If 20 years ago the "No to War" gala was a turning point in the history of the Goyas, the 37th edition, wrapped in emotional mourning for the death of Carlos Saura hours before receiving the Honor Award, presented as the coming-out of a new generation.
The consecration of what in the last decade has been called "the other Spanish cinema" - that which until not so long ago grew on the margins and was systematically ignored by the same industry that now celebrates it - was left, however, halfway. .
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'As Bestas' triumphs at Carlos Saura's Goya
Like the life of any other species, it tries to regenerate or die.
And if it isn't, at least it looks like it.
The glory of the new wave that we have been observing for months has finally been for
As bestas
,
a remarkable film, but also the most conservative option and far from that other cinema.
The box office success, inside and outside Spain, of Rodrigo Sorogoyen's film makes it, in the eyes of academics, something at least as important as a good film: a competitive film.
The night started with a Goya that seemed impeccable: the one for best supporting actor for Luis Zahera.
The spectacularity of his interpretation of a shadow of black Spain is undeniable, but the Academy has lost the opportunity to celebrate Ramón Barea, a true resistance man with a hundred films behind him who, at 73 years of age, had never been a candidate for a Goya and that in
Cinco Lobitos
he is just as superb as Zahera in
As bestas.
Although his brilliance is less obvious.
The award set the tone for the night:
Modelo 77
took most of the technical awards and
As bestas,
the important ones, including Best Actor for Denis Ménochet, while
Alcarràs, La Maternal
and
Mantícora
left empty, and
Cinco lobitos
it took three, for best new director for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, for best actress for Laia Costa and for supporting cast for Susi Sánchez.
From left to right, Penélope Cruz, Maribel Verdú, Míriam Díaz Aroca and Ariadna Gil, at the Goya Awards gala.
Juan Naharro (Getty Images)
The award for the screenplay adapted to Isa Campo, Fran Araujo and Isaki Lacuesta for
One Year, One Night
put a dissonant note by recognizing one of the great films of the year.
"Thank you, family, for getting us out of the
underground
," joked Lacuesta, who reminded a reference to that other cinema, Joaquim Jordà.
That award was the consolation of this, the year of enthusiasm, in which the incorporation of more women into the dominant story crystallized —for the first time, three coincided in the category of best film, but as Susi Sánchez pointed out in the thanks for her Goya
,
this should be just the beginning—;
in which Spanish cinema reached a screen share of 22%, helping Spain to be one of the countries that has recovered the most viewers after the pandemic;
and also the year in which the inferiority complex when leaving home was broken a little more thanks to significant representation at international festivals, a presence that was crowned with the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in
Alcarrás
and with the participation in Cannes of
Pacificction
, the great forgotten of a group that seems to disdain lone rangers like Albert Serra.
The Goyas for the animated film for
Unicorn Wars
and the revelation ones for Telmo Irureta, for
The Rite of Spring,
and Laura Galán, for
Cerdita
, broke the general monotony to remind us of the importance of a more inclusive cinema.
The prize for the best short film for the wonderful
Emotional Architecture 1959
returned the focus to the other gazes.
Its director, Elías León Siminiani, recalled the importance of the spaces we inhabit and the movie theaters in which we grew up.
In his first speech as president of the Academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite evoked his early passion for cinema, spoke of this year's cycle change and even climate change.
It was a speech that reviewed the joys of the season;
that did not leave anyone out, from the most commercial to the most experimental cinema;
that he insisted on the good state of the industry and that it was inevitably marked by the emotion of the first minutes of the gala, focused on Carlos Saura, on his cinema, but also on his way of facing life .
In that way of "living passionately" that two of his children, Antonio and Anna, evoked.
Carmen Maura recalled her empathy and her emotional intelligence with the actors.
And Saura's partner, the actress Eulalia Ramón, read the words that he dictated to her days before her death.
In them, he drew himself as a "wandering star" guided by a greater force.
"Because there is something faster than the speed of light, imagination," the filmmaker said.
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