A two-time Goya Award winner and one of the most prolific actors on the national cinema stage, Karra Elejalde will receive the Honor Award at the twentieth edition of the Alicante International Film Festival. The Basque actor, with more than three decades of experience, will accept this honor during the festival’s opening ceremony on June 3 at the Principal Theater in Alicante, where he will share the spotlight on screen with director Alejandro Amenábar in While the War Keeps Going. Elejalde will also be recognized with the Lucentum Award. The Ciudad de Alicante Prize, the festival’s third honorary award for an emerging actor or actress, remains to be announced next week.
The actor is known for his work in major comedies such as Airbag and multiple Basque productions. He expressed his excitement, noting that festivals lie at the heart of the industry. He described how many filmmakers began their journeys in festivals and how those events nurtured today’s cinema. He cited directors like Jaume Balagueró, Nacho Vigalondo, Álex de la Iglesia, and Julio Medem as examples of talents whose careers started in festival environments, underscoring that festivals serve as a vital breeding ground for future filmmakers. Elejalde emphasized that festivals are beneficial for the industry and pledged his continued support for events like Alicante.
The festival’s Honorary Award is presented to actors and actresses for a professional career in Spanish cinema. In prior editions, the award has gone to Susi Sánchez and others such as Kit Mánver, Pedro Casablanc, Imanol Arias, Blanca Portillo, José Sancho, Juan Echanove, Ángela Molina, Antonio Resines, and Maribel Verdú, among others. Vicente Seva, director of the Alicante Film Festival, remarked, “We are grateful that Karra Elejalde will join our festival for this anniversary. To honor Karra Elejalde is to honor a symbolic and Maverick actor whose performances linger in our memory across a wide range of characters.” He added that sharing the night with Alejandro Amenábar, as he presents one of his latest roles in While the War Keeps Going, will make the moment even more meaningful.
Karra Elejalde and Alejandro Amenábar on the set of While at War is highlighted in festival materials.
award-winning
Born in Vitoria-Gasteiz in 1960, Karra Elejalde has built a long and diverse career spanning more than thirty years. He began acting in cinema alongside directors such as Juanma Bajo Ulloa and Julio Medem, appearing in films like Butterfly Wings (1991), Cow (1992), Dead Mother (1993), Red Squirrel (1993), and Black (1996), which earned him Best Actor at the Aubagne Festival in France and the hit Airbag (1996).
These early collaborations helped solidify him as a benchmark in Spanish cinema. He appeared in works like Kika (1993, Pedro Almodóvar), Mutant Action (1993, Alex de la Iglesia), Days Numbered (1994, Imanol Uribe), Jump into the Void (1995, Daniel Calparsoro), and Anonymous (1999, Jaume Balagueró). Since then, Elejalde has continued to work across film and, at times, behind the camera as a writer and director, with two films to his credit, Marian Year (1999) and Therapy (2004).
He collaborated again in 2010 with Icíar Bollaín on Rain, sharing the screen with Luis Tosar and Gael García Bernal, a project that earned him the Goya Award for Best Supporting Actor. In 2014, his role in Eight Basque Surnames, directed by Emilio Martínez-Lázaro, brought a major commercial breakthrough and a second Goya for Best Supporting Actor, followed by a sequel a year later titled Eight Catalan Surnames. His performance in 100 Meters (Marcel Barrena, 2016) showcased his range in dramatic comedy and earned him another Goya nomination. Other notable credits include work with Antonio Cuadri and recent titles like Bastards, God Help It, and other collaborations with filmmakers such as Curro Velázquez.
In 2019, he appeared in Alejandro Amenábar’s film While the War Keeps Going. His portrayal of philosopher Miguel de Unamuno earned recognition from the Actors Guild and the Gaudí Awards, along with nominations for the most prestigious prizes in the industry.
Recent studies
Among his more recent projects is a film titled Under the Zero, directed by Luis Quilez, which premiered on a major streaming platform to global success. Other recent titles include Polygamy for Beginners directed by Fernando Kolomo, They Came at Night directed by Imanol Uribe, Father Life directed by Joaquin Mason, Vasil from the director Avelina Prat, and Kings vs Saint directed by Paco Caballero. Upcoming projects include Kepler Sixth and The Sound of the Sun by Carol Polakoff.
His television work includes serials such as Tomorrow, directed by Mariano Barroso, and Fortune, with Alejandro Amenábar’s first series on television also in development.