Cecilia Margarita Bartolomé Pina was born in Alicante in 1940 and is one of the most important film directors, screenwriters and producers in Spanish society. She trained at the Escuela Oficial de Cine in Madrid and in 1969 she obtained her diploma with her film Margarita y el lobo, thus becoming one of the first female film graduates. 

Cecilia began directing several short films such as La noche del doctor Valdés, Carmen de Carabanchel o La brujita. In 1978 he directed his first feature film, entitled ¡Vámonos, Bárbara! Between 1977 and 1981 she filmed two documentaries based on dissecting the Spanish transition, with the generic title Después de… (No se os puede dejar solos y Atado y bien atado). In 1996 she filmed her last feature film, Lejos de África, inspired by the years she lived in Equatorial Guinea and the reprisals of Spanish colonisation there. 

Many of her films were censored by the Franco regime, and in her films she always spoke very openly about the great vicissitudes that women had to face during the 20th century, from the lack of freedom to the limitations regarding sexuality or marriage. 

An example of this was with Margarita y el lobo, her final project, which served as a critique of consumer society and imposed marriage. She also proposed the liberation of women in the midst of Franco’s dictatorship.

In 2012, she received the “Mujeres de Cine 2012” award from the Gijón International Film Festival. In 2014 she was awarded Spain’s “Gold Medal for Merit in Fine Arts” and in 2018 she was awarded by the Valencian Audiovisual Academy. Today she is an Honorary Member of CIMA and was honoured by the Film Academy in 2019 for her entire career as a director.