Spanish short films tulla, of Beatriz de Silva; we vote, of Santiago Requejo; Plastic Killerby José Pozo, and The treatment, by Álvaro Carmona, have entered the pre-selection of the Hollywood Academy for the Oscar for best fiction short film. Four of the 15 films that have passed the screening are, therefore, Spanish, in a category that Spain has never won. Yes in animation: in the last edition, Alberto Mielgo won the award for best animated short for The Windshield Wiper (The windshield wiper). Mielgo was the second Spanish animator to compete for the animated short Oscar, after Javier Recio (for The lady and death in 2010), and the ninth Spanish short filmmaker to compete at the Hollywood Awards. He thus became the first to win it. The nominees for the 95th edition of the awards will be announced on January 24, and the awards ceremony will be held in Los Angeles on March 12.
The quartet that has passed the screening is not at all similar to each other, which confirms the great variety and quality of Spanish cinema in this format: in previous editions, today popular filmmakers were candidates: Juan Carlos Fresnadillo (handcuffs), Javier Fesser (Binta and the great idea), Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Mother), Nacho Vigalondo (7:35 in the morning), Juanjo Gimenez (Timecode), Stephen Crespo (That was not me) and Borja Cobeaga (We were few).
‘Tula’, by Beatriz de Silva
tulla It has not entered the Goya, but in September it won the award for best foreign production at the Lady Filmmakers competition in Los Angeles, and thus began its path to the Oscars. The short starring Tamara Berbés (as Tula) and Eider González (the girl he talks to in the bathrooms) was filmed in the old seminary in Vitoria, UNED headquarters, last April. The action takes place in those toilets, where a school cleaner and the daughter of the center’s director cross paths. It is De Silva’s first film as a director, in which she has chosen bathrooms because “in the female universe, bathrooms play a very important role. And even more so when it comes to school bathrooms. They are places of confidences, discoveries, intimacies, shame, refuges, camaraderie”, she recounted in one of the presentations of the film.
‘We voted’, by Santiago Requejo
“If you found out that a person with mental illness was going to be your neighbor and you could avoid it, what would you do?” That was the question that inspired the short film we votedirected by Santiago Requejo, who was a candidate in his category in the last edition of the Goya, and was exclusively on the EL PAÍS website during the month of January. The story begins with a neighborhood meeting, in which they will vote on the change of elevator. But what starts out as just another meeting will end up becoming an unexpected debate that puts the taboo surrounding mental health problems on the table. Behind the script is a true story: that of a patient who was denied the rent of an apartment by an owner due to pressure from the neighbors. Requejo heard his testimony from a group of mental health professionals. “When I heard that story I was left in shock”, he commented in his presentation on the EL PAÍS website. “Then I began to reflect on what I would do in that situation, if I were just another neighbor, and I came to the self-revelation that I would have done the same. I felt pretty bad because until then I considered myself a tolerant, consistent and open person. But it was clear that it was not, at least with this subject.
‘Plastic Killer’, by José Pozo
For Plastic Killer, the filmmaker José Pozo has included José Mota, Laura Gómez-Lacueva and Elisabet Terri. Amparo de Dios (Laura Gómez-Lacueva) lives in an old abandoned family haberdashery in the center of Madrid with the only company of Carmela, a plastic bag that she considers her daughter. Nancy Guerrera (Elisabet Terri) is the director of an NGO that fights against the use of plastics. As Amparo’s neighbor, Nancy reproaches her for living illegally in the warehouse, and for using that plastic bag to go shopping. Amparo, seeing her daughter’s existence in danger, threatens the ecologist with death. Days later, a police inspector (José Mota) visits Amparo with the intention of finding out what happened to Nancy, whose body was found brutally beaten in a nearby park. The policeman suffers from three rare diseases: Tourette’s syndrome, cataplexy and narcolepsy. The short can be seen on Movistar+, and Pozo is a veteran of the industry: he has directed the animated films El Cid, the legend (2003), winner of the Goya for best animated feature, and Donkey Xote (2007), fiction feature films nick (2014) and 73′ (2018) and the short films Clodette and this Plastic Killerwhich is also a pilot for a possible series.
‘The treatment’, by Álvaro Carmona
The treatment, from Alvaro Carmona, It is the fourth in contention, and the one with the longest run, since it was released in 2019. It is available on Filmin, and it is a black comedy set in a clinic that offers everything that any client has always wanted at a reasonable price, and to which a man and his wife go to solve the problem that is giving him a complex. Carmona is responsible for the series People talking, which was nominated for an Emmy, and that can be seen on Flooxer.
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