‘The Good Patron’, by Fernando León de Aranoa, the film chosen to represent Spain at the 94th edition of the Hollywood Oscars in the Best International Film category, continues in the race for the statuette, as reported this Tuesday by the Academy of Hollywood.
The Spanish film has passed this cut and has been chosen among the 92 films that were submitted to this category, of which 15 have been preselected, among which is Aranoa’s film. The final nominees will be known later with the rest of the nominations and the winners will be announced during the 94th edition of the Oscars, on March 27, 2022.
This is the second time that the Film Academy has chosen a film by the Madrid filmmaker to compete in the Hollywood awards. The first and only time that a film by León de Aranoa had been selected for the Oscars was with ‘Mondays in the Sun’, a work from almost 20 years ago also starring Bardem.
Premiered at the last San Sebastián Festival, ‘The Good Patron’ recovers the most acidic Fernando León with the portrait of an influential provincial businessman willing to do anything to receive an award granted by the regional government. This dark reverse of ‘Mondays in the Sun’, which depicts a Spain in which there are no longer unions or class consciousness, won critical acclaim and has performed well in low-cost cinemas.
Soundtrack of ‘Parallel Mothers’
‘The Good Patron’ is in fact Bardem’s third collaboration with the director of ‘Family’, since the interpreter starred in ‘Mondays in the Sun’ and ‘Loving Pablo’. The film starring Javier Bardem beat the other two shortlisted to represent Spain at the Oscars: ‘Parallel Mothers’, by Pedro Almodóvar; and ‘Mediterranean’, by Marcel Barrena.
Spanish cinema has also managed to be among the first shortlisted for the original music category for the soundtrack of ‘Parallel Mothers’, Pedro Almodóvar’s latest film, directed by composer Alberto Iglesias. The soundtrack by the San Sebastian composer, who has also recently been nominated for the Golden Globes, was selected among the fifteen most voted for that will now compete to achieve the final nomination in February. The academics had to choose from 130 soundtracks.