Javier Bardem. His Lips Are Busy!

Sunday February 13th was quite the awards jam. Nicole Kidman was jamming to Katy Perry at the Grammys, Helena Bonham Carter was being crowned at BAFTA, and Javier Bardem was in Madrid winning The Goya to add to his huge statue haul.

Does Penélope Cruz know where his lips have been? He loves to kiss his trophies.

Javiin 2011 with his Goya; Javi in 2008 with his Oscar

'Oh to be a slab of stone / gold plating!' shriek millions of fans in unison.

Javier has won plentiful awards over the years for his in arguable screen presence and acting gift: one Oscar, one BAFTA, one Golden Globe, one Spirit Award, one "actor" from SAG, one NBR, two Volpi cups from Venice, two European Film Awards, two Gothams, two ADIRCAEs (no, I don't know what that is either) and numerous critics prizes. But it's at the Goyas, the Spanish Oscars, where he reigns supreme. His performance in  Biutiful marks his fifth win. Fifth! He's won Best Actor thrice previously (Boca a Boca, Mondays in the Sun, and the Oscar winning The Sea Inside) and Best Supporting Actor once (Días Contados, 1994). His latest win is so fresh that IMDb hasn't even updated his awards page.  How to keep up with him?

My favorite red carpet look at the Goyas (I'd do a lineup but good full body photos are hard to come by) is this one to your left. Dressing your doggie up in a tux for your big night? Brilliant. The  night's big winner was the post civil war family drama Pa Negre (Black Bread). Some art house distrib really ought to snatch it up if it's this good.

Goya Winners
Film: Black Bread
Director: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread)
Original Screenplay: (Buried)
Adapted Screenplay: Agusti Villaronga (Black Bread)
Actor: Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Actress: Nora Navas (Black Bread)
Supporting Actor: Karra Elejalde (Also the Rain)  
Supporting Actress: Laia Marull (Black Bread)
Promising Actor: Francesc Colomer (Black Bread)
Promising Actress: Marina Comas (Black Bread)
European Film: The King's Speech
full list of winners

Some art house distributor really ought to snatch Black Bread up if it's this good. Here's the trailer. Warning: contains both brief nudity and less brief very disturbing animal death.

And here's Javier being interviewed on the Red Carpet. I didn't understand a word except that the reporter obviously brings up the fact that he chose to come to the Goyas instead of going to the BAFTAs. And Bardem is all smiles about it. Film Experience contributor Jose and others on Twitter (thanks guys) tell me that Javier made a bet with the reporter that if he wins the Oscar, he'll do a weather report as a musical number. Quick Oscar voters, switch your votes to Bardem! ;)

Have any Spanish readers seen this one yet? Do tell if you have.
Would you take your dog to the Oscars? They do love long walks and some red carpets are interminable treks.

5 Days 'til Nominations: FOREIGN FILM FINALISTS

Actually 5 days and 19ish hours but who is counting?

Gael García Bernal in "Even the Rain"

Today's Topic: Foreign Films
One has to wonder why Oscar has a finalist round that's only announced one week before the nominations. Like the visual effects nominations finalists, which get narrowed down to practically the shortlist before the official announcement, it seems unneccessarily sadistic like "omg you're going to be nominated. NOPE!" But for now 9 countries remain from the original 65*. They are....

• ALGERIA (Outside the Law) prev record: 4 nominations, 1 win.
• CANADA (Incendies) prev record: 4 nominations, 1 win.
• DENMARK (In a Better World) prev record: 7 nominations, 2 wins
• GREECE (Dogtooth) prev record: 5 nominations. Greece has yet to win.
• JAPAN (Confessions) prev record: 12 nominations, 1 win. Japan won Honorary Oscars before the category became a regular institution.
• MEXICO (Biutiful) prev record: 7 nominations. Mexico has yet to win.
• SOUTH AFRICA (Life Above All) prev record: 2 nominations, 1 win.
• SPAIN (Even the Rain) prev record: 19 nominations, 4 wins.
• SWEDEN (Simple Simon) prev record: 14 nominations, 3 wins.

So, no country will get to be a first time nominee this year.

Ulrich Thomsen and screen son in Golden Globe winner "In a Better World"

Star Power. Spaniard Javier Bardem and Mexican Gael Garcia Bernal (who have flip-flopped countries here) are both regular fixtures in this category, frequently starring in submissions and on Hollywood's red carpet. Danish star Ulrich Thomsen, is less globally famous, but he's a very familiar face in movies subtitled and otherwise.

TRAILERS TO ALL FINALISTS AND MORE INFO

Click to read more ...

Y los nominados son...

Jose here. The nominations for the 25th Annual Goya Awards have been announced and leading the pack is none other than The Last Circus, Alex De La Iglesia's killer clown allegory which not only earned him a Best Director award at last year's Venice Film Festival but also picked up some of the worst reviews of any movie in any festival during 2010.

 

Best Film

• Buried (yes, the Ryan Reynolds coffin thriller)
  
• Even The Rain (Spain's Oscar Submission)
• The Last Circus
• Pa Negre

The bad reviews didn't seem to deter the Spanish Film Academy which showered the film with nods (a whopping 15! More than any other movie this year) including Breakthrough Actress for the appropriately named Carolin Bang and of course Best Picture and Best Director. Interestingly enough, de la Iglesia is also the Academy's president. But before we scream nepotism we have to take into consideration that Spain makes fewer movies than many countries with film awards and will, well, sometimes nominate anything.

Best Actor Nominees: Javi & Ryan

Speaking of which, Ryan Reynolds is nominated for Best Actor for his work in Buried (which was made by a Spaniard, Rodrigo Cortés, and is therefore eligible). It's not that Reynolds' work isn't good or maybe better than he had any right to be or better than anything anyone ever expected from him, but when you see he's nominated next to Javier Bardem (for Biutiful) things just seem odd, huh?

Best Actor

• Javier Bardem -Biutiful
• Ryan Reynolds -Buried
• Luis Tosar -Even the Rain
• Antonio de la Torre -The Last Circus

The lovely Elena Anaya (pictured left) is up for Best Actress for her work in Room in Rome (read my review here) we'll see her next in Pedro Almodóvar's new film! Rome also won nominations for Breakthrough Actress and Best Song (I wonder where its nomination for Best Use of Google Maps is...)

Best Actress

• Elena Anaya -Room in Rome
• Nora Navas -Pa Negre
  
• Belén Rueda -Julia's Eyes
• Emma Suárez -The Mosquito

The actress category looks unimpressive when you remember that last year the nominees were Lola Dueñas, Rachel Weisz, Maribel Verdú and Pe! 

Considering that most of the films selected for the Goyas rarely get release dates in our continent let's head over to see international categories.

Best Latin American Film

• Undertow - Perú (Oscar submission and TFE Honorable Mention)
• The Man Next Door - Argentina 
• Hell - Mexico 
• The Life of Fish - Chile (Oscar submission)

Best European Film

• The King's Speech - England
• The Ghost Writer - France (just discussed right here)
• The White Ribbon - Germany
• A Prophet - France (just discussed right here)

Don't you just hate when last year's releases compete with this year's releases for awards? Let's all dream of a day when EVERY movie will be released around the world at the same time. It would make for some exciting global unity sort of thing huh?

So, dear readers in Europe, you're probably more equated with these films: Anyone you're rooting for? Anything we should be looking forward to when it's released here?

[More categories at the Goya Awards Official Site]

Blogger Man: Turn Off the Link

Serious Film Michael (a TFE columnist) is counting down his favs of the year.
Final Girl Stacy's cartoons of the Friday the 13th series almost make it seems as cute as a Pixar movie... okay no. I amend. It's still sick so it's almost as cute as a Don Hertzfeldt animation.
Parabasis a fascinating thoughtful and scathing review of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark.
In Contention Guy's 25 favorites of 2010. It was a very good year.

Alternative Film Guide RIP Miriam Seegar, one of the last surviving silent film actors.
Vulture Quentin Tarantino responds to the collective internet freakout also known as "OMG, why isn't Sofia Coppola's Somewhere which he awarded in Venice on his top ten list?!?"
Pop Matters chooses their (collective) favorite 20 female performances of 2010. Interesting li... okay, it's a bizarre list. We do appreciate Matt's writeup of Barbara Hershey in Black Swan. We do not appreciate the Annette Bening snub.

Fuming Actresses
US Weekly Michelle Williams is not pleased with the way Nightline edited her statements about Heath Ledger's death and their breakup.
EW's Inside Movies Julia Roberts has had it with everyone ignoring Javier Bardem in Biutiful. OBEY!
The Advocate Glenn Close is horrified that she has an unauthorized cameo in that anti-gay USS Enterprise Navy video that recently caused such a ruckus.