If the awards were hotels, we could say that we are not in January but in August. This Thursday, at the same time as awarded the Alfaguara prize to Argentine Guillermo Saccomannothe Hollywood Academy has read its nominees, after two postponements due to the Los Angeles fires. The Alfaguara winning novel is titled, like an invisible thread that unites both events, whose only relationship was coincidence, The fire will come. The actress from Alcobendas Karla Sofia Gascón She has made history as a trans woman and has gotten a nomination for best female performer for Emilia Perez, a movie that It has just been released in Mexico preceded by rejection for its stereotypes both regarding drug trafficking and queer narrative. Of Saccomanno’s book, the jury has said that it tells “the story of a degradation, of an agonizing peeling that little by little reveals the miseries of the social body.” These are hard times, also in the imaginary.
a concert
Ploho (Madrid and Barcelona). You might be surprised to know that there is postpunk in Siberia. You might be surprised to know that there is music in Siberia! Ploho, which is not only the best postpunk group in Siberia (there won’t be a great scene either) but one of the best in general, of those that are active right now. The group (which has recorded ten albums in a ten-year career) says that everything cold and dark that they have experienced in Russia is what has pushed them towards postpunk. Ploho plays with the Portuguese Iamtheshadow on Friday, January 24 at Moby Dick (Madrid) and on Saturday the 25th at Wolf (Barcelona).
Three recommended films, by Javier Zurro
‘The Brutalist’. Don’t be afraid of its duration (yes, it’s almost four hours). The Brutalist deserves to be discovered. Rarely do films come so overwhelmingso conscious of wanting to give everything. A slap in the face to the American dream that is coherent in its themes and in its staging, mammoth, unfathomable. The story of a Holocaust survivor who ends up swallowed up and devoured by capitalism in the US should be the big winner of the Oscars this year.
‘The fever of the rich’. It is clear that Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia likes class struggle and creating effective thrillers about inequality. The Basque director surprised everyone with El hoyo, and that put him in the spotlight of the industry. For his first film outside of the franchise, he uses an international cast but to once again stick his scalpel in the rich thanks to a wonderful premise: what would happen if a mysterious disease wiped out only those who have the most?
‘Flow, a world to save’. The animation gem of the year. So. Not Pixar or Dreamworks or anything. A very young director from Lithuania has enchanted us with a silent fable about a cat that must learn to collaborate to survive. A story about the collective that moves thanks to its beautiful animation.
Three plans for the weekend, by Laura García Higueras

‘The light of a lake’ by El Conde de Torrefiel (Madrid). The complexities of visual perception and the search for clarity in a world drowned in images is the proposal of this work that is being hosted this weekend by the CondeDuque Culture Center. This is the new proposal of the contemporary scenic creation company responsible for Interior image. Its plot revolves around the making of a film with which it shares the title, following the intertwined stories of a girl, a beggar and a dancer, who face a gradual loss of vision.
‘CHAOS’ (Valencia). This Saturday, the Teatre l’Agrícola de Alboraia hosts this nostalgic comedy from the Teatre de l’Abast company. A work that deals with the universe, friendship and probability. The three protagonists traveled to the observatories in Chile to create a show about science but, while putting it on, they always ended up talking about their lives. “We were wondering what we would say to someone who is yet to come. Now, between 30 and 40, we face decisions that can change us forever,” its creators acknowledge. This is the basis of the new text of this company that is committed to physical and multidisciplinary theater.
Celebrate Chinese New Year. Zaragoza, Barcelona and Madrid These are just some of the cities that this weekend will celebrate the Chinese New Year, which will usher in a new era for Chinese culture, the Year of the Snake. The displays promise, from gastronomic activities, concerts, exhibitions, fireworks and parades to accompany the big event.
Four exhibitions, by Jordi Sabaté

‘Calonge. Graphic delirium’ (Barcelona). In the Ignasi Iglésias-Can Fabra public library, in the Sant Andreu neighborhood of the pigeon house in Barcelona, an anthology of the graphic work of the comic artist Antoni Calonge Fontcuberta, known for the pseudonym Calonge. The exhibition about this artist, considered one of the innovators of comics in the 80s of the last century through the pages of Bésame mucho and, above all, in those of El Víbora, incubator of the national underground, coincides in time with the edition by the publishing house La Cúpula of the anthological book that bears the same name as the exhibition and shows the unpublished originals never exhibited before Calonge.
‘An elastic time’ (Madrid). The Banco Santander Foundation sponsors the exhibition at the Complutense Art Center, on Avenida Juan de Herrera, 2 in Madrid. An elastic time (2013-2023). It brings together a selection of works by the artists awarded the Artistic Production Award awarded by Fundación Banco Santander, in collaboration with Open Studio, in its different editions. This exhibition aims to review the evolution of the works of these artists, as well as the Spanish sociopolitical and artistic context of the last decade. Belén Rodríguez, Olmo Cuña, Elvira Amor, Pablo Capitán del Río, Jesús Madriñán, Mario Santamaría, Javier Rodríguez Lozano, Mònica Planes, Irati Inoriza and Andrea Aguilera are the artists whose work is exhibited.
‘Henri Cartier-Bresson. Watch!, Watch!, Watch!’ (Barcelona). This weekend, people who come to the KBR center of the Mapfre Foundation, in Barcelona, will still be able to enjoy the anthology about the great French photojournalist who portrayed the 20th century through his particular perspective. These are 240 gelatin silver prints that the Fondation Cartier-Bresson in Paris has donated to the KBR center and that have been selected by Ulrich Pohlmann, a great expert in the photographer’s work.
‘Evolution in color and water technique’ (Bilbao). The BBK Kuna center in Bilbao presents until February 7 an exhibition of watercolors by local painter Esther Blanco Rayón. Composed of 22 works, the exhibition takes a journey from Blanco Rayón’s beginnings with Chinese ink on paper to his latest works with watercolor on canvas, where color is the protagonist.
Three items

Superstuct. The name may not sound familiar to you but if I tell you that they have become the second most important promoter in the world, you will surely decide to take an interest in them. Nando Cruz tells you his story.
The future of Filmin. The favorite platform of moviegoers is for sale. Not much else is known But experts warn that the tendency towards concentration suggests that perhaps one will take advantage of the opportunity.
What Village People is about. We tell you what has happened to that an artist who called Donald Trump a “dictator” ended up dancing at his celebration party before becoming president again.
Librotea’s recommendations

This week Librotea has recommended books to combat sadness, Elon Musk and whatever is to come.
#postpunk #group #Siberia #brutal #fourhour #film #plans #cold #weekend