Maribel Verdú and Leonor Watling, presenters of the Goya 2025: “For a gap that exists for culture, we are not going to talk about politics”

The countdown to the Goya 2025 has already begun and the presenters of the gala of these awards, the actresses Maribel Verdú and Leonor Watling, have celebrated it. «We are fun and we know what the important problems are. We know what is hard in life, and presenting this gala is just enjoying it. We are not intense, we like irony, humor, laughter. “They are regretting having chosen us,” Verdú acknowledged this Wednesday at the Film Academy. The gala will be held on February 8 at the Granada Conference Center and it is the first time that both actresses have worked together. «This is the beginning of a new path. Maribel Verdú is very organized and I am more chaotic. “I think we do what we have to do well, but from a very different point,” Watling added with a laugh.

Both actresses received the news that they would present the Goya with a surprise, although Maribel Verdú is not making her debut, because she already did so with Monserrat Caballé and Antonio Resines in 2005. «We both made an agreement. “It is the first time that we are two presenters and two scriptwriters,” explained Leonor Watling. Verdú acknowledged that the Academy gave them permission to select the screenwriters for the gala. «It is a time to celebrate cinema, there is no need to comment on the political panorama that exists. That’s what cinema is for, where there is a positioning. The gala is to encourage us and hug us. Those who collect their Goya will have their moment to say what they want if they consider it necessary. For a space that exists to talk about culture, we are not going to talk about politics», he added.

During the press conference, both actresses took stock of the year in the Spanish film industry. «What a year of cinema. What good stories there are. We cannot complain because we are experiencing a good time in the industry,” Watling acknowledged. Verdú expressed his surprise at seeing the number of films that have opted for nominations and the topics they have dealt with: «There are almost 350 films that are eligible. I don’t think there has been such a fruitful year in a long time. It has caught my attention that there have been so many about how to die with dignity.”

The presenters are also prepared for the criticism they may receive during that night. «When you present the Goya you know that they are going to fall on you from all sides. You have to have it so assumed and so extrapolated to enjoy it. It doesn’t affect me,” Verdú acknowledged. «As it is not the budgets, this is to enjoy. I think it’s very nice to be the person next to Maribel who will be taking care of the true protagonists of the night,” Watling added.

«I don’t think we have to give many justifications for why they are. In the cinema of that time, miracles and apparitions were very frequent. Miracles sometimes come true. They appeared when the board was meeting to elect the presenters,” acknowledged Fernando Méndez-Leite, president of the Film Academy. Nominated eleven times for the Goya Awards, winning two of them for ‘Seven French Billiard Tables’ and ‘Snow White’, Maribel Verdú has starred in more than 80 films, numerous television series and plays. Montxo Armendáriz, Ricardo Franco, Vicente Aranda, Fernando Trueba, Bigas Luna, Alfonso Cuarón, Guillermo del Toro, Gracia Querejeta, Pablo Berger, Eloy de la Iglesia, Jaime de Armiñán, Carlos Saura, Andy Muschietti, Rodrigo García and Francis Ford Coppola, are some of the directors with whom the Madrid actress, recognized with the 2008 National Film Award and the Gold Medal of the Academy.

‘Hanging Gardens’, by Pablo Llorca, was the film debut of Leonor Watling, who has an extensive filmography and two nominations for the Goya Awards for ‘The Hour of the Brave’, by Antonio Mercero, and ‘My Mother Likes Them’ women’, by Daniela Fejerman and Inés París. ‘The first night of my life’, by Miguel Albadalejo; ‘Talk to her’, by Pedro Almodóvar; ‘Unconscious’, by Joaquín Oristrell; ‘My life without me’, by Isabel Coixet; ‘Son de mar’, by Bigas Luna; ‘In the city’, by Cesc Gay; ‘The best of Eva’, by Mariano Barroso; ‘Tirante el Blanco’, by Vicente Aranda; ‘The Oxford Murders’, by Álex de la Iglesia; ‘Bad seasons, by Manuel Martín Cuenca’; or ‘Chinas’, by Arantxa Echevarría, are some of the outstanding films of the actress, who also develops a musical career as a singer and lyricist for the group Marlango.