As bestas, by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Modelo 77, by Alberto Rodríguez, have swept the nominations for the Goya Awards, which were announced this morning at the headquarters of the Film Academy chaired by Fernando Méndez-Leite. The rural thriller based on real events and written by Sorogoyen and Isabel Peña has received 17 nominations and Rodríguez’s prison drama, also inspired by real events during the Transition, a total of 16.
They are closely followed by Alcarràs, by Carla Simón, and Cinco lobitos, the debut feature by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, both with eleven mentions. Along with La maternal, by Pilar Palomero, all of them aspire to win the ‘stubborn’ award for best film at the gala that will take place on February 11 in Seville. In the best direction category, Sorogoyen, Simón and Rodríguez will be accompanied by Palomero and Carlos Vermut with their Manticora, an intense psychological thriller about pedophilia that hits theaters on December 9.
Those in charge of reading the nominees in the 28 categories have been the actresses Nora Navas and Blanca Portillo. This year, for the first time, five nominees per category have been included, although in the best costumes category six have been chosen (As bestas, Irati, La piedad, Los renglones torcidos de Dios, Modelo 77 and Malnazidos).
Another feature film debut, the one made by Carlota Pereda with Cerdita, has garnered six nominations for the most important awards in Spanish cinema, among them the new director for Pereda, supporting actress for Carmen Machi and revelation actress for Laura Galán, who She embodies the protagonist of this rural horror film who is bullied for being overweight.
Machi, who acts as Galán’s mother in this film that has caused a sensation after its time at Sundance, will fight for the award alongside Penélope Cruz, another mother who tries to avoid eviction from her home in On the Margins, as well as Ángela Cervantes, mother of a teenager who becomes pregnant in La maternal. Susi Sánchez, awarded in Malaga for her role in Cinco lobitos and Marie Colomb for As bestas, complete the list.
Also with six mentions is Los renglones torcidos de Dios, the celebrated adaptation to the big screen by Oriol Paulo of the famous novel by Torcuato Luca de Tena about a private investigator who is admitted to a psychiatric hospital simulating paranoia. The film has triumphed at the box office since its premiere on October 6 -accumulates 5.5 million euros- and opts, among others, for best actress for Bárbara Lennie and adapted screenplay for Paulo and Guillem Clua. It is strange that the magnificent work of Eduard Fernández as a psychiatrist has been left out.
Lennie will compete with Anna Castillo (Wild Sunflowers), Laia Costa (Five Wolves), Vicky Luengo (Suro) and the French Marina Foïs (As bestas). In the male section, the five candidates are Denis Mènochet for As bestas, Luis Tosar for his lawyer from En los márgines, Nacho Sánchez for Mantícora and Javier Gutiérrez and Miguel Herrán for Modelo 77. And if we refer to the category of supporting actor, As bestas is full with all its interpreters by placing the magisterial Luis Zahera and Diego Anido as the feared Anta brothers in a list next to Ramón Barea (Cinco lobitos), Jesús Carroza and Fernando Tejero for Modelo 77.
Actor Juan Diego Botto won five mentions for his directorial debut with the social drama En los margínes, a portrait of people affected by evictions in Spain. In addition to the nominations for Tosar, Cruz and Checa, Botto has options for best new director, a section that also includes the favorite Alauda Ruiz de Azúa for exploring real motherhood in Cinco lobitos; Elena López Riera for El agua, and the Basque Mikel Gurrea for Suro. Another that has surprised in the nominations is Irati, an epic story from the Middle Ages signed by Paul Urkijo that is selected for best adapted screenplay, special effects, costumes, music and original song.
After his triumph at the Berlin film festival, Simón’s second feature film, a drama shot in Catalan about the last harvest of a family dedicated to picking peaches in that municipality of Lleida, has not stopped breaking records at the box office and has ranks fifth among the most viewed Spanish films, with 2,326,834 million euros collected and close to 400,000 viewers.
In addition to aspiring for best film, direction and original screenplay, it has managed to place three of its actors -none of them professional- in the category of revelation actor (Albert Bosch and Jordi Pujol Dolcet) and revelation actress (Anna Otín), something that is not It had happened neither in the nominations to the Forqué nor the Feroz. The first two also compete with Mikel Bustamante for Cinco lobitos, Christian Checa for On the margins and Telmo Irureta for The Rite of Spring. Otín, for his part, will have to face the aforementioned Galán, Luna Pamiés (Water), Valeria Sorolla (The Rite of Spring) and Zoe Stein for Manticora.
The best Ibero-American film includes the Argentine Argentina 1985, by Santiago Mitre; the Chilean 1976; the Colombian La Jauría; Fire Night (Mexico) and Utama (Bolivia). While the European films in competition are Belfast, by Kenneth Branagh; It was the hand of God, by the Italian Paolo Sorrentino; The Worst Person in the World, by Norwegian Joachim Trier; from France Lost Illusions, directed by Xavier Giannoli and the Belgian A Small World.
Among the most notorious absences it is worth mentioning that of Albert Serra and his Pacificction, which competed for the Palme d’Or in Cannes.
The 37th edition of the Goya Awards will be hosted by the performers Antonio de la Torre and Clara Lago on February 11, 2023 at the FIBES Conference and Exhibition Center in Seville. The Andalusian actor and the Madrid actress will debut as hosts of a gala in which the excellent harvest of Spanish cinema this year will be celebrated and tribute will be paid to the great Carlos Saura with the Goya de Honor.
