Najwa Nimri is one of the best known and most prolific performers in Spanish cinema. With a career spanning more than twenty years and including as many film titles to her credit, the Pamplona-born actress has worked with international filmmakers such as Ken Loach, Julio Médem, Alejandro Amenábar or Carlos Vermut. The television series Vis a vis and La casa de papel, which won the applause of audience and critics, and her recording career make up a truly consolidated trajectory. More than two decades have passed since in 1995, 1996 and 1997 she participated respectively in Jumping Into the Void, Passages and Blinded, all three directed by Daniel Calparsoro. In 1998 she played one of the lead roles in Julio Medem’s Lovers of the Arctic Circle, which earned her a nomination for Best Actress in the Goya Awards. She was again directed by the Basque filmmaker in Sex and Lucía 2001. Between the two films she made forays into international cinema including her part in Julian Schnabel’s Before Night Falls (Julian Schnabel, 2001), and continued to perform in Spanish successful movies like Asphalt, again under Daniel Calparsoro, and Faust 5.0., by Àlex Ollé and Carlus Padrissa. Her filmography also includes Stones (Ramón Salazar, 2002), Utopia (María Ripoll, 2003), The Method (Marcelo Pyñeiro, 2005), Oviedo Express (Gonzalo Suárez, 2007), which screened in the 52th edition of the Valladolid Festival, or Mataharis (Iciar Bollain, 2007). Other titles to her credit are ‘Route Irish' (Ken Loach, 2010), Anything You Want (Achero Mañas, 2010), Room in Rome (Julio Médem, 2010), Verbo (Eduardo Chapero-Jackson, 2011), and 10 000 noches en ninguna parte (Ramón Salazar, 2013). After her successful television jobs in Vis a vis and La casa de papel, in 2018 she returned to the big screen with Julio Medem’s The Tree of Blood and Carlos Vermut’s Quién te cantará, for which she was nominated for a Goya Award. Najwa Nimri’s artistic career has also been closely linked to the world of music. In 1998 she signed her first song with Carlos Jean, with whom she formed the NajwaJean band. Together they co-authored several singles, including the theme song for the public broadcaster’s classic film-talk show Versión Española (a previous recipient of Seminci’s Honorary Spike), which she performed during last year’s Gala of Spanish Cinema section of the Valladolid Film Festival.
Seminci - Semana Internacional de Cine de Valladolid
