The cinema made by female directors has once again imposed itself as in some categories of the Goya, in the latest editions of international competitions and at the Oscars.
Film awards are fair or unfair, predictable or unpredictable, applauded or whistled. They respond to artistic criteria, although sometimes the commercial issue prevails. There are consensus films and others that achieve important awards against all odds. This year of timid recovery it seemed that ‘El ventre del mar’ could win several awards. Not to be a knockout, because the whole was quite polarized, but to be a significant film at the Gaudí gala. However, Agustí Villaronga’s film has gone empty. The current inertia in relation to films made by female directors has prevailed again, as in some categories of the Goya, in the latest editions of international competitions and at the Oscars. Two female directors have won the four most important Gaudí awards, Neus Ballús for best film and direction for ‘Sis dies corrents’, and Clara Roquet for non-Catalan language film and screenplay for ‘Libertad’. They are two of the Catalan productions with the longest run last year, the first at the Locarno festival and the second at Cannes. And its authors have a hopeful road ahead of them: ‘Libertad’ is Roquet’s first opera and ‘Sis dies corrents’ Ballús’s third feature film, which in 2013 already won the same awards at the Gaudí Awards, best film and direction, for its first film, ‘The Plague’.
There hasn’t been much dispute, since ‘Sis dies corrents’ has also won the prizes for its two actors in the main and secondary categories and the best editing, while ‘Libertad’ has completed the poker game with the Gaudís for best leading actress and photography. ‘The belly of the sea’, ‘The laws of the border’, ‘Three’ and ‘Mediterranean’ have run out of options beyond strictly technical issues. And the rural drama ‘Tros’ and the thriller with fantastic touches ‘Visitante’ seemed from the beginning to be stone guests due to their own atypicality, since they belong to styles and approaches, especially the second -which is pure genre- that are not used to be endorsed in national awards.