Finally, after a very close night, with the number of statuettes always side by side, the night of the 2023 Goya Awards ended up being for the great favourite, for that impeccable film, like all those by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, which is As bestas, a painful and disturbing rural thriller based on true events that last night won nine Goyas, including the award for best film, best director, screenplay, best actor –Denis Ménochet, who said that the film vindicated the love of women against force and the madness of men– and the supporting actor, Luis Zahera. Model 77, the other top contender, took five awards in technical categories, while the drama about motherhood Cinco lobitos took three: Alauda Ruiz de Azúa for New Director, Laia Costa for Best Actress and Susi Sánchez for Supporting Actress. . On the other hand, the great winner of the Berlinale, Carla Simon and hers Alcarràs of hers left empty.
It was a night for Sorogoyen, but in which there were more protagonists in a Palace of Congresses and Exhibitions in Seville, presided over, after the sexual assault of the Feroz awards, by posters that asked attendees "try to make sure that you do not cross limits of other people and accepts the refusals. Without a doubt, 2023 will have been the year of Carlos Saura, to whom an exciting tribute was paid as the opening of the gala. But, also, it will have been the year of a more diverse and inclusive Goya: due to the much greater role of women, LGBTI visibility and because the best revelation actor was Telmo Irureta, with cerebral palsy, for The Rite of Spring, which a powerful speech was made from the stage in a wheelchair: "My character, David, is a nod to the right to sexuality of people with disabilities, we also exist and we also fuck."
And, finally, 2023 will have been the year of one of the great harvests of Spanish cinema that led to the fact that last night, in an election year, the President of the Government and the head of the opposition met for the first time at a Goya gala . Without forgetting the touch of glamor brought to the ceremony by Juliette Binoche dressed as Paco Rabanne collecting the international Goya, who was presented with the award by Isabel Coixet wearing a jacket with the face of the young Iranian Mahsa Amini, murdered for not wearing veil. “Hello Spain, hello Seville, what a joy to be here with you!” Binoche started a speech in which she mixed Spanish, Italian and French.
But without a doubt, in a gala that always worked almost like clockwork hand in hand with very effective musical numbers and in which the defense of public health was vindicated again and again -Jordi Évole even came to remember on stage that today there is a demonstration in Madrid–, the start was one of the unforgettable moments, remembering Carlos Saura, who died at the age of 91 just one day before picking up the Goya of honor last night. In fact, Isaki Lacuesta – winner of the award for best adapted screenplay for One Year, One Night – went so far as to propose before the start that the awards be called from now on Buñuel Saura and recalled "the total freedom he always had to fight against what was expected of he". And to open the ceremony, Manuel Carrasco sang the Cantares de Serrat and Machado with the image of Saura in the background. And with Antonio de la Torre and Clara Lago, the presenters, declaiming the "walker, there is no road, but trails in the sea." And with Maribel Verdú, David Verdaguer or Leonardo Sbaraglia acting as chorus girls for Carrasco, “blow by blow, verse by verse”.
An emotional Carmen Maura, who should have given her the award of honor, commented on the mark she had left when she directed it in ¡Ay, Carmela! , and her companion, Eulàlia Ramon, and two of Saura's children went up to collect the Goya before the standing audience, which gave an emotional and lengthy ovation. Ramon read the words that Saura wanted to dedicate to the audience. A few words in which he recalled the seven children, grandchildren and even a great-granddaughter that he had and said that "I will be happy if the cinema I have made has inspired the current generation." And he pointed out, poetic, that he had always believed that "imagination is faster than the speed of light."
After them, Natalia Lafourcade took the stage to sing with power and rhythm Because you're going, the song that was played in Cría cuervos, a film whose melancholy moved Juliette Binoche as a child, who hummed the song with the audience.
The president of the academy, Fernando Méndez-Leite, assured that Saura was "one of the most brilliant assets of Spanish culture", and the Government awarded him posthumously the Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise. His funeral chapel will be installed on Monday at the Film Academy from 12 to 20 hours.
There was also a tribute to Lola Flores at the gala, and Lolita sang Pena, penita, pena, and Fernando Esteso emotionally remembered Agustí Villaronga, his brilliant direction of actors and his humor. He also reminded him of Nora Navas and Blanca Portillo. The best documentary was Labordeta, a man without more and Leiva collected the award for best song in his name and that of Joaquín Sabina for Feeling it a lot. And the animated film Unicorn wars won Tadeo Jones 3 and Black is Beltza II.
All in front of an auditorium attended by a procession of politicians who passed through the blue carpet. Along with Pedro Sánchez, Yolanda Díaz and Irene Montero entered, breaking rumours, and Miquel Iceta and María Jesús Montero were also present. In addition to Alberto Núñez Feijoo, the president of the Andalusian Junta, Juanma Moreno Bonilla, was not missing.
