Sober, original, exciting. And even fast. It ended even before its time. Never seen. It’s going to be hard to get back to normal after this. The one that took place on Saturday night from Malaga and the whole world via zoom was by far the best Goy gala that these eyes have seen. Once the clumsy races through the corridors, the stupor silence on the stage, and the ever-renewed surprise at the weight of the statuette were eliminated, there were tears, laughter, and hugs. In raw. Memorable. Everything developed as conscious of the moment that he occupies himself as well as attentive to what is to come. Everything’s fine. Above awards, the award went to the ceremony itself. It was the first sentence that was heard from the zoom. The second Come here hosts from a Basque winner to a Basque husband. And from here all shot to that same host, to quote the expert and with the phone book of Banderas on fire. Of all the possible mutes, only one. And of all the voice couplings, a few. But all, what things, they sounded sincere.
And so, Las chicas, by Pilar Palomero, ended up becoming the movie of the year. The most exciting gala for the most exciting film. The thrill for the thrill. It was logical and therefore predictable. But he did it at the same time that some Goya to remember were distributed in a polite and almost proportionate way among almost everyone. Nobody left empty. It seems that the fair was that. In a strange, rare, pandemic, and even a miserable year, all those who dared to release may deserve a prize. And to that, the Academy applied. And then there is the matter of Santiago Segura. The four Goya of the film that portrays the childhood of an entire country from the eyes of a girl in Zaragoza made the film’s own trajectory good since it was presented at the Berlin Film Festival. Then he won in Malaga. And then in the Forqué. And then the Feroz. And now, finally, the Goya.
Palomero, newcomer director, puts the entire film to rest on the absent gesture of the very young actress Andrea Fandos. The film wants to play on contrasts. On the outside, Spain (that is the country we are talking about) receives a new and multicolored time where the Expo, the Olympic Games, and the AVE shine. Inside, everything insists on the gray color of the immutable, of the eternal, of the stale. The result is a meticulous film in the description of each of the lies that make up the memory, beautiful in its drawing of sadness, clear in its most intimate paradox. And thus become the movie of the year. Ana Maria Ruiz Lopez, a nurse, gave him the award and each of the seconds of his brilliant intervention was gold. That he also received the highest awards for novel direction, screenplay, and, not least, photography that for the first time in history receives a woman, the Colombian Daniela Cajías, underlines the obvious, the important, and even the necessary.
At his side, Akelarre left the ceremony converted into the most honored. All the technical awards, five in total, went to the Basque film by Argentine director Pablo Agüero who attended the San Sebastian Festival competition. Not far and with the same Goya as The Girls, Adu His 13 nominations ended up being four statuettes. Among them, the best director, Salvador Calvo, and revelation actor, the French Adam Nourou. The Academy awarded in this way the only film of all those that appeared as candidates for something that has been among the 10 most viewed of the year. The sixth to be precise. It would not have made sense otherwise and even more, after giving Father completely aside there is only one 2, the most seen of them all. But that, we said is another matter.
However, in the natural order of the extraordinary in an extraordinary year, it is not advisable to let go of what happened with Ane, by David Pérez Sañudo, and even with The Year of Discovery, by Luis López Carrasco. The first corresponds to the benefit of what explodes. The film by the Basque debutant, although also somewhat from Madrid, proposes an angry and brilliant study of the recent past of the Basque Country that is also a metaphor for the abyss that separates generations. Actresses Patricia López Arnaiz and Jone Laspiurrather than just acting face to face, they bite. One to the other and both to the screen itself. It is fair that together with the award for writing (adapted script) were the two of them. Facing. To bite.
And then there is the Murcian film The Year of Discovery which, not content with honoring the evidence by becoming the documentary of the year and of all the festivals it has passed through, also got the montage for Sergio Jimenez. For the first time, something like this happens. It is a film built on two screens where the past is mixed with the present in a virtuous diorama that turns the recent history of Spain into cinematic living material. Memorable was the gala, memorable, at least, these last two successes. That Rosa’s wedding, by Icíar Bollaín, was awarded the song by Rozalen and the work of Nathalie Poza (supporting actress) and that Mario Casas finally got his Goya for You will not kill was part of the fair cast, of the fair ceremony, of the brilliant know-how of huge flags. To all hosts.
