MADRID — Pablo Berger‘s Spanish retelling of the Snow White story in the silent, black-and-white film Blancanieves walked away with 10 statues and the top honor at the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya Awards ceremony Sunday night.
Landing best film and best actress, the Flamenco-style rendering of the fairy tale swept passed Juan Antonio Bayona‘s dramatic The Impossible, which has smashed Spanish box-office records and scored five awards of the night.
The real loser was Fernando Trueba‘s The Artist and the Muse, which left empty-handed despite being nominated in 13 categories.
But it was Bayona who brought down the house when he left the stage for an instant upon receiving the Goya for best director of The Impossible to hand it over to Maria Belon, the mother of the real-life family that survived the 2004 tsunami upon which the film was based.
“It’s good to make big films,” he said, returning to the stage for his speech. “It doesn’t mean you are arrogant. The Spanish industry needs big, medium and small films.”
Maribel Verdu, who said she’s “grown to enjoy playing the bad guy,” won her second Goya, this one for her role as the evil stepmother in Blancanieves, beating out Naomi Watts, Penelope Cruz and Aida Folch.
Meanwhile, academy president Enrique Gonzalez Macho railed against the sales-tax increase that saw theater-admission tax jump from 8 percent to 21 percent.
“It’s not good news that Spain has the highest sales tax on culture in Europe. Other countries, like Holland and Portugal, had a very high rate, and they realized it and lowered it. Only fools don’t change their mind,” Gonzalez said.
“It’s not demagoguery to say that the disappearance of piracy would bring more benefits than raising taxes,” said the president, a veteran distributor and exhibitor in the Spanish market, who then estimated 3 billion euros of losses in 2012 for the industry due to piracy.
Presenter Eva Hache finessed her way through a monologue laced with sarcasm that touched on recent allegations of the ruling Popular Party’s slush-fund financing, corruption charged against the Spanish king’s son-in-law, the sales-tax hike for theater admissions, cuts to public-health financing and growing unemployment. But Hache also applauded the best box-office earnings ever for homegrown cinema in its domestic market, 17.9 percent of the share with more than 106 million euros.
Paco Delagado, nominated for an Oscar for wardrobe for Les Miserables, won the Goya for his work, which included the creation of 18 different costumes for Verdu’s character in Blancanieves. The film’s music landed both the best original score and the best original song.
Macarena Garcia looked poised to become Spain’s next sweetheart as she gushed her thanks to a crowd smitten with her spontaneity.
With her second pregnancy recently confirmed, Cruz was not present for the ceremony, but hubby Javier Bardem — sandwiched between his mother, actress Pilar Bardem, and director Alejandro Amenabar — good-naturedly received all the jokes and references to his wife. Bardem spoke out in defense of human rights in the Sahara as he accompanied director Alvaro Longoria in receiving the Goya for documentary feature Sons of the Clouds, which Bardem narrated.
A complete list of winners follows.
Film
Blancanieves
Director
Juan Antonio Bayona for The Impossible
Actor
Jose Sacristan for The Dead Man and Being Happy
Actress
Maribel Verdu for Blancanieves
Original Screenplay
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves
Adapted Screenplay
Javier Barreira, Gorka Magallon, Ignacio del Moral, Jordi Gasull and Neil Landau for Tad, the Lost Explorer
Supporting Actor
Julian Villagran for Grupo 7
Supporting Actress
Candela Pena for Una Pistola en Cada Mano
Honorary Goya
Concha Velasco
Production Design
Sandra Hermida Muniz for The Impossible
Artistic Director
Alain Bainee For Blancanieves
Photography
Kiko de la Rica for Blancanieves
Special Effects
Pau Costa and Felix Berges for The Impossible
Wardrobe
Paco Delgado for Blancanieves
Editing
Bernat Vilaplano and Elena Ruiz for The Impossible
Sound
Peter Glossop, Marc Orts, Oriol Tarrago for The Impossible
Original Score
Alfonso Villalonga for Blancanieves
Original Song
No Te Puedo Encontrar from Blancanieves
New Actor
Joaquin Nunez for Grupo 7
Makeup and Hair
Sylvie Imbert and Fermin Galan for Blancanieves
New Actress
Macarena Garcia for Blancanieves
New Director
Enrique Gato for Tad, the Lost Explorer
Animated Feature Film
The Adventures of Tadeo Jones
Documentary Film
Sons of the Clouds, The Last Colony
European Film
Untouchable (France)
Ibero-American Film
Juan de los Muertos (Cuba)
Animated Short
Jaime Maestro for El Vendedor de Humo
Fiction Short
Esteban Crespo Garcia for Aquel no Era Yo
Documentary Short
Sergio Oksman for A Story for the Modlins
