The Catalan Film Academy has certified the success of Alcarràs and crowned it as the best film of the year at the Gaudí Awards. Carla Simón's film was the winner of a night in which it also took home the statuette for best director, original screenplay, production direction, and the Audience Award. It shared the spotlight with Albert Serra's Pacifiction, which won the Gaudí for best non-Catalan language film, as well as for art direction and photography. One Year, One Night won five awards, including best editing and adapted screenplay. The list of winners also included Suro, with best new director for Mikel Gurrea and distinctions for its protagonists, Vicky Luengo and Pol López.
With 14 nominations, the backing of a 2022 full of awards and box office hits, Alcarràs started as the favorite of the night and ended up living up to expectations. Being a prophet in her own land, Carla Simón's second film brought those responsible for this ode to the land up to the stage of the oval room of the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya five times. The director thus repeated the success of her first film, Summer 1993, which also shone brightly at the 10th ceremony. Upon receiving one of the big awards of the night, for best screenplay, Simón dedicated the distinctions to the farmers of the western lands, who "persist, are stubborn and brave" to continue cultivating the land as a family, the "oldest profession in the world." "They have it fucked up, that's why we ask you to buy local fruit and products and, to the authorities, we ask them to regulate fruit prices," Simón defended. For his part, Arnau Vilaró --co-screenwriter of the film-- celebrated cinema as something "magical" that allows inventing "different stories and worlds" and "connecting with origins."
One Year, One Night, Isaki Lacuesta's film about the Bataclan attack --presented, like Alcarràs in competition at the Berlinale--, a story based on the book Peace, Love and Death Metal, by survivor Ramón González, equaled it in nominations. Precisely, the film took home the award for best adapted screenplay --new this edition-- for the work of Isa Campo, Fran Araújo and Lacuesta himself, in addition to best editing, original music for Raül Refree, best sound and best visual effects. "When I read the book I thought this was unadaptable. Thanks to the protagonists who lived it, who have given themselves to the film," Isa Campo said gratefully when collecting the first of the awards, report Violeta Gumà and Pere Francesch, for the agency ACN.
One of the big awards of the night was decided in the final stretch, that of best non-Catalan language film, which went to Pacifiction, by Albert Serra, a category in which films acclaimed by the public and critics such as Mantícora, by Carlos Vermut; La maternal, by Pilar Palomero; and One Year, One Night competed. The film considered the most accessible of the Banyoles director's cinematography has also been distinguished with the award for best art direction and best cinematography. This was expressed by the producer of Andergraun Films, Montse Triola, during the gala, in which she recalled that, although the film is not shot in Catalan, the entire team is. "We not only want to work here, we want a cinema that goes to Europe and the world so that we work with the cinema of the future," she declared.
'Suro' and 'La maternal' dominate the acting categories
In the acting chapter, the gala had two proper names: Suro and La maternal. In addition to the award for best new director –a category that premiered this year--, Mikel Gurrea's debut film took home the award for best lead actress for Vicky Luengo and best lead actor for Pol López, characters around whom the film revolves.
For their part, the two actresses from La maternal, Ángela Cervantes and Carla Quílez, went home with a statuette. The first as best supporting actress and the debuting and very young Carla Quílez, who already received the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Festival, premiered the category of best breakthrough performance. Alex Brendemühl won the award for best supporting actor for Historias para no contar, by director Cesc Gay.
Los renglones torcidos de Dios, which started with eight nominations, ended the night with two awards, for best costume design and for makeup and hairstyling. El sostre groc, Isabel Coixet's film about the abuses in the Lleida Theater Classroom, won the Gaudí for best documentary and the survivors themselves collected it with a standing audience, while Tadeo Jones 3. La tabla esmeralda, by Enrique Gato, the only candidate in the category, went up to collect an award that was already assured.
The film directed and written by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa and starring Laia Costa Cinco lobitos won as best European film, a category in which Bergman Island, by Mia Hansen-Løve; The Worst Person in the World, by Joachim Trier; and Petite Maman, by Céline Sciamma competed. Girasoles silvestres, by Jaime Rosales, went home empty-handed.
The short film Harta, by Julia de Paz, took home the statuette in its category, while Sis nits d'agost, by Ventura Durall, was distinguished with the award for best television film.
A 'symphonic' gala to vindicate the film trades
Actress Llum Barrera was in charge of hosting the traditional gala of the Catalan Film Academy, which repeated its location and had about 1,300 guests.
During the three hours of the ceremony, which largely revolved around the figure of Agustí Villaronga, artists such as Queralt Lahoz, Judit Neddermann, Joan Dausà and Kelly Isaiah passed through the stage of the oval room of the MNAC, with the symphonic musical accompaniment of the Franz Schubert Filharmonia orchestra, directed by maestro Tomàs Grau. Among the popular faces who presented awards, the names of Greta Fernández, J.A. Bayona, Marta Etura, Mago Pop, Lolita Flores, Darko Peric, Miki Esparbé, Brays Efe, Enric Auquer, Vicky Luengo, Rigoberta Bandini, Alizzz, Raquel García-Tomás, Miki Núñez or Lildami stand out.
One of the leitmotifs that marked the evening was the defense of the trades of the film world, from acting, directing and screenwriting to technical professions such as sound engineers, electricians or production departments, the expression that gave name and meaning to the announcement of the Gaudí Awards and the communication campaign that accompanied it.
A minute of applause in memory of Villaronga
The president of the Catalan Film Academy, Judith Colell, vindicated the legacy of Agustí Villaronga in the speech of the 15th Gaudí Awards gala. For Colell, "one of the greats, the greatest not only of Catalan cinema, but European and in capital letters," had died, a statement that brought the audience to their feet and applauding for more than a minute. The vice-president of the entity, Carlos R. Ríos, then took over to demand that Catalan cinema not only live on awards, but continue working to "cultivate the audiovisual imaginary of a country." "We must care for, fertilize and move away from monocultures and large estates," he insisted.
In a year of a "good harvest" for Catalan cinema, in which films have internationalized "like never before," the Academy has vindicated the necessary "symbiosis" of productions to make independent cinema "raise its voice in the world" and commercial cinema "strengthen the industry." "The public must have all kinds of Catalan cinema and in Catalan at their disposal," Ríos added.
The Gaudí de Honor of this year, Jaume Figueres, also remembered the filmmaker who died this Sunday. "This award goes not to a critic or an intellectual, but to an amateur," he stressed, after collecting the award and receiving applause from the audience. Figueras assured that the 2022 harvest has been very enriching and that the 2023 one promises "a lot."
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