The journalist María Guerra (Madrid, 1965), a historic voice of cinema in La Ser for 25 years, has been president of the Association of Film Informants of Spain (AICE) since 2018, an entity that awards the Feroz awards, awards with ten years of life whose gala will be held this Saturday, January 28 in Zaragoza. The films As bestas, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and Cinco lobitos, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, as well as the series La ruta, start as favorites in an edition in which Pedro Almodóvar will receive the Feroz de Honor.
After almost five years at the helm of the IAEC, what is your assessment of your tenure?
I arrive at the Feroz awards when they are already established. They start in 2013, which is the time when the digital unequivocally broke into journalism and questioned a little the hegemony of traditional criticism. They were founded by a group of angry young men. I was there, I knew them and I signed up. These years that I have been president have really been easy, in the sense that it was to consolidate a community of journalists of all kinds, from large newspapers such as La Vanguardia, El País or El Mundo, with digital people who have always carried the label of being peripherals. I think that in my capacity as a classic radio journalist, and now freelance, I feel part of that community and I like to represent it. It seems to me that we are having a voice and that more than a voice it is a look at the sides of the industry, at new faces and genres, at non-regulatory bodies. It is a slightly punk, quinqui, look that has been established and that the digital world has allowed. I am a veteran older than the founders and I have jumped on this bandwagon with joy and enthusiasm despite the fact that there have been difficult moments like Victoria Abril’s. You give an award to an actress for a wonderful career and suddenly she says that Covid is nonsense. But the balance has been good as part of a group that is going forward.
There are already 250 journalists…
Yes. And despite the fact that we copy the Golden Globes, its category of drama, comedy and television series and quinqui dinner format, we are an association in motion. Every year we receive proposals from new colleagues, an evaluation is made of the media they are in, their audience and that they are professionals, and it is an association in progress. We represent various sensibilities within journalism.
Why do you think that awards like the Feroz are necessary today?
We knew how to see that reality was changing. The awards were born without series and in 2017 it already seemed to us that it was impossible not to look at television series on an equal footing with films and we incorporated them. And people like Los Javis appeared. This year we have incorporated the television series script award and I think that our success as journalists is to know how to detect change and accept it. If it doesn’t go well, transform it.
Los Feroz are known as the prelude to the Goya, but the winners are not usually the same as those awarded by the Spanish Film Academy. Is it something that is sought on purpose?
Being a democracy and being transparent, it is something that is sought but not always found. Last year we gave the award to Petra Martínez for her role in La vida era eso and at the Goya it was Blanca Portillo. I think we were wise enough to reward a great actress, who also later won the National Theater Award and gave a ferocious speech. We do seek to compensate, because our gaze is not an industry gaze. We have no commitment to the industry. Many times the Goyas vote for the alluvium as The Good Patron. We are more independent and in our role as journalists we have a broader perspective and we see many more films than academics.
How do you see the current situation of the job of film reporter?
I think that film reporters are overwhelmed and precarious. The Internet is an endless bonfire and we are in danger of feeding this monster without thinking. And that need to add fuel to the fire is economically precarious and quality precarious. Without being a union, we have to make an effort to make it clear that film journalists have to be independent and have working conditions, analysis conditions. I think we are living in a difficult time, but since we are journalists, we are here and we are telling the industry. Because it is very important that the industry knows that it needs well-fed journalists with the necessary time to analyze their work. And let them know that we are not publicists, we are journalists. We interview, we criticize and we need working conditions, independence and economic dignity that is not always available.
How will the ceremony on Saturday be? Will there be any special surprises for the tenth anniversary?
There will be surprises that they haven’t even told me. I have a reputation for big mouths! There are unknowns regarding the presenters and then this tenth edition has aroused a lot of interest due to the presence of Pedro Almodóvar, who finally accepts our Feroz de Honor. On Friday afternoon he will come to Zaragoza, to the Mozart room of the Municipal Auditorium, with 1,900 seats, to give a master class that will be broadcast via streaming. It is true that the presence of Almodóvar, who is a ferocious man who has been delaying the award for one reason or another, is going to give the gala a lot of power. In addition, I know that he is excited and that there will be a good speech.
Why have you chosen Zaragoza as the venue for the gala for the second consecutive year?
Actually, it is the cities that choose us. We do a gala that costs a lot of money because we have 900 guests who have to be brought from different cities and put up for one night. The city of Zaragoza has put the money on the condition that it was not just a gala, a red carpet, but that during the year there would be events at the Filmoteca around cinema and the industry. In summer we have made a campus called La inmortal and the fact of repeating it has worked very well because the people of Zaragoza are very moviegoers and have gone to all the cycles and meetings that have been scheduled. I think that the Zaragoza City Council has been a success in proposing to expand the events and overflow the red carpet. It has been a love story that has gone very well, but we live from day to day and we are already looking for a girlfriend for next year.
The gala will be broadcast again on YouTube. Why doesn’t any television channel want to sponsor it?
It began to be done on YouTube since 2019 due to the absence of televisions, which do not see it. That time it was held in Bilbao and it was perceived as a defeat. However, the public is on Youtube. It is a diverse, international public and what was born as a weakness has become a strength. Youtube gives us a lot of freedom. We try to have the gala in two hours, so that it is not a brick, but we have no commitment or vigilance, so being poor on this occasion has been very good for us. You have to approach the public as it is. If the televisions do not see it, the public sees it on YouTube and we are delighted that it is so.
How do you assess the harvest of Spanish cinema and series of 2022?
I think it has been exceptional and very reflective. It has been a very brilliant harvest that has served as a hyperbolic reflection of our society and of the society that has emerged from the pandemic, which looks to the countryside in search of salvation, but then the cinema puts everything in its place. In cinema it has been a very juicy harvest that tells us a lot about who we are and then we have a wonderful presence of female directors who are here to stay. On television, and in general, we see non-regulatory bodies like Fácil or Piggy and I think that the cinema looks at real life.
What are the challenges for the IAEC in the future?
We have to continue being film journalists without being masters or afraid of criticism, or letting ourselves be bought by trips or gifts. The challenge is to be independent and continue being journalists. I think that the platforms and the big conglomerates are a bit on the hunt for the journalist, to treat him well and seduce him. Therefore, independence is the greatest challenge of our profession.
