'The Snow Society' sweeps the Goya Awards and looks to the Oscars

The film, released in theaters in December and on Netflix in January, recreates the vicissitudes that the young people of an amateur Uruguayan rugby team faced when the plane in which they were traveling to Chile crashed in the Andes mountain range.

Based on the book of the same name by Uruguayan Pablo Vierci, who collected testimonies from people who survived more than 70 days at more than 3,000 meters high, the film has a cast of Uruguayan and Argentine actors.

“I remember that in 2021, in December, I stood there at 4,500 meters above sea level, in front of the tomb of the deceased, up there on the mountain, and I asked them for permission to tell this story,” Bayona said very emotionally.

“I told them that I was going to do the best I knew how. I hope I lived up to it,” said the 48-year-old Barcelona director, who won his fourth Goya for best director and, for the first time, won best. movie.

The film that rivaled 'The Snow Society' in number of nominations, '20,000 Species of Bees', by newcomer Estíbaliz Urresola, ended up winning the awards for best screenplay, novel direction and supporting actress.

The Spanish-Argentine Malena Alterio won the Goya award for best leading actress for her role in 'Que Nadie Duerma', while the best actor award went to the Spanish David Verdaguer, for his role in 'Saben aquell'.

Alterio, 50, plays a woman who loses her job as a computer programmer and turns her life around by starting to work as a taxi driver.

For his part, Verdaguer arrived as one of the great favorites of the night for his exact recreation of the brilliant Catalan comedian Eugenio, and he won his second Goya after the one he won as best supporting actor for 'Summer 1993'.

Sigourney Weaver, excited

The documentary 'Infinite Memory', by Chilean director Maite Alberdi, was chosen as best Ibero-American film. It tells the love story of the actress and former Minister of Culture Paulina Urrutia and the journalist Augusto Góngora, who, after 25 years together, have to face Alzheimer's disease from which he suffers.

For its part, the French film 'Anatomy of a Fall' continues to collect awards and won best European film.

One of the star moments of the gala was the presentation of the international honorary Goya to the American actress Sigourney Weaver by JABayona, who directed her in 'A Monster Comes to See Me'.

“I've had a great time, I've met some monsters, I've played some monsters. For me it's always about the story, always looking for the best stories in all genres,” Weaver, 74, said of his career.

Both 'The Snow Society' and the film that won the award for best animated film, 'Robot Dreams', are up for statuettes at the Oscars on March 11.

The director Pedro Almodóvar, the actress Penélope Cruz, and the actors Gael García Bernal and José Sacristán, were some of those in charge of presenting the awards.

“Me Too” moment

It was the first time in the history of the Goyas, born in 1987, that there were more women nominated than men, in a ratio of 60 to 40.

And precisely, this edition had sexual abuse in cinema as an unwanted protagonist, following recent complaints by several women against two Spanish directors, Carlos Vermut and Armando Ravelo.

We must “condemn all abuses and sexual violence,” and that means “deeply reviewing the structures that allow it,” the presenter, Ana Belén, declared at the opening of the gala. “Here in the cinema, it's also over,” added the singer and actress.

Previously, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, expressed on the red carpet that it is necessary to “end this structural violence that embarrasses us all, and in particular the men.”

The latest allegations have caused a moment of catharsis that has been compared to “Me Too”, the movement that emerged in the United States in 2017 to protest against sexual assaults, following complaints against producer Harvey. Weinstein, who ended up taking him to jail for rape.

Spanish cinema had been more or less unscathed by the allegations of sexual overtones that, however, exploded in the world of football, with the case of the public and unwanted kiss on the mouth, which the president of the federation, Luis Rubiales, he stood up to the soccer player Jenni Hermoso, or the alleged rape for which the Brazilian player Dani Alves has been tried this week.

With AFP