Avalanche of awards for 'The Snow Society' at the Goya Awards

'The Snow Society', directed by Juan Antonio Bayona, sweeps the Goya Awards ceremony, winning 12 awards, making the most of those of a technical nature. For its part, the other favorite of the night, '20,000 species of bees', wins three awards: best original script, new director (Estíbaliz Urresola) and supporting actress (Ane Gabarain).

After visiting Malaga (2020 and 2022), Valencia (2021) and Seville (2019 and 2023), the 38th edition of the Goya Awards has stopped in Valladolid for the first time, thus confirming the itinerant vocation of the Academy when organizing its annual film festival.

The ceremony held at the Valladolid fairgrounds, which lasted three and a half hours, was led by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, “los Javis”, accompanied by the actress, singer and Honorary Goya Ana Belen. The three kept a low profile with some moments of artistic brilliance with which they tried to lighten the already always tedious ceremony.

As is tradition on the night of the Goyas, the ceremony was permeated with political overtones. Throughout the night, the industry's rejection of sexual abuse in any area was present, including the film sector following reports of abuse related to director Carlos Vermut. The conflict in the Gaza Strip was also remembered by some of the winners, leaving the conflict in Ukraine somewhat forgotten on this occasion.

The most profound political aspect came almost at the end of the gala when the director Pedro Almodovar surrounded by the actresses who 25 years ago played All about my mother He addressed the auditorium before presenting the award for best film to attack Vox and respond from the stage to Juan García-Gallardo, vice president of the Junta de Castilla y León, who on Friday accused film professionals of being "gentlemen who want to make a living by producing cinematographic works that no one sees later at the cost of millions and millions of euros that Spanish taxpayers pay with great effort."

Almodóvar, addressing directly García Gallardo (whom the RTVE director did not want or did not have the sense to show among the public), reminded the politician that “the money that we filmmakers receive as an advance we more than return to the State through taxes and social security.”

After mocking the words of the leader of Voice in Castilla y León when he stated that Spanish cinema makes “very bad films that no one is interested in,” Almodóvar asserted that “this industry creates thousands of jobs.”

Bayonne night

Juan Antonio Bayona managed to win a Goya for best film for the first time, since he previously fell short of winning it with A monster comes to see me (2017) y Impossible (2013), with which he did win the award for best director.

For its part, the debut of Estibaliz Urresola, 20,000 species of bees, who started as favorite with 15 applications had to settle with three awards: best new direction, original screenplay (work of Urresola herself) and supporting actress para Ane Gabarain.

It is also worth highlighting the two awards that the animated film achieved Robot Dreams which achieved recognition from the Academy as an animated film and best adapted screenplay, written by its director Pablo Berger based on the comic by Sara Varon. Precisely, the Goya for best adapted screenplay was the only one that escaped Bayona's film on a night in which it was almost full.

Last night the Film Academy lost the opportunity to have recognized the great Victor Erice. Since the awards were born in 1987 and Erice had not directed for more than three decades, his film close your eyes He did not connect with the academics who ignored a masterful work. In the end, Erice's film did not leave empty because Jose Coronado He won the Goya for best supporting actor for his role as an amnesiac actor who is cured precisely by cinema.

Absent at the ceremony, and despite the emptiness of the Academy that has lost a golden opportunity to honor him, Erice, at 83 years old, is probably the most decisive figure in Spanish cinema in recent decades with four masterful works. The spirit of the hive (1973), The South (1983), The sun of the quince (1992) y close your eyes (2023).

Access to the Goyas 2024 Special in Panorama

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5K8amNBoC4