MASTERCLASS: ALBERT SERRA

(Photo by Marvin Ruppert)

Albert Serra will be honored with the Le vie dell’immagine Award, now in its third year and assigned by Cinematografo in accord with Giornate degli Autori. The prize goes to artists who employ a variety of visual media in their work. After Shirin Neshat and Marjane Satrapi, the award now honors Albert Serra, a filmmaker who has challenged the existence of boundaries more than others have, finding revelation in blending genres and making exploration, risks, and creative freedom his bywords.

From his very first films, from Quixotic and Birdsong upt to titles such as Story of My Death, The Death of Louis XIV, Liberté, and Pacifiction, Serra has pondered history, mythology, and the present through the filter of his radical, innovative gaze. His credits range from films, installations, and performance art to projects like dOCUMENTA, showcased at international events and Europe’s leading museums. A hallmark of his poetics is his attention to time, bodies, and details – elements that become tools of knowledge and reflection.

The bestowal of the 2025 Le vie dell’immagine Award on Albert Serra is in recognition of the originality of his career, which has broadened the frontiers of film and visual media. The award ceremony will be held on September 4th at noon in the Sala Laguna, followed by a talk with the filmmaker moderated by Marcos Uzal, editor-in-chief of Cahiers du Cinéma. The partnering between Cinematografo and Giornate degli Autori strengthens the dialogue between film and the visual arts and validating its role in the contemporary cultural scene. The award ceremony becomes an opportunity to reflect on this synergy and a celebration of the meeting of diverse media and forms of creative expression.

Albert Serra (Banyoles, 1975) made his directorial debut in 2003, with the film Crespià, the Film not the Village, about a Catalan village in the summer, and followed that up with Quixotic (2006) and Birdsong (2008), original takes on Don Quixote and the Nativity story. In 2010, he directed Els noms de Crist, a fourteen-episode TV series commissioned by Barcelona’s MACBA. The Lord Worked Wonders in Me (2011), a sort of making-of for a film that doesn’t exist, preceded Story of My Death (2013), which revisited the legend of Casanova – and crossed it with that of Dracula – winning the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival. In 2015, Serra created an installation lasting thirteen hours, about the origins of the sacred (Singularity), which was screened as a separate event at the 56th Venice Biennale. In 2016, he directed The Death of Louis XIV, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, among others, followed by Roi Soleil (2018). In 2019, his film Liberté premiered at Cannes and won the Special Jury Award. His 2022 film Pacifiction also competed at Cannes. Afternoons of Solitude premiered at San Sebastián, where it received the Golden Seashell for Best Film.

Selected filmography
2024 Tardes de soledad
2022 Pacifiction
2019 Liberté
2018 Roi Soleil
2016 La mort de Louis XIV
2013 Història de la meva mort
2011 El Senyor ha fet en mi meravelles
2008 El cant dels ocells
2006 Honor de Cavalleria
2003 Crespià