The Gaudí Awards honors four ESCAC graduates
On Sunday January 28, Barcelona held the 10th edition of Gaudí Awards to the best Catalan film productions of 2017. This year, these awards given by Acadèmia del Cinema Català honoured works by four professionals who studied at the University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC), affiliated school of the University of Barcelona. With these awards, ESCAC graduates make up for a total of thirty-three Gaudí Awards over these ten editions.
On Sunday January 28, Barcelona held the 10th edition of Gaudí Awards to the best Catalan film productions of 2017. This year, these awards given by Acadèmia del Cinema Català honoured works by four professionals who studied at the University School of Cinema and Visual Communication of Catalonia (ESCAC), affiliated school of the University of Barcelona. With these awards, ESCAC graduates make up for a total of thirty-three Gaudí Awards over these ten editions.
ESCAC former student Anna Pfaff was given the Gaudí Award to the Best Film Editing for Estiu 1993. The first film of Carla Simón was the star of the night. It obtained three important awards: best film, best direction, and best script, together with the best secondary actress to Bruna Cousí. The next ceremony will be the Goya Awards, to be held on February 3, where Pfaff, together with Dídac Palou, are nominated again for their work in Simonʼs film. This fill gathers a total of eight nominations in this ceremony.
The other former student Laura Ferrés was successful in the Gaudí Awards too, she got the award to the best short film for Los desheredados. This young director (who also signed the script of the film) won the Leica Cine Discovery Prize in the Semaine de la Critique Cannes. Now, Los desheredados continues its journey to Madrid, in which it is nominated in the Goya Awards under the category of the best documentary short film.
Last, graduates Kike Maíllo and Toni Carrizosa (also lecturer at the School) were awarded the special award by the audience for the film they are the producers of: La llamada. Votes from more than 10.000 spectators awarded the film with this new prize. Written and directed by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, La llamada adapts the popular theatre musical that bears the same title, which became a phenomenon in no time: a week ago it got the Feroz award to the best comedy, and is now nominated to five Goya awards.
Six former students of the School, among the nominees
Apart from the awardees, ESCAC got a distinguished presence among the nominees in this tenth edition of the Gaudí Awards: former student and current lecturer Roser Aguilar was nominated to the Best Film Award for the film Brava; Sasha, written and directed by Fèliz Colomer and produced by ESCAC Films, was nominated in the category of best documentary film; Ariadna Ribas was nominated to the best film editing for Júlia ist, and Lluís Rivera, to the best special effects for Proyecto Lázaro. Last, in the category of best short film, two former ESCAC students were nominated for their works: Cunetas, by Pau Teixidor, and The Hopeless, by Belén Funes.
All these Gaudí and Goya awards and nominations are another example of how ESCAC excels in training new talents in the film industry: filmmakers and first level technicians increase the prestige and artistic quality of the Catalan and Spanish cinema.