The book entitled Ignacio F. Iquino, hombre de cine, fruit of the doctoral thesis written by the journalist Àngel Comas, has been awarded the 2003 Film-Història prize. This prize is given by the Film-History Research Centre of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB, University of Barcelona), which is based in the Parc Científic de Barcelona (PCB, Barcelona Science Park), in recognition of the best research on cinema history. The jury of the Centre has chosen this book for its focus on a forgotten key figure in Spanish cinema.

The book relates the story of a company that, with regular staff, achieved continuous film production for 34 years; a remarkable accomplishment in the history of Spanish cinema. Devoted to Ignacio F. Iquino, one of the most productive directors and producers in Spain, Comas’ book describes six decades of a film industry not of international prestige but of great public repercussion. Ignacio Iquino made his first films before the civil war and in 1948 he set up his own filmmaking company, IFI, which continued until 1982. Under IFI, Ignacio Iquino made films such as El Judas (1952) or Fuegos de Sangre (1953) and contributed to creating thriller genre in Barcelona through Brigada criminal (1954). Furthermore, he turned his company into “the other film school in Barcelona”, which over the years produced directors, actors and technicians.

Àngel Comas, doctor in Communication Sciences from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Autonomous University of Barcelona), is also a film critic and historian of cinematography. He has collaborated in several written media such as La Vanguardia, Avui, Catalunya Express, Dirigido, Fotogramas, and in Spanish National Radio, Spanish National Television or the Cinematek channel of Via Digital, among others. In his bibliography, we draw attention to titles such as Diccionari de llargmetratges. El cinema a Catalunya després del franquisme 1975-2003, Lo esencial de Preston Sturges, Miguel Iglesias Bonns: cult movies y cine de género, in addition to books devoted to films such as Casablanca, Cleopatra, Psychosis, Starwars or Vertigo.