Since the 1960s, Portabella always maintained a political commitment with all those movements against the Franco dictatorship that supported individual and collective democratic liberties. In 1977, he was elected senator in the first democratic elections and he participated in the writing of the present day Spanish Constitution. He has presided over the Fundación Alternativas since 2001.
As a filmmaker Pere Portabella has been a relevant presence in the Spanish film world for the last fifty years. With Films 59, his production company, he fostered some of the most emblematic films in the history of Spanish cinema. Los Golfos by Carlos Saura (1959), El cochecito by Marco Ferreri (1960) and Viridiana by Luis Buñuel (1961). He directs his own creations combining a heritage of avant-garde culture with breakaway forms of language. His films, Vampir-Cuadecuc (1970) and Umbracle (1972), constitute radical interventions in artistic and cinematographic institutions. A long interval ensues between Informe General in 1976 and his return to his work as film maker and producer at present, during which he enters the political/institutional world during the “Transition” period in Spain.
In 2001, his films became part of the artistic collection of the MACBA. In 2002, he was the only Spanish artist invited to participate in Documenta 11 in Kassel. In 2003, the Centre Pompidou organized a homage for Portabella and acquired one of his films for its collection. Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago and New York have all organized exhibits and screenings of his films. The Buenos Aires Film Festival and the “Mostra Internacional del Nuevo Cinema” of Pesaro have both programmed retrospective exhibits in 2006.
His film, Die Stille vor bach (The Silence before Bach), was selected for the “Mostra Internacionale de Arte Cinematográfico di Venecia” and was screened in 2007 at MoMA as part of a retrospective exhibit of his work as a whole. After this, he realized Mudanza in 2008, a film commissioned by Hans Ulrich Obrist, and Informe general II. El Nuevo rapto de Europa (General Report II. The New Abduction of Europe), his last feature film until date, which was premiered at Rotterdam International Film Festival, inside a retrospective of his work.
Among the distinctions he has received are the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (1961) as producer of Buñuel’s film Viridiana, the Creu de Sant Jordi awarded by the Government of Catalonia (1999), the National Film Award of the Government of Catalonia (2009), the Honorary Gaudí Award from the Acadèmia del Cinema Català (2012), the Gold Medal for Cultural Merit awarded by Barcelona City Council (2019), the Giraldillo de Honor of the Seville Film Festival (2019), and the Gold Medal of Merit in the Fine Arts awarded by the Spanish Ministry of Culture in recognition of his career.
In the academic field, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in 2009 and by the Universitat de Girona in 2022. In 2019, Cambridge University organised a seminar on his work.
In recent years, various museums, film festivals, and institutions have organised screenings or retrospectives of his work, including Cinemateca Portuguesa, Movie Mutations Zagreb, FICUNAM, Cineteca Nacional México, Whitechapel Gallery and Close-Up, and Il Cinema Ritrovato di Bologna.
During 2026 and 2027, ‘Acció Portabella’ is being held, the international programme of initiatives around Pere Portabella on the occasion of his hundredth anniversary