A spate of Basque nominations at the Goyas

The Goya Awards given every year by the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences are around the corner and once again a wide range of Basque films and cinema professionals have been nominated in different categories. This year’s Awards ceremony will take place for the first time ever in Málaga on January 25.

The Basque film with the most nominations is La trinchera infinita by Moriarti productions. The same team that in 2018 received Goyas in 2018 for Handia is now competing for 15 awards, including Best Actor and Best Actress for Andalusian actors Antonio de la Torre and Belen Cuesta. But are also a lot of Basque names among the nominations for this movie: Best Film, Best Director (Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga), Best Original Screenplay (Jose Mari Goenaga and Luis Berdejo), Best Original Score (Pascal Gaigne), Best Production Supervision (Ander Sistiaga), Best Cinematography (Javi Agirre), Best Editing (Laurent Dufreche and Raul Lopez), Best Costume Design (Lourdes Fuentes and Saioa Lara), Best Sound (Iñaki Díez, Alazne Ameztoy, Xanti Salvador and Nacho Royo-Villanova) and Best Special Effects (Jon Serrano and David Heras).

While not Basque, another film that’s clinched several nominations and has Basque names in its credits is Mientras dure la guerra by Alejandro Amenábar. Actor Karra Elejalde, who plays writer and intellectual Miguel de Unamuno, is up for Best Leading Actor and Ainhoa Santamaría is nominated for Best Supporting Actress.

This year, two Basque directors are competing for Best New Director. One of them is Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, nominated for El Hoyo, a film that was also nominated for Best Special Effects, thanks to the work of the Basques Mario Campoy and Iñaki Madariaga. The second director is Aritz Moreno, nominated for Ventajas de Viajar en Tren, which is also in the running in two other categories: Best Art Direction (Mikel Serrano) and Best Makeup and Hairstyles (Karmele Soler and Olga Cruz).

Leading the field this year isPedro Almodóvar’s film Dolor y Gloria, which also has several Basque names among its nominations. Alberto Iglesias is in the running once again for Best Soundtrack, Bilbao-based Asier Etxeandia is competing for Best Supporting Actor, and Antxon Sánchez could win the award for Best Art Direction.

Other Basque films are also up for awards in different categories: Elkano y Magallanes, la primera vuelta al mundo is nominated for Best Animated Film; Aute Retrato by Gaizka Urrutia, for Best Documentary; and El infierno by Raul de la Fuente, for Best Documentary Short Film.