Malaga, on the 2nd of March - The art director Ana Alvargonzález, winner of a Goya Award and who is receiving this Saturday night the Ricardo Franco-Film Academia de Cine award, with which the Festival de Málaga and the Film Academy recognise technicians of the film industry, says that her life is a dream thanks to film.

‘I am in the film industry by chance because at first, I was going to study fine arts, but as there was a cut-off mark I did not enter,  so my second choice was architecture, but eventually I chose audiovisuals. Now I feel very lucky because I think I could not have worked in something else. My work, like film, is an adventure, we live from day to day, that's why I feel so lucky to be in this dream', says the art director in a meeting with the press and public moderated by the Festival director, Juan Antonio Vigar.

For the Goya Award winner in 2011 for her artistic work in the film 'Pa Negre' by Agustí Villaronga, collecting an award that bears the name of a filmmaker with whom she has had the ‘huge opportunity' to have worked with, is 'quite an honour'.

‘Receiving an award here today with his name on it makes me feel very thrilled because Ricardo was amazing, and I have a very nice memory of him, actually of the whole team of the film in general. He directed very well and was very clear about things. I entered the film ('Berlin Blues', 1988) thanks to Gerardo Vera, who was his assistant, and it was filmed in Berlin when the wall was still there. It was all a bit crazy, but at the same time a pleasure’, she recalls.

Alvargonzález (Madrid, 1962) has been nominated for a Goya Award on two more occasions, both in the 90s. The first time was in 1990 in the category of Best Costume Design, for 'La noche oscura', by Carlos Saura, and in 1997 the nomination came for 'La Celestina', by Gerardo Vera.

For the Madrid-born filmmaker, the most important thing when creating her work is the script: 'That's where all the magic comes from. The first reading of the script is essential because that's where you start to dream, you visualize your own film. The second reading, the one you do with the director, is when we put both dreams in common, his and mine, is the most complicated because you see how little by little it falls apart due to the issue of balancing budgets. For an art director to get a script off the ground is a challenge,' she explains.
However, the atrezzo and sets are not only the only work that the art department is responsible for, but also for giving identity to the characters through art. The space and the characters that appear in the film must be specified. When designing a space for a character, their profile is fundamental. We have to know what their personality is like, their profession, their family situation… and from there we create their story,' she says.

She was also in charge of designing the costumes for Ken Loach's ‘Land and Freedom’. But, in addition, she was responsible for the Spanish art direction in twenty episodes of the HBO television series 'Game of Thrones', of which she points out that it has been quite an 'experience' to work with the English art department, since 'everything is pre-designed and previously approved'.

'In this type of productions, the work of the art director is much less creative, and more related to execution and supervision of the construction, you have to be aware of many details. You have to adapt, but you always learn, and it's another wonderful experience,' she notes.