Julio Fernández, the pioneering founder of the Barcelona studio Filmax and co-designer of the Fantastic Factory, which reinvigorated the production of the Spanish auteur genre, died on November 17 in Miami. He was 78 years old.
Born in A Fonsagrada, in the province of Lugo, in rural Galicia, Fernández was typical of the region who migrated in search of greater opportunities in Spain’s rapidly building cities. However, few people were targeting Fernandes’ ambitions and main chances. If genre and animation are an ongoing concern in today’s international markets, Fernandes expected this to continue 30 years ago.
In 1987, Fernandez acquired Filmax, which had been Paramount Library’s film distribution company in the 1960s, but Fernandez and his brother Carlos Fernandez wanted to move into theatrical distribution. Encouraged by the theatrical success of The Fourth Consul, Filmax made new moves in production, always keeping an eye on the international market, and in 1999 at Mifedo young director Jaume Balagueró’s Nameless recorded brisk international sales, ushering in a golden age for the Spanish auteur genre.
A year later, Fernandez officially launched Fantastic Factory with Brian Yuzna. Fantastic Factory, a unique attempt to recreate the schlocky yet meta arch-awareness of 1985’s Re-Animator in a film made in English in Spain with a mix of foreign and Spanish actors, was an early success, with Lionsgate Entertainment acquiring all North American rights to four of the company’s horror titles. “Dagon” by Stuart Gordon. Two titles by Brian Yuzna: “Faust: Love of the Damned” and “Beyond Re-Animator.”
In 2001, Fernández launched Filmax Animation in his hometown of Galicia, a venture that produced the Goya Award-winning El Cid: The Legend. Filmax also upped its ambitions. Acquired by Dimension and released in 2004, two years after Spanish Vow, the supernatural horror film Darkness, starring Anna Paquin, Lena Olin, Iain Glen, and Giancarlo Giannini, was expanded to include Balagueró in English, and grossed $34.4 million in U.S. theaters.
The Machinist, also released in 2004 and directed by Brad Anderson and starring Christian Bale, also became a cult classic. Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s (REC) premiered in 2007 and was subsequently ranked number 11 on Bloody Disgusting’s Top 20 Horror Movies of the 2000s.
In 2010, Carlos Fernández took over the reins of the company as president, consolidating television production and achieving great success with the series “Porcelles Vermeles” (“Red Band Society”), which was remade by Fox in the United States, one of the most successful television fiction formats of all time in Spain. He and Filmax co-head Laura Fernandez (Julio Fernandez’s daughter) completely diversified Filmax into a full-fledged studio.
Julio Fernández is a born entrepreneur, having worked in fields ranging from real estate to cured sausages (Galicia).
From 2010, he increasingly turned his attention to other companies. But his legacy remains. Fantastic Factory highlighted the potential of the genre as a business and art form in Spain. It may be no coincidence that when Guillermo del Toro began filming Pan’s Labyrinth, still considered by many to be his masterpiece, he shot and majority-financed it domestically. The seeds of Spain’s modern genre film industry had already been sown.
