Denis Ménochet, Goya Award for Best Actor: this is all he did before ‘As bestas’

The jury of the Goya Awards has spoken: the best actor of the year is Denis Menochet. The actor has indicated that it is an “honor” to participate in the Goyas because “there is a lot of love and feminine strength in the face of the madness of men.”

“I’m going to move to Spain because of the love you give me. What luck. Thanks to the colleagues I’ve had in ‘As Bestas, who I admire, and especially Luis Zahera, the best actor in the world”, has stated.

Denis Ménochet, the Frenchman who was the driver of the tennis player McEnroe

Denis Ménochet has done everything in the past. And not only cinematically speaking: he lived in places as diverse as Norway, the United States or Dubai, and from a very young age he learned to make a living, working as a waiter and even as a driver of tennis player John McEnroe, with whom he came to maintain a good relationship of friendship. The jump from being the driver of McEnroe to become an actor came shortly after. His first roles were as sporadic on French television until in 2004 he had his first role, as a bodyguard, in ‘Automne’ (2004).

It was thanks to his portrayal as the police chief in ‘Hannibal, the origin of evil‘ when he began to be better known, and in 2009 he became Perrier LaPadite in ‘Inglourious Basterds’, at the hands of figures such as Bradi Pitt, Christoph Waltz or Michael Fassbender. His LaPadite helped Quentin Tarantino’s take several awards for best cast, such as the Critics Choice Award or the COFCA, among others. His interpretation as Antoine, in ‘As bestas’, already earned him the forqué award, as well as the award Best Actor at the Tokyo International Film Festival by the end of the year. These are some of the best films in which Denis Ménochet has acted:

• ‘As beasts’ (2022)
• ‘Peter von Kant’ (2022)
• ‘The French Chronicle’ (2021)
• ‘Only the beasts’ (2019)
• ‘Thank God’ (2018)
• ‘Joint Custody’ (2017)
• ‘Before losing everything’ (2013)
• ‘In the house’ (2012)
• ‘You adopted them’ (2011)
• ‘Foots on our files’ (2010)
• ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009)
• ‘Life in Pink’ (2007)

Luis Tosar, one of the beasts of Spanish cinema

Two decades ago Luis Tosar collected his first Goya Award. It was in 2003, the award for Best Supporting Actor thanks to his role as José Suárez in ‘Los lunes al sol’, by Fernando Aranoa. He did not take long to repeat and the following year he won the title of leading actor for ‘Te doy mis ojos’, a film with which he also won the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Film Festival that year. In 2009, he picked up another ‘big head’ for his more than brilliant performance in ‘Cell 211’.

Tosar, together with Penélope Cruz, stars in the first work of Juan Diego Botto as director, ‘In the margins‘, a film denouncing the “everyday” drama of evictions. Tosar’s social commitment is not only reflected in his career as an actor, but also in his daily life: he was one of the best-known faces of the Never Again Platform, created to claim responsibility from the Galician Government for the Prestige accident in 2002, which left the Galician coasts stained with tar for years. So committed, that when he received his Goya in 2003, he did not hesitate to throw a dart at the then president, José María Aznar: “If you want oil, you don’t have to go to Iraq, you just have to come to Galicia to pick it up.” These are some of the best films in which Luis Tosar has performed in recent years:

• ‘On the margins’ (2022)
• ‘The Critic’ (2022)
• ‘Maixabel’ (2021)
• ‘Lemon Poppy Seed Bread’ (2021)
• ‘Adu’ (2020)
• ‘While the war lasts’ (2019)
• ‘Who kills iron’ (2019)
• ‘Advantages of traveling by train’ (2019)
• ‘Outdoors’ (2019)
• ‘1898. The Last of the Philippines’ (2016)
• ‘For nothing’ (2015)
• ‘Stranded’ (2013)
• ‘While You Sleep’ (2011)
• ‘Also in the rain’ (2010)
• ‘Cell 2011’ (2009)
• ‘I give you my eyes’ (2003)
• ‘The carpenter’s pencil’ (2003)
• ‘The weakness of the Bolshevik’ (2003)

Nacho Sánchez, from the theater to be nominated in his first film

Born in Ávila in 1992, the career of Nacho Sánchez on the big screen It is not very long, but it is successful. His professional life began in the theater, with works such as ‘La piedra oscura’ (which won him an award for best newcomer actor from the Union of Actors) or ‘Iván y los perros’, for which he won the Max award for best actor becoming the youngest in this category to lift the award. His film debut did not come until 2019, with ‘Seventeen‘, by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, for which he was already nominated for the 2020 Goya for Best New Actor, and for the Union of Actors for Best Supporting Actor.

‘manticore‘ is the film for which Sánchez was nominated this year and also the one that helped him raise his Feroz Awards Wolf only a few weeks ago, but here you can check out some of his other more recent movies:

• ‘Manticore’ (2022)
• ‘It’s dawning’ (2021)
• ‘The art of coming back’ (2020)
• ‘Seventeen’ (2019)
• ‘Tame’ (2018)

Javier Gutiérrez, with several Goyas and an impostor syndrome

Born in Asturias and raised in Galicia, Javier Gutiérrez has a career start like that of many other actors: to study acting he moved to Madrid and it was here where he began in the theater. His jump to the movies took place a little over two decades ago, with ‘The Other Side of the Bed‘ (2002), as well as in other very successful works, but also very humorous. That’s why when moving on to do dramatic roles, the pressure increased. A few years ago he recognized how comedy actors were looked at “through a magnifying glass” when they approached a dramatic character. It was precisely a dramatic role, that of a police officer in ‘The minimal island’ (2009)the one that gave him his first Goya award, to receive the second three years later, with ‘El autor’.

And despite that, Gutiérrez has never left him the impostor syndrome. Or rather, the pressure of not knowing when your success will come to an end. Before last year’s Goya Awards, in which he was also nominated, he acknowledged living with “that sword of Damocles on the telephone”, with that pressure of “not knowing when it rings or when it will stop ringing”. “And the moment when the phone stops ringing will come“, his partner and also nominated in 2022 Luis Tosar agreed with him. Despite that fear, Javier Gutiérrez has participated in lots of hit moviessome of which are the following:

• ‘Model 77’ (2022)
• ‘Civil War Cantata’ (2021)
• ‘The case of the untouchables’ (2019)
• ‘Champions’ (2018)
• ‘During the storm’ (2018)
• ‘The author’ (2017)
• ‘1898. The Last of the Philippines’ (2016)
• ‘The Olive Tree’ (2016)
• ‘Truman’ (2015)
• ‘The Unknown’ (2015)
• ‘The minimal island’ (2014)
• ‘The order of things’ (2010)
• ‘A franc, 14 pesetas’ (2006)
• ‘Football Days’ (2003)

Miguel Herrán, actor by chance and the youngest of the candidates

Born in 1996, he is, by four years, the youngest of the five candidates for best leading actor at the Goya Awards. Even so, it is not his first appearance at these awards: in 2016 he won his first ‘stubborn’ as best new actor for ‘In exchange for nothing’. Although his face has been one of the most recognizable in Spanish series that have gone around the world such as ‘La casa de papel’ or ‘Elite’, in its first seasons, he also wears something more than five years in the world of cinema, since that first incursion by the hand of Daniel Guzmán. In fact, he himself has recounted on several occasions that his relationship with acting was the result of “chance”.

Chance led him to raise his ‘cabezón’ in 2016, but also to win the RTVE Andalusian Talent Award and the San Pancracio for that performance. Now, He is nominated again for his role in ‘Modelo 77‘, where he coincides with Gutiérrez in the recreation of the prison of the Barcelona Model in the seventies. These are some of the best movies in which Miguel Herrán acts:

• ‘Model 77’ (2022)
• ‘Up to the sky’ (2020)
• ‘Time After’ (2018)
• ‘The invisible guardian’ (2017)
• ‘1989. The Last of the Philippines’ (2016)
• ‘In Exchange for Nothing’ (2015)