24/02/2012 - For the second time in the last three years, Escándalo Films has won the Goya for Best New Director with Eva by Kike Mailló

Escándalo Films, the production company linked to film school ESCAC, has done it again. For the second time in the last three years, one of its productions has won the the Goya for Best New Director. Two Goyas is a great success, as they only produce first films. After Mar Coll’s victory in 2010 with Three Days with the Family [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Kike Mailló (pictured) took away the Goya statuette last Sunday for his film Eva [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Both films were part of the Ópera Prima production programme, through which Escándalo supports the school’s students’ first feature films. Up until now, it has produced six films as part of the programme. The next film, Animals by Marçal Forés will be ready this spring.

“The secret of our films is the care with which they are made, from development to production. It’s skilled work”, explains Lita Roig, who with Sergi Casamitjana and Aintza Serra was in charge of producing Eva. “We give each film the time it needs, without wanting to do things too fast.”

Many talented filmmakers have emerged from ESCAC, such as J. A. Bayona (scriptwriter for The Orphanage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and who is now giving the final touches to Lo imposible, a film expected to be Spanish cinema’s great hope for 2012) and Javier Ruiz Caldera (who recently released Ghost Graduation [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). The interaction between the school’s students and alumni is another key to this success: “At ESCAC everybody knows everybody. People work together as friends, and it’s something that you notice,” says Roig.

“In their films, I know that I will find original ideas. They’re a pool of young talent, and this is very important for sales abroad,” says Vicente Canales, the head of international sales agency Film Factory Entertainment, who currently represents three of Escándalo’s films: Animals (“We are pushing for it to participate in Cannes,” says Canales), the collective film Puzzled Love and Colmillos by Alberto del Toro, still at the beginning of a career to debute at the Marché du Film in Cannes.

(Translated from Spanish)