2011 Goya Predictions

Ok, so let's try this.

A couple of weeks ago I accidentally came across a book titled How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read, by French author and literature professor Pierre Bayard. As its self-explanatory title indicates, it is an erudite but hilarious guide on how to comment on books you haven't even opened. My Goya Predictions contribution this year is something similar, since I've only seen one of the four Best Picture nominees (Rodrigo Cortés' Buried) and virtually none of the other films in contention for any category. I have, however, a secret weapon that can help me out in this blind guess: the Spanish Academy's dull predictability and its far from opaque inner mechanics.

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BURIED WINS CRITICS' AWARD IN DEAUVILLE

Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child, starring Naomi Watts and Annette Bening, took top honors at the Deauville American Film Festival. The Jury Prize was shared by Debra Garnik's Winter's Bone (winner at Sundance) and David Robert Mitchell's The Myth of the American Sleepover.

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Buried premieres at Sundance

Some cinemagoers queued up last night up to six hours to catch the world premiere of Rodrigo Cortés' second long feature Buried in the Library Center Theater at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and, for those eager for a breathtaking, nail-biting experience, it was worth the wait.

The claustrophobic script by Chris Sparling takes lone onscreen actor Ryan Reynolds, a US contractor working in Iraq, on an agonizing countdown when he wakes up buried in a coffin with a lighter, a cell phone and the daunting task of getting a $5 million ramson or else give in to the fate of pushing Iraqi daisies.

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BURIED to play at SUNDANCE

Rodrigo Cortés' follow-up feature after his critically acclaimed debut film Concursante will make its world premiere at the Sundande Film Festival.

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