• Cinema Jove honours actress Priscilla Delgado with the ‘A Future in Cinema’ Award amid her international breakthrough
• The festival will present the award to the actress tomorrow at the closing gala of its 41st edition

This year, Cinema Jove recognises actress Priscilla Delgado with its A Future in Cinema Award. During a meeting with the audience held this morning at Teatro Principal, she highlighted the importance of preparation and family support throughout her career.

The award will be presented tomorrow, 27 June, at the festival’s closing gala, an event that will be attended by the Director General for Culture, Ignacio Prieto, and the Deputy Director of Audiovisuals and Cinematography at the Valencian Institute of Culture (IVC), Luis Gosálbez.

With this recognition, the festival reinforces its commitment to emerging talent. Regarding this year’s award recipient, Cinema Jove director María Albiñana stated: “Priscilla represents two values that define this festival: the determination to keep growing, exploring and reinventing oneself over time, and the commitment to hard work, perseverance and constant learning as the path to excellence.”

Delgado’s talent has secured her a solid artistic evolution within the contemporary audiovisual landscape. Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Spain, the actress began her acting career at a very young age. Audiences first discovered her in the television series Los protegidos (2010), when she was only seven years old.

Since then, her view of the profession has evolved. Delgado recalls her beginnings as “a game driven by innocence and complete ignorance”, which has gradually transformed into a profound “sense of responsibility” as she has taken on adult roles.

“Sometimes, growing up in an environment with enormous expectations is not the best place to develop with confidence. I have been fortunate to do so in Spain alongside very grounded people who took care of the process, but the industry is made up of very rough seas. If one day this is no longer healthy for me, I hope I will have the confidence to walk away, because nothing is worth that much and it is possible to grow in other spaces,” she reflected.

When building her characters, she prefers to distance herself from her own personal experiences: “I have come to understand that it does not work for me to act from my own experiences or traumas. For me, it is always more important to explore the character and work from the script. The healthiest approach is to rely on the material.”

The role models of a child actress

As an actress who grew up on film sets, Priscilla Delgado admits she has always been fascinated by films starring children such as The 400 Blows (François Truffaut, 1959), The Tin Drum (Volker Schlöndorff, 1979) and Life Is Beautiful (Roberto Benigni, 1997), drawn by “how a child suddenly has to grow up and is overwhelmed by circumstances.”

Along the way, the actress emphasises that she never forgets those who helped her, protected her and helped her grow. Among those names are directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, with whom she worked on Julieta (2016), and Pablo Berger, under whose direction she appeared in Abracadabra (2017).

“It is inspiring to meet people with such fascinating inner worlds. I always take part in the creative process with humility, as someone who is learning and listening,” the young but experienced actress pointed out. “Listening is something that must be practised from a very young age so that egos are set aside.”

A family move to Los Angeles

Her international projection was firmly established with her role in the American series A League of Their Own (2022). From that experience, she highlights her co-star Roberta Colindrez, who acted as a mentor by showing her “how things worked there” in such a different market, reinforcing her belief that it is vital for actresses to continue “supporting one another.”

Since then, she has established herself as one of the young actresses of her generation with the greatest international potential, demonstrating maturity and remarkable versatility in both film and television.

She currently stands out as one of the major revelations of the third and final season of the series Euphoria, joining the cast of established young actors in one of the great breeding grounds of contemporary television fiction.

After training at acting schools in Los Angeles and working again with Juan Carlos Corazza to acquire key tools for her recent role in the series created by Sam Levinson for HBO Max, the actress is convinced that “there is never enough preparation” and admits that she is stimulated by playing characters far removed from her own reality in order to “step into the unknown.”

During the meeting with the audience, the actress revealed that she auditioned for Euphoria in Hawaii from inside a car. On set, Delgado praised Zendaya’s excellence and confidence, and stressed “the importance of having someone who knows what all of this is like and can guide you through it.”

Faced with “the frenzy of the last few weeks”, the actress says that her creative priority is now “to continue preparing in order to be inspired and remain alert for new projects.”

However, the move to Hollywood was not easy. Fortunately, she made it accompanied by her family: “Honestly, I would not have made it on my own. I moved with a fierce hunger to grow professionally, while trying not to let that consume my private life or destroy the process,” she confessed.

Her mother has been by her side throughout all her projects, including Euphoria: “They have been my anchor, the reason why I am still standing in a world that can end up consuming you.” In fact, her family has accompanied her to Valencia for the award ceremony and attended this morning’s meeting.

For Priscilla Delgado, success lies in “your own and your family’s health, having a purpose and a healthy environment in which to contribute to society.”

Finally, the winner of the A Future in Cinema Award defended the need to protect cinemas and the profession in the digital age: “At such a delicate moment for our generation, with technology overwhelming and sweeping us away, it is difficult to remain standing and continue doing things in a handcrafted way, but cinema helps us understand ourselves as a society, our past and where we are heading.”