Cursó estudios de cine en la Universidad de Avellaneda, y de cine y televisión en la Universidad de Nueva York, lo cual le valió para desarrollar una exitosa carrera como director y guionista, primero en la televisión, y en el cine a partir de los años noventa.
El niño que gritó puta (1991) y Ni el tiro del final (1997) fueron dos primeros intentos por convertirse en director de largometrajes. Su primera obra aclamada por la crítica fue El mismo amor, la misma lluvia (1999), seguida por El hijo de la novia (2001), uno de los filmes latinoamericanos más exitosos de todos los tiempos.
Ha desarrollado parte de su carrera en Estados Unidos, trabajando en series como La ley y el orden, House MD y 30 Rock, por las que ha conseguido varios Emmy a la mejor dirección.
Con Luna de Avellaneda (2004), volteó su mirada nuevamente hacia personajes y vivencias profundamente argentinas, tal como lo hizo en El mismo amor, la misma lluvia. El secreto de sus ojos (2009) es su último film.
Juan José Campanella was born on July 19, 1959 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is an Oscar-winning Argentine television and film director. He started studying engineering, but dropped out in 1980 after four years at university. He would later remark that the decisive factor for this decision was watching All That Jazz on the very day he was going to apply for a fifth year.
His debut as director was in 1979, with the short Prioridad nacional. Campanella traveled to the United States and entered the Tisch School of the Arts. Four years later, in 1984, his second film, Victoria 392, which marked the first of five collaborations with actor friend Eduardo Blanco, as well as his first collaboration with screenwriter Fernando Castets, with whom he co-directed and co-wrote the film.
After graduating from film school, Campanella went on to direct two American films: The Boy Who Cried Bitch in 1991 and Love Walked In from 1997.
In 1999, Campanella reunited once more with Castets to write El Mismo Amor, la Misma Lluvia, which starred actor friend Ricardo Darín (who had met Campanella 15 years before, abroad) and Eduardo Blanco. The formula would be repeated with two other films, in El Hijo de la Novia, 2001 (nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 2002) and in Luna de Avellaneda, 2004, all of which teamed Campanella and Castests as screenwriters, and Darín and Blanco as leading and supporting actor, respectively. Darín reprised the role of Campanella's leading man in the mystery film El secreto de sus ojos (2009), Campanella's fourth feature film to date, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2010.
Campanella nowadays directs mostly TV series for American audiences (among them, House, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and 30 Rock). He holds Spanish citizenship since 2006.
Campanella has worked 5 times with Eduardo Blanco, 3 times with Ricardo Darín and 2 times with Héctor Alterio. Campanella has also directed a number of acclaimed Argentine actors, including Norma Aleandro, Alfredo Alcón, Ulises Dumont, Natalia Verbeke, Adrián Suar, Mercedes Morán, Valeria Bertuccelli and Rodrigo de la Serna, as well as USA actors Chris Meloni, Denis Leary, Adrien Brody, Moira Kelly, Justin Long, Vincent D'Onofrio and Alec Baldwin, among others.
“Nuestro objetivo final es nada menos que lograr la integración del cine latinoamericano.
Así de simple, y así de desmesurado”.
