The very long film awards galas have their days numbered if they do nothing to renew themselves. Gone are the times when the Goyas achieved a 33.5% share and the more than 4,600,000 spectators that Buenafuente managed to gather in 2009. Fifteen years ago the audience numbers for the gala, without being as worrying as those of the Oscars, they weren’t that lowand at the Academy they must be thinking about how to renew the style, the objectives or, why not, actively seek to become a gala-meme and leave seriousness and protocol for other times.
In this quest for public favor, the Academy has announced that all categories will have five nomineeslike in the late 1980s. The stated reason is to go “one step further to recognize the talent of our creatives and technicians”, but we all sense that it is an attempt to bring more familiar faces to the red carpet, to try to I dodge some young stars and try to rekindle the fire, something that seems very difficult to achieve in the times of speed, immediacy and fifteen-second videos.
five nominees
The Goya have a complicated job this year: unite the favor of the moviegoing publicthe one who does not forgive that ‘Sacred Spirit’ was not nominated, with the most commercial, the one who does not understand that Santiago Segura is not rewarded if he has saved the cinema. Perhaps that is why this extension: the more possible elections, the more possibilities of being able to nominate perhaps an influencer or an underground director here and there, making his different target audiences more happy.
The Goyas, for a few years, have been living in their own world, ignoring the successes of critics and public and inventing others. In a year in which the academy almost completely ignored ‘The Substitute’, ‘Sacred Spirit’, ‘Who Prevents It’ (which deserved more than a better documentary), or ‘Brave Flash’, decided to give three Goyas to ‘Mediterráneo’which passed unnoticed (both critically and at the box office) on the billboard.
Would any of these films be nominated for another category if they were expanded or would they continue to go for the obvious, without risk of any kind? This year We will see if the most underground or blockbuster proposals have a place at the awards or they are only remembered in some other annual compilation video. But perhaps behind this extension of prizes there is another reason.
Influencers, we welcome you with joy
The Goyas have been the stronghold of the most classic Spanish cinema for 36 years, but as it opens up to the new generations that have grown up on the Internet and that they have a huge fan base (Danna Paola, for example, will always have more followers than Eduard Fernández), the chances of inviting them, nominating them and getting yet another trending topic increase. the young fans could increase the audience of the Goya in case of getting that extra nomination, thus saving the pothole.
The problem with these award ceremonies is that the old bell is very aged. In other words: the kids prefer to do literally anything before seeing the Goya, and it is logical. As much as the Academy modernizes the means with which to deal with generation Z (and younger millennials), it is useless if they do not have a reference to follow during the awards. Does this mean that they should not nominate Penélope Cruz but Dulceida? Of course not, but an era of experimentation opens on the part of the Academy.
for the next few years we will see many comings and goings. Perhaps, even, at some point the galas last an hour and a half and are not interrupted by very uncomfortable musical numbers, who knows. Or they may expand and reduce the nominees, trying to find a magic formula to get the gala to become an event like it was in the early 90s and mid-2010s. And if that means inviting (or nominating) influencers, opening the hand to more popular films or encouraging public opinion, It is something that can only be decided by the Academy itself.
The best is yet to come
At the moment, this year’s Spanish cinema, beyond ‘Alcarrás’, ‘Cinco lobitos’ or ‘La grandmother’ is not being very spectacular, but by the end of the year The big names of the next Goya gala will arrive: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alberto Rodríguez, Jaime Rosales, Carlos Vermut and Pilar Palomero release new movies They will give a lot to talk about.
And it is that the ditty of “Spanish cinema is bad”, which is already ridiculed from the very moment that “Spanish cinema” is introduced as a genre, has no reason to exist. we hope that the Goya awards themselves remove once and for all that absurd feeling of inferiority and reward without fear, whatever nominees there are.