Barcelona-born actor Eduard Fernández received the 2025 National Cinematography Award Sept. 20 from the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, at the 73rd San Sebastián Film Festival. The prize, granted by the Culture Ministry’s Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), carries a cash award of €30,000 ($35,100).
The award ceremony was attended by various cultural figures and institutional representatives, including El Deseo producer Esther García who had received the Donostia Career Achievement award at the festival’s opening ceremony the night before.
After briefly reflecting on his early days in cinema, a visibly moved Fernández ended his speech by whipping out a keffiyeh shawl to wrap around his shoulders, saying: “The atrocity that is happening in Palestine, the savagery of arguing over a word– genocide or not – is irrelevant, even though it’s legally important. Allowing children to starve to death is barbaric, regardless of the term you use,” he stated, reading out the names of children under the age of two who had died as a result of the war.
He repeated a cry that began at the San Sebastian‘s opening night where protesters bearing Palestinian flags disrupted the red carpet proceedings outside the festival venue, the Kursaal, and where Pedro Almodóvar, after handing the award to García at the ceremony, also called for an end to the war. “Stop it now!” García exclaimed in her acceptance speech.
“They want to kill them all in the most cruel and brutal way,” Fernández continued, adding that “those who are not moved by the atrocities we see every day on television have a deep problem with their humanity.”
“Gaza is a mirror in which we all appear, whether we like it or not,” he declared.
The jury of the 2025 National Cinematography Award unanimously selected Fernández “for being one of the most outstanding actors in our cinema and for having had an exceptional 2024 with two remarkable performances in two completely different films: the noble man who fights for the common good in ‘The 47’ (‘El 47’), and the role for which he won the Goya for best actor for, ‘Marco,’ where he transforms into the complex and contradictory figure of Enric Marco.”
He had also made his directorial debut with his short film “El otro,” they noted.
The coveted award recognizes the most outstanding contributions to Spanish cinema. The award, which is usually presented by the Minister of Culture during the festival, recognized “Alcarràs” producer María Zamora in its previous edition, joining a list of luminaries in Spanish cinema, including Penélope Cruz, José Sacristán, Isabel Coixet, Antonio Banderas, Fernando Trueba, Carla Simón and many others.
Eduard Fernández (l) and Spain’s Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun, Courtesy of the Ministry of Culture
