‘El Niño’, hot favourite to win at the Gaudí Awards, the Catalan Oscars

Barcelona (ACN).- The Academy of Catalan Cinema has released on Tuesday the nominees for the 7 Gaudí Awards, the main annual prizes of Catalonia’s cinema industry. The awards recognise the work of Catalan productions or co-productions. ‘El Niño’, by Daniel Monzón, tops the ranking with 15 nominations, including Best Non-Catalan Language Film, Best Director and Best Script. However, the movie is nominated twice in two categories (Best Actor and Best Secondary Actor), so it could only win 13 awards at the most. It is followed by ‘Stella Cadente’ by Lluís Miñarro, with 13 nominations; ‘[REC] 4: Apocalipsis’ by Jaume Balagueró, with 9; and ‘10,000 KM’ by Carlos Marques-Marcet, and ‘Rastres de Sándal’ by Maria Ripoll, both of which have received 8 nominations. The 4 nominees for Best European Film are ‘Ida’ by Pawel Pawlikowski (Poland); ‘La grande bellezza’ by Paolo Sorrentino (Italy); ‘La isla mínima’ by Alberto Rodríguez (Spain); and ‘Magical Girl’ by Carlos Vermut (Spain). The awards ceremony will take place in Barcelona on 1 February. On Tuesday, the Academy’s President, Isona Passola, stated that 2015 is “the consolidation” of the Gaudí Awards, named after the famous Catalan Art-Nouveau architect. Passola recognised that these types of awards are carried out in order “to search for audience” for the films and she regretted that Catalan cinema has yet to find its audience. “Catalan cinema has to better connect with its potential audience” and these awards are a way to promote the movies made in Catalonia or by Catalan artists, she added. In 2010, Passola produced a Catalan film that was nominated at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Movie.

The nominees for Best Film (in Catalan language) are 'Born' by Claudio Zulian; 'L'altra frontera' by André Cruz; 'Rastres de Sàndal' by Maria Ripoll; and 'Stella Cadente' by Lluís Miñarro. The nominees for Best Non-Catalan Language Film are: '10,000 KM' by Carlos Marques-Marcet; 'El Niño' by Daniel Monzón; 'Hermosa Juventud' by Jaime Rosales; and  '[REC] 4. Apocalipsis' by Jaume Balagueró.

Carlos Marques-Marcet for '10,000 KM'; Daniel Monzón for 'El Niño'; Jaime Rosales for 'Hermosa juventud'; and Lluís Miñarro for 'Stella Cadente'; are nominated for Best Director. The Best Script will go to either Carlos Marques-Marcet and Clara Roquet for '10,000 KM'; Daniel Monzón and Jorge Guerricaechevarría for 'El Niño'; Jaime Rosales and Enric Rufas for 'Hermosa juventud'; or Lluís Miñarro and Sergi Belbel for 'Stella Cadente'.

The nominees for Best Leading Actress are: Aina Clotet for her role in 'Rastres de sàndal'; Bárbara Lennie for 'Stella Cadente'; Ingrid García-Jonsson for 'Hermosa juventud'; and Natalia Tena for '10,000 KM'. The Best Leading Actor Award will go to one of the following: Àlex Brendemühl for his part in 'Stella Cadente'; David Verdaguer for '10,000 KM'; Jesús Castro for 'El Niño' or Luis Tosar, also for 'El Niño'.

The nominees for Best Documentary Film are: 'Bugarach' by Ventura Durall, Sergi Cameron and Salvador Sunyer; 'Els anys salvatges' also by Ventura Durall; 'Gabor' by Sebastián Alfie; and 'I will be murdered (Demà moriré)' by Justin Webster. 'Els caps de drap a la selva de l'arc de Sant Martí' by Àlex Colls and 'Mortadel·lo i Filemó contra en Jimmy el Catxondo' by Javier Fesser are the only two nominees for Best Animated Film. The Best TV Film Award will go to: 'Descalç sobre la terra vermella' by Oriol Ferrer; 'L'últim ball de Carmen Amaya' by Judith Colell; 'Prim: el asesinato de la calle del Turco' by Miguel Bardem; or 'Vicenç Ferrer' by Agustí Crespi.

This year 27 productions are nominated in 22 different categories. In total, 78 productions have run for the awards, 38 of which are feature films: 10 are in Catalan Language, 16 were produced or co-produced by Catalan companies but are not in Catalan, 10 are European films and 2 are animated films. Besides this, 17 documentary films competed, as well as 6 TV movies, 10 pre-selected short films and 7 other movies containing Catalan talent.