Between Berlinale and the Oscars, is it finally the big moment for Spanish cinema?
msn.comwhen the Oscar nominations were announced this year. Spanish cinema, long lagging behind other European rivals like Italy and France, has finally begun to catch up. Carla Simón’s win in Berlin for ‘Alcarràs’ is proof of that. According to Variety, Cruz is currently in the mix to be the president of the Cannes festival jury, a distinction already granted in 2017 to Pedro Almodóvar, by far the most appreciated Iberian director abroad.
The actress has already won at the Oscars in 2009, but for the American film ‘Vicky Cristina Barcelona’. This time around, if Cruz wins for her role in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Parallel Mothers,’ it would be a 100 per cent Spanish victory.
Cinematic output can be an important form of soft power - just look at the example of South Korea - but Spanish films seem to have lagged behind on the international stage. "Spanish cinema has had a lot of trouble getting through the doors of international festivals," says Pilar Martinez-Vasseur, director of the Nantes Spanish Film Festival.
Spanish films released abroad were often not identified as Spanish, explains Martinez-Vasseur. For example, who knows that psychological horror ‘The Others,’ which starred Nicole Kidman, was directed by Alejandro Amenábar?"In Spain, we still have the idea that Spanish cinema is bad, that it's a nest of communists, that the directors are boosted who do nothing and receive subsidies", laments the director.
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