When Spanish multi-hyphenate Elena Martín Gimeno first got a call to say she would be this year’s recipient of the Málaga Talent Award at the prestigious Malaga Film Festival, she felt it was a “full circle moment.” Having premiered her feature debut “Júlia Ist” at the festival almost a decade ago, the director credits the launchpad as having “made her career possible,” catapulting her to premiere her sophomore effort “Creatura” to great acclaim at Directors’ Fortnight in 2023.
Gimeno directed, wrote and starred in “Creatura,” which went on to win Best European Film at Directors’ Fortnight, six Gaudí Awards, and three nominations for the Goya Awards.
As a director and screenwriter, on top of her two feature films, Gimeno has worked on fiction projects such as Canneseries double winner “Vida Perfecta” by Leticia Dolera and “Veneno” by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, their first big international breakout. The creative also frequently works with theater and has co-founded the experimental stage laboratory Els malnascuts at Barcelona’s Sala Beckett, and the artistic collective VVAA.
Speaking with Variety ahead of receiving the award, the filmmaker says the honor is “also so beautiful because the prize is very specific, it feels like a vote of confidence.” Gimeno is referring to how the award was created to highlight professionals with a “promising film career,” with past recipients including some of the young director’s close friends such as Carla Simón and Pilar Palomero.
“Many of my friends also have films premiering at the festival, so I am going to be in town for longer to celebrate with them,” she adds. “Malaga is a festival that takes good care of our cinema and a great festival to prepare films for theatrical release because they work with the press really well. The dates after the festival are great for premiering independent films in Spain, too.”
“Creatura” courtesy of Luxbox
May marks two years since “Creatura” premiered in Cannes but, to Gimeno, it feels just “like last month.” “I was grateful to premiere in such a big festival because so many films are produced and being selected doesn’t depend only on quality,” she adds. “There was a bit of luck there. I’m looking forward to seeing if having a film premiere in Cannes helps with funding my next projects, too.”
And by projects, the filmmaker means two features and a series she is working on concurrently — all with her at the helm as a director. “When I finish promoting a film, I always feel like I am never going to make another one, but right now I am really excited and feeling inspired,” she says. “I am currently dealing with the organization of it all because having three projects going at once isn’t easy, but I’m working on it and hoping to be in hard prep for one of the films over the summer.”
In the time since “Creatura,” Gimeno has dedicated herself widely to acting, having just wrapped shooting David Moreno’s Movistar Plus+ original show “El Centro.” The spy thriller series explores the personal and professional challenges of a group of offices in the Spanish National Intelligence Centre (CNI) and stars Gimeno alongside Juan Diego Botto (“The Room Next Door”), Israel Elejalde (“Parallel Mothers”), and Clara Segura (“The 47”).
The actor recalls the experience as being “amazing.” “I was working with people I admire and we got along with the director so well. I was so grateful to be able to do more of an action project, even if it was a more realistic spy thriller. In cinema, I have often played characters that are emotionally challenging and closer to me somehow, so it was the first time I played someone who had experienced things I can’t even imagine.”
When asked about the current state of Spanish cinema and the strength of female-directed films in the country, Gimeno is quick to say she has been “immensely lucky” to have experienced a “strong sense of community” since she first broke out.
“There was a point when I was the youngest and I felt so protected,” she continues. “Carla Simón premiered ‘Summer 1993’ the same year I premiered ‘Júlia Ist’ and we shared the same distribution company so traveled a lot together. I felt like she was taking care of me. I am so close to so many directors who were coming onto the scene around the same time as I was. Isabel Coixet and Icíar Bollaín might have a different view of this and maybe they have felt alone when they were starting, but I hope they feel less lonely now with all of us here.”
The director is looking forward to seeing work by the next generation of filmmakers premiering at Malaga, highlighting how “if first features work, it means our industry is working.”
“I am rooting for films like Eva Libertad’s ‘Deaf’ and Gemma Blasco’s ‘Fury’ to have great premieres,” she cheers. “I need their movies to go well because we are trying to change the paradigm of what films work and the idea that films made by men work better than films made by women. Spanish female-directed films have done so well in festivals in the last few years and I hope it continues this way. I feel like we are pushing forward and the energy is great.”
