06/09/2018 - The box-office smash by Javier Fesser, starring Javier Gutiérrez, has been chosen by the Spanish Film Academy to vie for a nomination for Best Foreign-language Film

There was many a raised eyebrow this morning at the Spanish Academy of Film Arts and Sciences, in Madrid, when actor Daniel Grao (who will star in Animales sin collar, set to be released this autumn – see the news) read out the title of the film that will be representing Spain in the race for a nomination for the upcoming 91^st Academy Awards, in the Best Foreign-language Film category, in the presence of the president of the institution, Mariano Barroso. The chosen title, Champions [+see also:
trailer
film profile], a 100% Spanish production directed by Javier Fesser and starring Javier Gutiérrez, is one of the most resounding success stories in Spanish film at the moment, as it has so far raked in more than €18 million at the box office… And it is still on the cinema listings – in fact, it will be screened again at the imminent San Sebastián Film Festival.

And we mention raised eyebrows because it had been taken for granted that Everybody Knows [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] would be the movie with the most votes in favour of sending it to Los Angeles in February 2019, in search of the coveted golden statuette. The Spanish-French-Italian co-production was directed by two-time Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, and stars a duo of A-list actors (both of whom are in possession of Academy Awards), Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. This drama shot in Spain, which opened the most recent Cannes Film Festival shortly before its release in French and Belgian theatres, will finally reach Spanish cinemas on Friday 14 September, distributed by Universal.

The third hopeful to represent the country was Giant [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño
film profile], a sensitive and impeccably produced recreation of the real-life case of a Basque giant, helmed by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi. The film scooped ten Goya Awards at the most recent edition of the prizes handed out by the Spanish Film Academy.

Javier Fesser was previously nominated for the Oscar in 2007 with his short film Binta and the Great Idea. Champions, which was released in Spain on 6 April and which Latido Films has already sold to half the world (to Le Pacte in France, Concorde in Germany, Praesens in Switzerland, Movies Inspired in Italy and Joy Pictures in China, among many other markets), tells the story of how the uptight, unsympathetic and self-satisfied Marco has to reinvent himself by training a basketball team made up of people with intellectual disabilities; he finally discovers that, just maybe, he may have the biggest disability of them all. This roller-coaster ride of laughter and tears has dazzled a good proportion of the moviegoers that have been coming to Spanish movie theatres in the last few months: right now, it is the biggest Spanish box-office draw of 2018, boasting three million viewers and counting.

Películas Pendelton, Morena Films, Rey de Babia AIE and Movistar Plus+ are the producers of Champions, which was co-produced by TVE. Universal Pictures International Spain has been handling the Spanish release.

(Translated from Spanish)