One of the finest actors of her generation, Spain’s Bárbara Lennie achieved international attention when she played a young filmmaker questing to capture the essence of a small town in Montxo Armendáriz’s Obaba (2005), and in the process discovered herself. That role provided a neatly microcosmic glimpse of the complex screen persona that Lennie would construct in the array of dazzling performances that have followed since.
Her next major breakthrough came in Magical Girl (2014), a psychologically complex portrait that won her the Best Actress Goya. notable leading roles that have followed include anchoring two Miami Film Festival major award winners, Nely Reguera’s Maria (And Everybody Else) in 2017 and Diego Lerman’s A Sort of Family in 2018, alongside exceptional character performances in supporting roles in Everybody Knows and Pedro Almodovar’s The Skin I Live In.
Her latest performance is perhaps her most towering achievement to date. As the title character in Petra, Lennie proves that she can rise to the heights of classic Greek drama in this modern Spanish tale of sound and fury. Lennie will be in attendance at the Miami Film Festival GEMS’ screening of Petra to receive our festival’s prestigious PRECIOUS GEM Award.
