Manuel Carrasco

José Manuel Carrasco belongs to that lineage of filmmakers who learned the craft from the stage before stepping behind the viewfinder.

The Murcia-born director, now based in Madrid, arrived in the city with a higher degree in dramatic arts and an obsessive fixation on actors. At the School of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts of the Community of Madrid, he learned camera technique, but his instincts were already shaped by the stage.

In 2006, he graduated at the top of his class.

The Classroom, the Short Film and a Goya Nomination

Shooting short films is often a school of financial survival where nearly everyone stumbles. Carrasco shot Padam… in 2007, a brief piece that collected awards on the national circuit and earned a Goya Award nomination in 2008. That minimal story about everyday misunderstandings set the rules for his method: sharp dialogue, uncomfortable silences and blind trust in close-ups.

And the formula worked.

For years, he balanced teaching at ECAM, where he taught on-camera acting, with projects such as Consulta 16 in 2008 or Pulsiones in 2009. For Carrasco, directing isn't about choreographing extravagant crane shots, but about sitting down with actors to unpack the subtext of every line. He worked with frequent collaborators such as Marina Salas and Luis Callejo, building a loyal team that stood by him through every experiment on film and stage.

In 2016, his work Haloperidol took home the top prizes at the Jameson Notodofilmfest festival. Then came Pentimento in 2020, where he won the Golden Roel at the Medina del Campo Film Week thanks to a raw acting duel between mother and daughter.

The Trap of the Youth Commission

The leap to the big screen often comes with terms set by others that blur a first-time director's signature. In 2010, the production companies Tornasol Films and Castafiore Films commissioned him to adapt Gemma Lienas's young adult novel into Carlota's Diary. It was a commercial comedy made for mainstream theaters, with a generous budget, but the industrial machinery limited his creative control.

It took him fifteen years to shoot another feature film.

But the industry doesn't hand out second chances easily. So Carrasco turned to playwriting and television writing, writing scripts for the series ByAnaMilán in 2020 and directing stage plays such as Nuestro hermano or Todo irá bien in Madrid theaters. These productions allowed him to refine his tragicomic tone without the box-office pressure imposed by mass distribution.

The Intimate Pulse of Maturity

Producer María del Puy Alvarado, an ally since their film school days through Malvalanda, decided to back his return to feature films with independent financing and public grants. In 2023, filming began on Miocardio, a story shot in just four weeks on a tight budget.

Vito Sanz and Marina Salas carry the dramatic weight of a story that unfolds over twenty-four hours and pits two former couples against the weight of past decisions. The film premiered in November 2024 at the Seville European Film Festival and hit Spanish theaters on January 24, 2025, distributed by Syldavia Cinema.

The film runs exactly 77 minutes and uses no digital effects at all.