Carla Simón Wins 2023 National Cinematography Award for “Positioning Spanish Cinema on the International Scene”

The director Carla Simón has won the 2023 National Cinematography Award this Thursday, which is awarded every year by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The award, which Penelope Cruz received last year, is endowed with 30,000 and aims to recognize the brightest figures in the film industry in Spain.

The jury recognized her “for positioning Spanish cinema on the international scene by winning the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the most prestigious in the world.”

Simón made history at the Berlinale after winning with Alcarras and become the first Spanish director to win the festival’s grand prize. It was also the first time in nearly 40 years since Beehive in 1983, that Spanish cinema won the Golden Bear.

“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 combines realism and fiction with intelligence and rigor with a fully topical look at social problems” , has valued the jury on the tape.

With only two films in his filmography, summer 1993 y Alcarras, Simón has managed to position himself as one of the most valued filmmakers in Spanish cinema. In fact, both films were selected by the Film Academy to represent Spain at the Oscars and have been praised by national and international critics.

“Carla Simón also represents a new generation of filmmakers who have managed in a very short time to develop quality cinema committed to their own media and society, reaching a global audience”, the jury has also valued when awarding her the award.

For the group, Simón “is one of the benchmarks of the great moment that Spanish cinema is experiencing”. “At the same time, he has been able to promote the opening of movie theaters at a difficult time after the covid pandemic,” the jury applauded.

The ministry statement also applauds the “organic way” with which Simón incorporates “the diversity of languages ​​that characterize and enrich our society and culture.”

The filmmaker shoots in Catalan because it is “natural” for her to record the stories of her childhood, her environment or the culture that surrounds her in her language, but she does not rule out using other languages ​​in future projects. “It is important when you talk about your culture to respect the language,” she defended in an interview with El HuffPost a year ago.