2024-02-11 02:00:15
The Goya ceremony, the annual high mass of Spanish cinema, dedicated the film “The Circle of Snows” on Saturday, at a time when the sector is shaken by accusations of sexual violence once morest a figure of independent cinema.
Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona (“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”, “The Impossible”), the feature film, which received the prize for best film and best director, traces the odyssey of the young players of a team of Uruguayan amateur rugby player, whose plane crashed in the Andes Mountains in 1972 while traveling to Chile.
The ceremony, which also awarded the prize for best European film to the French film “Anatomy of a Fall” and an honorary award to the American actress Sigourney Weaver, was marked by the sex scandal affecting Spain.
“It is urgent that we all demand guarantees of equality, and this requires the condemnation of all abuses and sexual violence,” declared at the opening the actress and singer Ana Belén who presented this Spanish equivalent of the French Césars , organized this year in Valladolid (north-west).
“Here too at the cinema, it’s over,” she proclaimed in a nod to the slogan #SeAcabo (“it’s over”) which marked support for footballer Jenni Hermoso following the forced kiss of former Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales.
“Sexual violence and abuse of power have no place in the world of cinema and in Spanish society,” insisted the Spanish Cinema Academy, which put this subject at the center of the gala.
Assuring the victims of her “solidarity”, she also promised to establish a “protocol” to prevent this violence.
“We must be aware that we are talking regarding structural violence which requires the commitment of all,” underlined Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on the red carpet of the ceremony.
On the eve of the gala, during which Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz presented some of the prizes, the Minister of Culture Ernest Urtasun announced the creation of a unit specialized in the care of victims of sexist violence in the cultural sector.
This #MeToo in Spanish cinema broke out at the end of January with the publication of an investigation by the daily El Pais in which three women accused filmmaker Carlos Vermut of sexual violence.
Figure of independent cinema, Carlos Vermut, whose real name is Carlos López del Rey, won the most prestigious prize at the San Sebastian festival in 2014, a major event for Spanish-speaking cinema, for his second feature film, “Magical Girl” (La niña de fuego), critically acclaimed.
The accusations once morest him caused a wave of indignation in Spain, a country at the forefront in the fight once morest gender violence.
Vermut affirmed in El Pais that he was not “aware of having carried out sexual violence on a woman”, but admitted to having “strangled people but in a consensual manner”.
In the wake of this affair, another Spanish director, Armando Ravelo, was accused by an artist of having “incited” her to have sexual relations when she was only 14 years old.
Since the start of the #MeToo movement in 2017, figures from the world of cinema have been accused of sexual violence in many countries, like in France the actor Gérard Depardieu or the filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, once morest whom actress Judith Godrèche filed a complaint.
1707618778
#MeToo #Spanish #cinema #center #annual #high #mass #TV5MONDE