The 38th edition of Cinema Jove will award this year’s ‘Un Futuro de Cine’ award to the young Valencian actress Maria Caballero, who joins the list of now hugely consolidated performers such as Elena Anaya, Marta Etura and Leticia Dolera, who were awarded in the past as emerging talents.

The Valencian actress Maria Caballero studied in the UK and Spain, and she has worked in different national and international film, television and theatre projects. She has participated in films such as ‘Tiempo después’, directed by José Luis Cuerda, and ‘Amar’, by Esteban Crespo. Last year she premiered the series ‘Alma’ and ‘La noche más larga’ on Netflix. In theatre she was nominated in 2019 for best new actress AAPV (Associació d’Actors i Actrius Professionals Valencians) for her work in ‘Fausto’, by Jaume Policarpo.

“I am very happy. I am very grateful for this award. The work of an actress in the cinema is hard, sometimes ungrateful, and very lonely. This recognition gives me the strength to continue. It reaffirms me, because I think it means that I’m doing well, and that’s what people who understand a lot about this tell you”.

A tough journalist

Maria Caballero’s first starring role in film came precisely this year with ‘Olvido’, a period thriller directed by Inés París in which Caballero plays a perceptive journalist who investigates a series of crimes set against the historical backdrop of the flood that inundated the city of Valencia in 1957. Cinema Jove, a festival organised by the Institut Valencià de Cultura, will host the world premiere of this film on Saturday 24th June at 20:00 at the Teatre Principal in Valencia.

“My character in ‘Olvido’ is one of those that interest me as an actress. It is complete, it has layers, motivation, and it is deep. That’s what I’m passionate about and what I look for in film. It is a very important film for me, more valuable every day. I owe Inés París her trust and her sincerity, which is the result of her intelligence and her deep knowledge of cinema”, says Caballero.

The Valencian actress also has the premiere of the North American feature film ‘The First Omen’, directed by Arkasha Stevenson for Walt Disney Studios; the film ‘Influenced’, directed by Fernanda Rossi, and the short film ‘Intercambio’, by Alberto Evangelio.

A versatile actress

I’m sure this will be the first of many more awards,” says Carlos Madrid, director of Cinema Jove. In addition to exuding a great personality, Maria Caballero has already demonstrated her versatility in different registers, thrillers and comedy, in which she has developed with the same naturalness”. “Specifically, in ‘Olvido’ she carries the weight of the film, embodying a brave and determined character who connects with the viewer both in the more daytime and safe passages as well as in the nocturnal and sordid ones”.

It so happens that Maria Caballero shared the screen in 2021 with two other winners of the Un Futuro de Cine Award: Paula Usero and Jorge Silvestre. The three of them starred in the short film ‘Cuando haces pop’, programmed in the last edition of Cinema Jove. “The directors and the producer of this film showed their clinical eye by choosing these three Valencian acting gems”, adds Madrid.