the filmmaker Carla Simon has been awarded the National Cinematography Award 2023. The award, which last year went to the hands of Penelope Cruzhas an endowment of €30,000 and is granted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports. The distinction highlights the most outstanding contribution in the field of Spanish cinema during the year prior to its award.
The jury wanted to recognize the director and screenwriter “for position Spanish cinema on the international scene with obtaining the golden bear at the Berlin Film Festival, one of the most prestigious worldwide & rdquor ;, the Ministry has announced through a release.
Recognition of ‘Alcarràs’
The award coincides with the extraordinary career at the international level that ‘alcarràs‘Directed by Simon. The recognition of critics, who have unanimously praised the film set in a town of Lleida starring a family that tries to live off their peach treesdid not coincide in the last edition of the Goya Awardswhere the movie went empty despite having 11 statuettes.
He also failed to overcome court and be among the 16 shortlisted by the Film Academy in the race for the Oscars 2023so he could not apply for the international award as best foreign filmwhich would end up being awarded to the film ‘All Quiet Ahead’, by director Edward Berger.
A great year for Catalan cinema
The prize for Simón is the finishing touch for a year, last 2022, which was round for Catalan cinema. To Simón’s film we must add ‘Pacifiction’ by Albert Serra, which was also endorsed with awards, excellent reviews and presence at the most important festivals, despite not having as good a response at the box office as Simón’s film. And it is that more than half a million viewers saw ‘Alcarràs’ in the cinema, which was a shock to the seventh art, one of the sectors most affected by the pandemic.
The premiere of Simón’s film brought a recovery of projection rooms throughout Catalonia, demonstrated that auteur cinema is not incompatible with the success of the public and put on the table one of the topics of conversation that in recent years has has touched from very different angles: the struggle of the rural zones to survive the global pressure of the great economic forces, a threat that especially affects activities related to agriculture. Ultimately, what are the chances? the small-scale economy of the so-called empty Spain against large financial flows.
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It is no coincidence that, like ‘Alcarràs’, other films like ‘As Bestas’ and ‘Suro’ last year they approached the same topic (the city-country clash) from different angles. The windmills in Sorogoyen’s film, set in deep Galicia, fulfill a different narrative function than the solar panels that threaten the peach trees of ‘Alcarràs’, but both respond to the same reality.
The National Cinematography Award was given for the first time in 1980 to Carlos Saura and since then filmmakers and actors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Fernando Trueba, JA Bayona, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem or José Sacristán. Carla Simon is the thirteenth woman to receive it in its 40-year career.