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1st Feb - Madrid - Goya Awards - Celebration of the Spanish cinema

By ROBERT HUTTINGER

 

The big night of Spanish cinema is Sunday, February 1st. Yet another year, the lights, the magic, the fashion, the glamour, the nominees’ nerves, the parade of academy members, politicians, the movie industry, famous faces… fill the City Conference Center (Campo de las Naciones) in Madrid. The gala of the 23rd edition of the Goya Awards, to be broadcast on TVE, will be hosted by Carmen Machi and directed by Manel Iglesias. Joaquín Reyes, the director of Muchachada Nuí, will write, direct and act in some of the Gala’s skits.

The awards consist of 28 categories (including three for short films), plus the Honorary Goya.
Los girasoles ciegos, by José Luis Cuerda, is a favorite with 15 nominations, followed by Sólo quiero caminar, by Agustín Díaz Yanes, with 11; both opt for the awards for Best Picture and Best Director, along with Los crímenes de Oxford, by Álex de la Iglesia (6 nominations), and Camino, by Javier Fesser (7 nominations). Sangre de Mayo, by José Luis Garci is competing for a Goya in seven categories. La conjura de El Escorial, by Antonio del Real, and Che- Part 1: The Argentine, by Steven Soderburgh, are tied with five nominations. Una palabra tuya, by Ángeles González-Sinde, is a finalist in four categories, and El patio de mi cárcel (Belén Macías), Retorno a Hansala (Chus Gutiérrez), El truco del manco (Santiago A. Zannou), and Mortadelo y Filemón. Misión salvar la Tierra (Miguel Bardem) are nominated in three categories. Competing for two Goyas are El juego del ahorcado and Fuera de carta. A total of 23 films have one nomination each, among them those competing in the categories of Animation, Documentary, European Film and Spanish Language Foreign Film.

163 Spanish and foreign films shot in Spanish or in any of the official languages of Spain (117 fictional movies, 38 documentaries and 8 animation films) have been named as finalists in the 23rd edition. All premiered in Spain between December 1st, 2007 and November 30th, 2008, and ran in commercial theaters for at least one week.
This 23rd edition of the Goya Awards has seen the submission of seven Latin American films, 110 short films, and 107 European films. There has been a notable increase in documentary films compared to last year: from 30 to 39, and in animation, from four to eight. A total of 112 fictional films and nine from Latin America competed in the 22nd edition
Films with the most nominations in the history of the Goya Awards.
Días contados, 19 (ninth edition); La niña de tus ojos, 18 (13th edition); Belle Époque, 17 (seventh edition); Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios, 16 (third edition); Átame, 15 (fifth edition); ¡Ay Carmela!, 15 (fifth edition); La comunidad, 15 (15th edition); Los otros, 15 (16th edition) and Mar adentro, 15 (19th edition).
Most awarded films.

Mar adentro (14 awards), ¡Ay Carmela! (13), Belle Époque (9), Los otros (8), Días contados (8), and La niña de tus ojos (7).
Voting system.
All Academy members with voting rights vote in all categories, in two rounds: in the first round they choose four finalists for each award, and in the second they choose one of the four.
The 23rd edition of the Goya Awards has Jameson as its official sponsor, and backing by Televisión Española, Ministerio de Cultura, Comunidad de Madrid, Ayuntamiento de Madrid, Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional y Desarrollo (AECID), Instituto Buñuel, Kodak, Audi, Avid, RENFE, Aisge, Egeda, Nespresso, L’Oréal Professionel, Hoteles Hospes, Molinare, Deluxe, EPC, Technicolor, Ayuntamiento de Zaragoza, Asociación de Creadores de Moda de España, Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha and Ciudad de la Luz.



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