José Luis Garci is a Spanish director producer film critic TV presenter screenwriter and author He earned worldwide acclaim and his countrys first Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award for Begin the Beguine 1982 Four of his films including also Sesión continua 1984 Asignatura aprobada 1987 and El abuelo 1998 have been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film more than any other Spanish director His films are characterized for his classical style and the underlying sentimentality of their plots