lado) and Eterio Ortega (Al final del túnel). But Querejeta’s greatest productions are films by Víctor Erice, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, Julio Medem and, especially, Carlos Saura, denouncing the political and social situation of the Franco regime and the transition. The films he has produced include La caza (1965), awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival; Peppermint frappé (1967), which also received the Silver Bear at the same festival; Stress es tres, tres (1968), La madriguera (1969), El jardín de las delicias (1970), Ana y los lobos (1972), La prima Angélica (1973),
Cría cuervos (1975), the last two winners of the Jury Award at the Cannes Film Festival, Elisa, vida mía (1977), Los ojos vendados (1978), Mamá cumple cien años (1979), Deprisa, deprisa (1980), winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Festival, and Dulces horas (1981), all directed by Carlos Saura. He also produced El espíritu de la colmena, with director Víctor Erice, winner of the Golden Shell for Best Film at the San Sebastián Film Festival in 1973.
In January 2007 he produced Noticias de una guerra, which includes images of the Spanish Civil War. Other films he has produced include Siete mesas de billar francés (2007), Goodbye, America (2006), Invierno en Bagdad (2005), Condenados al corredor (2003), Los lunes al sol (2002), Tasio (1984), Feroz (1984), El sur (1983) and Pascual Duarte (1976).
The awards he has received include the Gold Medal of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, in 1998. And he remains a great football fan.
LiberPress Cinema Award 2012
Elías Querejeta received the LiberPress Cinema Award 2012 for his unmatched career in the cinema, especially in the difficult and complicated world of production, which was essential for bringing democracy, freedom, criticism of the power of the system and denouncing immobility and fanaticism in Spanish cinema and projecting quality Spanish cinema with the prestige it deserves throughout the world. Querejeta has been able to do this, always applying a delicate aesthetic approach and searching for, discovering and helping the best directors. Without him, an essential part of the history of Spanish cinema would be lost. A man, a film-maker, hard-working, rebellious and brilliant.
“I combined football with the cinema because I followed the advice of Chillida, who told me to give up football, because I had better things to do. I don’t know if he was wrong.”
“Nothing can be compared to censorship under Franco.”