THE DIRECTOR, WINNER OF TWO GOLDEN SHELLS AND AUTHOR OF WORKS SUCH AS UN AÑO UNA NOCHE, ENTRE DOS AGUAS, AND THE RECENT SATURN RETURN , WILL BE AWARDED ON JUNE 7 AT THE OPENING GALA OF THE ALTOARAGONESE EVENT.
THE FESTIVAL WANTS TO RECOGNIZE HIS INTERNATIONAL PROJECTION AND “AN ARTISTIC LANGUAGE THAT CROSSES BORDERS AND GENRES, ALWAYS SEEKING TO TOUCH THE VIEWER’S SENSIBILITY.”
The 52nd Huesca International Film Festival will award Isaki Lacuesta its Carlos Saura Huesca City Award. The honorary award of the Altoaragonese event recognizes one of the most promising careers in contemporary cinema. Winner of two Golden Shells and a Goya Award, among many other awards and recognitions, Lacuesta has built one of the most solid careers in Spanish audiovisuals since his debut in 2000. Film and television, documentary and fiction, comedy and drama, as well as feature films and short films, make up the career of a complete and multifaceted filmmaker with more than twenty works to his credit.
On June 7 at the Teatro Olimpia and during the opening gala of the Huesca event, the Altoaragonese capital will welcome the author of works such as One Year, One Night, Entre dos Aguas, or the recently released Saturn Return. An event where Saura’s own family will present him with the award. “His name fits perfectly with the spirit of the award. He has a constantly rising career, having successfully worked in all formats, with short films being a constant element throughout his career,” says Estela Rasal, director of the Huesca event.
The tribute to be received by the Catalan filmmaker was born in 1991, with Carlos Saura being the first winner. Almost three decades later (in 2019), the tribute would take the name of the famous Huesca filmmaker to adopt its current name: Carlos Saura Huesca City Award. With the endorsement of the Altoaragonese maestro and under a new approach that seeks to distinguish the relevance and projection of a career in the seventh art, outstanding names such as Paula Ortiz, Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Anna Castillo, Michel Franco, Diego Luna or Pablo Larráin last year, have come to collect this tribute during the last decade.
AN INTERNATIONAL REFERENCE
Isaki Lacuesta
Isaki Lacuesta (1975, Girona) has written and directed eleven feature films, as well as short films, television series, various installations, and collaborations with professionals from other fields as diverse as architecture, painting, and music. His debut came in the short film with Caras vs Caras (2000), a work that was the narrative seed of Cravan vs Cravan (2002), his debut feature film that won the audience award and best new director at the Sitges Festival, as well as the Sant Jordi RNE Critics’ Award for the best Spanish debut feature film of that year.
In 2006, La Leyenda del Tiempo would arrive, a story where the singing of Camarón de la Isla plays a key role and which established him internationally with awards such as the Special Jury Prize at the Las Palmas Festival, the Silver Apricot at the Yerevan International Festival (Armenia) and the awards for best film, direction and screenplay at the Cuenca International Festival (Ecuador).
Three years later, he would release The Damed, which would be one of the first major roles for the Goya Award-winning actress Bárbara Lennie and would bring him numerous recognitions. The film would also win the FIPRESCI Prize of the official section of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, a key event throughout his filmography.
With the arrival of the new decade came two documentaries: La Noche que no Acaba (2010) and El Cuaderno de Barro (2011); both selected by the Donostia festival in the Zabaltegi section. The latter would originally be part of his next work, Los pasos Dobles (2011); a fiction with a documentary tone starring the painter Miquel Barceló, which earned Isaki his first Golden Shell in San Sebastián.
His next film would be Murieron por Encima de sus Posibilidades (2013), a radical shift towards comedy with an ensemble cast filled with talents like Raúl Arévalo, Imanol Arias, José Coronado, Carmen Machi, and Luis Tosar.
Next Skin (2016) was the project that led him to co-direct with Isa Campo, a highly awarded screenwriter who regularly collaborates on his films and was making her directorial debut. The success was resounding with three Gaudí Awards (best film, screenplay, and actress), five awards at the Málaga Film Festival (including direction, actress, and special jury prize), and the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress for Emma Suárez.
The second Golden Shell would come with Entre dos Aguas (2018). Lacuesta would revisit the characters from La Leyenda del Tiempo more than a decade later, earning not only the top honor at the Zinemaldia but also the awards for best film and actor at the Mar del Plata Film Festival, the Fotogramas de Plata for best film of the year, seven Gaudí Awards, two ASECAN Awards, and two Goya Award nominations.
The “cabezón” ( pigheaded ) of Spanish cinema would come with One Year, One Night (2022), delving into the personal consequences of the tragic events that took place in November 2015 at the Bataclan in Paris. The award for best adapted screenplay would be just the culmination of an extensive journey through film festivals, starting with the selection in the official competition section of the Berlin Film Festival.
His most recent work is Saturn Return (2024), co-directed with Pol Rodríguez, which has just been released in commercial theaters. A production about the legendary band “Los Planetas” that swept the last Málaga Film Festival, winning best film, direction, and editing.
Thanks to his significant career, prominent cultural institutions such as the National Gallery in Washington (2013), the Swiss Cinematheque (2017), the Spanish Film Library (2018), the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris (2018), and the Film Library of Catalonia (2019) have dedicated retrospectives to his work. Additionally, MOMA in New York, the Lincoln Center, the Anthology Film Archives in New York, and the CCCB have screened his works. His cinematic correspondence with Japanese filmmaker Naomi Kawase, In between days (2009, CCCB), was presented at the Locarno Film Festival, one of the oldest and most prestigious film festivals in the world, classified as Category A by FIAPF.
Among his accolades are the National Film Award of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2012), the Sant Jordi Award (2002, 2017), and the Eloy de la Iglesia Award (2010, Málaga Film Festival).
