Aitana Sánchez-Gijón — Movies, TV Shows & Roles

Actor

1968-11-05 · Rome, Italy · Female

15 series in the catalog

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón de Angelis (born 5 November 1968) is a Spanish and Italian film screen and stage actress. After garnering attention for Going South Shopping (1989), she established her career in the 1990s, featuring in films such as The Bird of Happiness (1993), Mouth to Mouth (1995), The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997), Jealousy (1999), and Volavérunt (1999).
Early life
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón was born in Rome on 5 November 1968, to a Spanish father Ángel Sánchez-Gijón Martínez, a history lecturer exiled from Francoism, and an Italian mother, Fiorella de Angelis, a lecturer. She was named after Aitana Alberti, Rafael Alberti's daughter. The latter dedicated Aitana Sánchez-Gijón some verses upon her birth. The family moved to Madrid when she was 1 year old. She is a cousin of Pablo Carbonell.
Career
Sánchez-Gijón made her television debut as an actress at age 16 in the high school series Segunda enseñanza, playing Sisi, a lesbian teenager. She landed her film debut in Romanza final (1986). In 1988, she starred as Acacia in The Unloved Woman, a play by Miguel Narros adapting Jacinto Benavente staged at the Teatro Español.
Her breakthrough role as Elena in the 1989 film Going South Shopping launched her career.
Best known for her career in Spanish cinema, Sánchez-Gijón first became known internationally for her portrayal of Victoria Aragon, a pregnant and abandoned Mexican-American winegrower's daughter who is helped by travelling salesman Paul Sutton (Keanu Reeves) in A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
She has since built a reputation as an international star in films such as Manuel Gomez Pereira's Boca a Boca (1996), Bigas Luna's The Chambermaid on the Titanic (1997), Jaime Chávarri's Sus Ojos Se Cerraron (1998), Gabriele Salvatores' adaptation of the Niccolò Ammaniti novel I'm Not Scared (2003) and Brad Anderson's The Machinist (2004).
She served as the president of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain between 1998 and 2000. Her portrayal of the Duchess of Alba in Volavérunt won her the Silver Shell for Best Actress at the 1999 San Sebastián International Film Festival. She was a member of the official jury of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
She earned her first Goya Award nomination for a supporting role in Parallel Mothers (2021).
In 2023, she featured in Something Is About to Happen playing a theatre producer stealing the story of a taxi driver's life.
In 2024, she appeared in the hospital-set drama Breathless for Netflix. In December 2024, she was awarded the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts.
In March 2026, she starred again in an adaptation of The Unloved Woman at the Teatro Español, this time directed by Natalia Menéndez. In the play, she portrayed Raimunda, the mother of Acacia.
Views
In 2026, Sánchez-Gijón co-signed alongside other Spanish artists a text urging the United Nations and the governments of the world to actively work towards the release from prison of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti.