Featuring angry prisoners, tireless philosophers, mysterious romantics and impossible dances

We aren’t sure whether Saint Valentine will be at the Goya Awards next Sunday; who knows, he may be handing out a few prizes. But we can be sure that Alex de la Iglesia’s Film Academy and “showman” Andreu Buenafuente, presenting the gala this year, will have something up their sleeves and that among other emotions, there’ll definitely be laughs. This year, one of the best we can remember for Spanish cinema, prison riots from Celda 211 (Cell 211) (16 nominations) and philosophical reflections from Amenábar’s Ágora (13 nominations) start out as the favourites of the night. With fewer nominations (nine) but plenty of possibilities, these are closely followed by the wonderful El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes), which could surprise us all. These three are competing for the Best Film Goya award, along with the film representing the long-awaited yet disappointing return of Fernando Trueba to fiction, El Baile de la Victoria (The Dancer and the Thief) (nine nominations). These four titles also feature in the Best Director category, with their respective filmmakers’ names: Daniel Monzón, Alejandro Amenábar, Juan José Campanella and Fernando Trueba.

Close behind come Gordos, by Antonio de la Torre, with eight nominations, six of which focus on the magnificent cast, El Ccónsul de Sodoma, the controversial biopic about Jaime Gil de Biedma, with five nominations, and Los Abrazos Rotos, (Broken Embraces) by Pedro Almodóvar who, after the success of Volver (To Return) has this year had to make do with five nominations.

In the Best Actor category, competition is tough between Luis Tosar, the spine-chilling yet engaging Malamadre from Cell 211, Ricardo Darín (The Secret in Their Eyes), Antonio de la Torre (Gordos) and Jordi Mollá (El Cónsul de Sodoma). For the girls, it’s more complicated; while Lola Dueñas (Yo, También [Me, Too ]) is one of the clear favourites, having already won the "Silver Shell" at the San Sebastian Film Festival and the Forqué Award for best female performance this year, her rivals are hard to beat: Penélope Cruz (Broken Embraces), Maribel Verdú (Tetro) and Rachel Weisz (Ágora) could make things difficult for the Galician actress.

On 14th February Spanish cinema will crown its great year with a great night. Will Hypatia of Alexandria’s philosophical reflections or the violent prisoners from Cell 211 win out? Will shocking stories of love and crime with an Argentine flavour prevail? Will Trueba’s Thief steal the show? We’ll just have to wait and see.

BEST FILM Celda 211 / Cell 211 Ágora / Agora El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief BEST DIRECTOR Daniel Monzón, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Alejandro Amenábar, Ágora / Agora Juan José Campanella, El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes Fernando Trueba, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief BEST NEW DIRECTOR David Planell, La vergüenza Borja Cobeaga, Pagafantas / Friend Zone Mar Coll, Tres dies amb la família / Three Days with the Family Antonio Naharro, Álvaro Pastor, Yo, también / Me, Too BEST MALE PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE Ricardo Darín in El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes Antonio de la Torre in Gordos Jordi Mollá in El cónsul de Sodoma Luis Tosar in Celda 211 / Cell 211 BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE IN A LEADING ROLE Penélope Cruz in Los abrazos rotos / Broken Embraces Lola Dueñas in Yo, también / Me, Too Maribel Verdú in Tetro Rachel Weisz in Ágora / Agora BEST MALE PERFOMEANCE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Raúl Arévalo in Gordos Carlos Bardem in Celda 211 / Cell 211 Ricardo Darín in El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Antonio Resines in Celda 211 / Cell 211 BEST FEMALE PERFORMACE IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Pilar Castro in Gordos Marta Etura in Celda 211 / cell 211 Vicky Peña in El cónsul de Sodoma Verónica Sánchez in Gordos BEST MALE NEWCOMER Alberto Ammann in Celda 211 / cell 211 Fernando Albizu in Gordos Gorka Otxoa in Pagafantas / Friend Zone Pablo Pineda in Yo, también / Me, Too BEST FEMALE NEWCOMER Nausicaa Bonnin in Tres dies amb la família / Three Days with the Family Leticia Herrero in Gordos Blanca Romero in After Soledad Villamil in El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Alberto Rodríguez Librero and Rafael Cobos, After Mateo Gil and Alejandro Amenábar, Ágora / Agora Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, Gordos Pedro Almodóvar, Los abrazos rotos / Broken Embraces BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Daniel Monzón and Jorge Gerricaechevarría, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Fernando Trueba and Jonás Trueba and Antonio Scármeta, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Joaquín Górriz, Miguel Dalmau, Sigfrid Monleón and Miguel Ángel Fernández, El cónsul de Sodoma Eduardo Sacheri and Juan José Campanella, El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes BEST ORIGNAL SCORE Alberto Iglesias, Los abrazos rotos / Broken Embaraces Darío Marianelli, Ágora Roque Baños López, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Federico Jusid, El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes BEST ORIGNAL SONG "Agallas vs. Escamas" from Agallas "Stick it to the man" from Planet 51 "Spanish Song" from Spanish Movie "Yo también" from Yo, también / Me Too BEST PRODUCTION DIRECTION Eduardo Castro, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief José Luis Escolar, Ágora / Agora Alicia Tellería, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Cristina Zumárraga, Che. Guerrilla / / Che: Part Two BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Álex Catalán, After Xavi Giménez, Ágora / Agora Carles Gusi, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Félix Monti, El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes BEST EDITING Carmen Frías por El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Mapa Pastor por Celda 211 / Cell 211 Nacho Ruiz Capillas por Ágora / Agora Nacho Ruiz Capillas, David Pinillos por Gordos BEST ARTISTIC DIRECTION Guy Hendrix Dyas, Ágora / Agora Antón Laguna, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Verónica Astudillo, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Marcelo Pont, El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes BEST COSTUME DESIGN Gabriella Pescucci, Ágora / Agora Lala Huete, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Cristina Rodríguez, El cónsul de Sodoma Sonia Grande, Los abrazos rotos / Broken Embraces BEST MAKE UP & HAIR STYLING Jan Sewell, Suzanne Stokes-Munton, Ágora / Agora Raquel Fidalgo, Inés Rodríguez, Celda 211 / Cell 211 José Antonio Sánchez, Paquita Núñez, El cónsul de Sodoma Ana Lozano, Massimo Gattabrusi, Los abrazos rotos / Broken Embraces BEST SOUND Peter Glossop and Glenn Freemantle, Ágora / Agora Sergio Burmann, Jaime Fernández and Carlos Faruolo, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Pierre Gamet, Nacho Royo-Villanova and Pelayo Gutiérrez, El baile de la Victoria / The Dancer and the Thief Aitor Berenguer, Marc Orts and Fabiola Ordoyo, Mapa de los sonidos de Tokio / Map of the Sounds of Tokyo BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS Chris Reynolds and Félix Bergés, Ágora / Agora Raúl Romanillos and Guillermo Orbe, Celda 211 / Cell 211 Salvador Santana and Álex Villagrasa, [REC] 2 Pau Costa and Lluís Castells, Spanish movie BEST ANIMATION FILM Animal Channel Cher ami / Flying Heroes Pérez, el ratoncito de tus sueños 2 Planet 51 BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM Cómicos Garbo, el hombre que salvó el mundo La mirada de Ouka Leele Últimos testigos: Fraga Iribarne-Carrillo, comunista BEST SPANISH-LANGUAGE FOREIGN FILM Dawson Isla 10 Gigante El secreto de sus ojos / The Secret in Their Eyes La teta asustada / The Milk of Sorrow BEST EUROPEAN FILM Lat de rätte komma in / Let the Right One in Entre les murs / The Class Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis / Welcome to the Sticks Slumdog Millonaire BEST FICTION SHORT FILM Dime que yo, by Mateo Gil Lala, by Esteban Crespo García La Tama, by Martín Costa Terapia, by Nuria Verde BEST ANIMATION SHORT FILM Alma, by Rodrigo Blaas La Dama y la Muerte / The Lady and the Reaper, by Javier Recio Gracia Margarita ,by Álex Cervantes Tachaaan!, by Carlos del Olmo, Miguel Ángel Bellot, Rafael Cano BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM Doppelgänger, by Óscar de Julián En un lugar del cine, by Eduardo Cardoso Flores de Ruanda / Flowers of Rwanda, by David Muñoz López Luchadoras, by Benet Román

Agora	Cell 211	The Dancer and the Thief	The Secret of their Eyes

The Goya Awards ceremony was first held twenty-three years ago, on 17th March 1987. More than 400 films have been in the running since then for an award given out by the Spanish Cinema Arts and Sciences Academy. Held in Madrid (except in 2000, when it took place in Barcelona), the gala has had as a backdrop places like the Teatro Lope de Vega or the Palacio Municipal de Congresos y Exposiciones. While 15 statuettes were handed out at the first ceremony, today 28 are given, including the Lifetime Achievement Award, the Goya de Honor, which this year is being given to Antonio Mercero.

Alfredo Landa, Goya de Honor recipient in 2008, has had one of the highest number of nominations as an actor for these awards, with six all together, two of which he was actually the winner. Ahead of him are only Juan Diego, with eight nominations and Javier Bardem, with seven, who are the most awarded actors in the history of the Goyas (winning three and four awards each, respectively).

Carmen Maura and Verónica Forqué are the most-awarded actresses, receiving four Goyas each, while Victoria Abril has been the most nominated (nine times), although she has only taken one Goya home in the end.

Alejandro Amenábar and Fernando León de Aranoa are the Academy’s favorite directors, both of whom have received three awards, followed by Pedro Almodóvar and Fernando Trueba, winning two each.

The most awarded films include The Sea Inside [El Mar Adentro](2004), which took 14 awards from its 15 nominations. ¡Ay, Carmela! (1990) took 13 Goyas out of the 15 it was nominated for, and Belle Époque (1992) won nine of its possible 17. With regard to the most nominated films in history, Running out of Time [Días Contados ] had 19 nominations, from which it received 8 awards. The Girl of Your Dreams [La Niña de Tus Ojos] was nominated in 18 categories, winning in six. Belle Époque had 17 nominations and Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown [Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios] had 16, being the winner of five. This year, history is being made again with Cell 211 [Celda 211], the hit new film of the season, which has 16 nominations, thus being tied with Almodóvar’s legendary film.

Fifty years touching our hearts

Year in and year out, he has been responsible for millions of Spanish audiences crying over the death of Chanquete as if it were the first time. He brought eleven-and-a-half million viewers each week to sit in front of their televisions to go in one of the craziest and most amusing pharmacies in the country in Farmacia de Guardia. He unraveled the lawyer’s cases in Turno de oficio with the help of Juan Luis Galiardo, Juan Echanove, and Carme Elías. He made us suffer terribly, with José Luis López Vázquez, in a claustrophobic phone booth, but later made up for it with sweet feature films like La guerra de papá [Daddy’s War], Toby, and Buenas noches, Señor monstruo. He dove into our common history with films such as Espérame en el cielo [Wait for Me in Heaven] and La hora de los valientes [A Time for Defiance] and, in his latest works for the cinema, he dared to take on the consequences of two serious diseases, such as cancer in Planta 4ª and Alzheimer’s disease in ¿Y tú quien eres? [Do I Know You].

On 14th February, the Spanish Cinema Arts and Sciences Academy is bestowing its Goya de Honor Award on Antonio Mercero "for his unbeatable film career filled with hits and valuable experiments in fields as broad as short films, medium-length films and feature films. In doing so, he has always been able to bring humor and pain together in nearly all of his productions with his own personal style. And, [he is being given the award] for making a work which has become a heart-touching legend for millions of Spanish fans."

"“I received a diploma as a film director in 1962 and, from then on, I underwent my struggle. And, my struggle was very hard in the early days," says Mercero on his website. He had just got his degree from the University of Valladolid when he relocated to Madrid to enroll in the Film School, where he says himself he got out in 1962 with a diploma under his arm and a desire to make his oyster of the world of cinema. Since then nearly fifty years have passed since he has been "making films with love and sincerity". There have been many titles since those first NO-DO newsreels and he has received many awards, including a "Gold Shell" from the San Sebastian Film Festival for his first short film Lección de arte and an Emmy (the first to come to Spain) for the medium-length film La cabina [The Phone Box ].

"I was lucky enough", says Mercero, "that, sometime around the 1970s, I began to have two lives: cinema and television. And, I call them ‘lives’ because for me, making Films and TV shows is something I do passionately". Next Sunday, a Goya will crown that passion with which the director has known how to touch the hearts of the whole country. So, we all applaud whistling that catchy tune from his TV show of our childhood El Verano Azul.