García-Gallardo responds that “culture is not from the left” after Pedro Almodóvar's criticism on the Goya | Goya Awards | Cinema | EUROtoday

Juan García-Gallardo performed a secondary position throughout a lot of the Goya Awards gala, held on Saturday in Valladolid, after in search of prominence within the earlier one. The vice chairman of Castilla y León, from Vox, attacked the movie sector within the days earlier than the ceremony by calling the filmmakers “gentlemen,” whom he accused of dwelling off subsidies. The senior official acquired some particular response through the awards ceremony till, on the finish of the gala, Pedro Almodóvar, worldwide totem of Spanish cinema, charged in opposition to him: “I'm going to tell you the obvious: the money that we filmmakers receive as an advance We return it more than to the State.” Gallardo responded this Sunday morning, through X (previously Twitter)attacking the “progressive consensus” and stating that “culture is not left-wing.”

The senior regional official listened impassively to Almodóvar's phrases, who acquired an in depth ovation from these current on the Valladolid Trade Fair. Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, his associate on the Board for the PP, additionally applauded, a celebration whom García-Gallardo has identified in a big Sunday thread of messages on social networks: “Culture is not from the left. The PP gave it to them, but it is not theirs. And within the film industry there are many more people than you think waiting for a widening of the cultural space so that everyone can fit in.” Gallardo has begun his proclamations justifying his presence on the assembly with the “duty of institutional representation.” And additionally, he added: “Basically because I didn't feel like giving that space one more year to the progressive consensus.” This is the primary version of the Goya to which a consultant of Vox attends, though solely he appeared and never different Valladolid councilors or officers of the Executive of Castilla y León.

The vice chairman has defined his celebration's place in the direction of cultural creation with a number of allusions to nationwide productions and limiting his speech to the financial, although Almodóvar influenced the financial contribution, direct and oblique, of Spanish cinema: “What happens There are people who call anything 'culture'. There are films that cost a fortune and do not contribute anything: neither for entertainment nor for social value.” The politician has requested to not examine The Snow Society, winner on this version, the The others, “great films from the Spanish film industry”, with titles “that practically no one has gone to see, that do not contribute anything new, but that we have all paid for.”

This purely financial criterion contrasts with the powers that he holds as vice chairman of Castilla y León, a division that allocates 1.2 million euros in personnel bills to handle a 112,000-euro finances. The veteran actor José Sacristán made a veiled reference to Gallardo when at one level through the gala he spoke like this: “Responding to the comments of some undocumented immigrants, the films, all of them, are part of the cultural heritage of this country, whether or not they have enjoyed the favor of the public”. The Ministry of Culture estimated in 2021 that the Spanish audiovisual sector contributed 0.71% of GDP and invoiced about 8.4 billion euros annually, in addition to an indirect impact that is difficult to calculate.

The Oscar-winning director Pedro Almodóvar spoke almost at the end of the ceremony to refer to García-Gallardo and his comments. “Not many hours ago, a politician who is present in this room spoke of us as the gentlemen who collect subsidies and then make very bad films that no one cares about. One of those gentlemen is talking to you. Well, I'm going to tell this man the obvious: the money that we filmmakers receive as an advance we more than return to the State through our taxes and social security. In addition to creating thousands of jobs,” defined the filmmaker.

The reproaches of Almodóvar and Sacristán at the gala were joined in the preludes to the same by messages such as that of Javier Calvo, co-presenter of the event, quoting a phrase from the late LGTBI activist Pedro Zerolo: “In my world you do fit, but I Not in yours.” The name of the night, Juan Antonio Bayona, refused to give more publicity to attacks like Gallardo's: “We mustn’t give publicity to such uninteresting feedback as a result of they cloud the controversy, what we’ve got to battle for is a critical debate.” The filmmaker Isabel Coixet denied being classified as a “young lady” and stressed that everything she has achieved has been achieved with her own efforts: “I come from the working class.” The actor Enric Auquer pointed out that if Vox has finally attended the ceremony, that means that he should stop calling Spanish cinema “subsidized.”

The senior official at Vox has admitted that the “criterion of economic profitability” should not be the only one when assessing support for a film project, but he has cited the short 27 minutes, about the murder of a civil guard and his partner at the hands of ETA in 1979. Gallardo thus expresses that “there are deficient films that are worthwhile or have a social utility.” And he added that “cinema is a software of social communication and movies of every kind needs to be made”, but he clarified that “making the umpteenth movie about Franco or about I don't know what group, I don't suppose it needs to be a precedence, there being so many points.” and so many stories unknown to the general public.” Mañueco's partner has given the film as an example of “independent cinema”. Spain, the first globalizationby José Luis López Linares.