Hector Babenco Gallery

Héctor Eduardo Babenco (February 7, 1946 – July 13, 2016) was an Argentine-born Brazilian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He has worked in several countries including Argentina, Brazil and the United States. His most famous works are Pixote (1980), Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Ironweed (1987), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1990) and Carandiru (2003)

Babenco was born in Buenos Aires but raised in Mar del Plata. His mother, Janka Haberberg, was a Polish Jewish immigrant, and his father, Jaime Babenco, was an Argentine gaucho of Ukrainian origin. Babenco lived in Europe from 1964 to 1968. In 1969, he decided to stay in São Paulo, Brazil permanently. In 1975, he directed his first feature film, King of the Night.

His break-out film was Pixote – A lei do mais fraco (1981) about Brazil's abandoned children. Due to the impressive work of young actor Fernando Ramos da Silva (10 years old at the time), who was discovered in the suburbs of São Paulo, the film was a worldwide success and received numerous international prizes.

For his 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman, Babenco was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director, the first Latin American to be nominated in this category.

In 1994, Babenco fell ill and had to undergo a bone marrow transplant to cure a lymphatic cancer.

He has directed some of the most respected American actors in cinema, including: William Hurt, John Lithgow, Raul Julia, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep, Tom Berenger, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Kathy Bates, and others.

His last film was My Hindu Friend, starring Willem Dafoe. It tells the story of a film director close to death.