'El 47' and 'Marco' star wins 2025 National Cinematography Award

Eduard Fernández has been awarded the 2025 National Cinematography Award, a recognition handed out annually by the Spanish Culture Ministry, which comes with a cash prize of €30,000.

The jury unanimously chose the actor "for being one of the most outstanding actors" in contemporary Spanish cinema.

They chose him for "two excellent performances in two completely different films," referring to 'El 47', a film that depicts a man's fight to bring public transport to his Barcelona neighbourhood, and 'Marco', the dramatization of the life of Enric Marco, the fake concentration camp victim.

In addition to starring in two of the biggest hits in the Spanish box office last year, he made his directorial debut with the short film 'El otro'.

The National Cinematography Award intends to reward excellent contributions to Spanish cinematograph, and is usually presented within the framework of the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Biography

Eduard Fernández combines his work as an actor in theater, cinema and television.

His theater career is linked to Els Joglats, where he worked for four years performing works such as 'Columbi Lapsus' or 'Yo tengo un tío en América'. At the Teatre Lliure he worked under Calixto Bieito and Lluís Pasqual with several classics by Shakespeare and Molière, which he combined with modern repertoire such as 'Krampack'.

He made his screen debut playing twin brothers in 'Zapping', while his career shifted more towards cinema with 'Washington Wolves' in 1999.

He has won four Goya awards, the Spanish film academy awards, for his roles in 'Fausto 5.0' in 2001; 'In The City' in 2003; 'While At War' in 2019; and 'Marco' in 2025. He is the second most awarded performer of these awards.

Podcasts

In our podcast, Filling the Sink, we have covered the stories of both 'El 47' and 'Marco' in the past year. 

The Catalan capital on the Mediterranean coast has always been a city that attracts immigration, whether people come in search of a better job, a better life, or just an adventure. Barcelona inhabitants - old and new -  are also known as people who are always ready to fight for their rights. The latest movie, ‘El 47’, tells one of these stories.

Meanwhile, Barcelona-born Enric Marco was celebrated as a survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, being awarded Catalonia’s highest civil distinction, the Creu de Sant Jordi, publicly sharing his experiences and even representing a survivors’ association.

However, in 2005, the historian Benito Bermejo discovered that Marco’s life story was a monumental lie.

Although he spent time in Germany during World War II, Marco was never held prisoner in Flossenbürg concentration camp as he claimed; in reality he voluntarily worked for the German war machine. Since then a lot has been published on the subject; there is a book by Javier Cercas, two films and endless media reports. But the question still remains - what led Marco to weave such a complicated web of lies?