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MLAC Announces Publication of Prof Santiago Fouz Hernández’s The Films of Bigas Luna

8 December 2025
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MLAC Announces Publication of Prof Santiago Fouz Hernández’s The Films of Bigas Luna

MLAC is proud to announce The Films of Bigas Luna by Prof Santiago Fouz Hernández, the first English-language monograph to examine all sixteen feature films by the influential Spanish filmmaker. Combining archival research with in-depth theoretical analysis, the book explores Luna’s treatment of gender, sexuality, identity, and Mediterranean culture. The book launch will take place at the Filmoteca de Catalunya, Barcelona, on 11 December, with subsequent podcast and English-language events plann

MLAC is delighted to announce the launch of The Films of Bigas Luna, the new monograph by Prof Santiago Fouz Hernández, published by Manchester University Press. This comprehensive study represents the first English-language book to examine the entire filmography of Bigas Luna, one of Spain’s most influential contemporary filmmakers.

The book will be presented at the Filmoteca de Catalunya (Plaça de Salvador Seguí, 1, Ciutat Vella, Barcelona) on Thursday, 11 December, from 7pm. The launch event will feature a conversation between Prof Fouz Hernández and Dr Esther Gimeno Ugalde (Universitat Pompeu Fabra), followed by a reception with pinchos and drinks inspired by Bigas Luna’s films. Members of the Catalan film industry and Bigas Luna’s family will also attend.

For those unable to attend in person, several broadcast and public engagement activities will accompany the book release, including:

  • A special episode of the Bigas Luna podcast on 16 December (in Spanish)

  • An interview for the Pleibéricos “Iberian Film and Media Studies” series on 22 January (in Spanish)

English-language presentations will follow later in the academic year, including an episode on the New Books Network (Film Studies) and an in-person launch at the Instituto Cervantes London as part of the London Spanish Film Festival Spring Weekend in April.

The monograph provides close readings of all sixteen of Bigas Luna’s feature films, from Tatuaje/Tattoo (1976) to DiDi Hollywood (2010), supported by extensive archival and production research. Using a rich theoretical framework—including haptic and erotic cinema, auteur and star studies, and analyses of gender, sexuality, and Mediterranean/Iberian cultural imaginaries—Prof Fouz Hernández examines cross-cutting themes of genre, identity, and meta-cinematic strategies. The result is the most wide-ranging and in-depth account to date of Bigas Luna’s distinctive and influential body of work.

The Films of Bigas Luna will be available in hardback and eBook in December 2025, with a paperback edition in 2026. It can be pre-ordered through Manchester University Press.

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