We have a problem with Spanish cinema. And no, he is not the one you think. On the billboard we can find fabulous films of almost any genre, directors with their own very marked personality, a scandalous independent cinema, films that are much more valued outside our borders than within… And, despite everything, we have had almost twenty of the best years of our filmography, since ‘The Sea Inside’, without winning the Oscar for best foreign-language film. In fact, if it weren’t for Almodóvar, We wouldn’t even have been nominated since that award.
Is it because our cinema doesn’t meet expectations, because we don’t know how to reach the American public, or simply because we’re not picking the right movies for the oscars? Let us remember that in 2021 ‘The good boss’ was chosen over ‘Parallel mothers’ and the previous year ‘The infinite trench’ ahead of ‘The hole’. The national repercussion is thought of instead of the international one and films of Spanish taste are nominated without thinking of the American public. Something doesn’t smell right at the Film Academy.
Watch the movies, optional
When it comes to sending a film to a gala like the Oscars, what is worth more? Make your opinion clear or select what, in the long run, is going to be better for the prize possibilities? The Film Academy has to rethink many things: voting for the one that academics liked the most traditionally does not usually result in a nomination. In other words: the criterion of subjectivity is not valid when voting for a movie to take to Hollywood.
We already have the Goya to reward the films that they have liked the most (or, at least, the films of those who have the most friends among the voters): Why not face the Oscar nomination in a more objective way? Let’s analyze what has been liked in recent years, which of our works is closest, let’s try different possibilitieslet’s talk to our American contacts: it’s no use sending another ‘Champion’ that they have more than overcome there.
eye! Nobody says that the films that have been decided to send in recent years are bad. It’s a wonderful selection to shut up anyone who begins to say that Spanish cinema is extremely poor: ‘Loreak’, ‘Verano 1993’, ‘The Blind Sunflowers’, ‘Snow White’ or ‘The Orphanage’ are wonderful works but make no sense in a race for the Oscar where the latest winners (‘Drive my car’, ‘Another round’, ‘Parasites’ and ‘Roma’) seem to reward the stories with an intimate but not subdued nature, with an air of great production. Something that, for example, was, regardless of its quality, ‘Parallel Mothers’.
Almodóvar and his things
In the race for the Oscar, one thing must be clear: this is not a football game at recess in fourth grade in which everyone has to touch the ball to feel their moment of glory. If you have a star player who has a better chance of winning, pass the ball to him. Let the only international film that could have stood up to Ryûsuke Hamaguchi level up.
I will insist once again on this concept to make it clear: this is not about quality. Oscars are never about quality. They are a game that you have to learn to play, and Spain is going to the casino with a lot of chips but without having read the rules: a recipe for disaster. But this recipe is not a disaster on its own.
Did you know that academics can vote for their favorite movie without needing to have seen any of the possible nominees? Exactly: there is no record of whether it has been done, so you can cast your vote without needing to know what other people are doing. A voter could listen to a colleague and bet on ‘Alcarràs’ without needing to take a look at ‘Mantícora’, by Carlos Vermut, for example. And that leads to some results predictable, full of cronyism and not fit for purpose: the Oscar nomination.
three little wolves
We are not here to pass judgment on the three nominees (although, a priori and given that it will have American distribution, ‘Alcarrás’ should be the rival to beat), but it is true that all the mistakes that are being made in the Academy when voting for the chosen one (friendliness, not having to watch the movies to vote, choosing your favorite and not thinking about which one can win…) could be solved if they really took the, for the time being, major film awards in the world seriously.
One option is force to watch the movies you have to choose from either leaving a fingerprint or in the passes of it. Or, at least, a minimum of them: the elections may still be wrong, but at least they will have a base and opportunities will be given to smaller films that, otherwise, will be lost. There’s a lot of sheep mentality: if ‘Alcarràs’ sounds, ‘Alcarràs’ will be voted. Since when is it necessary to see the film if, knowing that it is from the director of ‘Summer 1993’, it already has enough value?
The other is not to leave the decision to the sometimes overburdened voters of the Academy, but to a small group of people who know how awards season works, that they are aware of what they like and do not like, that they can debate and choose in the most objective way possible. The classic finger, but not randomly, but chosen by a group of people with no conflicts of interest that they are able to analyze instead of being carried away by the heart.
No one knows exactly what the perfect formula is for get not only the award, but the nomination for best international film, but when you do something twenty times in a row and it doesn’t work, maybe it’s time to think about changing your strategy to not be an eternal Coyote chasing the Roadrunner. Right now, in Spain we have bought ACME brand bird food again, convinced that this time, yes, yes, they will bite. What happened next will surprise you.