Victoria Szpunberg, National Prize for Dramatic Literature 2025

Victoria Szpunberg has been awarded the 2025 National Prize for Dramatic Literature for her play " L'imperatiu categòric " (Arola), at the suggestion of the jury meeting today. The prize, awarded by the Ministry of Culture, is worth 30,000 euros.

The jury selected her play "L'imperatiu categòric" for "its profound and powerful dramatic charge and mastery of an ingenious technique with which the author finds the ideal tone and temperature for an ironic and incisive piece. From a philosophical basis, Victoria Szpunberg portrays the cruelty of a system capable of expelling any of its members, even when they submit to its rules."

Last year, the award recognized María Velasco, joining a long list of winners, including Paula Carballeira, Pablo Remón, Guillem Clua, Alberto Conejero, Yolanda García Serrano, Alfredo Sanzol, Juan Mayorga, and Angélica Liddell, among others.

Victoria Szpunberg (Buenos Aires, 1973) is a playwright and professor of dramaturgy at the Institut del Teatre and the Higher School of Choreography in Barcelona.

Her first work, 'Entre aquí y allá (Lo que dura un paseo)' (Between Here and There (What a Walk Lasts), in 1998, was a runner-up for the María Teresa León Prize, selected by the Royal Court in London (international residency in 2000) and premiered at the RESAD in Madrid in 2000 and at the Here Festival in New York in 2002. Her works have premiered at national and international festivals and theatres.

In addition to her career as an author, she has collaborated with various choreographers, written plays and theatrical adaptations, worked as a director, and written radio plays and sound installations. She has also participated in theater and educational projects.

In 2013 he received the Max Prize in Catalan theatrical authorship. Among his works are 'Esthetic Paradise' (Sala Beckett, Festival Grec 2004), 'La màquina de parlar' (Sala Beckett 2007 and 2022 and Teatro Maldà 2017), 'El meu avi no va anar a Cuba' (Festival Grec de Barcelona 2008), 'The preferred brand of the Germans Clausman' (Tantarantana Teatre 2010, Sala Beckett 2019), 'Boys don't cry' (Teatre Lliure, Festival Grec 2012), 'L'onzena plague' (within the cycle 'Tot pels diners' at the Teatre Lliure 2015, nominated for the Premis Butaca of the same year) and 'Balena blava', monodrama for actress and orchestra (TNC 2018).

In 2022 he premiered 'El pes d'un cos' (TNC and Centro Dramático Nacional), and wrote the libretto for the opera 'La gata perduda' (Gran Teatre del Liceu) and in 2023 he premiered 'Mal de coraçon' (TNC).

The jury was chaired by Almudena Hernández de la Torre Chicote, Deputy Assistant Director of the Office of the Promotion of Books, Reading, and Spanish Literature. The members were Luis Mateo Díez, representing the Royal Spanish Academy; María López Sández, representing the Royal Galician Academy; Juan Luis Zabala Artetxe, representing the Royal Academy of the Basque Language; Magí Camps Martín, representing the Institute of Catalan Studies; Àngel Vicent Calpe Climent, representing the Valencian Academy of Language; Enrique Gallud Jardiel, representing the Conference of Rectors of Spanish Universities (CRUE); Ana Isabel Fernández Valbuena, representing the Association of Writers of Spain-Association of Theatre Authors (ACE-ATT); Carlos Ferrer Hammerlindl, representing the Spanish Association of Literary Critics; Mónica Tourón Torrado, for the Federation of Associations of Journalists of Spain (FAPE); Ana Isabel Zamorano Rueda, for the Center for Gender Studies of the UNED; Raquel Vidales López, by the Ministry of Culture María Velasco González, awarded in the previous call.