In a historic first, the 39th Goya Awards, Spain‘s equivalent to the Oscars, came down to a photo finish on Saturday night, with two films – Marcel Barrena’s true-life drama El 47, and the thriller Undercover (La Infiltrada) from Arantxa Echevarría sharing the top prize for best film.
El 47, the story of the bus driver who helped create modern Barcelona, led the Goyas going into the event, which was held in Granada, with 16 nominations. It ended up with five trophies, including both supporting acting honours for Salva Reina and Clara Segura. Carolina Yuste took the best actress for Undercover, where she plays a police officer who infiltrates the ETA terrorist group.
The Spanish Academy’s Goya ceremony also saw Richard Gere – who won the International Award – lashing out at US President Donald Trump (see below).
Pedro Almodóvar won best-adapted screenplay and best cinematography (Eduard Grau), despite not being nominated for best picture for his first English-language feature film, The Room Next Door.
‘In The Room Next Door, John Turturro’s character warns Julianne Moore at a meal that there is nothing that can accelerate the end of the planet more than the survival of the level of neoliberalism and the rise of the extreme right. And here we have both of them walking side by side, sooner or later, and I fear it will be sooner. This is going down the drain,’ Almodóvar said in a message read out at the ceremony by brother Agustin Amodóvar.
Eduard Fernández won best actor not for his leading role in El 47, but for his leading role in Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño’s Marco, the true-life tale of Enric Marco, a Spanish trade unionist who falsely claimed to be a concentration camp survivor.
Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez won the best director for Saturn Return, a 1990s-set biopic of Spanish indie rock band Los Planetas.
Jacques Audiard’s Spanish-language musical Emilia Pérez won the one Goya it was nominated for (also see below), taking the prize for best European film. As a French production, the feature, up for 13 Oscars this year, did not qualify in the other Goya categories.
The complete list of the Goya winners is also below.
Richard Gere – Donald Trump
Meanwhile Hollywood star Richard Gere called US President Donald Trump a ‘bully’ and a ‘thug’ during the awards ceremony, and said the United States was in a ‘very dark place’.
The 75-year-old, who received an International Goya Award, warned that authoritarianism is on the rise ‘everywhere’.
‘We’re in a very dark place in America, where we have a bully, a thug, who’s the president of the United States. But it’s not just in the US, it’s everywhere,’ he said. ‘Authoritarianism takes us all over.’
The Pretty Woman and American Gigolo actor had also been highly critical of Trump during a press conference in Granada on Friday.
During Saturday’s gala, Spanish actor Antonio Banderas presented Gere with the honorary award for ‘his extraordinary contribution to the art of filmmaking’ and his social commitment to various causes, including the plight of refugees and the homeless. ALSO READ: Richard Gere joins migrant rescue ship, EU president calls for ‘urgent action’.
During his speech, Gere warned of the ‘dark marriage’ of power and money ‘like we’ve never seen before’.
‘The fact that these irresponsible and perhaps dangerously corrosive billionaires are running everything in America right now is a danger for everyone on this planet,’ he said.
Gere is also a longtime champion of Tibet who has met frequently with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader Beijing accuses of fomenting separatism in the Himalayan region.
Last year, Gere and his Spanish wife, the publicist Alejandra Silva, 41, moved to Madrid with their two sons.
#Goya2025 | Richard Gere hace referencia a Donald Trump en su discurso tras recibir el Goya Internacional: “Vengo de América, que está en un lugar muy oscuro, donde un matón es el presidente, pero no solo pasa en Estados Unidos”
▶https://t.co/5mixL3aoYM pic.twitter.com/D9I83pQfmk
— RTVE Noticias (@rtvenoticias) February 8, 2025
Emilia Pérez wins Best European Film award
The Narco-musical Emilia Pérez won the Best European Film award, after social media posts by the movie’s star had prompted backlash in the middle of awards season. ALSO READ: Netflix drops Spanish star of ‘Emilia Pérez’ from Oscar campaign after offensive tweets.
The mostly Spanish-language musical tells the story of a Mexican drug cartel boss who transitions to life as a woman and turns her back on crime.
Before the scandal broke, the film picked up four Golden Globes in January and won multiple prizes at last year’s Cannes Film Festival. It has also received 13 Oscar nominations, a record number for a foreign-language film.
But old social media posts by star Karla Sofía Gascón, in which she denigrates Islam, China and African American George Floyd, unleashed a scandal that has harmed her reputation and the film’s chances of Oscar glory.
Voting for the Goya Awards had closed on 24 January, days before the posts were unearthed and began recirculating.
At the ceremony in Granada, Emilia Pérez beat out British-Polish film The Zone of Interest, Latvia’s Flow, Italy’s La Chimera and France’s The Count of Monte Cristo.
Gascón, who lives near Madrid, did not attend the event, and the award was collected by executives from Netflix, the film’s distributor.
The complete list of 2025 Goya Awards winners
- Best Film – El 47 and La Infiltrada (ex aequo)
- Best Direction – Isaki Lacuesta, Pol Rodríguez for Saturn Return
- Best New Director –Javier Macipe for The Blue Star
- Best Leading Actor – Eduard Fernández for Marco
- Best Leading Actress – Carolina Yuste for La Infiltrada
- Best Supporting Actor – Salva Reina for El 47
- Best Supporting Actress – Clara Segura for El 47
- Best New Actor – Pepe Lorente for The Blue Star
- Best New Actress – Laura Weissmahr for Salve Maria
- Best Original Screenplay – Eduard Sola for A House on Fire
- Best Adapted Screenplay – Pedro Almodovar for The Room Next Door
- Best Original Music – Alberto Iglesias for The Room Next Door
- Best Original Song – Antón Álvarez, La Tania and Yerai Cortés for “Los Almendros” from La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés
- Best Production Direction – Carlos Apolinario for El 47
- Best Cinematography – Edu Grau for The Room Next Door
- Best Editing – Javi Frutos for Saturn Return
- Best Art Direction – Javier Alvariño for La Virgen Roja
- Best Costume Design – Arantxa Ezquerro for La Virgen Roja
- Best Makeup and Hair – Karmele Soler, Sergio Pérez Berbel, Nacho Díaz for Marco
- Best Sound – Coque F. Lahera, Álex F Capilla, Nacho Royo-Villanova for La Virgen Roja
- Best Special Effects – Laura Canals, Iván López Hernández for El 47
- Best Animated Film – César Zelada, David Baute, Edmon Roch, Marc Sabé for Mariposas Negras
- Best Documentary Film – Antón Álvarez, Cristina Trenas, Santos Bacana for La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés
- Best Ibero-American Film – I’m Still Here, Brasil
- Best European Film – Emilia Pérez, France
- Best Fiction Short Film – Àlex Lora for La gran obra
- Best Documentary Short Film – Carlos Valle, Néstor López for Semillas de Kivu
- Best Animated Short Film – Carlos Fernández de Vigo for Cafunè
- International Goya – Richard Gere
- Honorary Goya – Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
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