News

The Beasts Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Rodrigo Sorogoyen's The Beasts tore through the competition at the Goya awards - Spain's equivalent of the Oscars - last night.

The western-style tale about a middle-aged French couple who come into conflict with locals after moving to a Galician village, stars Denis Ménochet - who was named best actor - and Marina Foïs. It took home nine awards in total, including best film and best director.

The evening was overshadowed by the death of Cría Cuervos veteran writer/director Carlos Saura, who passed away on Friday before he could receive this year's Goya of Honour.

Actor Eulalia Ramón, Carlos Saura’s widow, read out a note dictated by Saura days before his death. It read: “I would be happy if I’ve served as some inspiration for the directors of today. I see myself as a shooting star in the immensity of the cosmos.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s modern-day feminist Western, “The Beasts,” already a box office breakout in France and Spain, swept nine prizes including film, director, and original screenplay on Saturday at a celebratory 37th Goya Awards, given Spain’s big fest prizes and rally at its home box office.

The upbeat mood was tempered inevitably by the death of Carlos Saura, one of Spanish cinema’s greats and this year’s Goya of Honor, on Friday.

In a rare departure, a foreign actor, France’s Denis Ménochet (“Inglorious Basterds”) took best actor, winning for his marvellous turn in the conflict-negotiation themed “The Beasts,” as a French settler in modern-day deep Galicia who finally refuses to back down when taunted by locals. His attitude contrasts pointedly with his wife’s.

Produced by Movistar+ and Atípica Films, “Prison 77,” the movie of clearest big production ambitions – the sort of film which will probably now only be made by platform,...

Spanish auteur Carlos Saura died on Friday of natural causes, the Film Academy of Spain confirmed. He was 91.

In a statement, the org stated: “The Film Academy deeply regrets to announce the death of Carlos Saura, Goya de Honor 2023. Saura, one of the fundamental filmmakers in the history of Spanish cinema, died today at his home at the age of 91, surrounded by his loved ones.”

Born in 1932 in Huesca, Aragon – the same part of Spain as Luis Buñuel, whom he recognised as his mentor – Saura was taken by his family to Madrid during its Civil War. As a child, Saura he listened with horror to its bombings, the trauma of its violence never leaving him, inspiring his third feature, 1965’s “The Hunt,” a portrait of a Franquist ruling class which won him a Berlin Silver Bear.

This crowned him as the leading light of a New Spanish Cinema, an attempt...