Cate Blanchett wins first International Goya Award

The 36th Goya ceremony, the Spanish film academy awards, was held in Valencia on Saturday 12 February. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez attended the star-studded event.

The Good Boss stole the show, with a record number of 20 nominations of which it took home six awards, including Best Film. Javier Bardem won Best Leading Actor, his sixth Goya for acting and performance, for his role as the charming yet selfish boss who will go to any lengths to secure the best business award for his company. The film also won Best Original Score and Best Original Screenplay, and Madrid director Fernando León de Aranoa took home the prize for Best Director.

Having already won multi Oscars, Baftas and Golden Globes, Cate Blanchett has now become the first person to be awarded the International Goya. In a thank you speech which moved the audience, she explained, “When I was in high school I saw Buñuel's work and that completely changed how I saw the world. Since then, I have been greatly attracted to the visual language of Spanish cinema.”

She was handed the prize by Penélope Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar, and is set to star in the latter's next film, Manual para Señoras de Limpieza (handbook for cleaning ladies), replacing Cruz as the infamous director's leading lady. Blanchett wished Cruz luck at the Oscar's for her role in Parallel Mothers, for which she is nominated for the Best Actress award.

It came as a surprise that Cruz didn't win the Goya for Best Leading Actress for this role. In fact, Parallel Mothers did not win anything at the Goya's this year. The Leading Actress award went to Blanca Portillo for her role in Maixabel, in which she plays a Basque widow who overcomes her fears and faces the Eta terrorist who killed her husband. Maixabel had the second most nominations, and ended the evening with three prizes, including Best New Actress for María Cerezuela and Best Supporting Actor for Urko Olazábal, in his role as the remorseful Eta terrorist.

Outlaws (or The Laws of the Border) started the night on a high, winning three technical awards: Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyles, before going on to win Best New Actor (for Chechu Salgado) and Best Adapted Screenplay (for director Daniel Monzón).

Mediterraneo: The Law of the Sea, a film about the tragedy of Lesbos, also won three prizes: Best Production Supervision, Best Cinematography and Best Original Song. Singer María José Llergo thanked Malaga artist Paloma Peñarrubia for her help with the track.

Best New Director went to Clara Roquet for Libertad. Nora Navas won Best Supporting Actress for her role in the film.

Best Special Effects went to Way Down (The Vault), the film by Jaume Balagueró about a bank robbery.