On 4 February, the Spanish Academy of Cinematic Art and Science awards gala was held. What a mouthful. What if we just call them the Goya Awards? Easier, isn’t it?
Here in Spain we’re used to hearing talk on the radio, in the press and on TV about the Goya Awards being the greatest of honours, given by the Spanish cinema to its most successful representatives each year. But, when you stop and think about it, isn’t it strange that film awards should be named after a painter. Yes, a Spanish painter, but it’s still a bit strange, isn’t it? How do you explain that?
Here’s a clue. If you enjoy watching the Goya Awards, you probably follow the Oscars too. And the César Awards, the Tony Awards, the Bambi Awards, the BAFTA awards, and so on and so forth. You may have noticed that the names of these famous awards all have just two syllables, which is exactly what the Academy, in an effort to keep with the times, hoped to emulate. Short, quick, and easy to remember: a guaranteed success!
But we must thank the Aragonese painter not just for his short name, but also for his “pictorial concept, which was very close to that of cinema, and the almost sequential treatment given to some of his most famous works,” or so says the Academy.
The name has definitely made its mark on the population: there’s not a Spaniard out there who doesn’t know what the Goyas are. At least they didn’t include the painter’s second surname!
