When Pedro Almodóvar won the Golden Lion of the last Venice Festival, the president of the jury, Isabelle Huppert, clarified that the decision had not been unanimous. There were different visions. The verdict was in the history of Spanish cinema: The next room It was the first national long to obtain the highest award from the oldest contest. But discrepancies have also remained throughout the season. So much that the Goya awards have given him 10 nominations, including best direction, but not the most desired: the film that marked a milestone for Spanish culture is not among the five best of the year, according to their country’s academics.
The Manchego artist, who has reported that he will not attend the Goya Gala in Granada on Saturday, it is not the only heavyweight excluded from the queen category: I am Nevenkaby Icíar Bollaín, and Marcoby Aitor Formi and Jon Garaño, they do opt for Cabezones, but only in other sections. Lost islandby Fernando Trueba, he has not even obtained candidacies. The best known authors have released, but they have not fallen in love with their classmates. At least, not as much as before. With their penultimate work, everyone had fought for the best film (thunder in animation). Its joint curriculum, which adds more than 200 nominations for the Goya, has been surpassed by the freshness of quasi debutants in the gala. Dani of the Order (House in flames), Javier Macipe (The blue star) Y pol rodríguez (Second prize) They had never been finalists. They had barely been at the gala, in fact. Faced with the usual faces, the Goya have preferred to look this year towards less familiar faces.
It may be coincidence. And filmmakers like Isaki Lacuesta (co -director of Second prize) ARANTXA Echevarría (The infiltrated) nothing they have rookies, by age and film trajectory. But rarely the Goya had dispensed with both the gallons in their elections and raised to less powerful films, at least a priori. The box office has granted a similar result: The infiltrated collection, with 1.3 million tickets sold, more than the Almodóvar, Bollaín, Trueba and Arregi and Garaño together. 47 (by Marcel Barrena, another candidate for best film) and House in flames They also achieved the cinemas greater than the consecrated authors. Indications that invite not to think only of chance. Or, at least, to consider a debate.
“I do not think we should elucidate if the big names of Spanish cinema have become old, when, for example, Eastwood continues to connect with everyone. Nor is it that they have been petado at the box office. It may be a sum of everything: the new generations they are looking for a new cinema, other names; The media need to feed this machine and extol new authors; And the films that have presented the untouchables, who have given us years of glory, were not their best, ”reflects Fausto Fernández, a critic of Photograms and student of all kinds of cinemas. “They have ended up pending, with quite unexpected successes, works that before, in some way, we did not recognize as products of the hegemonic industry,” adds Jordi Costa, critic and head of exhibitions of the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB).
They may have to do with some changes. In the creation itself, first of all, with a wave of new talents, especially in female – although, this year, Echevarría is the only woman who opts for Goya for the best film. “It is fascinating to attend a possible renovation in Spanish cinema, in particular the rise of directors,” says Sally Faulkner, who worked for years as a film professor and Hispanic studies at the University of Exeter (England), in addition to writing several books In this regard. “There are more and more raw operas, many authors explaining new themes, with a personal and visual world. People who come from movie schools or have seen a lot of cinema, with knowledge and ideas of what they want to capture in a film. And that opens the fan, ”adds Fernández.
But differences are noticed beyond filming. The academy, like that of the Oscars, opened the doors to new voters to become more inclusive and representative of society. What, in theory, can expand the look of the institution. “There was a time when they were always nominated because suddenly there was a certain relationship with, say, lobbies Of power, with people who really distributed the work within the industry, ”says Costa. And, on the contrary, celebrates the nomination this year of the strange media Momantula, Sosa’s ion, or that the presence in the Author’s cinema gala of Lacuesta has been normalized. Fernández also applauds the opening, although he warns that the new academics are not exempt from the risk of reproducing old biases such as “voting your friend or who is giving you work.”
Much have also changed the premiere and consumption of cinema. “That a film has to define its luck in the first weekend has sharpened as never before,” says Costa. And different is also the way to value. “Now there are two waves of reception: when the film is in rooms, and when it reaches platforms, sometimes in this second case with unpleasant elements of voices that are there to amend the flat and say: ‘You have been wrong, it was not so Good, ”adds the critic. And cites the conversations that have woke up just The next room o The substance, by Coralie Fargeat, just landed on the Internet.
Maybe the exclusion of Almodóvar del Goya for best film is the most striking. Although the two critics are not surprised. “The Venice Golden Lion can be counterproductive, for a kind of attitude of ‘what will tell us an international festival that we do not know’. Besides, there is a general speech to point him out of ideological bias, ”explains Costa. “Awell a specialized jury, which does not include the target From normal spectators, ”adds Fernández. Namely if the disagreements between the most applauded Spanish filmmaker and the academy had to do. Almodóvar spent years without going to the Goya, since the institution chose in 2003 Mondays in the sunby Fernando León de Aranoa, instead of Talk to heras a representative in the Oscars. The creator returned in 2010, and swept Pain and glory In 2020. However, when the academy sent to compete in Hollywood The good patternagain from León de Aranoa, instead of Parallel mothersAgustín Almodóvar, brother and producer of Pedro, said: “The Academy is not the place where its figure has defended itself.”
And that is the only one to have obtained four times the most important Goya. The first, with 39 years, for Women on the verge of a nervous attack; The most recent, already with 70, by Pain and glory. An entire exception, like so many in his career. Because the average age of the winner of the best film is placed in 46.2 years. And, throughout history, many more winners appear in the thirties than beyond the 60s (only Berlanga, Aranda and Fernán Gómez). Is there in the cinema, as in sport, a peak for careers? “I don’t believe it. Orson Welles reached maturity with his first film, just like Quentin Tarantino. Others need to make bad films, until a good one, ”says Fernández. And add: “Megalopolisby Francis Ford Coppola, at 85, it is one of the youngest and riskiest films last year. And a 30 boy can make a most conservative film. ”
Scorsese, George Miller, Eastwood or Jane Campion have achieved some of their best lengths overcome retirement age. Echevarría herself is triumphing at age 57 with The infiltrated. Damien Chazelle, on the other hand, was crowned as the youngest filmmaker to win the Oscar for best direction, for LA LA LANDbut it has not achieved a success or remotely similar. “There is no relationship between mastery and age. Yes, when an author arises that seems new to us, there is a moment of general undercar, both by the public and criticism, ”acknowledges Costa.
Regarding the danger of stagnating, director Paolo Sorrentino declared in 2016 to El País: “I have confidence to those who have asked to do sentries and let me know if I have stunned.” But the interviewees are not afraid that an artist ends up repeating excessively. “Talent has no age. If you have it for the industry and producers, which are getting more and more fighting these directors, ”says Fernández. And both he and Costa underline the importance of young and elderly authors to have opportunities to make mistakes, insist despite everything or to continue crumbling the same issue. Among the cases cited, Ozu, Fellini, Lynch, John Ford, Hawks or Almodóvar himself leave.
Finally, Fernández invites you to relativize: “They are prizes. They mean absolutely anything. Who gives the relevant relevant is the public. Going to the cinema. Paying for a movie. Demonstrating interest. Commenting at work, with your family or friends. ” That art generates reactions is perhaps the greatest recognition. Not being the most nominated in the Goya, but in homes.
