The Goya gala returned to normal after the reduced and telematic version that the pandemic forced last year.
The choice of the Palau de les Arts in Valencia as the stage was a declaration of intent: they wanted to return in a big way, claiming the show that cinema should be.
However, the 36th Academy Awards
will go down as one of the longest and most tedious in their history
, and that's not good news for anyone.
The organizers did not ac
They were wrong neither with the rhythm nor with the format nor with the choral conduction of a gala without a presenter, which was shipwrecked in the obstinate inbreeding, in the self-referential heaviness.
If the sector wants to improve its image, it should make an effort to open up more to society.
But the proven talent of many of our filmmakers and the high quality of some of the films that have competed in this edition contrasts with the
inability of the union to express the benefits of its work in an attractive and popular way
at her gala
Cate Blanchett's fleeting appearance, the difference her mere presence made, spoke volumes.
And that on the shoulders of a living classic like José Sacristán, deserving of the Goya of Honor, falls the task of saving the aesthetic furniture of the evening does not speak well of the generational change.
Politicization has also made the sector unpleasant in the eyes of many Spaniards.
But it's about
highly selective politicization
.
Beyond a mild reference to the enormous rise in the price of electricity, no artist dared to disturb Pedro Sánchez or Yolanda Díaz, present in the auditorium, during his speeches.
Neither the prospect of a war in the Ukraine with Spanish participation nor the general increase in the cost of living managed to shake the usually compromised consciences of people in the cinema in the least.
With the PP in power, that silence would have been a utopia.
It was also demoralizing that Blanca Portillo, when collecting the award for her role as a victim of ETA, was not able to escape the euphemism - "they left unfairly" - instead of
remember they were killed
.
As for the great winner of the night, it is still a sad paradox that the winning film - a denunciation of the abuse of power in the workplace - is financed by a boss who sent all his workers to Fogasa: Roures.
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