Gerardo Herrero Receives the Elías Querejeta Award in San Sebastián
“For a film to succeed, it needs a creative triangle: a good screenwriter, a good producer and a good director,” he said in his acceptance speech.
“He is a great reader, a music lover, an indefatigable consumer of films and series, always thinking about the next story to tell. His passion is contagious, and he devotes a tremendous amount of his time to the audiovisual community, always striving for a more ambitious, more international cinema—a diverse cinema, with stories rooted in society, history and people.”
With these words, producer Mariela Besuievski described Gerardo Herrero as she presented the veteran Madrid-born producer and director with the fourth Elías Querejeta Award. The distinction was presented by Fernando Méndez-Leite, president of the Spanish Film Academy, during the San Sebastián Festival.
Visibly moved, Herrero, producer of more than 180 feature films and founder of Tornasol, a company that for almost four decades has served as a cinematic bridge between Spain and Latin America, thanked the institution for bestowing on him the Elías Querejeta Award. The prize recognizes producers who take creative risks in their work, championing the internationalization of Spanish cinema and the careers of emerging filmmakers.
“Besides, this award bears the name of Elías, with whom I shared a long friendship, from almost the very beginning of my career as a producer until his death,” he stressed. One of the most active figures in Spanish cinema, Herrero used the occasion to put some numbers to his long career.
He has given 36 emerging filmmakers their first opportunities and backed 181 films, including 71 Spanish productions, 63 co-productions with Latin America and 49 with Europe. “For a film to succeed, it needs a creative triangle: a good screenwriter, a good producer and a good director,” said the producer behind such landmark titles as The Secret in Their Eyes, The Son of the Bride, Martin (Hache), Guantanamera, Land and Freedom, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Madregilda, The Chambermaid on the Titanic, Sin Noticias de Dios, In the City, Tetro, The Last Circus, 15 Years and One Day, The Man Who Killed Don Quixote and The Realm, among many other projects.
Herrero also added another side to this creative triangle in his career: film policy. A former president of FAPAE, Secretary General of FIPCA, creator of the Ibermedia programme, and vice-president and president of the Spanish Film Academy, he explained that the Ibero-American screenwriting development programme he founded has led to the production of 156 films since 2003.
He also recalled how he secured the legal requirement for television networks to invest 5% of their revenues in cinema, a law he helped promote; explained how ECAM—the Madrid Film School—was established, which he helped launch alongside Tedy Villalba; described his role in driving tax incentives for the film industry; and outlined his support for the creation of CREA SGR, which has guaranteed loans amounting to €220 million.
