Isabel Coixet in conversation with Jesús Ruiz Mantilla

Love and food go out on a date in Foodie Love, the latest television series “cooked up” by Isabel Coixet. The internationally acclaimed Spanish director kneads together two of her passions in the first ever fictional series in Spanish for HBO. Released in 2019 and with Laia Costa and Guillermo Pfening portraying the two lovers of gastronomy, the relationship unfolds with a thread of humour running through. Coixet gained international recognition in 2003 with a film adaptation of My Life Without Me (Mi vida sin mí), based on the short story by American author Nanci Kincaid, and earned her first Goya. Previously, she had been nominated for awards by the Spanish Academy for Demasiado viejo para morir joven and Things I Never Told You (Cosas que nunca te dije). For The Secret Life of Words (La vida secreta de las palabras) she swept the floor garnering the top awards: Best Film, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. Her films regularly feature in the most prestigious international festivals. Map of the Sounds of Tokyo inaugurated the official competition in the Cannes Film Festival in 2009, Endless Night (Nadie quiere la noche) opened the 2015 festival in Berlin, for which she had been a member of the jury since 2009, and the adaptation of Penelope Fitzgerald’s hit novel The Bookshop (La librería) opened the Seminci de Valladolid in 2017. Coixet has directed various documentaries of social content and in defence of human rights. She has been bestowed the Medalla de Oro de Bellas Artes and the Chevalier des Arts et Lettres in France.

Isabel Coixet talks with the journalist and writer Jesús Ruiz Mantilla.

Photography of Isabel Coixet: © Silvia Tortajada