RECOGNITION TO BE AWARDED AT THE FESTIVAL OPENING GALA NEXT JUNE 8th.
THE ACADEMY WANTS TO EXPRESS ITS SATISFACTION AND PRIDE FOR JOINING A LIST OF DISTINGUISHED PERSONALITIES AND INSTITUTIONS THAT REPRESENT THE BEST OF CINEMA AND ITS ARTISTIC AND SOCIAL CONTRIBUTION’ DECLARED JOAN ÁLVAREZ, GENERAL DIRECTOR OF THE INSTITUTION.
At its 46th edition, Huesca International Film Festival will award the Academy of Arts and Film Sciences of Spain with the Pepe Escriche Award for ‘the great work of dissemination, exchange, research and development accomplished’. This prize celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2018, its aim is to stand out organizations, institutions, personal or collective initiatives related to cinema and audio visual arts that promote the understanding between different cultures through the seventh art.
The Film Academy, through its Presidency and Management Board, wants to express the satisfaction at having been selected for the Pepe Escriche Award and its pride for joining a list of distinguished personalities and institutions that represent the best of cinema and its artistic and social contribution’, declared Joan Álvarez, general director of the Film Academy.
This prize, together with the Ciudad de Huesca Award and the Luis Buñuel Award, form the three homages paid by the High Aragonese festival each edition. Established in 2009, it honours the figure of one of the festival forerunners and director for more than thirty years: José María Escriche, passed away in 2008. The trophy is a razor whose blade represents a fragment of film and is authored by the renowned sculptor Isidro Ferrer, National Design and Illustration Award.
Thus, the Spanish Academy joins a list of prestigious prize winners along with San Antonio de Baños Cuban School, the Foundation World Cinema Fund, Cinergia, Morelia Film Festival, the Spanish Film Archive, the joint initiative San Sebastian Festival and Rencontres Cinémas d’Amérique Latine of Toulouse, ‘Cinema under construction’, Pilar Martínez Vasseur, born in Jaca, director of Nantes Spanish Film Festival, and the program Ibermedia, that won this award last year.
AN ACADEMY PLANNED BY AN FOR CINEMA
The Academy of Arts and Film Sciences of Spain was born out of the need to protect and work for the future of the cultural heritage this industry represents in our country. The Academy was presented in 1986 but it was some months before, November 12, 1985, when the producer Alfredo Matas convened a group of well-known personalities of cinema at the restaurant O’Pazo in Madrid so as to discuss issues they were concerned with and seek solutions. This meeting was attended by Luis García Berlanga and Carlos Saura, the production managers Marisol Carnicero and Tedy Villalba, the actors José Sacristán and Charo López, the film editors Pablo González del Amo and José Luis Matesanz, the screenwriter Manuel Matji, the musician José Nieto, the director of photography Carlos Suárez and the set designer Ramiro Gómez. From this meeting stemmed the association, supported by the signatures of eighty seven professionals, it started its activity shortly after on a formal basis.
The Academy, non-profit driven and declared of public utility, has enjoyed a distinguished list of presidents among whom there are some of the most outstanding women and men of our cinema, such as Marisa Paredes, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, José Luis Borau, Ángeles González-Sinde, Álex de la Iglesia or Antonio Resines. Currently, Oscar-winning Yvonne Blake runs the academy.
