Film producer José Antonio Félez dies at 71

Film producer José Antonio Félez , winner of the Goya Award for Best Film for La isla mínima , died this Tuesday at the age of 71, according to the Andalusian Association of Film Producers (Ancine) on Wednesday.

"We deeply regret the death of producer José Antonio Félez , who, along with our Andalusian creators and producers (Gervasio Iglesias, Alberto Rodríguez, Santi Amodeo, Rafael Cobos...), was behind works such as El hijo zurdo , La isla mínima and Astronautas , among others," Ancine stated in its X profile.

Screenwriter and film director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo expressed his sorrow for Félez's death on his Instagram profile, writing: "My older brother, my partner, my discoverer, my producer. Five films and one series together. More than 20 years together. You guided me, you taught me, you let me fly, you picked me up when I fell. You gave me a profession. You were my creator, from calm, from composure, from reason."

Born in Madrid in 1954, José Antonio Félez has been responsible for the executive production of titles such as Diecisiete , La isla mínima , La peste or Primos , and among his awards was the Gold Medal at the 27th edition of the José María Forqué Awards .

A law graduate from the Complutense University of Madrid (UCM) and a PDG from IESE, his first experience in the audiovisual sector was as deputy CEO of CBS/FOX in Spain in the late 1980s.

Between 1995 and 1998, he collaborated with Elías Querejeta and Prime Films on production, marketing , and organization tasks. During those years, he served as Secretary General of the Spanish Videographic Union , the national association of editors and distributors, as well as Secretary General of the Association of Entertainment Software Distributors and Editors (ADESE) .

Between 2012 and 2018 he was president of the State Association of Film Producers (AECine) .

José Antonio Félez made his debut as executive producer in 1998 with El faro del sur , by Eduardo Mignogna, which won the Goya Award for Best Spanish-Language Film.

That same year he founded Tesela Producciones Cinematográficas , which would begin its journey in 2000 with the films A galope tendido , by Julio Suárez Vega, El factor Pilgrim , the debut of Santi Amodeo and Alberto Rodríguez in the direction of feature films, and the celebrated El Bola , by Achero Mañas, with whom he collaborated again in Noviembre (2003).

He also produced Daniel Sánchez Arévalo 's debut feature, AzulOscuroCasiNegro , which garnered more than 50 awards at festivals around the world, including three Goya Awards, three Biznagas at the Málaga Film Festival, and two accolades at the Venice Film Festival; and Gordos in 2009.

With Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos , his screenwriter and regular collaborator, he created films such as Grupo 7 (2012), La isla mínima (2014) and the political thriller El hombre de las mil caras (2016), as well as the series La peste (2017) and later, in 2022, the series Las de la última fila and the film Modelo 77 , co-produced with Movistar+.