Spanish government criticized at Goya Awards

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Goya Awards Tinged with Criticism at the Spanish Government

Madrid, Feb 10 – Winners of the Goya Awards held the audience in awe with hard criticism to the current situation in Spain, protesting against lay offs and complaining about the performance of a notable absentee to the ceremony, Education, Culture and Sports Minister Jose Wert.

After walking before pickets of Coca-Cola workers, who are fighting for not being dismissed, the Goya Award winners delivered their speeches, which included many references to the Government this year, due to the country’s economic situation and unpopular initiatives.

The ceremony concluded after midnight, being the first of its kind without Culture minister, as director and presenter of the show Manuel Funtes said.

If the Defense minister does not attend the Armed Forces’ parade, his superior would probably fire him. It would be good if this minister (Wert) fled or resigned, said Mariano Barroso, when receiving the statuette to the Best Adapted Screenplay of the film “Todas las Mujeres” (All Women).

When giving the Terele Pavez the Goya Award for Best Actress, Javier Bardem also referred to the mentioned top official’s absence, asserting that “our cinema is way above our anti-culture minister.”

Actress Natalia de Molina, winner of the Goya for the Best Female Revelation, referred to the movement of opposition to a bill to restrict abortion, saying: “I want nobody to decide for me,” one of the mottos of the campaign against the Government initiative.

When picking up her Goya statuette, Marian Alvarez, awarded for Best Actress, said: “We are not going to let anything or anybody to decide for us.”

Cinema Academy President Enrique Gonzalez referred to the current problems, including production decrease, closing of movie theaters, and the loss of thousands of jobs.

Making a movie in our country today is a real deed, said Gonzalez, who also criticized the 21-percent value added tax on film products, which means that for every euro given to the Treasury, the movie industry lost two euros, he said.

The most awarded film was “Las Brujas de Zugarramurdi (The Witches of Zugarramurdi), by Alex Iglesia, with eight out of 10 nominations, including the above mentioned to Terele Pavez.

However, the highest awards went to the comedy “Vivir es Fácil con Los Ojos Cerrados” (Living Is Easy with Eyes Closed), which received the awards for Best Film, Best Director (David Trueba), Best Screenplay, Best Actor (Javier Camara), Female Revelation (Natalia de Molina) and Best Film Music (Pat Metheny).

From Latin America, the Spanish-Argentinian film Metegol (Goal-scoring), by Juan Campnella, won the Goya Award for Best Motion-Picture and the Venezuelan movie “Azul y No Tan Rosa” (Blue and Not So Pink), by Miguel Ferrari, for Best Ibero-American Film.