The filmmaker Isabel Coixet (Sant Adrià de Besòs, 63 years old) will receive one of the three honorary awards, the so-called European Achievement in World Cinema, as today, on Saturday, December 9th, in Berlin as part of the 36th edition of the European Film Academy Awards was announced tomorrow by the institution, which justified its choice as follows: “Throughout her career, Isabel Coixet has always defended her beliefs and values and given her a voice, in her films, in her writings and in her political commitment.” to his Protagonists.” The other two honorary awards in the “Homage to a Career” category go to the British actress Vanessa Redgrave, and the legendary Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr is honored with the honorary trophy of the President and the Council of the Academy, created for the occasion.
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Before Coixet, five other Spaniards were honored in both versions with which the European institution honors its creators: the directors Carlos Saura (2004) and Pedro Almodóvar (2013) and the interpreter Antonio Banderas (1999). ), Victoria Abril (2002) and Carmen Maura (2018).
In its review of its curriculum, the European Film Academy recalls that Coixet began filming as a child with an 8mm camera and began working in advertising at the age of 19. With his first feature film “Too Old to Die Young” (1990), he received his first nomination for the Goya Awards in the “Young Director” category. His second film, the first he made in English and outside Spain, Things I Never Told You (1997), opened international doors for him. She is the filmmaker with the most Goya awards (nine) and took part in the European Cinema Awards for Best Director in 2003 for My Life Without Me. Over the course of his long career, his films have been shown in competitions in Berlin, Cannes and Venice. In addition, Coixet is honorary president of EWA, the network of European filmmakers, and received the National Cinematography Award in 2020.
The Catalan director and screenwriter Isabel Coixet, with the National Film Prize 2020. Javier Hernández
During the last festival in San Sebastián, where she competed with Un amor (for which the actor Hovik Keuchkerian won the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Actor) and which had its commercial premiere last Friday, she pointed out the struggle of female filmmakers: “ We directors carry this additional backpack of being a woman, and beyond that we seem to be obliged to tell stories that move and that provide an in-between story, that of being a woman in this world, and that is still new .” On numerous occasions – like this one, as she is the first Spanish director to receive this award – she has paved the way, and about this she thought: “Today there is a lot of talk about empowerment, a term that I don’t know.” I don’t like it, it doesn’t sound good. Look, you have the power or you don’t. And power is money. I will only breathe a sigh of relief when the budget of a film with a director is equal to that of a film with a director. This precarity cannot last, no matter how familiar a filmmaker is with possibilism and guerrilla warfare. I blame myself for not fighting for better conditions, my desire to make films has become stronger. As directors, we live in the pattern of precarity.”
Concluding her speech, she said: “When I teach, I always insist that students, whether boys or girls, face the same problems when making a film, but they will also string questions about them in the interviews .” the fact of being a woman. At least I’ve been busy with it my whole life. “Sometimes I think it would be better to be intersex.”
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