Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” Earns 17 Goya Awards Nominations, Including Best Director

Everything Goya-inggreat for Alejandro Amenábar

The nominations for the 2020 Goya Awards have been announced, with the 47-year-old  Spanish-Chilean film director’s “While at War” leading the pack of nominees for Spain’s version of the Academy Awards.

Alejandro Amenábar

Amenábar’s historical drama While at War, which follows revered author Miguel de Unamuno as he decides to publicly support the Spanish coup of July 1936, eventually heading to Francisco Franco’s palace to ask for clemency, earned a whopping 17 nominations, including best film, director, screenplay and five acting nominations.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and also played at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Following closely behind was three-time Goya Award winner Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory with 16 nominations including best film, director and acting nominations for its leads Antonio Banderas, who has an honorary Goya to his credit, and Penelope Cruz, a three-time Goya winner. 

Pain and Gloryplayed in competition at the Cannes Film Festival this year and has since grossed $35m globally.

Alongside those two frontrunners, drama The Endless Touch, which premiered at San Sebastian film festival this year, picked up 15 nominations, including a nod for best film and best director for its trio of helmers Aitor ArregiJon Garaño, and Jose Mari Goenaga.

Also up for best film are Benito Zambrano’s Outdoor and Oliver Laxe’s What Burns. Laxe is also nominated for best director.

The 2020 Goyas will take place on January 25 in Malaga. 

Here’s a look at this year’s nominees:

BEST FILM
“Pain and Glory” (Pedro Almodóvar)
“Out in the Open” (Benito Zambrano)
“The Endless Trench” (Aitor Arregui, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga)
“Fire Will Come” (Oliver Laxe)
“While at War” (Alejandro Amenábar)

DIRECTOR
Pedro Almodóvar (“Pain and Glory”)
Aitor Arregui, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga (“The Endless Trench”)
Oliver Laxe (“Fire Will Come”)
Alejandro Amenábar (“While at War”)

NEW DIRECTOR
Salvador Simó (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”)
Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia (“The Platform”)
Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”)
Aritz Moreno (“Advantages of Traveling by Train”)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Pedro Almodóvar (“Pain and Glory”)
David Desola and Pedro Rivero (“The Platform”)
Jose Mari Goenaga and Luiso Berdejo (“The Endless Trench”)
Alejandro Amenábar and Alejandro Hernández (“While at War”)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eligio Montero and Salvador Simó (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”)
Benito Zambrano, Daniel Remón and Pablo Remón (“Out in the Open”)
Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“Mother”)
Javier Gullón (“Advantages of Traveling by Train”)

ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz (“Pain and Glory”)
Greta Fernández (“A Thief’s Daughter”)
Belén Cuesta (“The Endless Trench”)
Marta Nieto (“Mother”)

ACTOR
Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”)
Antonio de la Torre (“The Endless Trench”)
Karra Elejalde (“While at War”)
Luis Tosar (“Eye for an Eye”)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mona Martínez (“Adiós”)
Natalia de Molina (“Adiós”)
Julieta Serrano (“Pain and Glory”)
Nathalie Poza (“While at War”)

SUPORTING ACTOR
Asier Etxeandia and Leonardo Sbaraglia (“Pain and Glory”)
Luis Callejo (“Out in the Open”)
Eduard Fernández (“While at War”)

NEW ACTRESS
Pilar Gómez (“Adiós”)
Carmen Arrufat (“The Innocence”)
Benedicta Sánchez (“Fire Will Come”)
Ainhoa Santamaría (“While at War”)

NEW ACTOR
Nacho Sánchez (“Seventeen”)
Vicente Vergara (“The Endless Trench”)
Santi Prego (“While at War”)
Enric Auquer (“Eye for an Eye”)

ANIMATED FEATURE
“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles” (Salvador Simó)
“Elcano & Magallanes: First Trip Around the World” (Ángel Alonso)
“Klaus” (Sergio Pablos)

DOCUMENTARY
“Ara Malikian: una vida entre las cuerdas” (Nata Moreno)
“Aute retrato” (Gaizka Urresti)
“El cuadro e Historias de nuestro cine” (Ana Pérez-Lorente, Antonio Resines)

EUROPEAN FILM
“Border” (Ali Abbasi, Sweden, Denmark)
“Les Misérables,” (Ladj Ly, France)
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire” (Céline Sciamma, France)
“Yesterday” (Danny Boyle, U.K.)

IBEROAMERICAN FILM
“Araña” (Andrés Wood, Chile)
“The Awakening of the Ants” (Antonella Sudasassi, Costa Rica)
“Heroic Losers” (Sebastián Borensztein, Argentina)
“Monos” (Alejandro Landes, Colombia)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
José Luis Alcaine (“Pain and Glory”)
Javi Agirre Erauso (“The Endless Trench”)
Mauro Herce (“Fire Will Come”)
Álex Catalán (“While at War”)

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Toni Novella (“Pain and Glory”)
Manolo Limón (“Out in the Open”)
Ander Sistiaga (“The Endless Trench”)
Carla Pérez de Albéniz (“While at War”)

ORIGINAL MUSIC
Arturo Cardelús (“Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles”)
Alberto Iglesias (“Pain and Glory”)
Pascal Gaigne (“The Endless Trench”)
Alejandro Amenábar (“While at War”)

ORIGINAL SONG
Intemperie by Javier Ruibal (“Out in the Open”)
Invisible by Caroline Pennell,Jussi Ilmari Karvinen (Jussifer),Justin Tranter (“Klaus”)
Allí en la arena by Toni M. Mir (“The Innocence”)
Nana de las dos lunas by Sergio de la Puente (“La noche de las dos lunas”)

EDITING
Teresa Font (“Pain and Glory”)
Laurent Dufreche, Raúl López (“The Endless Trench”)
Carolina Martínez Urbina (“While at War”)
Alberto del Campo (“Mother”)

SOUND
Sergio Bürmann, Pelayo Gutiérrez, Marc Orts (“Pain and Glory”)
Iñaki Díez, Alazne Ameztoy, Xanti Salvador, Nacho Royo-Villanova )“The Endless Trench”)
Aitor Berenguer, Gabriel Gutiérrez (“While at War”)
David Machado, Gabriel Gutiérrez, Yasmina Praderas (“Eye for an Eye”)

ART DIRECTION
Antxón Gómez (“Pain and Glory”)
Pepe Domínguez (“The Endless Trench”)
Juan Pedro de Gaspar (“While at War”)
Mikel Serrano (“Advantages of Traveling by Train”)

COSTUME DESIGN
Paola Torres (“Pain and Glory”)
Lourdes Fuentes, Saioa Lara (“The Endless Trench”)
Sonia Grande (“While at War”)
Alberto Valcárcel (“Paradise Hills”)

HAIR AND MAKEUP
Ana Lozano, Sergio Pérez Berbel, Montse Ribé (“Pain and Glory”)
Yolanda Piña, Félix Terrero, Nacho Díaz (“The Endless Trench”)
Ana López-Puigcerver, Belén López-Puigcerver, Nacho Díaz (“While at War”)
Karmele Soler, Olga Cruz (“Advantages of Traveling by Train”)

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Mario Campoy, Iñaki Madariaga (“The Platform”)
Jon Serrano, David Heras (“The Endless Trench”)
Raúl Romanillos, Juanma Nogales (“While at War”)
Juan Ramón Molina, Félix Bergés (“Perdiendo el Este”)

FICTION SHORT
“El nadador” (Pablo Barce)
“Foreigner” (Carlos Violadé Guerrero)
“Maras” (Salvador Calvo)
Suc de Síndria (Irene Moray)
Xiao Xian (Jiajie Yu)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
“2001 Sparks in the Dark” (Pedro González Bermúdez)
“El infierno” (Raúl de la Fuente)
“The European Dream: Serbia” (Jaime Alekos)
“Our Life as Refugee Children in Europe” (Silvia Venegas)

ANIMATED SHORT
“El árbol de las almas perdidas,” (Laura Zamora Cabeza)
“Homomaquia” (David Fidalgo Omil)
“Madrid 2120” (José Luís Quirós, Paco Sáez)
“Muedra” (César Díaz Meléndez)

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