Thirteen films presented at the last two editions of the San Sebastian Festival have landed 50 nominations for the 31st Goya Awards. The Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España revealed the candidates in the 28 categories of the Awards, to be announced on 4th February.
A Monster Calls, screened in the Official Selection out of competition at San Sebastian, is the film to have received most nominations, 12, in the categories of Best Film, Director (J.A. Bayona), Supporting Actress (Sigourney Weaver, Donostia Award), Adapted Screenplay (Patrick Ness), Cinematography (Óscar Faura), Production Supervision, Original Score, Editing, Sound, Art Direction, Makeup and Hairstyles and Special Effects.
El hombre de las mil caras (The Man of a Thousand Faces) which competed in the Official Selection and won the Silver Shell for Best Actor (Eduard Fernández), lands eleven nominations: Best Film, Director (Alberto Rodríguez), Actor (Eduard Fernández), New Actor (Carlos Santos), Adapted Screenplay (Alberto Rodríguez and Rafael Cobos inspired in a book by Manuel Cerdán), Production Supervision, Original Score, Editing, Sound, Art Direction and Makeup and Hairstyles.
Que Dios nos perdone (May God Save Us), which also competed in the Official Selection and was applauded with the Best Screenplay Award (Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Isabel Peña), lands six nominations in the major categories: Best Film, Director (Rodrigo Sorogoyen), Actor (Robert Álamo), Supporting Actor (Javier Pereira), Original Screenplay and Editing.
María (y los demás) (María, and the others), premiered in New Directors, has two nominations: Best New Director (Nely Reguera) and Actress (Bárbara Lennie).
Furthermore, Julieta, El olivo/Der Olivenhaum and Cien años de perdón, selected for the Made in Spain section, have garnered 13 nominations. Pedro Almodóvar’s film, premiered at Cannes, carries off seven of them: Best Film, Director, Actress (Emma Suárez), Adapted Screenplay (Pedro Almodóvar inspired in the short stories of Alice Munro), Original Score, Makeup and Hairstyles and Special Effects. The Spain-Germany co-production helmed by Iciar Bollain, premiered at the Miami Film Festival, competes for Best Supporting Actor (Javier Gutiérrez, Silver Shell in 2014 for La isla mínima), New Actress (Anna del Castillo), Original Screenplay (Paul Laverty) and Original Score. For its part, Daniel Calparsoro’s film aspires for Original Screenplay (Jorge Guerricaechevarría) and New Actor (Rodrigo de la Serna).
Furthermore, two films selected for Horizontes Latinos in 2015 compete for recognition as the Best Foreign Film in the Spanish Language: Desde allá, first feature film by Lorenzo Vigas, winner of Films in Progress in Toulouse, the Golden Lion in Venice and a Horizontes Award special mention at San Sebastian, and Las elegidas, by David Pablos, premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes following its participation in the III Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum.
Three films screened in the Pearls section compete for the Best European Film Award: I, Daniel Blake, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes and San Sebastian European Capital of Culture 2016 Audience Award-winner, Elle, premiered at the French festival and starring Donostia Award-winner Isabelle Huppert, and Saul Fia / Son of Saul, winner of last year’s Grand Prix du Jury at Cannes.
Competing for the Best Animated Film are Psiconautas, los niños olvidados, directed by Alberto Vázquez and Pedro Rivero, premiered in Zabaltegi in 2015.
The Awards presentation gala will be directed by the filmmaker and screenwriter Juan Luis Iborra and hosted by actor Dani Rovira.