Los Angeles : Fernando Leon de Aranoa’s Oscar-shortlisted ‘The Good Boss’ and Argentine Netflix series ‘The Kingdom’ proved the main winners at the 9th Platino Awards, which also prized Javier Bardem for his lead performance in Leon de Aranoa’s workplace comedy. Already scoring an Oscar nomination, Penelope Cruz won an Audience Award for Pedro Almodovar’s ‘Parallel Mothers’ at the Platinos, the biggest kudocast for movies and series from Latin America, Spain and Portugal whose ceremony was held at Madrid’s IFEMA Palacio Municipal on Sunday night, reports ‘Variety’. In all, ‘The Good Boss’ walked off with best film, director, screenplay and actor (Bardem), original music (Zeltia Montes) and editing (Vanessa Marimbert), adding new honours to a feature which cleaned up at February’s Spanish Academy Goya Awards, taking six major nods from a Goya record of 20 nominations. Starring Bardem in one of the main achievements of his career, ‘The Good Boss’ is a darkly humoured depiction of a seemingly benevolent but finally sinister patron as well as workplace power dynamics.
The feature was also shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the international feature film category. A production of Reposado PC and The Mediapro Studio, in association with MK2, the film reunites the key talent behind ‘Mondays in the Sun’. New York-based Cohen Media Group has all US rights. The eight-episode series, Netflix’s ‘The Kingdom’, is produced by Argentina’s K&S Films and created by screenwriter Claudia Pineiro. The show took series, series creator and supporting actor in a series. Chino Darin, Nancy Duplaa and Furriel star in a psychological thriller which kids off with an Argentine presidential candidate being murdered only to be replaced by the leader of an evangelist church. The series has topped Netflix charts in Argentina. A second season is in production. Hailed by Variety as Almodovar’s best movie since ‘All About My Mother’, ‘Parallel Mothers’ took three official prizes. Aitana Sanchez-Gijon scooped supporting actress. Original music and art direction prizes went to regular Almodovar collaborators Alberto Iglesias and Antxon Gomez respectively.
Almodovar’s feature also scored best picture and actress (Penelope Cruz) Audience Awards. A coming-of-age thriller set against the background of the malambo dance culture on the Argentine-Peru border, Juan Pablo Felix’s ‘Karnawal’ won first feature. Edson Sidonie’s Buenos Aires-based Bikini Films lead produces. Jose Zelada’s ‘Ainbo: Spirit of the Amazon’, a Peru-US-Netherlands production walked off with animated feature. Sold by Edward Noeltner’s Cinema Management Group, the feature has grossed $12 million at the global box office, despite being released in theatres during the pandemic. Best documentary went to a 2021 Berlinale Panorama Audience Award winner, Luis Bolognesi’s ‘The Last Forest’, a depiction of illegal mining on the lands of the Yanomami, an indigenous people living in the Brazil-Venezuela border rainforest. The Honorary Platino Award was won by Carmen Maura, the legendary star of breakthrough Almodovar titles, ‘Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown’, ‘What Have I Done to Deserve This?’, who went on to build a career in France, winning a Cesar for her performance in Philippe Le Guay’s ‘The Women on the 6th Floor’.The Platino Awards are promoted by Madrid-based Egeda, the biggest rights collection society in the Spanish-speaking world, and the Federation of Ibero-American Film and Audiovisual Producers (Fipca).