Or ‘Sirat’ or ‘Sundays’. There is no more. This year there is no third in contention at the Goya, an ‘Alcarràs’ or ‘Second Prize’ that could surprise. That should be the magnificent ‘Romería’, but no. Despite being nominated for direction, screenplay and performances, the film was left out of the five finalists. Well, very good. Obviously neither ‘Maspalomas’ nor ‘Sorda’ nor, of course, ‘La cena’ have anything to do.
As we did last year, we recommend other nominated films that have gone more unnoticed but are very worthwhile. And, searching through the different categories, every year we find more or less hidden gems: ‘Salve María’, ‘Upon Entry’, ‘La vida era eso’, ‘My Mexican Bretzel’…
The Turtles (Belén Funes)
Best Screenplay, Best Direction and Silver Winner at the Malaga Festival; unanimity of positive reviews in the press (except Boyero); a director, Belén Funes, with a Goya for Best New Director for ‘The Daughter of a Thief’ and responsible for one of the best Spanish series of 2022, ‘La ruta’. How do you explain, then, that almost no one has gone to see ‘Los Tortuga’ (it is in 72nd place among Spanish premieres according to data from the Ministry of Culture)? Is it because of the title, nice in the context of the film but strange if you don’t know what it’s about? For having two little-known protagonists in Spain: the Chilean Antonia Zegers and the newcomer Elvira Lara, both with Goya nominations and both formidable? Or simply because they have promoted it badly?
‘Los Tortuga’ is a wonderful social and family drama. An intimate and naturalistic approach to the contemporary female working class, crossed by precariousness, grief and the wounds of the past. Funes films family relationships and domestic spaces with extraordinary sensitivity (from the outskirts of Barcelona to the olive groves of Jaén), and constructs a story that avoids underlining and victimhood. There is no sentimentality or chewed morality: there are tired bodies, restrained looks and a dignity that refuses to give up. 8.5.
My friend Eva (Cesc Gay)
If it’s already difficult for a comedy to be nominated for Best Picture, let alone two. 2025 has been the year of ‘The Dinner’ (very weak, a return to the stale comedy of the 90s), which has also done like a shot at the box office (it has been the fifth most viewed Spanish film). But, in my opinion, the best Spanish comedy of last year was ‘My friend Eva’. Surprisingly, they have only nominated the main actress, a fantastic Nora Navas, when the script by Cesc Gay and Eduard Sola, recently awarded at the Gaudí, is wonderful.
After the wonderful ‘Sentimental’ (2020), a film that has generated no less than five remakes (including the recent ‘The Invite’, with Seth Rogen and Penélope Cruz) and the somewhat irregular ‘Stories Not to Tell’ (2022), Cesc Gay once again demonstrates that there are few such brilliant directors in the always slippery terrain of sentimental comedy. ‘My Friend Eva’ starts from a premise that at first glance could seem “romantic” – a 50-year-old woman with a good social position decides to break up her marriage with the sole objective of playing the “game of love” again, but which in the hands of Gay is transformed into a fun, witty and moving story about the crisis of female midlife. 8.
A Portuguese villa (Avelina Prat)
After making her feature film debut with ‘Vasil’ (2022) and after a long career working as a script, Avelina Prat (a trained architect) has revealed herself as one of the most promising directors and screenwriters on the current scene (she is nominated for Best Original Screenplay), as well as an example that age should not be an impediment to starting a new professional career (she debuted when she was already fifty).
In fact, the protagonist of ‘A Portuguese Fifth’ (a fantastic Manolo Solo, nominated for Best Actor, like María de Medeiros, for Supporting Actress) could be understood as a kind of alter ego of the director: a mature university professor who decides to change professions after an event that we will not reveal. The extraordinarily well-written film functions as a delicate fable about second chances. A praise of personal “reinvention”, of leaving everything behind to start again, but not from neoliberal rhetoric (that horrible mantra of “getting out of the comfort zone”), but from a deeply existential perspective. 8.
Strange River (Jaume Claret Muxart)
The Best New Director category is always a good place to go if you want to recover interesting films that have passed through the billboard without pain or glory (another good place is the Feroz Arrebato). ‘Strange River’ belongs to that group of films. Barely ten thousand viewers have seen it, but surely after its recent premiere on platforms, many more will join.
Although the award is going to go to Eva Libertad for ‘Sorda’ (it is one of the most sung), as an exercise in direction, as a debut feature that serves as a letter of introduction for a new director, I find Jaume Claret Muxart’s film much more stimulating. ‘Strange River’, which was presented at the Venice Film Festival, is framed within the naturalistic tradition of French cinema (or that of Carla Simón herself), with touches of the sensitive and mysterious poetics of Apichatpong Weerasethakul. A beautiful tribute to ‘A Summer with Monica’ (1953) that describes the sexual awakening of a boy while he spends the holidays with his family cycling along the Danube. 7.8.
Very far (Gerard Oms)
Another notable debut, also nominated for Best New Director. Gerard Oms began his professional career as an acting coach. And it didn’t go bad. He began working with Mario Casas in ‘You won’t kill’ (2020) and the actor broke it: Goya, Feroz, Gaudí and a general change in perception about his acting talent. With ‘Very Far’, Casas has done it again: nominated for all the awards, including the Goya.
Although Mario’s interpretation, full of nuances, is what stands out most in ‘Very Far’, Oms shows that he not only knows how to direct actors. His film connects the intimate drama with the social drama, the identity crisis with the economic crisis, in an extraordinary way. With the Dardenne brothers’ cinema as the most obvious stylistic influence, relying on a sober staging, with the camera close to the bodies, the director constructs an emotional story of self-discovery that also works as a portrait of immigration and uprooting, of the experience of being a foreigner without resources in the supposedly progressive, but in reality racist and classist, northern Europe. 7.8.
Afternoons of solitude (Albert Serra)
If the votes were consistent, the award for Best Documentary would be a winner. And not only because of its quality. ‘Afternoons of Solitude’ is not only nominated in that category, but Albert Serra has also been nominated for Best Director (curiously, this year there are two Golden Shells competing: this one and ‘Los Domingos’). Now, it is worth remembering that in the second phase of voting the members of the Academy can vote in all categories, so the final result may vary depending on philias and phobias. And of that, precisely, ‘Afternoons of Solitude’ has been plenty this year.
Beyond ideological controversies and how extremely unpleasant it is to see, in my opinion, this brutal and completely anachronistic spectacle, from a strictly cinematographic point of view, ‘Afternoons of Solitude’ is an impressive work. Seen on the big screen, it constitutes an immersive, visual and sound experience, brutal, very different from a television broadcast, where everything is sweetened. Serra places us as spectators inside the ring, face to face with the bull and the bullfighter (no one from the audience appears throughout the film). The result is as spectacular as it is terrifying. 7.5.
