Gonzalo Suárez will receive the Goya of Honor

The director, screenwriter, producer, writer, sports journalist (he signed his chronicles under the pseudonym Martín Girard) and actor, Gonzalo Suárez, will receive the Goya of Honor 2026 in Barcelona, ​​the city where he made his first films and published his first books.

The Film Academy will present this recognition in Barcelona, the city in which he made his first films, for "a career from which he has developed a surprising filmography, in which he has experimented with all genres and from all attitudes, and which has contributed to making him a key man in Spanish culture of the last sixty years."

This award recognizes the professional career of a creator who has spent 60 years combining cinema and literature, and betting on imagination and fantasy over reality and the usual narrative forms.

"I am very happy about this award because it covers all my work, although I feel longing that I don't get caught making films. I would like to say 'action' and 'cut' again because cinema is action," says this versatile professional who received the Goya for Best Director for Rowing in the wind in 1989.

The Board of Directors of the Academy has decided, unanimously, to award this honorary award to the veteran Asturian filmmaker for "a career in which he has developed a surprising filmography, in which he has experimented with all genres and from all attitudes, having shot experimental cinema, commercial cinema and literary adaptations of his own and others. A key man in Spanish culture of the last sixty years, he is, in addition, an undoubted reference of intelligence and sense of humor."

The short film wings of darkness and the medium-length film Malinche's dream, are the latest professional works by Gonzalo Suárez, who has a filmography in which experimentation and narration go hand in hand in the more than twenty feature films that you have signed. "With some exceptions, I have not watched my films again. If I started again, I would do the same thing: invent cinema or try to invent it and it would end, well, as I have done - he laughs -. For me, time has always been the great unknown: it is a flash that is the whole of life and trying to capture it, whether with gestures that later remain, with moments, or with light, is a challenge. And this is what I like most about cinema and what I remember most about certain films," recognize.

Ditirambo, The strange case of doctor Fausto, La Regenta, Morbo, Parranda, the mythical Epilogue (Youth Prize at the Cannes Film Festival), Rowing in the wind (Silver Shell and Goya for Best Direction), The anonymous queen, The detective and death, My name is shadow y Oviedo Express, are some of the titles by Gonzalo Suárez, who has been publishing books since 1963 and since 1966 directing films starring Charo López, Francisco Rabal, José Sacristán, Fernando Rey, Fernando Fernán-Gómez, Carmen Maura, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Abril, Marisa Paredes, Maribel Verdú, Javier Bardem, Carmelo Gómez, Ana Belén, José Luis Gómez, Carmen Sevilla, Hugh Grant, María de Medeiros, Héctor Alterio and Donald Pleasence, among many others.

Between cinema and literature

"I have gotten along well with all the performers. And I have always been stubborn and have not stopped until I got what I was looking for," declares the award-winner, who turns 91 on July 30. Currently he dedicates himself more to literature. just launched The case of the severed heads and to reissue The sole of my shoes, a compilation of his chronicles, reports and interviews of the man who was the precursor of the new journalism.

Born in Oviedo, in 1934, and owner of a filmography marked by the mixture of genres, drama and humor, and the constant search for creative freedom, in the career of this precursor of the so-called Barcelona School, who studied Philosophy and Letters and was a scout for soccer players under the orders of Helenio Herrera, the productions also feature Aoom, Carrot Queen, Don Juan in Hell, The Porter and the well-known television series The mansions of Ulloa, among others.

Adventure, going beyond, has marked the life of Gonzalo Suárez. "The adventure of not knowing where I was going and that's how it went, I got to where I wasn't going," adds the creator, who highlights that cinema "is more in the hands of the platforms than of the producers of yesteryear that I miss like Emiliano Piedra. They were producers for whom the films were part of themselves, they put their spirit and strength into a feature film, and they shared it without taking away my freedom."

He has an “extraordinary” memory of Barcelona in the sixties, where he began with journalism, literature and cinema. “I immediately felt very welcomed” in the city where he will collect the Goya of Honor, a moment for which he has not thought of any speech. “I prefer to connect with the situation and say what I feel at that moment,” says the filmmaker, who is clear about where he will place the statuette: “In a prominent place in my house.”

Boxing fan, Gonzalo Suárez has the National Cinematography Award 1991, the Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts and the Luis Buñuel Award, and has been named Knight of Arts and Letters of France and of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise – the first time this decoration was awarded to a film director.