Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Honorary Goya of the Film Academy

The Film Academy has awarded the former president of the institution, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, the Goya of Honor for the 39th edition of the awards, which will be held on Saturday, February 8 in Granada.

Theater, film and television actress, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón de Angelis was born in Rome on November 5, 1968. She is the daughter of the Spanish history professor and translator Ángel Sánchez-Gijón Martínez (1934-2007) and the Italian mathematics professor Fiorella de Angelis. She arrived in Spain when she was only 1 year old, which is why she is considered a Spanish artist despite being born in Rome.
A la edad de 8 años, apareció en televisión manejando unos títeres, a los 12 años presentaba un informativo juvenil llamado Us y a los 14 participaba en giras de teatro.

They are debut televisivo fue en 1986 en la serie de RTVE Segunda Enseñanza. Continuó su carrera realizando pequeños papeles en cine y teatro, hasta 1989, cuando participó en la película Go down to the Moro, directed by Fernando Colomo with which he became known within Spanish cinema. His first role as a protagonist was in 1988, in the film Winds of Wrath, dirigida por Pedro de la Sota, y por el cual recibió el Premio Paco Rabal a la mejor actriz.

Posteriormente le llegarían títulos cinematográficos de calado as Word of Mouth (1995) by Manuel Gómez Pereira. That same year he achieved great international projection thanks to his role in A walk through the clouds, where he acted alongside actor Keanu Reeves, in turn premiered the play Cat on a Tin Roof. Already in 1997, he would participate in the film The Titanic Waitress (1997) de Bigas Director of Jealousy (1998) by Vicente Aranda. Later, other box office hits would arrive such as They flew away (Rice Luna, 1999), Barren (Pilar Távora, 1999), The whore and the whale (Luis Puenzo, 2004), The spherical letter (Imanol Uribe, 2007) or Parallel Mothers (Pedro Almodóvar, 2021), among many others.

In 1998 she was named president of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, holding the position for only two years. During his presidency, the institution obtained the transfer from the Ministry of Culture of the mansion next to Génova Street in Madrid that currently houses its headquarters.

On television he has provided brilliant performances in series such as The Regenta, The Valencian Widow, Velvet, I'm alive or more recently, Breathe.