Tuesday, February 28, 2012

The SPANISH FILM ACADEMY pays tribute to the Basque director ANTXON ECEIZA


Today, Tuesday February 28th , the Film Academy of Spain pays a posthumous tribute to Antxon Eceiza, a Basque director who died last year, projecting his film "Days of smoke" at the Academy's film theater.

Antxon Eceiza was a historical figure of the Basque cinema,  directing films like "The Embodied Mind", "The secret intentions" or "Last meeting". The now projected "Days of smoke" was the first film shot in Basque language that would compete in an official section of an international film festival, in this case, the Festival of San Sebastian.

The screening will take place today at 20:00 under the heading "Antxon Eceiza in memoriam."

Before the screening of "Days of smoke" will also be projected the short film "Through St. Sebastian" which Eceiza co-directed with Elías Querejeta, with whom he founded a theater-forum in his home town, San Sebastian, and with whom he collaborated in several occasions.

"Days of smoke" features a cast led by the Mexican actor and producer Pedro Armendáriz Jr., who died a month after the death of Eceiza.

According to the director's own words about the film: "I am a young Basque filmmaker who is old of age. "Days of smoke" was a heroic decision in 1988, and even today it keeps being heroic for a Basque film director to make a film with a Basque theme, shot in the Basque Country and in Basque language. "

The cinematographic testament of Eceiza was the film "Congratulations Tovarich" starring Paco Rabal.

We hope many can attend this historical projection offered by the Spanish Academy.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Spanish Academy GOYA AWARDS, 2012

José Coronado and Enrique Urbizu

Yesterday, February 19 was held the Goya Awards of the Spanish Film Academy. The big winner of the night turned out to be Enrique Urbizu with his film "No Rest for the Wicked" with a total of six awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay awards and Best Actor Award for Jose Coronado.

Isabel Coixet's documentary on the Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon "Listening to Judge Garzon" won the Goya for best documentary. The Catalan director used her presence at the gala to claim the innocence of Baltasar Garzón against the three legal imputations the judge is facing in Spain. Interestingly today, February 20th, Garzon has been formally removed from his judicial career by The Standing Committee of the Supreme Judicial Council of Spain because of the authorization given by the judge to some listenings of  prisoners suspected in the Spanish Gurtel- corruption case.

According to Coixet's words, "The Supreme Court may set aside Garzon of justice, but  nothing and nobody can separate justice from Judge Garzon," the filmmaker makes clear her opinion on the innocence of the judge and highlights the good intention of Garzon by adding "I wish that there had been no peace for the wicked," alluding to the great film by Urbizu with whom she shared yesterday's Goya Awards victory.

To highlight other winners, Elena Anaya was the winner of the Goya for Best Actress, while Lluis Homar and Ana Wagener received the Goyas of the supporting actors. Below a video of the Santiago Segura's monologue that gave the funny spark to the gala, and the complete list of winners. Congratulations to Enrique Urbizu, Isabel Coixet and all the winners!


GOYA AWARDS 2012:
Film
No Rest for the Wicked, Enrique Urbizu.

Director
Enrique Urbizu, No Rest for the Wicked.

New Director
Kike Maillo,  Eva.

Original Script
Enrique Urbizu and Michel Gaztambide, No Rest for the Wicked.

Adapted Script
Angel de la Cruz, Ignacio Ferreras, Paco Roca and Rosanna Cecchini, Wrinkles.

Original Score
Alberto Iglesias, The Skin I Live In.

Original Song
Nana de la hierbabuena, for La voz dormida.

Lead Actor
Jose Coronado, for No Rest for the Wicked.

Lead Actress
Elena Anaya, for The Skin I Live In.

Supporting Actor
Lluis Homar, for Eva.

Supporting Actress
Ana Wagener, for The Sleeping Voice.

New Actor
Jan Cornet, for The Skin I Live In.

New Actress
Maria Leon, for The Sleeping Voice.

Production Design
Andres Santana, for Blackthorn.

Photography
Juan Antonio Ruiz Anchia, for Blackthorn.

Editing
Pablo Blanco, for No Rest for the Wicked.

Artistic Director
Juan Pedro de Gaspar, for Blackthorn.

Wardrobe
Clara Bilbao, for Blackthorn.

Makeup and Hair
Karmele Soler, David Marti and Manolo Carretero, for The Skin I Live In.

Sound
Licio Marcos de Oliveira and Ignacio Royo-Villanova, for No Rest for the Wicked.

Special Effects
Arturo Balseiro and Lluis Castells, for Eva.

Animated Feature
Wrinkles.

Documentary Film
Escuchando al juez Garzon.

Ibero-American Film
Un cuento chino.

European Film
The Artist.

Spanish Fiction Short
El barco pirata.

Animated Short
Big Boy.

Documentary Short
Regreso a Viridiana.

Honorary Goya
Josefina Molina

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Almodóvar's THE SKIN I LIVE IN" wins BAFTA Award


Pedro Almodóvar
Anil Kapoor


The past February 12th, the British Film Academy celebrated it's annual BAFTA Awards, being the great winners "The Artist" by Michel Hazanavicius and "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy"  by Tomas Alfredson.

Pedro Almódovar's The Skin I live In" was awarded as the Best Film not in English language. As Almodóvar couldn't attend the event, the award was handed to the Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor.

Our congratulations to the winners!


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

"CHICO AND RITA" and composer ALBERTO IGLESIAS nominees for the 2012 OSCAR AWARDS


The Spanish representation at this year's Oscar Awards consists of the animation movie "Chico and Rita" by Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal and Tono Errando, and of the composer Alberto Iglesias who has been nominated for his original score in the film "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy".

"Chico and Rita" is a wonderful project of animation for adults devised in the creative minds of the Catalan cartoonist Javier Mariscal and the talented and award-winning Spanish director Fernando Trueba. The movie tells the appasionate love story between a young jazz pianist, Chico, and a debuting singer, Rita, in the Cuba of the 1940s. 
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

The astonishing and original animation work of this movie, together with its marvellous music, makes this film become a mature and authentic peace of art which is filled with content. Trueba and Mariscal are real geniuses of a sensitive film making and a sensitive way of seeing art in general.
The script of the movie is written by Fernando Trueba and Ignacio Martínez de Pisón, and the music is composed by the Cuban grand old jazzman Bebo Valdés. The movie already won the Spanish Film Academy's Goya Award for the best animation movie last year.

Alberto Iglesias


And what comes to the composer Alberto Iglesias, Goya Award-winning too, he has a long career as a film composer in Spain where he has worked with directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Julio Medem or Iciar Bollaín. He also has composed original scores to films like "The Constant Gardener", "The Kite Runner" or "Che". 

We hope luck to these Spanish artists whose talent is most certainly worth an Oscar. We'll have to wait until February 26th to find out if they actually will be awarded, although a nomination is already a great reward.

Tuesday, January 17, 2012

ALMODÓVAR'S "THE SKIN I LIVE IN" and composer ALBERTO IGLESIAS BAFTA nominees

P. Almodóvar, Elena Anaya, A. Banderas, Alberto Iglesias



The Spanish representation in this year's BAFTA nominations consists of the new film by Pedro Almodóvar "The Skin I Live In", which is nominated in the Film Not in the English Language- category.


 

Jean Dujardin and Berenice Bejo
Also the composer Alberto Iglesias, with whom Almodóvar normally works in his films, is nominated for his original score for the movie "Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy".

We wish all the luck to these artists as well as to the great french movie "The Artist" which is being this year's favorite nominee in BAFTA Awards with 12 nominations in total.

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

The SPANISH FILM ACADEMY screens European Shortfilms this week

A still from "The Unliving" by Hugo Lilja


The Spanish Film Academy screens this week the 15 finalists of the European Film Academy Awards for the Best European Shortfilm.

The screenings will be held at the Academy's movie theatre in Madrid on the following dates:

Tuesday 10th of January at 8 PM:

"Berik" by Daniel Joseph Borgman
"Derby" by Paul Negoescu
"Hypercrisis" by Josef Dabernig
"Incident by a Bank" by Ruben Östlund
"Jessi" by Mariejosephin Schneider
"Little Children, Big Words" by Lisa James Larsson


Wednesday 11th of January at 8 PM:

"Frozen Stories" by Grzegorz Jaroszuk
"Out" by Roee Rosen
"Paparazzi"by Piotr Berna
"Silent River" by Anca Miruna Lazarescu


Thursday 12th of January at 8 PM:

"Sundays" by Valéry Rosier
" La gran carrera" by Kote Camacho
"The Unliving" by Hugo Lilja
"The Wholly Drama" by Terry Gilliam
"The Wolves" by Alberto de Michele


All the shorts will be screened in their original language and with English subtitles.

The 2012 Spanish Film Academy GOYA AWARD NOMINEES


Today, on the 10th of January 2012 the Spanish Film Academy announced the candidates for the Goya Awards 2012. This year's Goya edition is the number 26. and the awards will be presented on the 19th of February in Madrid.

The films with most nominations are Pedro Almodóvar's "The Skin I live In" with 16 nominations and Enrique Urbizu's "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked" with 14 nominations. Mateo Gil's "Blackthorn" has 11 nominations and Kike Maillo's Eva 12 nominations.

 Here is the list with all the nominees:

BEST FILM:

"Blackthorn" by Mateo Gil
"The Skin I Live In" by Pedro Almodóvar
"The Sleepy Voice" (La Voz Dormida) by Benito Zambrano
"There Will be No Peace for the Wicked" (No Habrá Paz para los Malvados) by Enrique Urbizu

BEST  DIRECTION:

Mateo Gil for "Blackthorn"
Pedro Almodóvar for "The Skin I Live In"
Benito Zambrano for "The Sleepy Voice"
Enrique Urbizu for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST LEADING ACTRESS:

Elena Anaya for "The Skin I Live In"
Verónica Echegui for "Katmandú"
Salma Hayek for "The Spark of Life"
Inma Cuesta for "The Sleepy Voice"

BEST LEADING ACTOR:

José Coronado for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"
Antonio Banderas for "The Skin I Live In"
Daniel Brühl for "Eva"
Luis Tosar for "While you Sleep"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Maribel Verdú for "From your window to Mine"
Pilar López de Ayala for "Intruders"
Ana Wagener for "The Sleepy Voice"
Goya Toledo for "Maktub"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Juan Diego for "23 F. The Movie"
Lluis Homar for "Eva"
Juanjo Ortega for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"
Raúl Arévalo for "Cousinhood"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

Miguel Barros for "Blackthorn"
Martí Roca, Sergi Belbel, Cristina Clemente, Aintza Serra for "Eva"
Enrique Urbizu, Michel Gaztambide for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"
Woody Allen for "Midnight in Paris"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

Ángel de la Cruz, Ignacio Ferreras, Paco Roca, Rosanna Cecchini for "Arrugas"
Icíar Bollaín for "Katmandú"
Pedro Almodóvar for "The Skin I Live In"
Benito Zambrano, Ignacio del Moral for "The Sleepy Voice"

BEST NEW DIRECTOR:

Paula Ortiz for "From your window to Mine"
Kike Maíllo for "Eva"
Paco Arango for "Maktub"
Eduardo Chapero Jackson for "Verbo"

BEST NEW ACTRESS:

María León for "The Sleepy Voice"
Blanca Suárez for "The Skin I Live In"
Michelle Jenner for "Don't Be Afraid"
Alba García for "Verbo"

BEST NEW ACTOR:

José Mota for "The Spark of Life"
Jan Cornet for "The Skin I Live In"
Marc Clotet for "The Sleepy Voice"
Adrián Lastra for "Cousinhood"

BEST IBEROAMERICAN FILM:

"Ticket to Paradise" by Gerardo Chijona (Cuba)
"Miss Bullet" by Gerardo Naranjo (México)
"A Chinese Tale" by Sebastián Borensztein (Argentina)
"Violeta went to Heaven" by Andrés Wood (Chile)

BEST EUROPEAN FILM:

"Jane Eyre" by Cary Fukunaga (Reino Unido)
"Melancholia " by Lars von Trier (Dinamarca)
"The Artist" by Michel Hazanavicius  (Francia)
"Carnage" by Roman Polanski (Francia)

BEST ANIMATION FILM:

"Arrugas"
"Carthago Nova"
"Papá, soy una zombi"
"The Little Wizzard. O mago dubidoso"

BEST DOCUMENTARY:

"30 años de oscuridad"
"El cuaderno de barro"
"Morente"
"Escuchando al juez Garzón"

BEST PRODUCTION:

Toni Novella for "The Skin I Live In"
Andrés Santana for "Blackthorn"
Toni Carrizosa for "Eva"
Paloma Molina for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

Juan Antonio Ruiz Anchía for "Blackthorn"
Arnau Valls Colomer for "Eva"
José Luis Alcaine for "The Skin I Live In"
Unax Mendía for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST ART DIRECTION:

Juan Pedro de Gaspar for "Blackthorn"
Laia Colet for "Eva"
Antxón Gómez for "The Skin I Live In"
Antón Laguna for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

Lucio Godoy for "Blackthorn"
Evgueni Galperine, Sacha Galperine for "Eva"
Alberto Iglesias for "The Skin I Live In"
Mario de Benito for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:

Clara Bilbao for "Blackthorn"
Paco Delgado for "The Skin I Live In"
María José Iglesias García for "The Sleepy Voice"
Patricia Monné for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST MAKEUP:

Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver for "Blackthorn"
Concha Rodríguez, Jesús Martos for "Eva"
Karmele Soler, David Martí, Manolo Carretero for "The Skin I Live In"
Montse Boqueras, Nacho Díaz, Sergio Pérez for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST FILM EDITING:

David Gallart for "Blackthorn"
Elena Ruiz for "Eva"
José Salcedo for "The Skin I Live In"
Pablo Blanco for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

Arturo Balseiro, Lluís Castells for "Eva"
Raúl Romanillos, David Heras for "Intruders"
Reyes Abades, Eduardo Díaz for "The Skin I Live In"
Raúl Romanillos, Chema Remacha for "There Will be No Peace for the Wicked"

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

Debajo del limón de Paula Ortiz; Pachi García "Alis" for "From your window to Mine"
Nana de la hierbabuena de Carmen Agredano for "The Sleepy Voice"
Nuestra playa eres tú de Jorge Pérez Quintero; Borja Jiménez Mérida; Patricio Marín Díaz for "Maktub"
Verbo de Pascal Gaigne; Ignacio Fornés "Nach"for "Verbo"

BEST SPANISH SHORTFILM:

"El barco pirata" by Fernando Trullols
"El premio" by Elías León Siminiani
"Matar a un niño" by José Esteban Alenda, César Esteban Alenda
"Meine Liebe" by Ricardo Steinberg, Laura Pousa

BEST SPANISH ANIMATION SHORTFILM:

"Birdboy" by Pedro Rivero, Alberto Vázquez Rico
"Ella" by Juan Montes de Oca
"Quién aguanta más" by Gregorio Muro
"Rosa" by Jesús Orellana

BEST SPANISH DOCUMENTARY SHORTFILM:

"Alma" by Jose Javier Pérez Prieto
"Nuevos tiempos" by Jorge Dorado
"Regreso a Viridiana" by Pedro González Bermúdez
"Virgen negra" by Raúl de la Fuente

HONORARY AWARD:

Josefina Molina