The jury wished to recognise the director and screenwriter Carla Simón “for positioning Spanish cinema on the international scene by winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world”.
Carla Simón has been awarded the National Film Award for the year 2023, at the proposal of the jury meeting today. This prize, awarded annually by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, is endowed with 30,000 euros.

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Carla Simón

National Cinematography Award
The jury wanted to recognise the director and screenwriter Carla Simón “for positioning Spanish cinema on the international scene by winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world. This award was a milestone in the history of our cinema thanks to a film in which the naturalness and precision in the construction of stories and characters intelligently and rigorously combine realism and fiction with a highly topical look at social problems. It also incorporates in an organic way the diversity of languages that characterise and enrich our society and culture”.

In turn, the jury pointed out that “Carla Simón also represents a new generation of filmmakers who have managed in a very short time to develop a quality film that is committed to the medium itself and to society, reaching a global audience. Undoubtedly, she is one of the references to the great moment that Spanish cinema is experiencing. At the same time, he has been able to promote the opening of cinemas at a complicated time after the covid pandemic”.

The National Cinematography Award rewards the most outstanding contribution in the field of Spanish cinema, preferably in the form of work made public or professional work carried out during the year 2022, or, in exceptional cases, in recognition of a professional career. The award, which the Minister of Culture and Sport usually presents within the framework of the San Sebastian Festival, last year went to Penélope Cruz, joining a long list of Spanish film personalities, including José Sacristán, Isabel Coixet, Antonio Banderas and Fernando Trueba, among others.

Jury

The jury was chaired by Beatriz Navas Valdés, Director General of the Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales (ICAA), and Camilo Vázquez Bello, Deputy Director General of Promotion and International Relations of the ICAA, acted as Vice-Chairman. Fernando Méndez-Leite Serrano, proposed by the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; Ignacio López Muro, proposed by Autores Literarios de Medios Audiovisuales; Silvia García de Pé, proposed by the Unión de Actores y Actrices; Patricia Maria Roda Amador, proposed by the Asociación de Mujeres Cineastas y de Medios Audiovisuales (CIMA); Miriam Lorenzo Fernández, Gregorio Belinchón Yagüe and Koldo Zuazua Álvarez, proposed by the ICAA, acted as members.