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Jose here to report on Sunday night's Goya Awards.
The Goyas are always an unusually dull awards ceremony: imagine the Oscars without any commercial breaks or attempts at cheesy humor. Last night however there was something that made it one of the most interesting ceremonies in years: what was expected to be a clean sweep for Pedro Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In - which entered the race with an impressive 16 nominations - instead turned into yet another demonstration of the Spanish Academy members' apathy for their most famous prodigal child.
Pedro always becomes the center of discussion when it comes to these awards, particularly because while the rest of the world salivates over any new Almodóvar movies - just last week he upset A Separation at the BAFTAs - his fellow countrymen and women have only rewarded him three times in the past. [Continue...]
Sunday February 13th was quite the awards jam. Nicole Kidman was jamming to Katy Perry at the Grammys, Helena Bonham Carter was being crowned at BAFTA, and Javier Bardem was in Madrid winning The Goya to add to his huge statue haul.
Does Penélope Cruz know where his lips have been? He loves to kiss his trophies.
Javiin 2011 with his Goya; Javi in 2008 with his Oscar
'Oh to be a slab of stone / gold plating!' shriek millions of fans in unison.
Javier has won plentiful awards over the years for his in arguable screen presence and acting gift: one Oscar, one BAFTA, one Golden Globe, one Spirit Award, one "actor" from SAG, one NBR, two Volpi cups from Venice, two European Film Awards, two Gothams, two ADIRCAEs (no, I don't know what that is either) and numerous critics prizes. But it's at the Goyas, the Spanish Oscars, where he reigns supreme. His performance in Biutiful marks his fifth win. Fifth! He's won Best Actor thrice previously (Boca a Boca, Mondays in the Sun, and the Oscar winning The Sea Inside) and Best Supporting Actor once (Días Contados, 1994). His latest win is so fresh that IMDb hasn't even updated his awards page. How to keep up with him?
My favorite red carpet look at the Goyas (I'd do a lineup but good full body photos are hard to come by) is this one to your left. Dressing your doggie up in a tux for your big night? Brilliant. The night's big winner was the post civil war family drama Pa Negre (Black Bread). Some art house distrib really ought to snatch it up if it's this good.
Goya Winners Film: Black Bread Director: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread) Original Screenplay: (Buried) Adapted Screenplay: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread) Actor: Javier Bardem (Biutiful) Actress: Nora Navas (Black Bread) Supporting Actor: Karra Elejalde (Also the Rain) Supporting Actress: Laia Marull (Black Bread) Promising Actor: Francesc Colomer (Black Bread) Promising Actress: Marina Comas (Black Bread) European Film: The King's Speech full list of winners
Some art house distributor really ought to snatch Black Bread up if it's this good. Here's the trailer. Warning: contains both brief nudity and less brief very disturbing animal death.
And here's Javier being interviewed on the Red Carpet. I didn't understand a word except that the reporter obviously brings up the fact that he chose to come to the Goyas instead of going to the BAFTAs. And Bardem is all smiles about it. Film Experience contributor Jose and others on Twitter (thanks guys) tell me that Javier made a bet with the reporter that if he wins the Oscar, he'll do a weather report as a musical number. Quick Oscar voters, switch your votes to Bardem! ;)
Have any Spanish readers seen this one yet? Do tell if you have. Would you take your dog to the Oscars? They do love long walks and some red carpets are interminable treks.
Jose here. The nominations for the 25th Annual Goya Awards have been announced and leading the pack is none other than The Last Circus, Alex De La Iglesia's killer clown allegory which not only earned him a Best Director award at last year's Venice Film Festival but also picked up some of the worst reviews of any movie in any festival during 2010.
The bad reviews didn't seem to deter the Spanish Film Academy which showered the film with nods (a whopping 15! More than any other movie this year) including Breakthrough Actress for the appropriately named Carolin Bang and of course Best Picture and Best Director. Interestingly enough, de la Iglesia is also the Academy's president. But before we scream nepotism we have to take into consideration that Spain makes fewer movies than many countries with film awards and will, well, sometimes nominate anything.
Best Actor Nominees: Javi & Ryan
Speaking of which, Ryan Reynolds is nominated for Best Actor for his work in Buried (which was made by a Spaniard, Rodrigo Cortés, and is therefore eligible). It's not that Reynolds' work isn't good or maybe better than he had any right to be or better than anything anyone ever expected from him, but when you see he's nominated next to Javier Bardem (for Biutiful) things just seem odd, huh?
Best Actor
Javier Bardem -Biutiful
Ryan Reynolds -Buried
Luis Tosar -Even the Rain
Antonio de la Torre -The Last Circus
The lovely Elena Anaya (pictured left) is up for Best Actress for her work in Room in Rome (read my review here) we'll see her next in Pedro Almodóvar's new film! Rome also won nominations for Breakthrough Actress and Best Song (I wonder where its nomination for Best Use of Google Maps is...)
Best Actress
Elena Anaya -Room in Rome
Nora Navas -Pa Negre
Belén Rueda -Julia's Eyes
Emma Suárez -The Mosquito
The actress category looks unimpressive when you remember that last year the nominees were Lola Dueñas, Rachel Weisz, Maribel Verdú and Pe!
Considering that most of the films selected for the Goyas rarely get release dates in our continent let's head over to see international categories.
Don't you just hate when last year's releases compete with this year's releases for awards? Let's all dream of a day when EVERY movie will be released around the world at the same time. It would make for some exciting global unity sort of thing huh?
So, dear readers in Europe, you're probably more equated with these films: Anyone you're rooting for? Anything we should be looking forward to when it's released here?
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 at 9:47AM 
