IF YOU'RE in the Comunidad Valenciana any time between now and the early hours of March 20, you may notice an awful lot of noise and colour on the streets. It's the season for the region's biggest festival,...
Almodóvar's English short with Tilda Swinton reaches Oscar semi-finals
11/02/2021
CULT filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's short in English has been confirmed as one of the semi-finalists for the forthcoming Oscar Awards – the second year on the trot that the prolific director has reached this stage in the running for the world's most coveted silver-screen prizes.
For the 2020 Oscars, Almódovar's semi-autobiographical Dolor y Gloria ('Pain and Glory') earned Málaga-born Hollywood regular Antonio Banderas his first-ever nomination, but despite his career spanning nearly four decades, Dakota Johnson's stepdad and Melanie Griffith's ex-husband has yet to take home one of these prestigious statuettes.
After last year's nomination in the Best International Film category, the 2021 awards has the off-the-wall screenwriter gunning for Best Short Film for his 30-minute The Human Voice, based on a short story by Les Enfants Terribles author Jean Cocteau, and scripted entirely in English.
Its only speaking part is that of a woman on the phone to her ex-lover for the last time, sitting on his packed suitcases in the home she now lives alone in with her dog – who is distressed as he cannot understand why one of his owners has left him – and we learn that the man never comes back for his cases, and his ex-girlfriend has only left the house once in the three days since his departure, to buy an axe and a vat of petrol.
She is played by British-Australian actress Tilda Swinton, now 60 – the great-great-granddaughter of Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour, a Cambridge graduate and school friend of the late Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, who is married to German-New Zealander Sandro Kopp, an artist famous in the Scottish Highlands – with whom Almodóvar, 71, hit it off straight away, describing her as 'open and intelligent' and 'exactly as he imagined her to be'.
And Cocteau's La Voix Humaine has been inspiring the Castilla-La Mancha-born director for decades: Regular 'Almodóvar Girl' Carmen Maura emulated the story in his 1987 film La Ley del Deseo ('The Law of Desire'), whilst his inspiration for the melodramatic, flamboyant comedy of 1988, Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios ('Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown') came from it.
Almodóvar already has two Oscars, for the 1999 tragi-comedy starring Cecilia Roth and Penélope Cruz, Todo Sobre Mi Madre ('All About My Mother'), and his near-the-knuckle but somehow romantic Hable Con Ella ('Talk To Her') from 2002.
Every year, 10 candidates for each category of the Oscars are chosen and will compete for the final nominations, which, this year, will be announced on March 15.
The Best Short Film category had 174 candidates, and The Human Voice is one of the 10 that beat the remaining 164.
It was released in October last year, after having been filmed in July, when Spain was only just gradually coming out of a long spring lockdown.
Another Spanish film had been selected out of three national candidates as a pre-nominee, but has not made it to the semi-finals.
La Trinchera Infinita ('The Infinite Trench') was one of 93 aspiring for the title of Best International Film after being picked out from the previous selection made; a total of 15 have made the cut and gone through to the semi-finals, but this has not included the Civil War drama directed by Basque scriptwriters Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga.
La Trinchera Infinita, which won a Best Actress and a Best Soundtrack Goya and 15 nominations last year, is based upon the true story of Manuel Cortés, mayor of Mijas (Málaga province), who was scared of being shot by dictator General Franco's firing squad – a very real threat for anyone, civilians included, who expressed their disagreement with the régime or its leader – and who went into 'lockdown' when war broke out in 1936.
Just like the main character of La Trinchera Infinita, Higinio – played by Antonio de la Torre – Cortés did not leave his house again until 1969, a total of 33 years behind closed doors, which he only emerged from six years before the tyrannical leader's death.
A decade ago, Cortés' unusual tale became the focus of a television documentary, 30 Años de Oscuridad ('30 Years of Darkness').
In the film adaptation, nationally-famous actress Belén Cuesta plays Higinio's wife, a rôle that earned her a Best Actress Goya, beating Penélope Cruz, who had been nominated for the same category after playing the main character's mother during his childhood in Dolor y Gloria.
Three Spanish-language films remain in the running for the Best International category at the Oscars, although none of them from Spain: Ya No Estoy Aquí ('I'm No Longer Here'), from México; El Agente Topo ('Agent Topo'), from Chile, and La Llorona ('The Cry-Baby'), from Guatemala.
The 2021 Oscar Awards will take place on April 25, although to what extent – if at all – they will be 'in person' rather than online is yet to be determined and will depend upon the pandemic situation.
Related Topics
CULT filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar's short in English has been confirmed as one of the semi-finalists for the forthcoming Oscar Awards – the second year on the trot that the prolific director has reached this stage in the running for the world's most coveted silver-screen prizes.
For the 2020 Oscars, Almódovar's semi-autobiographical Dolor y Gloria ('Pain and Glory') earned Málaga-born Hollywood regular Antonio Banderas his first-ever nomination, but despite his career spanning nearly four decades, Dakota Johnson's stepdad and Melanie Griffith's ex-husband has yet to take home one of these prestigious statuettes.
After last year's nomination in the Best International Film category, the 2021 awards has the off-the-wall screenwriter gunning for Best Short Film for his 30-minute The Human Voice, based on a short story by Les Enfants Terribles author Jean Cocteau, and scripted entirely in English.
Its only speaking part is that of a woman on the phone to her ex-lover for the last time, sitting on his packed suitcases in the home she now lives alone in with her dog – who is distressed as he cannot understand why one of his owners has left him – and we learn that the man never comes back for his cases, and his ex-girlfriend has only left the house once in the three days since his departure, to buy an axe and a vat of petrol.
She is played by British-Australian actress Tilda Swinton, now 60 – the great-great-granddaughter of Scottish botanist John Hutton Balfour, a Cambridge graduate and school friend of the late Lady Diana Spencer, Princess of Wales, who is married to German-New Zealander Sandro Kopp, an artist famous in the Scottish Highlands – with whom Almodóvar, 71, hit it off straight away, describing her as 'open and intelligent' and 'exactly as he imagined her to be'.
And Cocteau's La Voix Humaine has been inspiring the Castilla-La Mancha-born director for decades: Regular 'Almodóvar Girl' Carmen Maura emulated the story in his 1987 film La Ley del Deseo ('The Law of Desire'), whilst his inspiration for the melodramatic, flamboyant comedy of 1988, Mujeres al Borde de un Ataque de Nervios ('Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown') came from it.
Almodóvar already has two Oscars, for the 1999 tragi-comedy starring Cecilia Roth and Penélope Cruz, Todo Sobre Mi Madre ('All About My Mother'), and his near-the-knuckle but somehow romantic Hable Con Ella ('Talk To Her') from 2002.
Every year, 10 candidates for each category of the Oscars are chosen and will compete for the final nominations, which, this year, will be announced on March 15.
The Best Short Film category had 174 candidates, and The Human Voice is one of the 10 that beat the remaining 164.
It was released in October last year, after having been filmed in July, when Spain was only just gradually coming out of a long spring lockdown.
Another Spanish film had been selected out of three national candidates as a pre-nominee, but has not made it to the semi-finals.
La Trinchera Infinita ('The Infinite Trench') was one of 93 aspiring for the title of Best International Film after being picked out from the previous selection made; a total of 15 have made the cut and gone through to the semi-finals, but this has not included the Civil War drama directed by Basque scriptwriters Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga.
La Trinchera Infinita, which won a Best Actress and a Best Soundtrack Goya and 15 nominations last year, is based upon the true story of Manuel Cortés, mayor of Mijas (Málaga province), who was scared of being shot by dictator General Franco's firing squad – a very real threat for anyone, civilians included, who expressed their disagreement with the régime or its leader – and who went into 'lockdown' when war broke out in 1936.
Just like the main character of La Trinchera Infinita, Higinio – played by Antonio de la Torre – Cortés did not leave his house again until 1969, a total of 33 years behind closed doors, which he only emerged from six years before the tyrannical leader's death.
A decade ago, Cortés' unusual tale became the focus of a television documentary, 30 Años de Oscuridad ('30 Years of Darkness').
In the film adaptation, nationally-famous actress Belén Cuesta plays Higinio's wife, a rôle that earned her a Best Actress Goya, beating Penélope Cruz, who had been nominated for the same category after playing the main character's mother during his childhood in Dolor y Gloria.
Three Spanish-language films remain in the running for the Best International category at the Oscars, although none of them from Spain: Ya No Estoy Aquí ('I'm No Longer Here'), from México; El Agente Topo ('Agent Topo'), from Chile, and La Llorona ('The Cry-Baby'), from Guatemala.
The 2021 Oscar Awards will take place on April 25, although to what extent – if at all – they will be 'in person' rather than online is yet to be determined and will depend upon the pandemic situation.
Related Topics
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