Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s third film claims the festival’s top award, along with the FIPRESCI Prize and the Irizar Award for Basque Cinema, consolidating the strength of Spanish cinema in a gala marked by the condemnation of the genocide in Gaza.
By Jorge Alonso Curiel
HoyLunes – Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s third feature film (Baracaldo, Vizcaya, 1978), “Los Domingos”, was the great winner of the night at the awards gala of the 73rd edition of the San Sebastián International Film Festival (Zinemaldia), held last Saturday, September 27, at the Kursaal. In addition to the Best Film Award, it also received the FIPRESCI Prize (awarded by the international critics) and the Irizar Award for Basque Cinema.
An intimate, profound and human film, with a screenplay also written by the filmmaker and starring Blanca Soroa, Patricia López Arnáiz and Miguel Garcés, it confirms the talent and sensitivity for addressing everyday issues that Ruiz de Azúa had already demonstrated in her debut feature “Cinco Lobitos” (2022). The story portrays the crisis of a 17-year-old girl who decides to devote herself to religious life and the conflict and incomprehension it provokes within her close environment.
The jury, presided over by filmmaker J.A. Bayona, highlighted the sensitivity with which faith, existential doubt and its repercussions on the family are portrayed.
As the third Spanish film to win the Golden Shell in the last three years (O corno by Jaione Camborda in 2023, and “Tardes de Soledad” by Albert Serra in 2024), it confirms the strong momentum of Spanish cinema.
“If I love cinema, it is because it allows us to look from another perspective, to look differently, to try to understand something that is foreign to us,” said the director upon receiving the award, referring to the protagonist’s decision in the film, although without intending to legitimize it, in a clear attempt for cinema to be “a space for encounter, reflection and debate”.
“Los Domingos”, whose theatrical release in Spain, with wide distribution, will take place next Friday, October 24, is thus gaining ground in the race for next year’s awards, including the Goya Awards, whose ceremony will be held on February 28, 2026, in Barcelona.
Other award-winning films in the Palmarés:
Special Jury Prize: Historias del buen valle, by José Luis Guerín.
Silver Shell for Best Director: Joachim Lafosse (Belgium, 1975) for Seis días de primavera.
Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance (ex aequo): José Ramón Soroiz for “Maspalomas”, and Zhao Xiachong for *Her Heart Beats in Its Cage.
Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance: Camila Plaate for “Belén”.
Best Screenplay: Joachim Lafosse, Cloé Duponchelle and Paul Ismaël for Seis días de primavera.
Audience Award: La Voz de Hind, by Kaouter Ben Hania.
Horizontes Latinos: Un Poeta, by Simón Mesa Soto.
New Directors: Vaegtloes, by Emilie Thalund.
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