Premio honorífico Muestra de Cine 2024

It is well known that with the advent of the computer revolution, particularly the arrival of personal computers, almost every aspect of our existence has been thrust into a state of perpetual transformation. Hardly a week passes without some fundamental shift in how reality is managed or how we perceive it. Increasingly, we feel the fragility of our world, as concepts we once understood—reality, communication, embodiment, proximity, space and time—are transformed to the point of becoming unrecognizable.

Those who experienced a world where leisure revolved around going to the movies and enjoying a meaningful conversation after the film belong to a historical era that went through some of the most profound changes in history. Their lives, so to speak, straddle two realms: the analogue—home to their deepest emotions and memories—and the digital—a domain they have adapted to by force of necessity, recognizing its many advantages. These individuals possess fascinating minds and bodies that navigate two modes of existence and history: one defined by physical distance and another by absolute ubiquity; one centred on conversation, the other on tweets; one marked by unidirectional reception and the other by multidirectional communication networks. Two worlds that seem to be diverging at an astonishing pace, each with its own merits worth acknowledging.

This year, Muestra de Cine de Lanzarote’s Honorary Award—an accolade given to individuals, institutions or companies that enable cinema to thrive as a high-quality art form, focusing on those outside the more visible professions like acting or directing—goes to a company that has managed to strike an extraordinary balance between these two realities. FILMIN, the first Spanish online film distribution platform, has embraced the legacy of a time when cinema was an experience of knowledge, analysis and debate. Simultaneously, it has engaged with the rapid, hyper-connected flows of the present, ensuring that the beauty, intelligence and necessity of cinema reach a much broader audience through modern networks.

FILMIN has brought the best films, both historical and contemporary, into tens of thousands of homes. It has worked tirelessly to ensure that those who once could not spend a weekend without visiting the country’s finest cinemas can still access those masterpieces—and discover the new ones being created today. For its remarkable ability to bridge the finest works of cinema with a democratizing impulse in their dissemination, FILMIN joins the distinguished roster of past honourees: Margrit and Peter Sickert, Claudio Utrera, Cahiers du Cinéma, L’Immagine Ritrovata, and the San Antonio de los Baños School of Film and Television. Our deepest gratitude and unwavering support go to FILMIN as it continues to carry out its essential mission.