awards

The series, produced by the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster and Filmax, has been exported to several countries and Steven Spielberg and Marta Kauffman are going to shoot a remake for the ABC network. ‘Polseres vermelles’ – which literally means ‘red bracelets’ in Catalan - describes the life of a group of six teenagers who live in a hospital as patients. It is based on the personal experiences of its creator, Albert Espinosa, who had cancer as a child. The first season was aired in 2011 and it became a huge success with audiences. The second season premiered on Thursday and will be broadcast as from Monday on TV3 at prime time.

‘Blancanieves’ with 12 nominations and ‘El Bosc’ with 11 are leading the race at this year’s Gaudí awards ceremony. They are followed by ‘Els nens salvatges’ and ‘Fènix 11-23’, who are also candidates for the Best Film in Catalan. The Premis Gaudí are organised by the Catalan Cinema Academy and they recognise Catalan productions or movies with a significant presence of Catalan artistic and technical staff. They also award a prize for European productions. Out of the 89 films in the competition, 30 have received one or several nominations, becoming candidates to receive one of the 22 awards. ‘The Impossible’, ‘In The House’, ‘Le Havre’ and ‘The Intouchables’ are candidates for the Best European Movie.

Mientras duermes’ (‘While you sleep’), filmed by Catalan Jaume Balagueró, was the winner of the night, with 6 awards. The hot favourite ‘Eva’, by Catalan director Kike Maíllo, followed it with 5 prizes. Catalan filmmaker Pere Portabella was given the Honorific Gaudí award for his cinematographic career.

Barça wins “the Oscars of sports”. FC Barcelona beat out the Dallas Mavericks, the Red Bull Formula 1 team, the All Blacks, the English national cricket side and the Japanese women’s national football side to win the Laureus World Team of the Year award. Messi and Abidal were also nominated. This award, which gives FC Barcelona worldwide recognition, will be added to FC Barcelona’s athletic and social achievements.

‘Eva’, by Catalan director Kike Maíllo and casting German-Catalan actor Daniel Brühl, is the hot favourite after receiving 16 nominations. The Gaudí Awards gather directors, actors, producers and other leading names from the filmmaking world from Catalonia, Spain and worldwide. A total of 29 productions have been nominated, within 22 categories.

Woody Allen’s ‘Midnight in Paris’ produced by the Catalan company Mediapro and the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster, has been nominated for Best Movie, Best Director, Best Art Direction and Best Adapted Script and has already won a Golden Globe. The film ‘Chico y Rita’ has been nominated Best Animated Feature. The movie was developed in the Catalan capital by Barcelona-based Javier Mariscal. However, the Catalan film ‘Pa Negre' has not been nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

‘Black Bread’ (‘Pa Negre’), which was shot in Catalan, will represent Spain at the Oscars. Literature Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa, chef Ferran Adrià, soccer player Gerard Piqué, tenor Josep Carreras, artist Miquel Barceló, filmmaker Isabel Coixet, chef José Andrés, psychiatrist Luis Rojas Marcos and dancer Rafael Amargo are some of the celebrities who have participated in a video sponsoring the film in its quest to win an Oscar nomination. The film depicts the horrible period after the Spanish Civil War through the experiences of a young boy living in rural Catalonia.

In an historical decision, the Catalan Academy of Cinema chose a movie entirely in Catalan to represent Spain at the Oscars awards. ‘Pa negre’ (‘Black bread’) was the absolute winner of the last awards of the Spanish Academy awards, surprising everyone. However, the fact of it being in Catalan and that the movie competed with Almodóvar’s ‘The Skin I Live In’ made it difficult to predict if the movie was to finally represent Spain at the world’s top awards.

‘Pa negre’ (Black Bread), directed by Agustí Villaronga and shot entirely in Catalan, was the main winner of the last Spanish film awards surprising everyone. Now it has been pre-selected together with Pedro Almodóvar’s latest movie ‘La piel que habito’ ('The Skin I Live In') and Benito Zambrano’s ‘La voz dormida’ (The Sleeping Voice). The film that will represent Spain will be known on September 28th.

The European Clubs Association has singled out Barça for its success both on and off the pitch in 2011. Awards are presented in recognition of good results, the encouragement of a healthy attitude towards sport, good business practice and strong connections between members

‘Barcelona Activa’ is Barcelona City Council’s agency for local development. Its main activities are promoting business and employment creation. ‘Barcelona Activa’ wins the Grand Jury Prize of the 2011 European Enterprise Awards, organised by the European Commission, the European Presidency and the Committee of the Regions.

The Catalan coastal town was nominated in the “Government” category of Twitter’s “Shorty Awards”. The Mayor of Newmark, Coory Booker won in this category. Vilassar de Mar was third, just behind Barack Obama’s Twitter.

The Town Hall’s twitter is a finalist in the ‘Best Government’ category in the third edition of the US-based Shorty-awards. @vilassardemar is the only European site nominated.

The Japanese writer wins the 23rd edition of Catalonia’s top award. Other winners have included Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Claude Lévi-Strauss and Harold Bloom, among others.

The Catalan movie 'Pa Negre', directed by Agustí Villaronga and filmed entirely in Catalan, is a huge hit at the Goya Awards taking home 9 awards out of 14 nominations, including the awards for the best film, the best director, and 4 of the 6 acting awards. The movie pictures the dark years after the Spanish Civil War in Catalonia.