D’A 2025 Award
Joanna Hogg is a filmmaker closely linked to D’A ever since the festival programmed one of her films in Spain for the first time in 2013—Exhibition. In 2023, we dedicated a Focus to her body of work, and in 2025, we are proud to present her with the D’A Award, in recognition of one of the most invigorating voices in contemporary cinema. As we recalled during the Focus, Hogg was a late arrival to the world of filmmaking. After graduating with her short Caprice (1986)—a cult fantasy starring a then-unknown Matilda Swinton—she spent many years directing for television before venturing into her debut feature, Unrelated (2007). From that very first film, Hogg has portrayed the female experience as one marked by a sense of dislocation—a dislocation that also reflects her position within cinema itself. First, as a middle-aged woman who—like the protagonist of The Souvenir (2019) and The Souvenir Part II (2021)—has travelled a long road to find her own voice. Then, through her uncommon class perspective. Rather than aligning with Britain’s deep-rooted tradition of social realism, films like Archipelago (2010) observe, from within, the fractures and discomforts of privileged environments. Her lineage lies more with the modernity of Éric Rohmer, Ulrike Ottinger, and Michelangelo Antonioni (in Exhibition, she proves no one today films modern architecture quite like she does) than with the Free Cinema movement. Her films unfold with a refined, intimate aesthetic, beneath which flow currents of irony and self-awareness. And as her career progresses—with titles like The Eternal Daughter (2022), and shorter pieces like Présages (2023) and Autobiografia di una Borsetta (2025)—it becomes ever more evident: we are witnessing a filmmaker growing bolder by the year, and one who will continue to astonish us. Let’s celebrate that!
-Eulàlia Iglesias
