Photo: Marcelo Freixo 50123 / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Jose Padilha is a director I find genuinely interesting because of where he comes from and where he went. Born in Rio, he made Elite Squad and its sequel into both critical and box-office hits, then won the Golden Bear at Berlin in 2008. That's homegrown success of the highest order. The Oxford education is an unexpected detail that hints at a thinking man's approach to genre filmmaking. Taking on the RoboCop remake afterward was a riskier, more commercial swing, and I respect a filmmaker willing to test himself in Hollywood after dominating at home. His instinct for tense, politically charged stories is what defines him for me.
Overview
José Bastos Padilha Neto (Brazilian Portuguese: [ʒuˈzɛ paˈdʒiʎɐ]; born 1 August 1967) is a Brazilian film director, producer and screenwriter. He is best known for directing the Brazilian critical and financial successes Elite Squad and Elite Squad: The Enemy Within and the 2014 remake of RoboCop. He has won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Elite Squad in 2008.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- José Padilha
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョゼ・パジーリャ
- Reading
- じょぜ・ぱじーりゃ
- Born
- August 1, 1967 (age 58)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Goat
- Origin
- Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film director / screenwriter / film producer / television producer / manufacturer
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- University of Oxford
Awards & achievements
- Brazilian Cinema Grand Prize for Best Director
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film director — see all → · Screenwriter — see all → · More people from Brazil →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.