Cinema, gala, at the Forqué Awards

This Monday, the Madrid Conference Center hosted the presentation of the XVI José María Forqué Prize in a ceremony presided over by the Minister of Culture, Ángeles González Sinde. The producers grouped in EGEDA have awarded this year to 'Buried-Enterrado' and the documentary 'Bicicleta, Cuchara, Manzana'. Luis Tosar, Emma Suárez and Nora Navas gave their own name to a ceremony in which a special tribute was paid to producer Luis Megino.

This Monday, the Madrid Conference Center hosted the presentation of the XVI José María Forqué Prize in a ceremony presided over by the Minister of Culture, Ángeles González Sinde. This award is granted by the Audiovisual Rights Management Entity (EGEDA) to the best Spanish film productions for their technical and artistic values, with all Spanish feature-length films that have been released in theaters between December 1, 2009 and November 30, 2010 eligible for it.

In this edition, the finalist films for the XVI José María Forqué Award have been Buried, directed by Rodrigo Cortés (Versus Entertainment, The Safran Company and Dark Trick Films); among wolves, de Gerardo Olivares (Wanda Vision, Arakao Films y Sophisticated Films); Lope, by Andrucha Waddington (El Toro Pictures, Ikiru Films, Antena 3 Films and Conspiraçao Files); Bye black, by Agustín Villaronga (Massa D’or and Televisió de Catalunya); and Also the rain, by Icíar Bollaín (Morena Films, Vaca Films, Mandarín Films and Alebrije Producciones). Finally, the award, worth 30,000 euros, went to the disturbing film starring Ryan Reynolds.

As for the EGDA Special Award for the best documentary or animated feature film, worth 6,000 euros, it went to Bicycle, Spoon, Apple, by director Carlos Bosh. In this documentary, the former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pasqual Maragall, allows himself to be photographed with his family and doctors to record the day-to-day life of his personal struggle against Alzheimer's. The Forqué Award for the best fiction, documentary or animation feature film is voted on by more than 1,500 Spanish producers who are members of EGEDA in two rounds.

In acting, the press award went to Luis Tosar for his role in Also the rain and, ex-aequo, in the actresses Emma Suárez and Nora Navas, for their performance in The mosquito net y Bye black, respectively.

Throughout the ceremony, conducted by Alex Doherty, music, which has been so closely linked to the history of our cinema, has been the protagonist with numerous nods to the great maestro Augusto Algeró, recently deceased.

Luis Megino, Gold Medal

On this occasion, the Board of Directors of EGEDA has awarded the Gold Medal to producer Luis Megino.

Producer and screenwriter born in Madrid in 1940, Megino founded, together with Francesc Betriu, the company In-Scram, dedicated above all to short films, producing the first works with José Luis García Sánchez, Jaime Chávarri and Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón.

Since the beginning of the 70s, first as an employee of El Imán (José Luis Borau's production company) and later as head of his own companies (Arándano Films and Luis Megino PC), he has been involved in the production of My dear lady (1971), by Jaime de Armiñán; We have to kill B. (1973), by José Luis Borau; as well as the first features of García Sánchez, Colorín, colorado (1976) y The trout (1977) and, above all, in most of Gutiérrez Aragón's films: The heart of the forest (1979), Wonder (1980), demons in the garden (1982), The most beautiful night (1984), half of the sky (1986) y misadventure (1988), participating as scriptwriters in many of them.

Megino was executive producer, along with Juan Antonio Bardem, of A party for democracy y The gold of the PCE, a documentary filmed in 1977 on the occasion of the legislation of the Communist Party.

Away from production since 1990, EGEDA wanted to pay a well-deserved tribute by giving him a medal that they already have.
Pedro Masó, Elías Querejeta, Andrés Vicente Gómez José Luis Borau or Julio Fernández, among others.

Luis Megino stressed in his acceptance speech that "the crisis is nothing more than the continuous technological transformation that cinema has always experienced. Throughout history we have asked ourselves what cinema is. Perhaps, it has no answer." The veteran producer has also pointed out that "technology brings new ways of making and receiving cinema. The screen has exploded into thousands of screens, all of which in turn constitute a new global screen."

Regarding this transformation that the industry is experiencing, the president of EGEDA, Enrique Cerezo, has once again expressed his dissatisfaction with "the continuous plundering that cultural content suffers on the Internet. On December 21, a magnificent opportunity was lost to put an end to total free, which seems to only apply to culture, as a law that would stop the illegal appropriation of content and our intellectual property did not go forward due to lack of parliamentary support."

Cerezo has been blunt in defending that it is not true that "producers do not adapt to change. Examples such as Filmin or Filmotech are a good example of our commitment to technology."