Trueba studied Cinematography at the Facultad de Ciencias de la Información, was cinema critic for the newspaper 'El País' and for 'La Guía del Ocio' and also founded the journal "Casablanca". At the movies his first success was 'Opera Prima' (1980) following the style of the "comedia madrileña". He had major success with 'Sé infiel y no mires con quién' (1985) starting a longer colaboration with the producer Andrés Vicente Gómez.

He won the second Foreign Film Academy Award for Spain in 1993 with 'Belle Epoque'.