Surprise, a tie for the history books at the 2025 Goya Awards

The 2025 Goya Awards ceremony, organized by the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, took place at the Granada Exhibition and Congress Center on Saturday, February 8.

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The gala began to the rhythm of Bienvenidos, a song by the Granada-born Miguel Ríos, a collaborative work in which Amaral and some nominated actors participated.

Maribel Verdú and Leonor Watling livened up the evening with different sketches and humorous dialogues, both on stage and in the audience.

In addition, the actor Miguel Ángel Silvestre referred to the tragic consequences of climate change and remembered those affected by the DANA in Valencia and by the fires in Los Angeles, California.

Historic tie

The film El 47, which had 14 nominations, took home five awards: Best Film, Supporting Actor and Actress (Salva Reina and Clara Segura, respectively), Production Direction (Carlos Apolinario) and Special Effects (Laura Canela and Iván López Hernández).

For its part, the film La infiltrada, out of thirteen nominations, won two, Best Film and Best Leading Actress, for Carolina Yuste, who thus won the second Goya of her career. During his words of thanks, he spoke in favour of having a decent home.

Awards presented

The actor Salva Reina enthusiastically collected the first award of the night and thanked those who provide opportunities to actors and actresses in the cinema. He also remembered the Andalusians who had to emigrate to Catalonia in the post-Franco era, whom he defined as “brave and powerful people”. And he ended his speech with the phrase: “No person is illegal”.

For his interpretation of Enric Marco Batlle (Spanish trade unionist) in the film Marco, Eduard Fernández received the Goya for Best Leading Actor from the hands of his daughter Greta. With this award, he has four statuettes, consolidating himself as the second most awarded actor in the history of the Goyas. In his speech, he said: "I think it's the most complex character I've ever played, contradictory, hateful, talkative, estimable, perhaps, at times, of an overflowing humanity that is difficult to understand or comprehend or grasp. A huge human being and someone who did many things wrong and some right."

Marco's second Goya was in the category of Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Karmele Soler, Sergio Pérez Berbel and Nacho Díaz)

Second prize, he obtained recognition from the Academy in three categories: Best Direction for Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez; Editing, for Javi Frutos; and Best Sound for Diana Sagrista, Eva Valiño, Alejandro Castillo and Antonin Dalmasso.

The Room Next Door also obtained three Goyas: Best Adapted Screenplay (Pedro Almodóvar), Photography Direction (Edu Grau) and Original Music for Alberto Iglesias, who added his 12th Goya. In the absence of the director From La Mancha, his brother and producer, Agustín Almodóvar collected the sixth Goya for Pedro.

Javier Macipe's first film, La estrella azul, which started with eight nominations, won the awards for Best New Director and Best New Actor (Pepe Lorente). The film is a fiction with documentary traces that revolves around creation, friendship and death in which Lorente plays Mauricio Aznar, an Aragonese rocker who in the 90s traveled around Latin America looking to rediscover his vocation and his addiction to drugs.

La virgen roja obtained two awards: Best Art Direction (Javier Albariño), and Costume Design (Arantxa Ezquerro), while Casa en llamas received the award for Best Original Screenplay (Eduard Sola), who in an emotional message dedicated the award to the “supermothers”, “the sacrifices they made for us. We still have an outstanding bill to pay, and we have to send them a message: that we love them, thank you for always being there”

The Goya for Best Documentary Film and Best Original Song went to La guitarra flamenca by Yerai Cortés. Laura Weissmahr collected the Goya for Best New Actress for Salve María, by Mar Coll; whom she thanked for having made a “brave, thought-provoking” film.

The list of winners was completed by Ainda estou aquí (Brazil), by Walter Salles, as Best Latin American Film; Emilia Pérez (France), by Jacques Audiard, Best European Film; and Mariposas negras, by David Baute, Best Animated Film. The short films that won awards were La gran obra, by Álex Lora, Fiction; Semillas de Kivu, by Carlos Valle and Néstor López, Documentary; and Cafuné, by Carlos Fernández de Vigo and Lorena Ares, Animation.

Honorary Goya

Aitana Sánchez-Gijón received the Honorary Goya from her friend Maribel Verdú, the ninth to be awarded to a woman.

In her speech, she highlighted: “Cinema is a collective endeavour; the energy of all the individuals who make up the group is focused on achieving a common goal, we always row together despite our differences and all to tell stories that serve as a meeting place.” And she ended by quoting Marisa Paredes, who at a Goya gala said: “We must not be afraid of culture. We must be afraid of ignorance, indifference, lies, fanaticism and violence. We must be afraid of war.”

Goya International

Antonio Banderas presented the Goya International to his friend, the American actor and producer Richard Gere, who recently moved to Spain.

Richard Gere receiving his International Goya. — Richard Gere (Fotografía de ©Alberto Ortega)

The audience stood up and gave him a standing ovation for several minutes. Gere, moved, thanked the award in Spanish with a “thank you all very much, it’s fantastic,” and continued in English “in all our lives there is a place for basic kindness, for basic love, for understanding, for taking care of each other.”

Tributes and commemoration

A tribute was paid to Marisa Paredes, who was president of the Film Academy between 2000 and 2003, with the presence of her daughter, the actress María Isasi, who thanked everyone for their displays of affection, “She knew she was loved, respected, but I never imagined how much.”

A tribute was also paid to The Sea Inside, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its release. The film is the most recognized in the history of the Goyas with 14 awards (in addition to the Oscar for best foreign language film). It was attended by its director, Alejandro Amenábar, and four of its protagonists: Javier Bardem, Lola Dueñas, Tamar Novas and Belén Rueda. For the filmmaker, “the greatest award was getting people to start talking about the right to die with dignity.”

During the “In Memoriam,” Zahara and Dora Postigo lent their voices and music to Si tú no estás aquí, while images of members of the film family who died in the last 12 months were shown on screen. Including Mexicans Silvia Pinal, Ernesto Gómez Cruz and Lorena Velázquez.

Musical moments

Alejandro Sanz performed Abre la puerta, accompanied by orchestra and choir, and a double tribute to Federico García Lorca with the Estrella brothers, Soleá and Kiki Morente, who sang Anda jaleo from the Patio de los Arrayanes in the Alhambra, and the duet performance of DELLAFUENTE and Lola Índigo with Verde que te quiero verde and Rigoberta Bandini performed El amor.

The 39th edition of the Goya Awards concluded with the cry: Long live Spanish cinema!

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