Michael Coy
TOMORROW, February 8, Spain holds its ‘Goyas 2025’ – the Spanish version of the Oscars Awards.
The show will go out live on Spanish TV at 10pm on RTVE 1. There are several very good reasons for watching this 39th edition of the Goyas: first, it’s being staged here in Andalucia this year, second, three Spanish stars that we all know (Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem) will be giving out the statuettes and third, there’s a British/American angle to this year’s ceremony, which will be staged in Granada.
Nominees for Best Film are: “Casa en Flames”, “El 47”, “La Estrella Azul” and “La Infiltrada”.
Many of us know who Pedro Almodóvar is (director of ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’ among many others). Well, he’s nominated for his new movie, “The Next Room”, starring English actress Tilda Swinton.
READ MORE:
- Richard Gere and Antonio Banderas enjoy a night out at the theatre in Malaga
- Almodovar unearths ghosts of Spain’s Civil War in latest film with Penelope Cruz
- Vandal destroys Penelope Cruz star on Madrid’s Walk of Fame
We at The Olive Press predict that not only will Almodóvar win Best Director, but “The Next Room” will be the most talked-about film of 2025. Remember where you learned of it first! (Tilda Swinton is also up for the ‘Best Actress’ Goya for this film – and we reckon she’s going to win!)
An International Goya will be awarded on Saturday for Lifetime Achievement, and we already know who’s going to get it. Heart-throb Richard Gere is going to be honoured by the Spanish Academy.
Antonio Banderas is Málaga’s favourite son and probably – after Pablo Picasso – its most famous star. He’s done everything from screwball comedy (‘Labyrinth of Passion’) to voicing-over the Shrek movies.
He is widely respected for, alongside his friend Pedro Almodóvar, bringing about a renaissance in Spanish cinema in the 1980s. He has won two Goyas in his career, but has yet to land an Oscar.
Penelope Cruz is world-famous, of course (she’s Chanel’s ambassador!), but in Spain she is subjected to a little mild mickey-taking because she is the perfect example of an ‘Alcobendas girl’.
Alcobendas is the suburb of Madrid where all the spoilt, posh, privileged kids come from, so if she were English, she’d be from Hampstead and she’d be called ‘Arabella’.
In 2008 she made the film “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (directed by Woody Allen) which proved that she can act. It also established her in the USA, where she now earns her living. She’s got an Oscar on her mantlepiece, and three Goyas.
Javier Bardem is the world’s best villain. He played the terrifying Anton Chigurh in the Coen Brothers’ “No Country for Old Men” (2007), and then did villainous roles in “Pirates of the Caribbean” and (his speciality) the Bond films (check out “Skyfall”).
Spanish people, funnily enough, think of him as a romantic lead, often playing opposite his real-life wife, Penelope Cruz.
He’s won both an Oscar and a Golden Globe.
Richard Gere will be 76 years old later this year. He played a small role in “Looking for Mr. Goodbar” in 1977, but it was three years later that “American Gigolo” made him a star and a sex symbol.
Among his greatest hits are “An Officer and a Gentleman”, and “Pretty woman”. He won a Golden Globe for his performance in “Chicago”.
Spanish viewers love the “alfombra roja” (red carpet) part of the show, when the stars arrive in their designer clothes. Be warned – the fun goes on until the early hours, so maybe you need to stock up in advance with olives and ‘cava’ (it’s champagne, Spanish-style, for a fraction of the French price!)
