The #metoo of Spanish cinema at the center of its annual high mass

(Valladolid) The Goya ceremony, the annual high mass of Spanish cinema, dedicated the film on Saturday The Snow Circleat a time when the sector is shaken by accusations of sexual violence against a figure of independent cinema.

Directed by Juan Antonio Bayona (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, The Impossible), the feature film, which received the prize for best film and best director, traces the odyssey of the young players of an amateur Uruguayan rugby team, whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972 while on their way to Chile.

The ceremony, which also awarded the prize for best European film to the French film Anatomy of a fall and an honorary award to American actress Sigourney Weaver, was marked by the sex scandal affecting Spain.

“It is urgent that we all demand guarantees of equality, and this requires the condemnation of all abuses and sexual violence,” declared at the opening the actress and singer Ana Belén who presented this Spanish equivalent of the French Césars , organized this year in Valladolid (north-west).

“Here too at the cinema, it’s over,” she proclaimed in a nod to the slogan #SeAcabo (“it’s over”) which marked support for footballer Jenni Hermoso after the forced kiss of former Spanish football boss Luis Rubiales.

“Sexual violence and abuse of power have no place in the world of cinema and in Spanish society,” insisted the Spanish Cinema Academy, which put this subject at the center of the gala.

Assuring the victims of her “solidarity”, she also promised to establish a “protocol” to prevent this violence.

“We must be aware that we are talking about structural violence which requires the commitment of all,” underlined Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, on the red carpet of the ceremony.

On the eve of the gala, Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun announced the creation of a unit specializing in the care of victims of sexist violence in the cultural sector.

During a press conference, Sigourney Weaver said she was “sorry” about the affair shaking Spanish cinema. “My heart goes out to women,” added the American star. According to her, “it is women speaking out about this situation and this abuse that makes work safer for all women in this industry.”

This #metoo of Spanish cinema broke out at the end of January with the publication of a daily investigation El País in which three women accused filmmaker Carlos Vermut of sexual violence.

A figure of independent cinema, Carlos Vermut, whose real name is Carlos López del Rey, won the most prestigious prize at the San Sebastian festival in 2014, a major event for Spanish-speaking cinema, for his second feature film, Magical Girl (The Girl of Fire), critically acclaimed.

The accusations against him caused a wave of indignation in Spain, a country at the forefront in the fight against gender violence.

Vermut stated in El País not being “aware of having carried out sexual violence on a woman”, but admitted to having “strangled people, but in a consensual manner”.

In the wake of this affair, another Spanish director, Armando Ravelo, was accused by an artist of having “incited” her to have sexual relations when she was only 14 years old.

Since the start of the #metoo movement in 2017, figures from the world of cinema have been accused of sexual violence in many countries, like in France the actor Gérard Depardieu or the filmmakers Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, against whom actress Judith Godrèche filed a complaint.