RAUL AREVALO’S directorial debut “Fury of a Patient Man” took the top award at the Spanish Film Academy’s Goya Awards ceremony Saturday, while Juan Antonio Bayona’s “A Monster Calls” nearly swept the night with nine awards, including in the directing category.

    Bayona’s tale of a boy who faces his mother’s illness with the help of a monster scored on nine of its 12 nominations.

    A teary-eyed Bayona, seated next to his twin brother Carlos, celebrated each award for “Monster” as if it were his first successful film, instead of the third in a highly acclaimed trilogy centering on the mother-child relationship. Bayona dedicated his award to all who suffer from cancer and to his father, who taught him the transformative power of culture.

    The other big winner of the night was fresh talent Arevalo, whose triumph was announced by Penelope Cruz. Arevalo also took home the best new director award along with the original screenplay prize.

    Pedro Almodovar was on hand to celebrate his lead actress Emma Suarez’s special night, as she walked away with two Goya statues for her roles in his “Julieta” and “La Proxima Piel.”

    But Almodovar, who will be the first Spaniard to chair the Cannes Film Festival jury in May, didn’t win any of the other six categories in which his film competed.

    The gala awards ceremony, which regularly veers political, shied away from controversy this year. The only note of protest came from academy vice president Mariano Barroso, who obliquely addressed the public image of the Spanish film industry as living off subsidies in the official remarks, which he shared with Spanish Film Academy President Yvonne Blake.

    “The state earned $30 million more off the sales tax of Spanish cinema than what it will invest in it. We are not a sector that lives off the state,” Barroso said to applause.

    (SD-Agencies)