“Sirāt,” Oliver Laxe’s techo-sluiced Moroccan desert odyssey, swept the 40th Spanish Academy Goya Awards in craft categories. A “brilliantly bizarre, cult-ready vision of human psychology tested to its limits,” said Variety, ““Sirāt” is nominated for two Oscars and already won a Cannes Festival Jury Prize.
“Sirāt” won most awards at Saturday’s Goya Awards ceremony. However, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Sundays,” a study of failing family dynamics, plagued by intolerance, won the biggest: best picture, director, actress (Patricia López Arnaíz) and original screenplay. “Sundays” won San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell last September.
With Oscar voting in full swing, sound went to the Oscar-nominated all-female team of “Sirāt”: supervising sound editor Laia Casanovas, re-recording mixer Yasmina Praderas and production sound mixer Amanda Villavieja who spent nine months on and off on the sound design process.
The biggest breakout of the night, however, was “Deaf,” a Berlinale Panorama Audience Award winner and portrait of the challenges facing the deaf, here a mother, in a world where they are expected to hear.
Barcelona is not Berlin. It took just 150 seconds of Saturday’s Goya Awards for co-host Luis Tosar, wearing a Palestine pin, to condemn “Gaza genocide” – with the audience pretty well unanimously bursting out in applause.
Susan Sarandon, winner of this year’s International Goya of Honor, thanked Spanish President Pedro Sánchez and many artists from Spain who “talk with such moral lucidity.” “It helps me to feel less alone, part of a larger community,” in a world dominated by “cruelty” and “violence,” she added.
“Dictators can govern countries by whims. That can be denying gender violence and climate change, invading countries and deporting immigrants,” said Joaquin Oristrell, a co-winner of adapted screenplay for “La Cena,” again to raucous applause,
In her acceptance speech, Sarandon quoted American writer Howard Zinn: “To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness.”
40th Spanish Academy Goya Awards, 2026
“Sundays,” Manu Calvo, Marisa Fernández Armenteros, Sandra Hermida, Nahikari Ipiña,
Joaquín Oristrell, Manuel Gómez Pereira, Yolanda García, “La Cena”
“Decorado,” Alberto Vazquez, Chelo Loureiro, Iván Mimabres, José María Fernández de Vega
Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas, Yasmina Praderas, “Sirāt”
Alba Flores, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, “Flowers for Antonio”
Paula Gallifa Rubia, Ana Rubio, “Los Tigres,”
Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver y Nacho Díaz, “The Captive”
“Gilbert,” Jordi Jiménez, Arturo Lacal, Alex Salu
