Biography

Florián Rey, real name Antonio Martínez del Castillo (La Almunia de Doña Godina, Zaragoza, January 25, 1894-Benidorm, April 11, 1962), was a Spanish film director, one of the greatest representatives of silent films and the Spanish film industry of the Second Republic. His film La aldea maldita (1930) is considered the masterpiece of Spanish cinema of the silent stage and some of his popular works of the Republican stage, such as Nobleza baturra (1935) or Morena Clara (1936), starring Imperio Argentina, were very successful, which led him to compete even with the American film industry and opened the possibility of developing a genuinely Spanish film industry, although it was aborted with the outbreak of the Civil War. Since 1996, the Florián Rey Association created in his hometown has held the La Almunia Film Festival (FESCILA) every May in honor of this Aragonese filmmaker. This festival hosts a short film contest, a screenplay contest, the Villa de La Almunia award to a person related to the film world who is also related to this town and the Florián Rey award to the professional career.