The Academy was founded in 1986 to promote the Spanish film industry and support its professionals. A year later, the Academy instituted the Goya Awards to reward the best Spanish films of the year and encourage Spanish filmmakers. The inaugural Goya Awards ceremony was held on March 17, 1987 at the Lope de Vega Theatre in Madrid.
At the inaugural ceremony, awards were presented in 15 categories. Voyage to Nowhere, written, starred and directed by Fernando Fernán Gómez, won three Goya Awards in the categories Best Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. The winners received small bronze busts of Francisco Goya made by the sculptor Miguel Ortiz Berrocal. The next year, José Luis Fernández created new statuettes that have been presented every year since.
The Goya Awards are currently presented in 28 categories, plus the Honorary Goya Award. They include Best Film, Best Director, Best Leading Actor, Best Leading Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Adapted Screenplay, etc. Although the Goya Awards are first and foremost Spain’s national film awards, there are two awards presented to films made outside of Spain: the Goya Award for Best European Film and the Goya Award for Best Iberoamerican Film, formerly known as the Goya Award for Best Spanish-Language Foreign Film.
Since the inception of the Goya Awards, four films have won 10 or more awards: Marshland by Alberto Rodríguez (10 wins), Blancanieves by Pablo Berger (10 wins), ¡Ay Carmela! by Carlos Saura (13 wins), and The Sea Inside by Alejandro Amenábar (14 wins). Three films have won the “Big Five” (Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay): ¡Ay Carmela!, The Sea Inside, and Take My Eyes by Icíar Bollaín.
Several times, the Goya Awards ceremony was used as a political platform. For example, at the 2003 event, many film professionals expressed their opposition to the Spanish government’s support of the United States invasion of Iraq.
Photo: Marino Scandurra
