Spain Culture News
Cruz Yes, Almodóvar No, in the Oscar nominations
By h.b. - Jan 23, 2007 - 4:08 PM
email this article
|
Penélope Cruz is among the final list of five nominations for Best Actress in the forthcoming 79th edition of the Oscars.
She thus becomes the first ever Spaniard to be nominated in the category, for her role in Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Volver’. The film itself has not made the last five of the Best Foreign Language Film this time round.
This year there is only one American in the Best Actress nominations, Meryl Streep. All the rest, with the exception of Cruz, are British – Helen Mirren, Kate Winslet and Judi Dench.
Cruz follows in the footsteps of Javier Bardem, the Spanish actor who was nominated in 2001 for his role playing Reinaldo Arenas in ‘Antes que anochezca’ – the Oscar that year going to Russel Crowe that year for ‘Gladiator’. The favourite in the Best Actress category this year is considered to be Helen Mirren, after her win in the Golden Globes.
The winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globes, Clint Eastward’s ‘Letters From Iwo Jima’ is nominated in the main Best Film category at the Oscars.
The Mexican film, although with mostly Spanish actors, ‘El Laberinto del Fauno’, directed by Guillermo del Toro, is nominated as Best Foreign Language Film.
There are also two Spanish made shorts in the final nominations this year. ‘Eramos Pocos’ is presented by B.Cobeaga, and Javier Fesser who’s work is already well known in Spain for his Internet short films, is nominated for ‘Binta y la gran idea’.