MADRID (AP) - The Spanish film Goya Awards ceremony will finally be held with the nominees connecting by teleconference with the presenters, the actor
Antonio Banderas
and the journalist
María Casado
, to avoid coronavirus infections, the Academy announced Tuesday of the Arts and Cinematographic Sciences of Spain.
Although the pandemic had already forced a reduction in face-to-face assistance to nominees and those in charge of delivering the awards, the director and screenwriter
Mariano Barrioso,
who directs the Spanish academy, said that the health emergency makes it impossible to consider that the gala on March 6 could be carried out with the guests walking down the red carpet and in person in a theater.
The ceremony will continue to be hosted by the Soho Theater in Malaga, Banderas' hometown in southeastern Spain, and will feature musical performances, Barroso said at a televised press conference.
Despite the fact that the rate of expansion of the virus has slowed in the last week after more than 800,000 new infections registered in January and that experts attribute to the group celebrations of Christmas and New Year, the pressure on hospitals continues without descend.
COVID-19 patients already fill almost half of the maximum capacity of intensive care beds.
Banderas, who had been commissioned to direct and present the gala together with Casado, a recognized face and familiar voice of Spanish public radio and television, said that both will do everything possible to make the virtual ceremony "something very special."
"We are going to do it, it is going to be a decent, elegant gala," said Banderas at the press conference.
"You have to know how to get through the cracks that reality leaves us, with courage and bravery and with all the illusion".
"Adú", a film that narrates the journey of two Cameroonian children to reach Europe and that has received 14 nominations, starting as a favorite in this 35th edition of the Goya Awards.
It is followed by
Pilar Palomero's
debut feature
,
“Las chicas”, which describes the leap to adolescence of its protagonist in the Spain of the 90s, and “Akelarre”, a film by the Argentine Pablo Agüero about the witch hunt in the country. Basque.
The Chilean documentary "The mole agent", by
Maite Alberdi;
the Colombian film "The forgetfulness that we will be", directed by the Spanish
Fernando Trueba;
the Guatemalan “La llorona”, by Jayro Bustamante, and “Ya no soyquí”, by
Fernando Frías
and representing Mexico, are competing for the award for best Ibero-American film.
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