20,000 Species of Bees, by Estibaliz Urresola, has surprised and won the nominations for the 38th edition of the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences Awards. The drama of a trans childhood, already awarded in Berlin for its young protagonist, Sofía Otero, has achieved 15 nominations for the Goya Awards that will be held on February 10 at the Valladolid Fairgrounds. Among her nominations is Patricia López Arnaiz for best actress of the year.
The two favorites, the duel that was predicted at the Goya, have come second and third in the nominations. The Snow Society by J.A. Bayona has achieved 13 and Cerrar los ojos, by Víctor Erice, 11, including best actor (Manolo Solo), best supporting actress (Ana Torrent) and supporting actor (José Coronado). The same nominations, 11, which has achieved another surprise with the announcement made by the actors Luis Tosar and Anna Castillo for the first time from a set of the morning program of Spanish Television: You know that, the film about the comedian Eugenio directed by David Trueba, which It sneaks into all the main nominations, including David Verdaguer and Carolina Yuste in the nominations for best performers.
Isabel Coixet has also managed to place herself in the main nominations with Un amor – including its protagonists, Laia Costa and Hovik Keuchkerian, and Hugo Silva as a supporting role – while she is already out of the nominations for best film of the year – The teacher who promised the sea – with Enric Auquer as a candidate for best actor and Luisa Gavasa for best supporting role – and I’m loving you madly have achieved five nominations. Chinas, by Arantxa Echevarria, and Robot Dreams, the animated film by Pablo Berger, have achieved four nominations, the same as Creatura, for which Elena Martín will fight for the Goya for best direction and Clara Segura and Álex Brendemühl as interpreters of distribution.
Director Estibaliz Urresola said upon learning of the 15 nominations that she has been “charged with emotion for each and every one of the departments that have been nominated” and that she is especially happy because the trans community has felt “represented by the film, When we began to present it that way, they transmitted it to me, I have enormous gratitude to the fathers and mothers who generously shared with me their lives, their intimacy and their family processes, the reality they live within these families to raise awareness and empathize. The debate is always carried out in political and ideological terms and we lack the body to approach this reality, to vibrate and feel and put ourselves in people’s shoes.” In that sense, she has said that she has received many messages from trans people from northern Europe to the US “telling me that their inner child has been healed thanks to the film, there cannot be a more important recognition for me.” .
For his part, J.A. Bayona has connected by videoconference from San Francisco to thank the nominations. “I’m still a little asleep, you can catch me still in my pajamas, we’re going at a rate of almost one country per day in the promotion. I’m very happy, they woke me up with the news and I wanted to connect to say thank you because I’m very happy for everything the team, it has been a very big effort for everyone and we have to stand up for all of them”
Regarding the no less than 11 nominations for Know That, David Trueba said at the Film Academy that “you never expect anything, I’m calm with the film I make, I don’t expect quick recognition, but from the first day it has surprised everyone who They have a very preconceived idea of ??it, what they see is nothing like the idea they have and the Academy voters have valued that surprise. We have taken higher risks than in another film, a triple somersault without a net. It is difficult to face a character that everyone knows and David Verdaguer came out of the challenge alive and everyone recognizes his work.” And he has claimed against “cinema made with algorithms, cinema made with the heart and the brain united.”
For his part, Verdaguer, connected by videoconference with a beer – “it’s one o’clock, it’s not alcoholism anymore,” he joked -, stressed that Trueba “has turned a typical biopic into a love story, because that’s what life, of loving and being loved, and this film is that, a love story, very sad.
Isabel Coixet, nominated for best direction and adapted screenplay with Laura Ferrero, joked by videoconference from Paris that seven nominations “is fine, but I’m ambitious, I would have liked more, but seven, okay. All the actors in the film, the dog Flor, the editing, the costumes, the makeup, I know that all the people in this movie deserve it.” And he stressed that “my only ambition is to continue telling stories and continue connecting with the public, although having Goyas is great because sometimes they invite you in restaurants and sometimes people take photographs with them and that has brought me many good things.”
Enric Auquer, nominated for best actor for The Teacher Who Promised the Sea, has shown a photo of the Republican teacher Antoni Benaiges, murdered by the Franco rebellion, and has said that “he is protecting our souls”, and has said that these nominations are “good for the film and for memory.”
Luisa Gavasa, nominated as supporting actress for the same film, has launched: “This film should be seen by university students, high schools, young people, who are very unaware of the history of this country, that there was a war in which they indiscriminately killed teachers for being so. That today there are 16 and 17 year old boys who go out on the street to sing Face the Sun means, as they said in Hamlet, that something smells rotten in Denmark. They must know what happened, there cannot continue to be graves , dead men and women in the graves of this country, is merciless, inhuman, a country that has dead people in the graves is a country that has no honor, and I would like to think that I am from an honorable country.
These are some of the nominees in the main categories.
