Pablo Berger’s “Blancanieves” Wins Big at the Goya Awards

Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves has proven to be the belle of the ball at this year’s Goya Awards…

The 49-year-old Spanish director’s silent, black-and-white film, a retelling of the Snow White story, earned 10 statues, including the top prize for Best Film, at the Spanish Film Academy‘s annual awards show, Spain’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Blancanieves

Maribel Verdu, who said she’s “grown to enjoy playing the bad guy,” won her second Goya for her role as the evil stepmother in Blancanieves. The 42-year-old Spanish actress edged out Naomi Watts, Penélope Cruz and Aida Folch for the award.

Blancanieves’ re-imagined Snow White, Macarena Garcia, was named New Actress. It’s the 24-year-old Spanish actress’ first starring role.

Paco Delagado, currently nominated for an Oscar for his costume design work for Les Miserables, won the Goya for his work on Blancanieves, which included the creation of 18 different costumes for Verdu’s character.

Meanwhile, Juan Antonio Bayona’s dramatic The Impossible, which has broken box office records in Spain, scored five awards, including the Goya for Best Director.

Bayona brought down the house when he left the stage after receiving his Goya to present it to Maria Belon, the mother of the real-life family that survived the 2004 tsunami upon which the film is based.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Film
Blancanieves

Director
Juan Antonio Bayona for The Impossible

Actor
Jose Sacristan for The Dead Man and Being Happy

Actress
Maribel Verdu for Blancanieves

Original Screenplay
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves

Adapted Screenplay
Javier Barreira, Gorka Magallon, Ignacio del Moral, Jordi Gasull and Neil Landau for Tad, the Lost Explorer

Supporting Actor
Julian Villagran for Grupo 7

Supporting Actress
Candela Pena for Una Pistola en Cada Mano

Honorary Goya
Concha Velasco

Production Design
Sandra Hermida Muniz for The Impossible

Artistic Director
Alain Bainee For Blancanieves

Photography
Kiko de la Rica for Blancanieves

Special Effects
Pau Costa and Felix Berges for The Impossible

Wardrobe
Paco Delgado for Blancanieves

Editing
Bernat Vilaplano and Elena Ruiz for The Impossible

Sound
Peter Glossop, Marc Orts, Oriol Tarrago for The Impossible

Original Score
Alfonso Villalonga for Blancanieves

Original Song
No Te Puedo Encontrar from Blancanieves

New Actor
Joaquin Nunez for Grupo 7

Makeup and Hair
Sylvie Imbert and Fermin Galan for Blancanieves

New Actress
Macarena Garcia for Blancanieves

New Director
Enrique Gato for Tad, the Lost Explorer

Animated Feature Film
The Adventures of Tadeo Jones

Documentary Film
Sons of the Clouds, The Last Colony

European Film
Untouchable (France)

Ibero-American Film
Juan de los Muertos (Cuba)

Animated Short
Jaime Maestro for El Vendedor de Humo

Fiction Short
Esteban Crespo Garcia for Aquel no Era Yo

Documentary Short
Sergio Oksman for A Story for the Modlins

“Blancanieves” Earns 18 Goya Award Nominations

Pablo Berger‘s silent black-and-white reinterpretation of the Snow White fable, Blancanieves, is this awards season’s Goya darling.  

The 49-year-old Spanish director’s film, hailed as an homage to 1920s European silent films, leads the pack with 18 nominations for the Spanish Film Academy‘s Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Blancanieves

Blancanieves, which recently debuted in the U.S. at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, received nominations in the best picture, best director, best original screenplay and best editing, best original music and best original song categories.

In addition, six of the films stars earned nods, including Maribel Verdú in the Best Actress category, Daniel Giménez Cacho in the Best Actor field and Macarena García in the Best Actress Revelation category.

“We are very, very happy. We ran for 18 possible nominations and we got 18,” said Blancanieves producer Ibon Cormenzana. “We’ve sold to many territories and in two weeks we’ll release in theaters in France. I think we’ve benefited from the success of the The Artist.”

Meanwhile, Alberto Rodriguez’s Unit 7 earned 16 nominations, Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible received 14 nods and Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and The Model picked up 13 nominations.

The Impossible’s Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor will compete for lead actress and supporting actor thanks to a change in the Spanish Academy’s rules that allows non-Spanish speaking actors who participate in Spanish productions to compete for acting honors. That translates to Watts vying for the lead acting nod against Verdu’s evil step-mother from Blancanieves, Penelope Cruz from Volver a nacer and Aida Folch‘s muse-like performance in The Artist and the Model.

Blancanieves’ Cacho, Model’s Jean Rochefort, Unit’s Antonio de la Torre and veteran actor Jose Sacristan from The Dead Man and Being Happy will compete for the lead actor statue.

In Spain, Bayona’s film has broken box office records, where it is just about to hit the 42 million euro mark at the box office.

“Our objective is to sell more than 6 million tickets,” said Impossible producer Ghislain Barrois.

The Spanish academy will dole out the awards on February 17 at a gala ceremony in Madrid.