Political thriller 'The Realm' nabbed 7 awards, while 'Champions' took home the award for best film at the gala celebrated in Seville.


Political thriller The Realm was the big winner at Saturday night’s 33rd annual Goya Awards, Spain’s top honors, with 7 awards including best director, actor, supporting actor, original script, sound, editing and music.


But it was feel-good comedy Champions that took home the top prize for best film at the gala celebrated in Seville. Spain’s runaway box-office hit of the last year and its selection to represent the country in the foreign-language Oscar category, Champions tells the story of a professional basketball coach sentenced to train a team of players with intellectual disabilities.


Champions director Javier Fesser hired non-professional actors with real disabilities to star in the film. One of the stars, Jesus Vidal, won the night’s prize for best new actor. "Three words come to my mind: inclusion, diversity and visibility," Vidal said in an emotional acceptance speech. The film won a third of its 11 nominations for best original song.


The Realm stars Antonio de la Torre in the story of a corrupt politician facing exposure for his illegal dealings. It was directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, who next faces the Oscars with his nominated live-action short film Mother.


In an unusual twist, De la Torre was nominated in both the best actor and best supporting actor categories. For the best actor nom he beat out Javier Bardem in Everybody Knows, Jose Coronado for Your Son and Javier Gutierrez for Champions.

Carmen & Lola, a Madrid-set love story between two gypsy women that premiered at the Cannes Quinzaine, won two top awards and early on seemed one of the night’s darlings. Arantxa Echevarria took home best new director, a category that made headlines for having three women nominated this year.


Carmen & Lola co-star Carolina Yuste, who won best supporting actress, thanked the film’s team which is conspired of 70 percent of women: "When they give us a voice, things like Carmen & Lola are the result and they make this world a healthier place."


It was just one of many feminist notes struck at the awards ceremony. Eva Llorach, who took home a best new actress Goya for Quien Te Cantara, asked all the nominated women in the audience to stand up to see how "few" they were. "I want to share this with you, and I want to ask screenwriters, producers, distributors… for more stories with female protagonists."


Iranian director Asgar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows went home empty-handed despite eight nominations in most of the top categories, including best actress for Penelope Cruz, a prize won by veteran Susi Sanchez for 2018 Berlin Panorama premiere Sunday’s Illness.
In what may have been the least surprising wins of the night, Roma took home the Academy’s Best Ibero-American Film prize and Cold War won Best European Film.


The winners for the feature and short documentary brought more politics to the proceedings. Documentary feature winner Almudena Carracedo, co-director of Oscar short-listed The Silence of Others, dedicated the Goya to the "thousands of victims and survivors of the Franco dictatorship," and to those who "fight every day for their right to justice and truth."


The short documentary film Gaza won in its category despite having been, in the news on the eve of the Goya Awards for a canceled screening in Madrid hosted by the pro-Palestine group BDS, won in its category.


Spanish Film Academy President Mariano Barroso, who earlier in the week told Spanish news agency Efe that the Academy was considering including TV series in future awards ceremonies, gave a speech urging film professionals not to see the "small screens as enemies… Ours is an alliance of winners."


Other technical Goya Awards were split between the 1920s police thriller Gun City, Terry Gilliam’s long-awaited The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, a Spanish co-production, and local box office hit Superlopez.


The Goya of Honor for horror director Narciso "Chicho" Ibañez Serrador was presented by eight of Spain’s most renowned genre directors, including JA Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), Alejandro Amenabar (The Others) and Nacho Vigalondo (Colossal).


Other touches of glamour in Seville were a performance by pop flamenco artist Rosalia and the presentation of the best film prize by Pedro Almodovar and the stars of his best Goya film from 1989, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Rosalia has a role alongside Cruz and Antonio Banderas in Almodovar’s upcoming film Pain & Glory.


A full list of the 2019 Goya winners follows.


Best film

Champions


Best direction

Rodrigo Sorogoyen for The Realm


New director

Arantxa Echevarria for Carmen & Lola


Lead actor

Antonio de la Torre for The Realm


Lead actress

Susi Sanchez for Sunday’s Illness


Supporting actor

Luis Zahera for The Realm


Supporting actress

Carolina Yuste for Carmen & Lola


New actor

Jesus Vidal for Champions


New actress

Eva Llorach for Quien Te Cantara


Original script

Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen for The Realm


Adapted script

Alvaro Brechner for The 12-Year Night


Best Animated film

Another Day of Life by Damian Nenow and Raul de la Fuente


Documentary

The Silence of Others by Almudena Carracedo and Robert Bahar


Best European film

Cold War by Pawel Pawlikowski


Iberoamerican Film

Roma by Alfonso Cuaron


Original music

Olivier Arson for The Realm


Original song

"Este es el momento" from Champions by Coque Malla


Production design

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote


Director of Photography

Josu Inchaustegui for Gun City


Editing

Alberto del Campo for The Realm

Sound

Roberto Fernandez and Albert Raposo for The Realm


Art direction

Juan Pedro de Gaspar for Gun City


Special Effects

Lluis Rivera and Laura Pedro for Superlopez


Wardrobe design

Clara Bilbao for Gun City


Make-up and hair

Sylvie Imbert, Amparo Sanchez and Pablo Perona for The Man Who Killed Don Quixote


Short documentary

Gaza by Carlos Bover Martinez and Julio Perez del Campo


Short film

Cerdita by Carlota Pereda


Short animated film

Cazatalentos by Jose Herrera