Josefina Molina

Film director, screenwriter, television director and theater director born in Córdoba in 1936. A pioneer of Spain’s women’s cinema (she was the first woman to graduate as a film director from the Official School of Cinematography), she began her professional career in 1964 when she joined Spain’s public broadcaster TVE, where she directed all kinds of programmes as a director/producer. She created emblematic series like ‘El camino’ or ‘Entre naranjos’ and developed a career marked by creative rigor. Her most outstanding work for Spain’s public television was the TV series ‘St. Teresa of Avila’, starring Concha Velasco and premiered at the Valladolid Festival in 1984 in the section named ‘The TV Series of the Year’. After directing five short films, in 1973 she made her first feature, ‘Vera, a cruel story’, which was followed by ‘Evening Performance’ (1981), the period drama ‘Esquilache’ (1989), based on the play by Antonio Buero Vallejo ‘A Dreamer for the People’, ‘The Most Natural Thing ‘ (1991, awarded a Goya for Best Original Soundtrack) and ‘La Lola se va a los puertos’ (1993). In 2000, the 45th edition of Seminci dedicated a retrospective to her film work and presented her with an Honorary Spike, in addition to publishing her book of memoirs ‘Sentada en un rincón’ (‘Sitting in a corner’). In June 2006, Spain’s Council of Ministers granted her the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts and in 2012 she received the Honorary Goya Award. On the other hand, the Spanish Television Academy presented her in 2003 with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, she founded, with filmmakers Isabel Coixet and Icíar Bollaín, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Media Creators (CIMA), in which she served as honorary chairwoman. In March 2015, she was elected full member of the New Visual Arts section at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando. She was recently awarded the Ministry of Culture’s National Film Award for 2019.