Latin America took home two of the main awards at the 33rd edition of the Goya Awards, Spain’s main national annual film awards presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences: Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma was the winner of the Best Latin American Film Award, while Uruguay’s Álvaro Brechner was the winner of the Best Adapted Screenplay Award for A Twelve-Year Night / La noche de 12 años.
Roma is only the third Mexican film to win the Goya Award for Best Latin American Film in the 33rd editions of the awards, after Luis Alcoriza’s Lo que importa es vivir (1987) and Jorge Fon’s Midaq Alley (1995). Producers Nicolás Celis and Gabriela Rodríguez received the Goya Award in representation of Cuarón—who was in Los Angeles attending the DGA Awards, where he won the top honors—.In his acceptance speech, Celis thanked actresses Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira and concluded with a “¡Viva México!.”
Writer-director Brechner accepted the Goya Award for Best Screenplay, becoming the first win of an Uruguayan film in a non-Latin American Film category. His film A Twelve-Year Night, was also nominated for Best Latin American Film. Set in one autumn night in 1973 when Uruguay was governed by a military dictatorship, the film follows three Tupamaro prisoners who are taken from their jail cells in a secret military operation. The order is precise: "As we can't kill them, let's drive them mad." The three men will remain in solitary confinement for twelve years. Among them is Pepe Mujica, who years later would become president of Uruguay.
The winners of the 33rd edition of the Goya Awards were announced at a ceremony in Seville.
