Beauty Break: Maribel Verdú, Goya Darling and Birthday Girl

This post has been updated from its original form, years ago...

Those Goyas must be heavy!

Happy 50th birthday, today, to Spanish beauty Maribel Verdú of Y Tu Mama Tambien and Pan's Labyrinth fame. How many women can claim to have terrorized Snow White and been tag teamed by Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna, and knifed a dictator's officer right in the face? How many women have been nominated for a Goya eleven times and won twice*. Just Maribel, that's who... 

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Almodóvar reigns at the Goyas again

by Nathaniel R

You'll read a lot of headlines saying that Pain and Glory swept the Goyas but it's not technically true. Though it won big it lost the bulk of its craft competitions and won only two of its five acting nominations. Still there's plenty of reason to celebrate if you're an Almodóvar junkie like we are here at TFE. The master's self-reflection took home seven Goyas including Best Film, Best Director and Best Actor for Antonio Banderas, who is of course also nominated at the Oscars. But Pain and Glory didn't have the night to itself. Each of the five Best Film nominees took home at least one prize with While at War, the latest from Alejandro Amenábar (The Others) clearly in runner up position as it won five categories including a win in Supporting Actor where it beat out both of the nominees from Pain & Glory.  And ,yes, the rumors are true: Pedro accidentally let it slip on the red carpet that Penelope Cruz would be presenting Best International Film at the Oscars in February. 

Full list of Goya winners and a few notes after the jump...

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"Pain and Glory" big at the Goyas

by Nathaniel R

We remain nervous about the American awards prospects of Almodovar’s wonderfully moving 'i’m not dead yet but I kinda feel like it some times' autobiography, but at least in Spain, Pain & Glory is having a love-fest. This year the latest Almodóvar movie received 16 nominations, that's two more than even Volver got in its year. The Goya nominators did not spread the wealth. We're not sure if it was a weak year for Spanish cinema or if they just didn't look around much but the other two biggies, While at War and The Endless Trench, received 17 and 15 nominations respectively. 

 BEST FILM

• “Pain and Glory” (Pedro Almodóvar)
• “Out in the Open” (Benito Zambrano)
• “The Endless Trench” (Aitor Arregui, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga)
• “Fire Will Come” (Oliver Laxe)
• “While at War” (Alejandro Amenábar)

You may recall that While at War was a finalist for Spain's Oscar submission this year...

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SLO Film Fest: Wolves, Sharks, and that "Delicate Balance"

Nathaniel R reporting from the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival

After a delightful trip back to 1969 iconography and disturbing peek back at 1933 fascism, the San Luis Obispo's 25th festival threw us directly into the immediate now with three engaging documentaries exploring very real, very urgent problems with our ecosystems, relationships with animal life, and the dehumanizing dangers of globalism and late stage capitalism. That may sound depressing, and it was to an extent, but all three films were suffused with enough passion and optimism to make their bitter pills easier to swallow.

The shortest and "lightest" of these with Collin Monda's hour-long documentary The Trouble With Wolves, which is locked but not quite finished (needing funds to complete its rights clearances and such). It's a surprisingly nuanced look at the success and aftershocks of a 1995 federal program to reintroduce gray wolves to the US via Yellowstone National Park.

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Review: The Oscar Nominated Live-Action Shorts

by Eric Blume

It’s my fourth year covering the nominees for the Live Action Short Oscar, and this group of nominees is far and away the most grim, depressing, and unrelenting batch yet.  Four out of five of these films are about horrible things happening to young boys. You’d think the nominating committee would have cleaved to some other topics. After a while, provided you view them back-to-back, the horror of it all becomes nearly comical.  If you have a boy child under twelve years of age, you will definitely want to skip this category this year to avoid going to a very dark place. But all five directors are talented artists who know how to build suspense and tell a story with fluidity and grace. Ready? 

Madre (Mother)
This short won the Goya (Spanish Oscar) last year and the director and actress have since reteamed for a feature version, currently in post-production. Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen swings swiftly from an everyday conversation between a woman named Marta (Marta Nieto) and her mother to an urgent phone call from Marta’s son...

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