The Festival de Málaga in its 28th edition (March 14th to 23rd) will grant the Málaga – Sur Award to actress Carmen Machi. The Festival recognizes with this award, given in collaboration with Diario Sur, to professionals with a long and recognized career in cinema, such as Carmen Machi, one of the most beloved actresses in the Spanish audiovisual landscape.

Madrid-born Carmen Machi began her theatre career at the age of 17 with the Taormina company from Getafe. After turning thirty, she joined the La Abadía theater company-school under the direction of José Luis Gómez, where she performed in works such as María Sarmiento (1998) and Retablo de la avaricia, la lujuria y la muerte (1995-2000). It was during one of her performances at La Abadía in 2000, The Merchant of Venice, that Luis San Narciso gave her the chance to make a guest appearance on the series 7 vidas as Aída García. The character was so well-received that she began appearing regularly on the show, eventually becoming a main character and later starring in her own spinoff series, Aída, which premiered in 2005. She remained on the series for three years before leaving to pursue other projects.

Carmen's departure from the successful TV series coincided with two of her major works: in theatre with La tortuga de Darwin by Juan Mayorga (2008-2009) and in film with Pedro Almodóvar's Broken Embraces (2009), where Almodóvar invited her back after their collaboration on Talk to Her (2002). Since then, Carmen Machi's film career gradually flourished. Her first lead role in cinema came through Javier Rebollo in The Woman Without a Piano (2009), followed by Pájaros de papel (2010), Emilio Aragón's first feature film, and Que se mueran los feos (2010) by Nacho García Velilla.

At the same time, Machi continued to consolidate her presence in theatre, from Platonov (2009) to Falstaff (2011), passing through productions like Almuerzo en casa de los Wittgenstein (2010-2011). Between 2011 and 2012, she starred in Agosto alongside Amparo Baró. In 2011, Machi returned to television, both as a special guest on Aída for several brief appearances and in the miniseries Rescatando a Sara, directed by Manuel Ríos San Martín. 2012 was an intense year for her theatre career, with the premieres of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Juicio a una zorra, a monologue by Miguel del Arco. The following year, she returned to film with La Estrella and worked again with Almodóvar in The Skin I Live In. She also appeared in Spain’s highest-grossing film, Ocho apellidos vascos (2014), directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, a role that earned her the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2015. That same year, she returned for its sequel, Ocho apellidos catalanes.

In 2016, she starred in films such as Rumbos by Manuela Burló Moreno, the successful Villaviciosa de al lado, where she collaborated again with García Velilla, and La puerta abierta by Marina Seresesky, among others. In theatre, she participated in productions like Los Mácbez (2014) by Andrés Lima and Antígona (2015-2017) by Miguel del Arco.
In 2017, she was awarded the Gold Medal by the city of Madrid. She also premiered El bar by Álex de la Iglesia and Pieles, the first feature film by Eduardo Casanova. In 2018, she starred in La tribu by Fernando Colomo and Thi Mai by Patricia Ferreira.

In 2019, she took part in the second part of the successful comedy Perdiendo el norte, Perdiendo el este, directed by Paco Caballero, and starred in Lo nunca visto by Marina Seresesky. Additionally, she appeared in the Netflix series Criminal: España and joined the cast of the Movistar+ series Vida perfecta, which continued into its second season in 2021.

In 2020, she appeared in Isabel Coixet’s Nieva en Benidorm. She also made a special cameo in HBO's series 30 monedas, directed by Álex de la Iglesia, for which she was nominated for a Feroz Award for Best Supporting Actress in a Series. The following year, she premiered the feature film El Cover, directed by Secun de la Rosa, and her starring role in the Netflix original film Amor de madre, released in April 2022. In addition to the Netflix film, she premiered several other features that year: Cerdita, Carlota Pereda's debut film; Rainbow, a musical film for Netflix directed by Paco León; Llenos de gracia, a comedy by Roberto Bueso; and La voluntaria, a political drama directed by Nely Reguera.

In September 2023, she joined the cast of the television series La mesías, directed by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for the Movistar+ platform. This same platform released the miniseries Celeste, directed by Diego San José and Elena Trapé, in November 2024, in which she plays the lead role.