Actress Sigourney Weaver, 2024 International Goya Award

Actress Sigourney Weaver (New York, 74 years old) has won the 2024 International Goya Award for “her impressive career full of unforgettable films and inspiring us by creating independent, complex and strong female characters,” as announced this Tuesday by the institution that grants the award. , the Spanish Film Academy. The recognition, created for the 2022 edition, goes to a famous performer for the third time: the first award went to Cate Blanchett and the second, last year, to Juliette Binoche. Weaver will collect the award during the 38th edition of the Goya Awards, on February 10, in Valladolid.

“Three-time Oscar-nominated, BAFTA- and Golden Globe-winning actress Sigourney Weaver has created a set of unforgettable characters, in both comedy and drama, ranging from Lieutenant Ripley in Alien to Dian Fossey in Gorillas in the Mist [de Michael Apted]. “Over the years, she has captivated audiences and earned their admiration as one of the most beloved performers on stage and screen worldwide,” points out the Film Academy in a statement. “Weaver's eclectic work is a reflection of her versatility, charisma and indisputable talent as an actress,” the document adds. It is paradoxical, now, to note that when Weaver began studying theater at Yale, her professors told her precisely that she did not have enough talent to be a professional.

The award strengthens Weaver's relationship with Spanish cinema. The actress starred on the poster for the 2021 edition of the San Sebastián Festival, where she received a Donostia award. She and she also participated in 2016 in A monster comes to see me, by director JA Bayona, for which she earned a Goya nomination for best supporting actress. At this year's gala both will meet again, as the filmmaker competes with The Snow Society. Before, Weaver had already worked with another Spanish director, Rodrigo Cortés, in Red lights.

“He debuted with a small role in Annie Hall by Woody Allen, Ridley Scott made her a symbol of science fiction cinema and with the help of James Cameron she participated in the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema [Avatar]. He has also been in front of the camera of Peter Weir, Mike Nichols, Roman Polanski, Ang Lee, David Fincher, Ivan Reitman and M. Night Shyamalan,” the Academy statement said. In recent times, he was seen on the big screen in The master gardener, by Paul Schrader, and Avatar: the sense of waterby James Cameron.

The artist is actually called Susan Alexandra Weaver, but reading as a young woman The Great Gatsby, by Scott Fitzgerald, found inspiration to change it in Mrs. Sigourney Howard, a name that is only mentioned once in the novel. When she enrolled at Yale University, she was more of a writer than an actress. There she met another future acting legend, Meryl Streep. Today, both are cinema history.