SHORTLISTED for the Academy Awards in the international feature film category, Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss” capped a record 20 Spanish Academy Goya nominations by scoring best picture and actor for Javier Bardem at Saturday’s Goya prize ceremony.

The prizes marked both Leon and Bardem’s seventh Goya wins. Produced by El Reposado and the Mediapro Studio, and a workplace dramedy skewering the abuse of power practised by a seemingly benign factory owner, “The Good Boss” also won best director and original screenplay, as well as best score and editing.

Blanca Portillo beat out “Parallel Mothers” Oscar-nominated Penélope Cruz, thanks to Portillo’s powerful performance as Maixabel Lasa, the real life widow of former Basque Country governor Juan Mari Jauregui who agreed in 2011 to meet one of his ETA killers. Her forgiveness, and Portillo’s portrait, has touched a large nerve in Spain.

One highlight of the Goya Awards was the newly created International Goya, picked up by Cate Blanchett and presented by Cruz and Pedro Almodóvar, whom she called a “legendary couple.” She also paid tribute to Spanish cinema for having made movies despite the years of pandemic. “I feel proud of what we’ve achieved as a sector. We have to go on creating,” she said.

In other highlights, Jonás Trueba won best documentary for “Quien lo impide,” tracking Spanish adolescents as they grow over the years and already voted by a San Sebastian Spanish critics poll as the best film in last year’s festival competition.

Chelo Loureiro’s “Valentina,” a 3D-2D animated musical, won best animated feature.

The 2022 Goya of Honor went to Spanish actor José Sacristan whose career spans the last 50 years, from milestone titles made during a Spain in transition from dictatorship to democracy, such as “Asignatura Pendiente” and “La Colmena,” to big modern-day Spanish series “Velvet” and “High Seas.”

The 2022 Spanish Academy Awards come after various signs of robust ness in Spanish filmmaking: four Oscar nominations (Bardem, Cruz, composer Alberto Iglesias, animated short producer Alberto Mielgo); two Berlin competition titles (“One Year, One Night,” “Alcarras,”); and resilient box office trawls in Spain of US$4 million-US$3 million for “The Good Boss,” “Maixabel” and “Parallel Mothers.”

(SD-Agencies)