"Blancanieves" and "The Impossible" Top Goya Awards in Madrid

Actress Maribel Verdú with Goya

According to "Fox News Latino," Javier Bardem was smiling happily Sunday night in Madrid at the Goya Awards, Spain's national film awards, considered to be the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars.

Bardem not only took home a statuette for a documentary he narrated, “Sons of the Clouds: The Lost Colony,” which looks at how colonization of the Western Sahara has left nearly nearly 200,000 people living in refugee camps, He spoke out about human rights in the Sahara. His wife Penélope Cruz, who accompanied him and was nominated for best actress, is expecting their second child.

His mother Pilar also attended. She is an award winning actress in her own right. Two days later, Bardem and many other actors, etc., were accused by a government spokesman of not paying taxes.

"Blancanieves" received the Goya for best motion picture and nine other awards. Writer-director Pablo Berger’s black-and-white fairy tale is a silent retelling of the "Snow White" story, but it is set in Seville in the 1920s, and the protagonist is an Andalusian female bullfighter.

Actress Maribel Verdú (“Blancanieves”) bested Naomi Watts ("The Impossible"), Verdú taking home a best actress Goya for her portrayal of the cruel stepmother. Paco Delgado, who is nominated for an Academy Award in the costume category for “Les Miserables,” received a Goya award for his costumes for “Blancanieves,” especially for Verdú’s character.

“Blancanieves” also captured a Goya for best original score and best original song, but there was no Goya for writer-director Pablo Berger. "Blancanieves" is not nominated for the Best Foreign Language film Oscar, either.

"The Impossible" is an official Spain production directed by Juan Antonio Bayona who captured the Goya for best director instead of Berger. Bayona also twisted his leg during the ceremony, and it required medical attention. "The Impossible" won five Goya statuettes mostly for technical endeavors. Bayona directed "The Orphanage" in 2007.

Also, we would be remiss if we did not send congratulations to  "Beautiful" José Sacristán on his first Goya win! 

The Big Winner

List of most winners:

Best Motion Picture -"Blancanieves";
Director - Juan Antonio Bayona for "The Impossible";

Actor - Jose Sacristán for "The Dead Man and Being Happy"; 

Actress - Maribel Verdú for "Blancanieves";

Original Screenplay - Pablo Berger for "Blancanieves";

Adapted Screenplay - Javier Barreira, Gorka Magallon, Ignacio del Moral, Jordi Gasull and Neil Landau for "Tad, The Lost Explorer";

Supporting Actor - Julian Villagran for "Grupo 7";

Supporting Actress - Candela Pena for "Una Pistola en Cada Mano" (A Pistol in Each Hand);
Animated Feature Film - "The Adventures of Tadeo Jones";

Documentary Film - "Sons of the Clouds, The Last Colony" ("Hijos de las Nubes, La Ultima Colonia");

Honorary Goya - Concha Velasco;

Production Design - Sandra Hermida Muniz for "The Impossible";

Artistic Director - Alain Bainee For "Blancanieves";

Photography - Kiko de la Rica for "Blancanieves";

Special Effects - Pau Costa and Felix Berges for "The Impossible";

Costumes - Paco Delgado for "Blancanieves";

Editing - Bernat Vilaplano and Elena Ruiz for "The Impossible";

Sound - Peter Glossop, Marc Orts, Oriol Tarrago for "The Impossible";

Original Score - Alfonso Villalonga for "Blancanieves";

Original Song - "No Te Puedo Encontrar" from "Blancanieves";

European Film - "Untouchable" (France);

Makeup and Hair - Sylvie Imbert and Fermin Galan for "Blancanieves";

New Actor - Joaquin Nunez for "Grupo 7";
New Actress - Macarena Garcia for "Blancanieves";
New Director - Enrique Gato for "Tad, The Lost Explorer".

Thank you to El País English and Fox News Latino.

ORPHANAGE (El orfanato) Leads Goya Wins

The Academy of Cinematic Arts and Sciences of Spain handed out its Goya Awards (considered equivalent to the U.S. Academy Awards®) last night in Madrid, and there were a few surprises. THE OPHANAGE, Spain's submission for an Oscar nomination in the BFLF category but didn't make the cut, received the most Goya Awards (Premios Goya), named for the famous Spanish painter. However, the biggest surprise of the evening was that SOLITARY (La soledad) won all three categories for which it was nominated, including the two big ones: Best Motion Picture and Best Director (Jaime Rosales). The other was for Most Promising New Actor, José Luis Torrijo. SOLITARY came in under the radar, so to speak.

For the most nominees and winners, the scores break down this way: THE ORPHANAGE = 14 / 7; 13 ROSES = 15 / 4; SEVEN FRENCH POOL TABLES = 10 / 2; AND SOLITARY = 3 / 3. Carlos Saura's feature documentary FADOS = 2 / 1. Juan Antonio Bayona (THE ORPHANAGE), not nominated for Best Director, won for Best Director of a Movie Based on a Novel.

Other than Bayona's award, and the Best Original Screenplay for Sergio García Sánchez, THE ORPHANAGE'S other awards were for craft (makeup and hair, art direction, and production direction) and technical awards (sound, and special effects). Surprisingly, the best and supporting actress awards did not go to THE ORPHANAGE'S Belén Rueda and Geraldine Chaplin, but to Maribel Verdú and Amparo Baró, both for their performances in SEVEN FRENCH POOL TABLES (Siete mesas de billar francés), directed by Gracia Querejeta, the daughter of prominent producer Elías Querejeta.

The movie that received the most Goya nominations, 13 ROSES, won only 4: Best Supporting Actor, José Manuel Cervino; Best Original Score, Roque Baños; Best Cinematography, José Luis Alcaine; and Best Costume, Lena Mossum. Even more disappointing was that Iciar Bollaín's MATAHARIS - - no English title but translates to Female Private Detectives - - nominated for 6 Goyas, received none, nada.

Two other movies won two each, UNDER THE STARS (Bajo las estrellas) and REC. STARS garnered Best Actor for Alberto San Juan, and Best Original Screenplay for Félix Viscarret. REC's wins were for Most Promising New Actress (Manuela Velasco) and Best Sound (David Gallart). Carlos Saura's FADOS, nominated for two won only one, Best Original Song, "Fado da saudade".

The HONORARY GOYA was presented to actor Alfredo Landa. Javier Bardém produced the Best Feature Documentary, INVISIBLES. Yes, that's the same Bardém nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar® for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN.

See all the nominees and winners, plus links and much more info, on my Awards Page, permanent link on right sidebar, but go directly to my translated Goya Awards' list here.

ORPHANAGE Opens Today

THE ORPHANAGE (EL Orfanato), Spain's submission for the Best Foreign Language Film (BFLF) Oscar®, opens in select theaters today. It was directed by J. A. (Juan Antonio) Bayona - - directing his first feature, produced by Guillermo del Toro (PAN'S LABYRINTH), and scripted by first-timer Sergio Sanchez. LABYRINTH won three Academy Awards last February, but not for the BFLF. That honor went to Germany's THE LIVES OF OTHERS.

Belén Rueda plays Laura, a former ward of the orphanage who returns to the house 30 years later with her doctor husband, Carlos (Fernando Cayo), and their son Simon (Roger Princep). Simon does not know he is adopted, acquires an imaginary friend named Tomás, then he goes missing.

Laura goes into the cavernous areas of the house searching for her son. Aurora (Geraldine Chaplin) is a paranormal who goes into a trance. She suggests Simon's disappearance may be connected to the harrowing fate of the other orphans who lived there decades ago, and also went missing.

Critics tend to refer to the movie with lines similar to: "A mystery in a well-crafted, if familiar, haunted house," "A horror story with tears," or "A tale of love and a story of horror." I'm sure there will be many more attempts to write the perfect tag line for this movie.

For anyone who knows Spanish cinema, ORPHANAGE is much more than a tag line. I've seen more than 200 Spanish-language movies, all from the best directors Spain, Mexico, and other Latin countries have produced since before the rule of Francisco Franco. The Aragonian Carlos Saura, who followed "The Master," Aragonian Luis Buñuel but has never eclipsed him, is fading, and the Catalonia Bayona will hopefully deserve a place in the line of succession. PAN'S LABYRINTH is a wonderful movie, but it isn't "Spanish" in the Spanish surrealism tradition of Buñuel and Saura. THE ORPHANGE comes darn close.

The Goya of Honor is given by Spain's Academy of Cinematic Arts and Sciences, and is considered Spain's "Oscar." This year, OPHANAGE is nominated for 14 Goya Awards, including best picture and best director of a movie based on a novel. Rueda is nominated for a Goya as best actress, Chaplin for best supporting actress, and Princep for promising young actor.

The movie did not garner the most Goya nominations. That honor went to 13 ROSES (Las trece rosas, directed by Emilio Martínez Lázaro). It received 15. Nonetheless, over a million Spaniards rushed to the theaters in the first four days of ORPHANAGE'S release in Spain.

I must point out that Spaniards normally don't rush to see a Spanish movie, period. They rush to see the latest dubbed Hollywood movie.The population of Spain is only about 40 million in contrast to the U.S, which boasts over 300 million. Therefore an initial $36 millon gross for a Spanish movie in Spain is huge in comparison.

Some viewers have suggested the movie is based on the video game "Rule of Rose." I don't know, but Bayona's best director Goya nod is for "direction based on a Novel." I do know that ORPHANGE is backed by PictureHouse, a specialty film production and releasing company that is an arm of Time Warner, the same company that backed LABYRINTH. That is huge, too.

See my 30 September post, "Spain Sends THE ORPHANAGE to Fetch BFLF Oscar®." To find the post quickly, simply type ORPHANGE in the search box above. To see all the Goya nominations on my 2008 Awards Page, click this link that goes directly to my translated list of nominations.

Spain Sends THE ORPHANAGE to Fetch BFLF Oscar®

It's official. THE ORPHANAGE (EL Orfanato, Spain, 2007) directed by J. A. (Juan Antonio) Bayona and produced by Guillermo del Toro (PAN'S LABYRINTH), will represent Spain in the contest for Best Foreign Language Film Oscar®. That's a movie in languages other than English, and countries may submit only one film in the BFLF category.

ORPHANAGE bypassed the top film festival in Spain, San Sebastián, for the Film Festival of Catalonia at Sitges, a festival for fantasy and the fantastic. It will have its Spain premiere in Sitges at the opening gala 4 October.

Meanwhile, the Picturehouse release is making its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival as I write this, and is in competition. The movie stars Belén Rueda (Laura), Fernando Cayo (Carlos) and Geraldine Chaplin (Aurora), and it is the last name on the list that is very interesting, I think.

You see, one of the reasons the movie may have bypassed San Sebastián could be because that festival was pulling out all the stops to honor Carlos Saura for 50 years of filmmaking. They honored him with a Golden Shell. Before Saura, only Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel, "the master," received one in 1981. Buñuel died in 1983.

If you don't know, Saura and Chaplin had a close relationship for many years in which she collaborated on the writing of the scripts, helped finance some of his projects, starred in a number of his movies and gave him his third son, Sean Saura Chaplin. Carlos was married with two sons. She was not. They never married, but were together shortly after she starred in DOCTOR ZHIVAGO (1965) until the filming of her last movie with Saura, MAMA TURNS 100 (1979). There's much more, but you must wait for my book.

FADOS ("a musical documentary," from Portugal/Spain) is Saura's latest. The movie's Spanish premiere was at San Sebastián 21 September. It was a gala event where Saura received the Golden Shell from former Festival director and movie critic Diego Galán. Not only that, there was a live production of fado singers with flamenco dancers.

FADOS will have its U.S. premiere at the New York Film Festival in NYC, screening as a special event on 13 October. No word as yet if the fado singers will perform. The world premiere was at Toronto, the Spain one at San Sebastián, and the Canadian one at Vancouver. ORPHANAGE didn't appear at any of those.

Here, the plot thickens. FADOS is a Portuguese/Spanish production and Portuguese is spoken. So, I can hardly wait to find out if Portugal is submitting FADOS to AMPAS® as their official submission.

Geraldine Chaplin on the set of EL ORFANATO, 2007
The story of ORPHANAGE is that Laura (Rueda) returns with her family to the orphanage in which she grew up with the intention of opening a residence for children with disabilities. The new environment wakes up her son's imagination, and he begins to take on more and more intense games of fantasy.

As the games intensify, Laura becomes increasingly disturbed until she reaches the point where she thinks there is something in the house that is threatening her and her family. The escalation of events lead her to take her son for psychological help.


Scandinavian actor Per Oscarsson and Géraldine Chaplin in LA MADRIGUERS (The Burrow, 1969)
Have you seen Saura's movie LA MADRIGUERS, 1969? Take your pick of English titles: Honeycomb, The Burrow, The Den. If you have seen this movie, the above synopsis should prick your ears, because there is definitely a psychological similarity between the synopses of the two movies. At any rate, from what I am hearing, Geraldine may receive an Oscar nomination for her performance in this movie, and the movie stands a good chance, too.

Will someone please go see these movies in New York and send me a report? I Will appreciate it. If you have a fast Internet connection, you can catch the trailer here.