The Lanzarote Film Festival's Honorary Award recognizes each year those who have contributed, from different fields, to sustaining and enriching the life of cinema. People, groups, and institutions that, with their work and commitment, have made cinema a form of knowledge, memory, and encounter.
If in previous years this award has been received by the prestigious French magazine Cahiers du Cinema, the L'Immagine Ritrovata conservation center, or the San Antonio de los Baños film school in Cuba, this 15th edition of the Film Showcase pays tribute to the Teatre Éden, considered the oldest operating cinema in the world.
Inaugurated in 1889 in La Ciotat, in the south of France, this historic venue was the scene of the first screenings by the Lumière brothers and has maintained, for over a century, an unwavering commitment to the art of cinema and its public, social, and cultural dimension.
According to the director of the Film Festival, Javier Fuentes Feo, the Éden Theatre represents "a symbol of continuity between the birth of the seventh art and its present. Its survival and vitality are also a reminder that cinema, beyond technology or formats, remains a shared and profoundly human experience."
The award, which will be collected by representatives of this emblematic cinema, will be one of the most special wines from El Grifo wineries, which year after year seals its alliance with the Film Festival. The choice responds to the link between the vineyard and the territory and to the decision of the organizing association, Tenique Cultural, to offer something intended for enjoyment and celebration rather than a purely decorative piece.