De la Iglesia, Bollaín and Villaronga in pole position for Goyas

by Sergio Ríos Pérez

11/01/2011 - The front-runners for the forthcoming Goya Awards, the ceremony of which will be held on February 13, include two hotly-tipped favourites – A Sad Trumpet Ballad [trailer, film focus] (15 nominations) and Even the Rain [trailer, film focus] (13 nominations) – and one of the season’s big surprises, Black Bread [trailer] (14 nominations), which has won over critics and garnered considerable admissions.

The films by Álex de la Iglesia, Icíar Bollaín (president and vice-president, respectively, of the Spanish Film Academy running the awards, although any hint of conflict of interest is dispelled by their very careers) and Agustí Villaronga will be up against another of the year’s big hits, Rodrigo Cortés’s Buried [trailer, film focus] (10 nominations in total), in the Best Film and Best Director categories.

Without doubt, one of the most closely-contested awards will be Best Actor in a Leading Role, where Javier Bardem (Biutiful [trailer], for which he won Best Actor at Cannes 2010 – see news) starts out with a certain advantage over Luis Tosar (Even the Rain; last year he triumphed in this category at the Goyas with Cell 211 [trailer, film focus]), Antonio de la Torre (A Sad Trumpet Ballad) and US thesp Ryan Reynolds (Buried).

De la Iglesia, who since he took over as president of the Film Academy has greatly increased its visibility and got personally involved in almost all debates concerning the sector (for example in the recent controversy surrounding the Sinde Law – see news), hopes that A Sad Trumpet Ballad will break his Goyas curse (to date, he has won only one prize out of a total ten nominations). Besides the three above-mentioned categories, his film will compete for Best Original Screenplay (written for the first time without his regular screenwriter Jorge Guerricaechevarría), Best Supporting Actress (Terele Pávez), Best Female Newcomer (Carolina Bang) and Best Cinematography, among others.

Bollaín’s fifth feature, which is representing Spain in the race for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar (see news), will also vie for Best Original Screenplay (penned by Paul Laverty), Best Supporting Actor (Karra Elejalde) and Best Male Newcomer (Juan Carlos Aduviri).

Four directors will battle it out for Best New Director: David Pinillos (Bon Appétit [trailer]), Emilio Aragón (Paper Birds [trailer]), Juana Macías (Plans for Tomorrow [trailer]), and Jonas Trueba (Every Song Is About Me [trailer]). This category is a great launching pad for Spanish cinema’s new talents, as shown by the list of previous winners, including artists like Alejandro Amenábar, Agustín Diaz Yanes, Fernando León, Julio Médem, Juan Carlos Fresnadillo, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and J. A. Bayona.

For the complete list of final nominees, see the Spanish Film Academy’s official website.

(Translated from Spanish)