David Baute wins the 2025 Best Animation Direction Award for Black Butterflies

Madrid, Oct 27 (EFEverde).– Canarian filmmaker David Baute has been awarded the 2025 Best Animation Director Award for his film “Mariposas negras,” presented by the Spanish Film Directors Association (Acción) .

With these awards, the organization recognizes excellence in filmmaking and highlights the creative work of Spanish filmmakers.

2025 Action Awards

This year's Acción Awards honor Aitor Arregi for "Maspalomas" in the fiction category; Eva Libertad for "Sorda" as best new director; and Albert Serra for "Tardes de soledad" in the documentary category.

The Honorary Award went to Fernando Trueba, "for a life dedicated to cinema, to which he has endowed elegance and humanity with a body of work that moves between melancholy and joy, between memory and imagination," the association emphasized.

Black Butterflies : Environmentally Aware Animation

David Baute 's work, Mariposas negras , combines animation and social narrative to reflect on the climate crisis, migration and biodiversity loss , recurring themes in the director's career.

The recognition consolidates Baute's position as one of the leading figures in environmental animation cinema in Spain.

The film Mariposas negras , which combines animation and documentary to give a voice to women environmental defenders persecuted in different parts of the world, had already been recognized with the Audience Award at the 2024 Málaga Festival and the Jury Prize at the Guadalajara International Film Festival (Mexico) . It was also awarded, among other distinctions, at the 2025 Gaudí Awards for Best Animated Film , and a Goya Award in the same category, consolidating David Baute as one of the most innovative and committed creators of Spanish environmental cinema and for which this year he received the Ones EFEverde Award from the NGO Mediterránea

Black Butterflies, David Baute's animated climate documentary that stirs consciences. By Arturo Larena

Finalists and nominations

In the Best Fiction Direction category, the nominees were Aitor Arregi (Maspalomas), Oliver Laxe (Sirat), and Carla Simón (Romería). Competing in the animation category were David Baute (Black Butterflies), María Trenor (Rock Bottom), and Adrià García (Barracuda's Treasure).

The Best Documentary Direction category included Albert Serra (Afternoons of Solitude), Paula Palacios (My Brother Ali) and Arantxa Aguirre (One Hundred Flying). And in the Best New Director category, in addition to Eva Libertad (Sorda), Gemma Blasco (La furia) and Enrique Buleo (Bodegón con fantasmas) were also nominated.

Spanish cinema with a social and environmental perspective

The 2025 Acción Awards reflect the creative diversity of contemporary Spanish cinema , which combines aesthetic innovation, social commitment and new visual narratives. With Mariposas negras , David Baute continues a line of cinema that unites art, environmental awareness and human emotion, reinforcing the link between cinema and sustainability , a trend increasingly present in national productions.

EFEverde