Cultural manager Roser Fort Aguilera was honored this week as the FEMCINE 2026 'Outstanding Woman' during the sixteenth edition of the Women's Film Festival (Festival Cine de Mujeres). The award, presented as part of the festival which concludes this Sunday, celebrates her contributions to Chile's audiovisual and cultural landscape, according to elmostrador.cl.
Fort, who currently directs Centro Arte Alameda, was recognized for over three decades of work dedicated to promoting independent film and her commitment to creating community cultural spaces. The report highlighted that her career includes managing the original venue in Plaza Italia, which was destroyed by fire during the 2019 social unrest.
“It means a lot to me. I don't seek out awards in my journey through art and culture, but I was deeply moved,” Fort said after receiving the award. The director also expressed particular joy regarding the nature of the recognition: “It brings me so much joy to receive an award from FEMCINE, which is a women's film festival, and to know that it is my peers who are actually honoring me.”
From education to independent cinema
Fort's career did not begin in the arts, but rather in science and pedagogy. Before her work in cultural management, she studied Agronomy and later earned a degree in Physical Education, a profession she practiced for several years at La Girouette school.
For the award winner, her teaching background serves as a fundamental pillar of her current work. “I believe that education and culture go hand in hand. So, that first step into education has been incredibly useful throughout these 33 years dedicated to culture, because there is an element of training, an element of education through the content,” the manager explained.
Her personal history is also shaped by migration and Chile's political past. The daughter of Catalan parents, Fort was born in Peru and moved to Chile at the age of seven. Her father, a former mayor of Tarragona, Spain, survived both the Spanish Civil War and a concentration camp—experiences that profoundly influenced her upbringing.
Fort also recalled experiencing the 1973 coup d'état firsthand while she was a high school student. “We could hear the Hawker Hunter jets flying overhead. I have those memories of something powerful and grave happening, something that generated so much fear,” she remembered.
Following the fire at her original Plaza Italia headquarters, Fort has continued her cultural mission from the CEINA Cultural Center, located on Arturo Prat Street.
