The screenwriter, producer and director Lola Salvador reclaimed the figure of the screenwriter this Monday, 17 March, when she received the Ricardo Franco Award, which the Festival de Málaga has awarded in collaboration with the Film Academy for the seventeenth consecutive year. Salvador, one of the most influential figures in Spanish cinema in recent decades, stated that "if anyone can wake up this anaesthetised society, it will be the screenwriters, the writers, the people who communicate".

The filmmaker Fernando León de Aranoa, the screenwriter Carlos Molinero, the screenwriter and president of DAMA, Virginia Yagüe, the casting director Cecilia Bayonas and Lola Franco, daughter of Ricardo Franco, a great friend of the honoree, accompanied Lola Salvador on the stage of the Teatro Cervantes, recalling the influence she has had on their careers.

In the traditional meeting of the honorees with Juan Antonio Vigar, director of the Festival de Málaga, the screenwriter reviewed her long career and analysed the current situation of screenwriters and writers. Salvador is a founding member of key institutions in the field of film, including the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, ALMA (Screenwriters' Union), DAMA (Audiovisual Media Authors' Rights) and SOURCES (MEDIA Project to support European screenwriters).

Salvador considers that the job of screenwriters "has been getting worse" in recent years, reaffirming his conviction that "the writer is the one who writes", as opposed to other current figures such as showrunners, and recalling the threat to screenwriting in the form of technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. In this respect, Salvador played down the importance of the emergence of this type of technology that goes by the name of 'intelligence': "What horrifies me are tanks, bombs and inventions that kill".

Salvador, who is not fond of tributes, recalled that she accepted the award, among other reasons, because it bears the name of her great friend Ricardo Franco. "This award has also given rise to something very beautiful between myself and his daughter [in reference to Lola Franco], with many conversations in which we have remembered her father".

Lola Salvador (Barcelona, 1938) is a key figure in contemporary Spanish culture, standing out as a writer, screenwriter, director, producer and teacher. Throughout her career, she has left a deep mark on Spanish cinema with emblematic scripts such as 'El Crimen de Cuenca' and 'Las Bicicletas son para el Verano', in which she tackles complex subjects with a very courageous and human approach. Her work has been instrumental in capturing universal emotions and creating powerful narratives, making her one of the most influential film professionals in the field.

She has received numerous awards and distinctions, such as the Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts, the National Film Award and the Simone de Beauvoir Award. The DAMA

Lola Salvador Screenplay Award was established in her honour, the highest prize in Spain. The Festival de Málaga now joins this list with the award named after her great friend in recognition of her tireless contribution to cinema.