Gaudí Awards: 'Alcarràs' and 'Un año, una noche' land most nominations

Catalonia's film awards will be a neck-to-neck contest between movies: 'Alcarràs' and 'Un año, una noche.' Each film has received 14 Gaudí Awards nominations in a ceremony held in Gaudí's 'La Pedrera' building on Wednesday morning.

Carla Simón's 'Alcarràs' will compete against 'El fred que crema' from Santi Trullenque, 'Nosaltres no ens matarem amb pistoles' directed by Maria Ripoll, and 'Suro' by Mikel Gurrea for the Best Catalan Film award.

'Alcarràs' is a tribute to rural life, family farms, and respectful agriculture. It tells the story of the last fruit harvest that a family goes through on their farm, where they have cultivated peaches for generations before leaving the land after the owners decide to install solar panels. 

Much of the film takes place at the family home surrounded by the fields where they work. Here, we see the family gradually come to grips with their new reality. The film took home the Golden Bear, the most prestigious award at the Berlinale International Film Festival earlier this year. 

Elsewhere, 'Un año, una noche', directed by Isaki Lacuesta, has its sights set on Best Non-Catalan Language Film, where it will compete with 'La Maternal' by Pilar Palomero, 'Mantícora' by Carlos Vermut, and 'Pacification,' a movie by Albert Serra. Some of these have also been shortlisted for Best Movie at the Goya Awards.

Lacuesta's feature film is an adaptation of Ramón González's diary 'Paz, amor y death metal.' The book relates the trauma lived by survivor Ramón after attending the concert at the Bataclan theatre in Paris during the terrorist attack in 2015.

The film follows the journey of a couple over the course of the following year, returning via flashbacks to the fateful night in which 90 people died in the theatre.

In a ceremony taking place at Catalonia's National Art Museum on January 22, a total of 27 Catalan productions will be vying for the Catalan Cinema Academy Awards. This year, three new categories have been introduced: Best New Director, Best New Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay. 

The biggest mystery remains on who will be accoladed Best Director at the Gaudí Awards ceremony, as the four nominated have already triumphed in previous editions. Albert Serra, who won in 2008 for 'El cant dels ocells' has been shortlisted for his movie 'Pacification.' Carla Simón, winner back in 2017 with 'Estiu 1993,' will compete with 'Alcarràs,' a movie that won Berlinale's Golden Bear Award and is currently in the race to be nominated as Oscars' Best International Feature Film.

Competing against Serra and Simón, there will be Isaki Lacuesta with 'Un año, una noche,' and Pilar Palomero with 'La Maternal.' While Lacuesta won in 2018 with 'Entre dos aguas,' Palomero was awarded Best Director in her 2020 debut 'Las niñas.'

The 15th edition will also be the third in a row where there are more women, 53%, than men vying for awards, but all of the nominees have something in common, their high quality, as the academy said.

"We all knew 'Alcarràs' would be nominated for Best Catalan Language Film and Best Director, but beyond that, this has been a year where nothing was clear, and I'm really happy we've gotten the nominations," Tono Folguera, 'Alcarràs' producer, told the Catalan News Agency (ACN).

Next steps

Out of the 68 movies that could have been shortlisted, 31 will compete for the Gaudí Awards, as announced by actors Maria Morera and Roger Casajamor during a ceremony at La Pedrera in Barcelona on Wednesday morning. . 

Cinema experts with links to Catalonia's Cinema Academy will vote until January 16 for their favorites, before the awards ceremony next January.

2023 Honorary Gaudí

One award that has already been confirmed is for Jaume Figueras (Barcelona, 1940), who will be honored with the Honorary Gaudí-Miquel Porter Award 2023. 

The academy lauded the former presenter of TV3's Cinema 3 for his contribution to chronicling and disseminating Catalan cinema, saying he "contributed like few others to the generation of cinematographic vocations in the country." 

The group praised Figueras's "free and passionate vision as a programmer and architect of a cinema circuit," without which the School of Barcelona would not have existed.  

What are the Gaudí Awards?

The Gaudí Awards are an annual film ceremony in Catalonia, which began in 2009, having spun off from the Barcelona Awards, which date back to 2002. 

Antoni Gaudí, whom the prize is named after, was a Catalan architect, most famously known for his design of the unfinished Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.

There are 25 award categories, including Best Catalan Film, which requires at least 20% Catalan participation in the production to compete.