Antonio Banderas, 2017 National Cinematography Award

The jury has valued his extraordinary career at a national and international level, which has paved the way for many Spanish actors and actresses, as well as his tenacious commitment to cinema as an actor, director and producer.

The National Cinematography Award for 2017 has been awarded to the actor, director and producer Antonio Banderas. In its ruling, the jury has awarded the actor for "being a filmmaker with an extraordinary career at a national and international level, who has paved the way for many Spanish actors and actresses. His tenacious commitment to cinema as an actor, director and producer makes him worthy of this award."

The National Cinematography Award is awarded by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), an organization attached to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and is endowed with 30,000 euros.

After hearing the news, Banderas commented that "at the end of a day of work at the Ischia Film Festival, I learned with joy that I had been awarded the National Cinematography Award. I know the privilege and honor that this award represents only by being aware of the names of those professionals who received it before me. I accept it full of gratitude, humility and a sense of responsibility."

Jury

The jury was chaired by Óscar Graefenhain, general director of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts; and Guadalupe Melgosa, deputy general director of Promotion and International Relations of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, has acted as vice president. As members, Mariano Barroso has been present, at the proposal of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain; for the Union of Actors and Actresses, José Ignacio Muñoz; by Literary Authors of Audiovisual Media, Verónica Fernández; by the Confederation of Associations of Spanish Audiovisual Producers (FAPAE), M.ª Rosario Villa; by the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA), Virginia Yagüe; by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, Alex de la Iglesia, Fernando Bovaira; Agustín Almodóvar and Beatriz Bodegas.

Actor, producer and director

Antonio Banderas was born in Malaga in 1960 and moved to Madrid at the age of eighteen where he began acting in small theaters until he began working in cinema with Pedro Almodóvar. The joint work of both led the actor to receive two nominations for the Goya Awards for the films Matador (1986) y Adam! (1989). They both made five films together at that time: the two mentioned in addition to Labyrinth of passions, The law of desire y Women on the verge of a nervous breakdown (1988). This last film achieved international repercussion and was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign-language film. Subsequently Almodóvar and Banderas collaborated on The skin I live in (2011) y The passing lovers (2013).

In the 1980s, Banderas also worked with other Spanish directors such as Francesc Betriu Requiem for a Spanish Peasant and in comedies such as Pharaoh's court by José Luis García Sánchez and Bajarse al moro by Fernando Colomo.

Antonio Banderas made his debut in English-speaking cinema in 1992 alongside Armand Assante in The mambo kings. He soon obtained two roles of special importance: the first, as Tom Hanks's homosexual partner in Philadelphia (1993), Jonathan Demme's film about AIDS that won two Oscars and would definitively open the doors of Hollywood to him; and the second role, playing the French vampire Armand in Interview with the vampire, along with Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise. In 1994 he filmed his first leading role in an English-language film, Of love and shadow which definitively introduced him to Hollywood.

In the action and adventure genre, Antonio Banderas has obtained box office hits such as Assassins and the film that gave him his second leading role in Hollywood: The mask of Zorro (1998), junto a Anthony Hopkins.

Banderas has won numerous awards throughout his career. In 2008 he was awarded the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and in 2014 he obtained the Goya of Honor. He has been recognized at the Golden Globes, Fotogramas de Plata, Sant Jordi Film Awards, European Film Award, Youth Award, Tony Award, Donostia Award at the San Sebastián Festival and the Platinum Award, among many others.