Esther García vindicates the role of women in the film profession as winner of the Donostia Award

key figure in The Desire and in the internationalization of Spanish and Latin American cinema, producer Esther García has received within the framework of the 73rd San Sebastian Festival a Donostia Award that serves to vindicate “the power of culture” and the position of women in cinema: “Not a step back, colleagues.”

The producer Esther Garcia has received the first of the two Donostia Awards of the 73rd edition of the San Sebastian Festival, which until the 27th will offer a program of more than 250 titles and will feature the presence of numerous personalities linked to world cinema. The actresses Silvia Abril, Toni Acosta and Itziar Ituño They served as presenters of the opening gala held at the Kursaal Auditorium, where there was space for humor, vindication and tribute to Marisa Paredes.

The Festival, which has defined García as a “pioneer” in the field of production, has given her the award for her entire career with the conviction that “her work has inspired thousands of women.” “And we can say that today in Spain the majority of production management is carried out by a woman, and a large part of that is thanks to her,” said Itziar Ituño when introducing the winner.

“Thank you for opening the Donostia Award to a discipline as inconspicuous as production,” said Esther García upon receiving the Festival's highest honorary award from Pedro and Agustín Almodóvar, who founded the company. The Desire 40 years ago now. García, who joined the production company in 1986, has since participated in all of the La Mancha filmmaker's projects.

For him and his brother, García has had words of “deep gratitude” for having been able to “materialize Pedro's brilliant, unique, very personal universe with films that have broken prejudices, have jumped borders and have been, are and will be a reference for so many viewers and so many creators.” The Almodóvar brothers, for their part, have defined their partner and friend as the “mother” of that “family” that is El Deseo.

After mentioning his parents as “a great reference in life,” Esther Garcia She recalled her beginnings in the profession, which were not easy because she was “a very young woman in a world of men with limited training and avidly looking for references,” among whom she cited Pilar Miró, Josefina Molina, Patricia Ferreira and Cristina Huete. "We were very few, but we fought and continued looking for our space in this beloved profession. There is much left to do. Not one step back, colleagues," she proclaimed.

Towards the end of his speech has claimed the word “together” and unity to defend rights and fight to stop “situations as unjust and aberrant as those experienced by hundreds of thousands of people in Ukraine or the genocide in the Gaza Strip.” "Stop now. Faced with this widespread trend of the law of the strongest, let's fight tooth and nail to defend the fragile. We are all fragile. I trust in the power of culture. Cinema is, without a doubt, a home to dream and also a loudspeaker to demand. Films are our tools to make a more beautiful and, above all, better world," he concluded.

García, key figure in the internationalization of Spanish and Latin American cinema, has not only been behind the production of Almodóvar's films, but has also supported filmmakers such as Alex of the Church, Isabel Coixet, Daniel Calparsoro, Monica Laguna, Dunia Ayaso and Felix Sabroso, Bethlehem Macias or Oliver Laxe, without forgetting important names of Ibero-American cinema such as Guillermo del Toro, Lucrecia Martel, Damián Szifron, Pablo Trapero, Julia Solomonoff, Luis Ortega, Andrés Wood or Miguel Gonçalves Mendes.