Goya award winners announced!

Sunday night was the awards ceremony for the famous Premios Goya, the annual Spanish film awards. A host of famous Spanish actors, actresses, producers and directors were present at the 25th ceremony, hoping to be the recipient of one of the awards. Among the nominations, 4 films stood out as having the best chances of taking home the prizes: Pa Negre (Black Bread), También la Lluvia (Even the Rain), Balada Triste de Trompeta (A Sad Trumpet Balad) and Enterrado (Buried), but who were the eventual winners?

Well, the most successful film by far was the Catalan film Pa Negre, which earned a total of 9 awards, including some of the most coveted, such as Best Film, Best Director (Agusti Villaronga) and Best Leading actress (Nora Navas). The film’s young protagonist, Francesc Colomer, also won the Best Newcomer award, at only 11 years old! Looks like he’ll be one to watch in Spanish and Catalan cinema in the years to come.

The biggest ‘loser’ of the night had to be Alex de la Iglesia’s Balada Triste de Trompeta, after only winning two of the 15 awards it was nominated for, and only in the categories of Special Effects and Hair and Makeup. However this and the other two favourites did each win 2 or 3 Goyas each, proving their worthiness of being shortlisted, even if Pa Negre was the star of the show. The film Biutiful, nominated for 8 awards, only received one in the end, but gave one of Spain’s favourite actors, Javier Bardem, the 5th Goya award of his career – an impressive achievement!

Like any award ceremony, the 25th annual Goya awards wouldn’t have been complete without a bit of controversy, and there was certainly plenty of it. The ‘professional gatecrasher’, known as Jimmy Jump, who is famous for disturbing important events such as the Roland Garros tennis tournament and the Champions League final, somehow made his way into the onto the stage just as Javier Bardem was about to receive his award and had to be escorted out by a security guard!

Alex de la Iglesia also caused a stir in speaking openly about his decision to step down as the president of the Academia de Cine, in his disagreement with Spain’s new law to help combat the illegal downloading of films. He said that “internet is the salvation of our cinema”, going onto explain how he believes that, as times change and technology develops, the world of cinema needs to adapt itself so that people can still carry on enjoying films.

As De la Iglesia points out, know matter how people enjoy cinema, they are enjoying it all the same and last night’s ceremony proved that Spanish cinema is definitely still pleasing the crowds.