J. A. Bayona’s “A Monster Calls” leads Spanish Academy Goya nominations

PanARMENIAN.Net - Juan Antonio Bayona’s “A Monster Calls”, Sigourney Weaver, with a supporting actress nod, and Penelope Cruz, a best actress contender for Fernando Trueba’s “The Queen of Spain,” all figure among nominations for next February’s 31st Spanish Academy Goya Awards, Variety said.

In recognition of the two Spanish directors who have arguably burst onto the scene to largest impact from the turn of the century,“A Monster Calls” and Alberto Rodriguez’s “Smoke & Mirrors” lead nominations for next February’s 31st Spanish Academy Goya Awards.

Announced Wednesday, December 14 in Madrid by actor Javier Camara (“Talk to Her,” “Truman”) and actress Natalia de Molina (“Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed”), the Goya nominations also feature Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta,’ Spain’s foreign-language Oscar submission, which is up for best picture.

Starring Liam Neeson, Weaver and Felicity Jones, Bayona’s coming-of-age fantasy “A Monster Calls” scored 12 category nods; a true-event-based Spanish espionage expose, “Smoke & Mirrors” has scooped 11. Mother-daughter melodrama “Julieta” is up for five awards.

Actor-turned-director Raul Arevalo’s bloody revenge tale “The Fury of a Patient Man,” a Venice Festival hit, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s serial killer procedural “May God Save Us,” a San Sebastian screenplay winner, also vie for best picture. Their nominations serve as further recognition for two original young talents who set violent thrillers in milieux – whether Madrid’s ageing center (“God”) or working class periphery (“Fury”) – little seen in Spanish movies.

Nominated for his slow-boiling performance in ‘The Fury of a Patient Man,” but also talked up by critics for his performance in “May God Save Us,” Antonio de la Torre probably starts as favourite for best actor.

One of five “The Queen of Spain” nominations, Cruz faces staunch competition from Emma Suarez as the star-crossed mother of “Julieta” and Barbara Lennie, a family-bound thirty-something who is still a daughter rather than an adult woman, in Nely Reguera’s “Maria (And the Others),” one of the standout debuts of 2016.

The 31st Spanish Academy Goya Awards take place Feb. 4 in Madrid.