Valladolid, Spain, Feb 10 (EFE).- “Society of the Snow,” Juan Antonio Bayona’s film about the 1972 Andes plane crash, swept Saturday night’s 38th Goya Awards for Spanish cinema, taking home 12 gongs, including best picture and best director.
Award winners at the end of the 38th Goya award ceremony held in Valladolid, Castilla Leon, Spain, 10 February 2024. EFE/Mariscal
On a night marked by solidarity with women affected by sexual violence and criticism of the political far right, the Netflix drama “Society of the Snow” was the clear star of the gala held in Valladolid, taking home 12 out of 13 awards for which it was nominated.
The story of the Andes tragedy was present throughout the gala thanks to the film adaptation of the homonymous book by Uruguayan Pablo Vierci, and which is also nominated for the best international feature film Oscar.
The gong for best adapted screenplay was the only one that escaped Bayona, but the film swept the technical awards, including for original score (Michael Giacchino), production design (Margarita Huguet), art direction (Alain Bainée), costume design (Julio Suárez), sound (Jorge Adrados, Oriol Tarragó, Marc Orts) makeup and hair (Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, Montse Ribé), editing (Andrés Gil, Jaume Martí), special effects (Pau Costa, Félix Bergés, Laura Pedro) and cinematography (Pedro Luque).
Argentinian Matías Recalt, 22, also won the best new actor award for his portrayal of Roberto Canessa, one of the survivors of the plane crash and one of those who undertook the 10-day journey across the mountain range to try to find help.
Recalt dedicated the award “to those who returned and, above all, to those who did not return” from the accident and also referred to Argentina’s new far-right government of Javier Milei and asked it to “please, do not stain the culture.”
Best Ibero-American film went to the Chilean Maite Alberdi for her documentary “The Eternal Memory,” the third time that the director was nominated for a Goya after “Tea Time” (2014) and “The Mole Agent” (2020).
“The Eternal Memory,” which beat “Puan” (Argentina), “Simón” (Venezuela), “The Fishbowl” (Puerto Rico) and “Alma Viva” (Portugal), narrates from an intimate perspective the love story between the actress and former arts and culture minister Paulina Urrutia and the journalist Augusto Góngora as he begins to lose his memory due to Alzheimer’s.
“Historical memory is built by narrating and sharing pain,” said the director, who collected the award from the hands of Mexican actor Gael García Bernal, who highlighted the climate emergency.
He was not the only one who took advantage of the stage to highlight societal issues, as was the case of director Pedro Almodóvar who claimed to be one of the gentlemen who lives off subsidies, in reference to the way in which a political official from the far-right party Vox had defined them a few days ago.
Estibaliz Urresola, who won the Goya for best new director for his debut film “20,000 species of Bees,” which went into the gala as the most nominated with 15, took the opportunity to speak out against sexual violence.
“I hope we have the strength to say ‘it’s over’ in the cinema” and everywhere else, said Urresola, who also denounced that what “is happening in Gaza is a genocide and we have to ask our governments to stop it.”
The gala’s presenters, Ana Belén, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, also used their time on stage to make clear their commitment to victims of sexual violence and abuse of power.
“It is urgent that we all demand certainties of equality and that means condemning all abuses and sexual violence and thoroughly reviewing the structures that allow it,” said Belén.
There were few surprises among the awards. The victories of “Society of the Snow” seemed a foregone conclusion, as was the case with performance gongs.
David Verdaguer was the favorite for best actor and he won it for his portrayal of the comedian Eugenio in “Jokes & Cigarettes” by David Trueba.
There were also no big surprises with the best actress award, which was won by the “Argentinian from Madrid,” as she defined herself, Malena Alterio for “Something Is About To Happen,” by Antonio Méndez Esparza.
The Goya for best animation feature and best adapted screenplay went to another Spanish film nominated for an Oscar, “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger.
“Long live cinema in theaters,” the Basque director said.
Bayona also presented the International Goya Award to “the queen,” Sigourney Weaver, whom he directed in “A Monster Calls.” EFE
agf-mt/tw
