MARTA VELASCO, 'FRANCISCO ELÍAS' AWARD AT THE ISLANTILLA FESTIVAL: “THE NEW ANDALUSIAN FILM ACADEMY WAS ALREADY AN INESIDIBLE TOOL TO PROJECT THE ENORMOUS POTENTIAL OF THE ANDALUSIAN AUDIOVISUAL INDUSTRY”.

The constituent president of the new institution that will mark the future of the Seventh Art made south of Despeñaperros will receive tonight the highest award of the Huelva exhibition The Sevillian producer Marta Velasco this morning held a meeting with the press a few hours after the Festival Under the Moon International Film Festival - Islantilla Cinefórum pays tribute to him in the context of the Inauguration Gala of its fourteenth edition, which will take place tonight in the gardens of the Hotel Estival Islantilla, the official venue of this film exhibition stranded on the shores of Huelva's Atlantic , between the municipalities of Isla Cristina and Lepe.

Velasco, who has been supported in this act by the island's Deputy Mayor, Isabel López; by his lepero counterpart, Jesús Toronjo; and by the director of the Festival, Esteban Magaz; has been visibly moved when thanking a recognition "that bears the name of a pioneer Andalusian like Francisco Elías, the first Spaniard to make a sound film, which is a symbol and a responsibility", and has dedicated this award "especially to the person who has supported me the most in my career and who has believed in me the most: my mother; She told me that if I was clear about my dream, I should fight and work hard for it; today, with this tribute to my professional career, I can't help but remember her ”.

The one who is, in addition, constituent president of the recently created Andalusian Film Academy, has referred to this new institution as “a tool that was already unavoidable to position the Andalusian industry in the place it deserves due to the enormous national potential and international that he has ”, and he also had words of thanks for the members of his Board of Directors, some of them attending the event, such as his vice-presidents, the actress Mercedes Hoyos and the president of ASECAN, Lourdes Palacios; or the director Benito Zambrano.

The Deputy Mayor of Isla Cristina, Isabel López, thanked the honoree "for accepting this award given to her by a young festival, with only fourteen editions behind her, but in a very short time she has been able to take the pulse of the industry and project the name of Islantilla to the five continents, with figures as forceful as the more than 1,400 works registered in its Official Competition Section in the midst of a pandemic, when film production has been diminished throughout the world ”.

For his part, the Deputy Mayor of Lepe, Jesús Toronjo, has reiterated “the support of institutions such as the Islantilla Commonwealth to the cinema and professionals of the Andalusian audiovisual industry, because from the first moment we understood that the pandemic could not paralyze the culture and that this Festival should continue, even if its security measures had to be adapted, because today it is the most important cultural offer on the entire coast of Huelva ”.

Finally, the director of the show, Esteban Magaz, recalled Marta Velasco's brilliant professional career through production, “in which she began in 2004 with her partner Gonzalo Bendala with the producer Áralan Films, leaving for the posterity outstanding national and international works ”. Magaz has defined her as "a purebred producer, on the shoot", and has expressed her admiration "for a woman who fights for each of the projects she embarks on, feeling it as her own".

Among Marta Velasco's most celebrated works are titles such as Out of doors, by Benito Zambrano (2019); Who will sing to you, by Carlos Vermut (2018); Oro, by Agustín Díaz Yanes (2017); The wild children, by Patricia Ferreira (2012); as well as the two titles by Gonzalo Bendala: When the Angels Sleep (2018) and Innocent Assassins (2015). Velasco is currently immersed in the production of the feature film La Manebra de la Tortuga, by Juan Miguel del Castillo, a work that he combines with the creation, as of 2022, of the Carmen Awards, which will be awarded by the new Andalusian film institution, and of which he has declared that "he was born with great enthusiasm and great desire, but above all with the most beautiful thing we have: the love we have for the cinema."

Marta Velasco was chosen in 2014 by the European Film Promotion and the ICAA as the Spanish representative on the Producers on the Movie platform, participating in the Cannes Festival among a total of twenty-four emerging European producers. In 2019, the Andalusian Association of Cinematographic Writers and Writers (ASECAN) awarded her the Josefina Molina Prize, an award that highlights the work of Andalusian women filmmakers. Other outstanding awards for his filmography are the Golden Biznaga at the Malaga Film Festival for Los Niños Wild (2012); the Feroz Zinemaldia Award at the San Sebastián Festival for Who will sing to you; or the Goya nomination for Best Film for Outdoors (2019).