[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziex4QPTBw0[/youtube]
The Spanish public station TVE's telecast of the 2010 Goya Awards ceremony on Sunday night reached the Goyas' largest TV audience ever. On average, approximately 4.65 million people watched Daniel Monzón’s prison drama Cell 211 win eight trophies; more than 14.7 million people — or about one third of the Spanish population — watched at least part of the awards ceremony hosted by entertainer Andreu Buenafuente.
The previous Goya telecast record holder was the 2005 ceremony, when 3.72 million people watched the show. That year, Pedro Almodóvar's Bad Education lost most of the top awards to Alejandro Amenábar's The Sea Inside. Amenábar was also in the running this year for the historical drama Agora, but the film's seven wins were mostly in the technical categories. Almodóvar's Broken Embraces was in the running as well, but won only one Goya, for Alberto Iglesias' score.
It's unclear why this year's ceremony led to such a major upsurge in interest, though the fact that Agora was Spain's biggest domestic hit in 2009 and Cell 211 was #3 surely didn't hurt. Also definitely not hurting was the presence of Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem together at a film function for — reportedly — the first time. Cruz was also in the running for Broken Embraces, but she lost the Best Actress Goya to her former Volver co-star Lola Dueñas for Me Too.
"I’m here because you have a very persistent president — very persistent," surprise presenter Almodóvar, who quit the Spanish Academy in 2005, said referring to fellow filmmaker Álex de la Iglesia (wearing glasses and laughing in the clip above). "He pestered me until two days ago. … And I had a lot of excuses, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer." Almodóvar went on to explain he felt it would have been awkward if he were waiting in the wings and his Broken Embraces screenplay was announced the winner. But de la Iglesia put his fears to rest by assuring him, "Pedro, you're not going to win."
Unfortunately, my Spanish sucks. And Almodóvar makes James Cagney sound like a slow talker. Audience members, facing no such language hurdles, were clearly enjoying themselves. Something else I did get: Almodóvar explains that de la Iglesia finally convinced him to present the Goya for Best Film by saying, "You don't like this ceremony, but in about three weeks you'll be in Hollywood presenting the best foreign language film Oscar." Almodóvar didn't know how to respond to that. "And so, here I am." And the 2010 Goyas were all the better for it.
In addition to Bardem, Cruz, and Almodóvar, 2010 Goya Award presenters included Fernando Guillén, Cayetana Guillén Cuervo, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Ana Belén, Óscar Jaenada, Aitana Sánchez Gijón, Daniel Brühl, Belén Rueda, Eduardo Noriega, Marisa Paredes, Juan Diego Botto, and Paz Vega.