The 37th edition of the Goya Awards seemed, a priori, predictable in its list of winners, and what at first were going to be awards distributed among the highlights of the excellent 2022 has finally been a forceful praise for the film as beastsby Rodrigo Sorogoyen, with a total of nine big heads of the 17 to which he aspiredamong them the most important of the ceremony: best film, best direction and best original script, as well as two awards in the acting categories (Denis Ménochet for best actor and Luis Zahera for best supporting actor).
It has not been a surprise that model 77the notable prison thriller by Alberto Rodríguez, has won in the technical sections (five awards: best makeup and hairstyling, best special effects, best art direction, best costume design, production direction) but it has been received with some astonishment that alcarrásby Carla Simón, winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlinale and a candidate to represent Spain at the Oscars, has not achieved not one of the 11 prizes to which he aspired. At least Albert Serra, without nomination in these awards with Pacification but with nine nominations for the Cesars of French cinema, he has not had to go through this embarrassment.
The gala, despite the apparent agility and short speeches, has exceeded three hours, but the truth is that this year there was a weighty excuse: the death this Friday of the filmmaker Carlos Saura, who was precisely going to collect the Goya de Honor at this ceremony in recognition of his more than 50 years of experience. He picked it up at his house, just a few days ago, but he did not have the opportunity to celebrate it with those who expected to applaud him, who today have dedicated a warm tribute to him.
The ceremony started with a black and white image of the director on stage, Manuel Carrasco’s interpretation of the Wanderer, there is no path of Serrat and the words of Carmen Maura, who was going to deliver the institution’s honorary award to the director. Then, a lump in the throat for half an hour, in which two of his children, Antonio and Anna, have remembered their father, and in which his widow, Eulalia Ramón, has read the words he left written before his death.
“I will be happy if the cinema I have made has inspired today’s directors and directors,” said Carlos Saura in the letter he left written to be read at the Goyas
“To my 91 years just turned There is no greater satisfaction than receiving the Goya de Honor“, said the director in a letter that all his disciples have been able to hear this Saturday, to whom he has also referred. “I will be happy if the cinema I have made has inspired today’s directors and directors,” said the filmmaker, who despite being absent, he has raised the entire Sevillian audience where the Goya gala took place.Natalia Lafourcade’s remarkable interpretation of the Because you are leaving who put music to Breeding ravensone of his most famous films.
Once the knot was undone and the emotion restored, the ritual of the award ceremony began. It has been a great success to have started the gala with what everyone had in mind for later, as Saura himself would have liked, to continue with life, with the cinema. Thus, the gala began as it ended: with the expected victory for Luis Zahera for his role in the as beasts, despite having Ramón Barea as a tough competitor. Quick in his speech and with a “spoiler” for the plot of his film (“I always wanted to kill a Frenchman,” he said), the Galician thus added his second Goya, also with Sorogoyen and again in Seville.
In the interpretive category, Susi Sánchez received the second Goya of her careerthis time for Best Supporting Performance for his role in five little wolves, by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, in turn awarded for best new director. “We need to open more doors, and those doors cannot be opened by ourselves. It cannot be a fight for equality, we have to reach agreements,” she claimed upon receiving the award from her in a conciliatory tone. Her filming partner, Laia Costa, was also awarded the Goya for Best Leading Actress, and she took advantage of the occasion to encourage people to see the film and then call their loved ones, in a nod to the synopsis.
In the interpretive section, the fairest award for this editor of Vozpopuli It was for Telmo Irureta, Goya for Best New Actor for Spring consecrationin which he plays a young man with cerebral palsy who has a special relationship with a young student. “We also exist, we also fuck”said the interpreter, who coincidentally received this award from his aunt, the also actress Elena Irureta, known for her role in the series Homeland. In the women’s section, Laura Galán won for the slasher little pig and also took the opportunity to ask for justice. “There is nothing wrong with your bodies,” she said.
as beastsdrama and comedy
During the gala, many wondered if perhaps Spanish cinema is better at drama than comedy, despite what the box office figures and Santiago Segura productions show (absent in nominations although mentioned by the presenters). The truth is the solemn tone, which at times reminded the covid gala that Antonio Banderas devised and presented in 2021, was a success, even despite the masters of ceremonies, Clara Lago and Antonio de la Torre.
Some joked in networks with the possibility of withdrawing the Goya awards for the actor in the face of somewhat irregular work, if it were not for the moment that could save everything: the joke that launched Denis Ménochet, protagonist of as beasts: “Are we boring you, French?”.
We will never know if, indeed, the Frenchman was bored in the more than three hours that the gala lasted, but the truth is that when he went up to collect his Goya award for best leading actor for Sorogoyen’s film, the French actor made reference to the time on his watch. “It’s one o clock in the morning“, he said when there were still three awards to be delivered. In addition to being funny, he was also endearing in the way he summarized as beasts: “The love of women against the madness of men”.
The name of Denis Ménochet, an actor who has worked with Tarantino and who is a regular in François Ozon’s films, was not the only exotic name of the night, much less the most famous. His compatriot, Juliette Binoche, collected the Goya International award, a category that Cate Blanchett inaugurated last year. Isabel Coixet, with whom the French woman has worked, was in charge of presenting her with the award. In addition to pronouncing a few first words in Spanish, she ended her speech with a heartfelt memory of Carlos Saura and a question that moved everyone: “Why are you leaving?”
This year we don’t ask for anything. For protests, we’ll see each other in the offices,” said the president of the Film Academy to the politicians present at the Goyas
Few things change at the Goya gala. It was long – inevitable with 30 awards and five nominees in each category, one more since this edition – and there were also political mentions, some directed at public health – “it deserves that we take care of it just as its professionals take care of us”, said the widow of Carlos Saura-; another, that of Jordi Évole, in memory of the 20th anniversary of the “no to war” which, for many, did not do Spanish cinema a great favor. Juan Antonio Bayona defended the Iranians for “defending the unquestionable: their lives and their freedom”and the presenters mentioned the war in Ukraine.
Perhaps the most sensible message was that of Fernando Méndez-Leite, president of the Film Academy. “We at the Academy are those of the cinema, each one with their ideas, their beliefs and their preferences in all fields. An entity that makes its decisions democratically and that collaborates with administrations of different colors but that maintains a scrupulous independence and the utmost respect for freedom of expression,” he said, not without warning the politicians present.
“This year we are not asking for anything. For protests, we will see each other in the offices,” he told some attendees, including the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez; the Minister of Culture and Sports, Miquel Iceta; the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero; the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero; as well as the president of the PP, Alberto Núñez Feijóo.
