Oscar Bernacer

Prolific Spanish filmmaker Ôscar Bernàcer established his career through a string of well-received and award-winning short films, including the popular "Bikini: Una historia real" (2014), before moving into feature-length films and documentaries. Bernàcer began his film career producing and directing making-of featurettes for Spanish television and feature projects and TV commercials, while also helming his own experimental and documentary shorts, beginning with 2005's "The Two Banks." In 2007, his short "Les sabatilles de Laura" ("Laura's Slippers"), about a young girl's imagination running riot in her family's new apartment, was screened at more than 40 international film festivals, where it picked up seven awards. Bernàcer and his production company, Nakamura, continued to work on a variety of projects, including several web series and promotional videos, before he released his next short, "Desayuno con diadema" ("Breakfast at Enrique's," 2012). Like its predecessor, the short earned numerous festival and competition awards, but its follow-up, "Bikini: una historia real" ("Bikini: The Real History," 2014), proved even more popular. The film is based on the true story of Pedro Zaragosa, the mayor of the Spanish coastal town of Benidorm, who traveled by Vespa to Madrid in the early '60s to ask General Francisco Franco to allow female bathers on his beaches to wear two-piece swimsuits. Another art house/festival hit with more than 40 awards, the incredible story of "Bikini" spurred Bernàcer to produce a documentary, "The Man Who Bottled the Sun," which explored the impact of the mayor's meeting upon Benidorm's transformation into a international resort town. That same year, Bernàcer also co-wrote and produced the horror thriller "Reset" (2014) while also commencing work on a full-length thriller titled "Inside the Swarm" (2016).