Luis Martínez Valladolid

Valladolid

Updated Sunday, February 11, 2024-02:29

The VAR was not necessary, but almost. The rule says that whoever wins the script, the direction and collects a good handful of technical awards is, in all probability, the absolute and final winner. But rules, like bicycles, are for summer. And in Valladolid, yesterday, it was cold. A lot. Inside and outside the fairgrounds where the

Goya Awards

were held .

From the beginning it was clear that all the awards whose recipient is someone who needs to check the name on IMDB were for

The Snow Society

. With which, the first clue was oriented. The others, no. As far as the script was concerned, the two favorites were going their separate ways.

20,000 Species of Bees

was up for the original script, which won, and The Adventure of the Survivors of the Andes was up for adaptation since it is based on Pablo Virzi's text of the same title, which lost to

Pablo Berger

for

Robot Dreams

.

With which, only the second most important prize remained to try to unravel the fundamental mystery with a minimum of notice before the final opening of the envelope. Neither. Estíbaliz Urresola, responsible for the story of the trans girl, won the debut direction (sung statuette like few others) and

Juan Antonio Bayona, creator of the largest production in the history of Spanish cinema,

added one more Goya to his collection of awards for his good and refined ways as an organizer of dreams. And there are four.

Thus, after 30 minutes of the schedule set by the organization (that is, at a very immodest two to a little in the morning on it is not clear what day), it was finally known that the Spanish film of the year is La

Sociedad Of snow

.

For her there were a total of 12 Goya awards. 12 out of 13.

Only behind

Sea Inside

and

Ay, Carmela!

about the history of Spain, cinema and Spanish cinema. That is to say, the predictions

that anyone could make after observing what happened in the awards that have come before were

blown up

. Everything indicated, after what happened at the Berlinale, at the Malaga Festival, at the Forqué and even at the Feroz that things were going well. And no, it was survivors. If they came out of the Andes, how could they not from the torture (which it is) of the Goyas. It's like that.

The Academy consequently adopted what is now an outcry. Bayona's film is a production for unanimity. And humanity. It is, without a doubt, everyone's movie. It is not only an artistic and technical achievement of enormous dimensions for Spanish cinema, but, above all, it is a disproportionate provocation.

The snow society

speaks of the dignity of what is shared

, of the certainty of the common, of the necessary vindication of what is just in a time, ours, uncertain and wildly unjust. Otherwise, the best vaccine against polarization and even pollination agitators. It was not understandable that the most relevant Spanish producer of recent times,

Belén Atienza,

did not yet have a Goya and she already has one. She and Sandra Hermida, both of them. Or the '

das

'. And in the best and most resplendent of ways.

Whatever it was, the gala followed the script predetermined by common sense. And the sense of art too. And even the meaning of the complaint against, among other serious issues, abuses against women "no matter where they occur," stressed Vice President Susi Sánchez. Against that and against the voice of the extreme right that the politician García-Gallardo embodies like no one else and against everyone. He said a few days ago, in a boastful way, that cinema

was something for "gentlemen" and Almodóvar replied

that no, it was for other gentlemen.

The awards society

A little more than a dozen statuettes had been delivered and ten of them were already part of the society; of Bayonne, of snow and of the best cinema. Julio Suárez for the locker room; Pau Costa, Félix Bergés and Laura Pedro for the spatial effects; Andrés Gil and Jaume Martí for the editing; Pedro Duque for photography; Jorge Adrados, Oriol Tarragó and Marc Orts for the sound; Alain Bainée for the art direction; Margarita Huguet for production management; Michael Giacchino for the music (which, by the way, we don't like. It's the only thing we don't like about the film) and even the revelation actor

Matías Recalt,

who was not necessarily a favorite, did everything. Everything for them. Or almost. The gala, when the hour was up, was a monotonous Andean symphony.

It was logical that a production with

a budget of 60 million

(the most expensive of all) would win the so-called technical awards, but not because it was foreseeable did it seem less deserved or, if necessary, even miraculous. Not in vain, the Bayona film is about that, about the construction between each and every one of the efforts, no matter how small, of not only a different and habitable reality in the midst of the greatest desolation, but of the hope that makes it possible. What builds the film is the same as what is seen in it:

the conviction of teamwork, of everyone's work,

of a job well done. It sounds naive and that, in fact, is its strength. Let the cynics burst.

In the actors' chapter, few surprises

In the actors' chapter, few surprises. Maybe none. Let's say that the most uncertain candidacies, due to the absence of clear favorites, went to the most veterans. When in doubt, the classic. And so,

José Coronado

was chosen as best supporting performer for his character broken in two (or three) in the prodigy

'Cerrar los ojos

', by Víctor Erice. And so Janet Novás was the revelation for her work in the Golden Shell

'O corno',

by

Jaione Camborda

. And so Ane Gabarain as non-main actress, for '20,000 species of bees'.

That Malena Alterio

's work on the limit

between comedy and tragedy, between fable and reality, between madness and sanity in

'Let Nobody Sleep'

was pointed out was as obvious as, but continuing with the paradoxes, astonishing. And in the same way, the fact that the actor chosen was David Verdaguer for his reconstruction, not an imitation, of the comedian Eugenio in

'Saben Aquell'

was the best and most serious of the jokes, as befits the character.

Sigourney Weaver, moving

Otherwise, the celebration of the award for the animated film for which, after all this, all the Oscars await, was enthusiastic.

'Robot dreams'

is a wordless film that leaves you speechless (sorry) that it took the script and yours, the animated one. Elegant, warm and profound, José Sacristán's tribute to the centenary Goya of honor

Juan Mariné

(he has been alive for 103 years). It is exciting to see a giant who surrenders with emotion to another giant. Awesome, but fun (it is fair to admit it), the tribute to the 25th anniversary of 'All About My Mother', by Pedro Almodóvar. Never before has the joke of goyas and '

poyas

' been so justified.

Moving, Sigourney Weaver

's speech

thanking her Spanish voice actor María Luis Solá for her work. And unfair, everything must be said, the emptiness of 'Un amor', by Isabel Coixet.

And what about the gala? The gala passed and passed as all Goya galas pass (and there are 38 of them), passing. It is materially impossible for a show of more than three hours whose main plot is the mothers, fathers and relatives of some individuals with a statuette in their hands to be just that, a show. The Academy trusted everything to the infallibility of

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi,

for whom everything turns out well and, although the strategy was good, the task turned out, once again, to be impossible. Despite Ana Belén. There has to be a limit to musical numbers, for God's sake.

And with that said,

'The Snow Society'.

The writer saw the film again on Friday in a screening presented by the director himself in one of the largest cinemas in Madrid and, definitely, no one saw the twist of seeing Bayona become the teenage idol coming. Go for the Oscars, one and the other.