THE TWO FILMMAKERS RECEIVE THE CITY HUESCA CARLOS SAURA AWARD AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE 47TH HUESCA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
THE AWARD THAT HIGHLIGHTS THEIR WORK AS SCRIPWRITORS WAS GIVEN TO THEM BY THE DIRECTOR FROM HUESCA HIMSELF
THE ARAGONESE CONTEST HAS SHOWN A PREVIEW OF PART OF THE FEATURE FILM THAT THEY WROTE TOGETHER AND WILL BE IN THE CINEMAS THIS AUTUMN
The Huesca International Film Festival opens its 47th edition with the Carlos Saura City of Huesca Award for Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabel Peña. During their press appearance, both filmmakers talked about some of the details of the creative process of their next feature film: Madre. The film, which is the follow up of the events of the short film of the same name, has been defined by its creators as “a film of light after the darkness of our previous projects”, as explained by Sorogoyen himself. For Peña, the work may surprise the viewer at first “as opposed to what you may think, is not a thriller. And it’s a decision that we made clearly and quickly”.
This production that will reach the screens of our country next autumn has been a four-hand writing job. “The idea that I had of Madre at first, has been changing over time” indicated the director of Stockholm, while Peña highlighted how important it is for her that the “script is in constant evolution” throughout the process, “it is incredible to see how is it still alive up through the last editing step ” she added.
Isabel and Rodrigo have been working together for more than 11 years. As Sorogoyen says, “our future within the film industry is actually immediate”, among their next projects is a television series on which there are already working.
As far as the creative process is concerned, Isabel Peña herself explained perfectly the symbiosis that exists when they start working: “During the initial stage there is no computer, just conversations and notes in notebooks. When the main idea is structured, we divide 50/50. Then we exchange it over and over again, so that there comes a point where we don’t even remember which idea was originally mine and which was his”.
The Aragonese contest presented a five-minute preview of the expected work of this Best Screenplay Goya winning team, for his film about political corruption at the opening gala at the Olimpia Theatre, now awarded with the Carlos Saura prize given by the filmmaker himself.
PRESENT AND FUTURE OF THE SPANISH CINEMA
Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Madrid, 1981) studied at ECAM the specialty of script. With only 25 years and having already made three short films, his first work as a director was 8 citas with Peris Romano. A film with an exceptional casting made up of Fernando Tejero, Verónica Echegui, Adriana Ozores, Raúl Arévalo, Arturo Valls, José Luis García Pérez, Belén Rueda, Ana Wagener and Javier Pereira among others. The film was welcomed by both critics and audiences and received the award for best debut at the Peñíscola International Comedy Film Festival. He then moved on to television productions such as Oddres, La Pecera de Eva and Frágiles. Together with three partners, he creates in 2011 Caballo Films in order to film Stockholm; one of the 2013 revelation films of 2013 which won three Biznagas at Malaga Film Festival of Malaga and was the first crowdfunded film to get a Goya Award (Best New Actor for Javier Pereira). In 2015 he directs Que dios nos perdone which obtains numerous recognitions among which it is worth highlighting the triple-win achieved by its main actor, Roberto Alamo, which got the Forqué, the Feroz and the Goya. His most recent feature film, El Reino, becomes one of the films of the year in Spanish cinema and allows him to be considered as a key player in the industry, winning seven Goya awards and four Feroz Awards.
On the other hand, Isabel Peña (Zaragoza, 1983) is licensed by the University of Navarra in Audiovisual Communication and by the ECAM in the specialty of Script, where she wrote the short film Martina y la luna. After several works in television series such as Impares, Frágiles or La Pecera de Eva, she made her first full-length screenplay with Rodrigo: Stockholm. This work is recognized by the Malaga Festival with the Silver Biznaga for the best novel script and the Feroz Award for the best dramatic film. In 2015, she returns to the short film with Mi padre, lanzador de peso de la RDA (directed by Diego Postigo), to later write again with Sorogoyen two other feature films: Que dios nos perdone (Silver Shell for best screenplay at the San Sebastian Festival) and El Reino (winner of the Goya for the best screenplay). She has recently collaborated in the second season of La Peste for Movistar + and combines her writing career collaborating with the ECAM, ESCAC and the Master of Screenwriting of the UNAV.
The Huesca International Film Festival is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports, the Government of Aragon, the Provincial Council of Huesca (Diputación), the City of Huesca, the Anselmo Pié Foundation and with the collaboration of Obra Social “la Caixa” and TUHUESCA.
