In 2011, the Film Academy prohibited anyone under the age of 16 from receiving an award. The reasons for reaching this decision range from the supposed lack of maturity to be part of the institution to avoiding public exposure.
There are performances on the big screen that are not forgotten. Phrases and looks that go beyond. That convince critics and also viewers. It is then when the name of that actor or actress begins to sound in the bets related to the awards. Especially when the most important event in Spanish cinema approaches, the Goyas. And that is what could have happened to Carla Quílez, the leading actress in the maternal, the latest film by Pilar Palomero. At 14 years old, she was the youngest actress to go up to collect the Silver Shell at the San Sebastián Festival, and a few days ago she took the Gaudí award for best revelation. However, this will not be repeated on February 11 in Seville, because she is not nominated. The reason? Your age.
Since 2011, the Film Academy does not allow anyone under the age of 16 to win any of its prizes. The main reason that established the institution at that time was to protect minors, since when someone receives a Goya, they automatically assume the rights, but also the obligations of all academics. And what are these? As stated in its statutes, one of the most important rights is to vote in the General Assemblies and also in some categories of the Goya Awards such as Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Ibero-American Film or Best Short Film. In addition, your opinion also counts when choosing which film represents Spain at the Hollywood Oscars and at the Ariel Awards of the Mexican Film Academy. Regarding the obligations, it stands out, for example, paying the quotas or respecting the confidentiality of the deliberations and agreements adopted in any type of Assembly or Commission.
Until the rules changed. six children under 16 years of age had received the award, always in the categories of Best New Actor or Actress. The first was Andoni Erburu, with 10 years, for secrets of the heart (1997), and later Juan Jose Ballesta at 12 for The ball (2001). the same age as she was Ivana Baquero when in 2007 he won his for his role in The Pan’s Labyrinth. Two years later, Nerea Camacho received it for his performance in Path by Javier Fesser. The last ones were for Francesc Colomer and Marina Comasthe protagonists of black pa, of the recently deceased Agustín Villaronga. They were taken away in 2011, just the year the new regulations were imposed.
Some of them have moved away from the spotlight. Others are still active, such as Ivana Baquero, who has developed a large part of her career in the United States. “I did not understand the justification of the Academy not to expose children too much, because the moment you are part of a film project of these characteristics you are already exposed”, the actress explained to EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA, from the Prensa Ibérica group. For her it meant recognition of her work. “If you hire a child and they work their hours like any adult, it doesn’t make sense that you can’t value them the same as they do,” he says.
Since he won the Goya, 16 years have passed. During this time she has not stopped working, although her success is not due exclusively to the statuette. “It is a very important platform, but what opened the doors for me was not the award itself, but the film itself. It gives you prestige, but that alone is not enough.” Later, many casting, many ‘no’, and also many ‘yes’. “When you start so young you have multiple careers. First you play children’s roles, then as teenagers where it is already a bit more difficult because there are many physical and emotional changes and you start to feel ashamed. When you are an adult you have to get out of the image of a child actor and show again that you keep working and trying,” he says.
She had not considered being an actress when the seventh art knocked on her door at just 8 years old. “They came to do a casting to my school for the movie Romasanta. the hunt for the beast (2003) by Paco Plaza, I signed up and they took me”, she recalls. That is when the problems with her classmates also began. “That they chose me generated a kind of separation with my classmates, because I was the one who I was going to shoot movies, the one I was missing from class. Over time I gave it a name: it was bullying”. However, she did not consider giving up doing what she liked the most. “It is something that happens sometimes, even in a more serious way, and it is worrying”.
Family and friends, keys
His is not an isolated case. At least that’s what they perceive in the academy First Shot Coach of Madrid, a training center for boys and girls who dream of dedicating themselves to acting. “When these children return to school after a project, instead of receiving them with joy, their classmates receive them with bullying“, Explain Alicia Álvarez, director of the center. This establishment opened its doors in 2013 and during these ten years they have participated in projects such as the trilogy Father there is only one from Santiago Segura, champions (2018) by Javier Fesser or Everybody knows (2018) by Asghar Farhadi.
The main function of a coach is to accompany minors on filming and turn this space, often marked by stress or speed, into a friendly place for them. “We take care that the director gets what he needs from the child, and that he is comfortable working,” he points out. During all this time they have seen how, in many cases, the problems do not come from the productions themselves, but from everything that they entail afterwardsWhen the lights go out “We help children and their families, but it depends a lot on each situation and each child, fame is difficult to manage.”
For this reason, Alvarez shares the decision of the Film Academy not to award prizes to minors. “In a shoot they are taken care of, and in the end they see that everything is important there, there are no differences. But when the border of awards, press conferences and recognitions is crossed, it is much more difficult to contextualize in the mind of a child “, he argues. That is precisely when the problems with the rest of the minors. “When everything ends, they have to go back to their routine, to school, to their extracurricular classes and be one more.”
Because how do you manage fame when you hardly understand the world around you? It is perhaps one of the most complex aspects, as pointed out by Abel Dominguez, child and adolescent psychologist and director of Domínguez Psicólogos. “It is a question of maturity. That is to say, if you succeed early or in your professional beginnings or start to earn money suddenly, you get used to it and take habits that are not always going to be maintained as a reference.”
It is at this point where the reason why a boy or girl has decided to be an actor plays an important role. “You have to contextualize and differentiate between children who want to be actors and those who are pushed by their parents or because they are looking for social success or a leading role. What happens is that there are not many references, and sometimes the ones that exist are those of toys broken and it is normal for parents to get vertigo”, they point out from Primera Toma Coach.
For this reason, the attitude with which they face the different forms of exposure is important. Not only in the media or award galas, but also on social networks, which have changed the paradigm. “They are still an external judgment that can have a lot of emotional impact on these boys and girls,” says the psychologist.
Domínguez shares that from institutions such as the Film Academy will try to control these situations. One way is by avoiding competition for an award that “it can confuse them with respect to creating expectations that may not be met later. And that they would generate significant frustration & rdquor ;, she concludes.
What happens in other contests?
Not in all film competitions it is prohibited for a minor to receive recognition. In it San Sebastian Festival There is no age limit for awarding prizes. For example, one’s own Carla Quilez received in the last edition the silver shelland in 2021 Flora Ofelia Hofmann won best performance for also in heaven with 16 years However, At the Oscars, children can opt for any of the prizes, although it is very unusual for them to be nominated. In fact, it has been more than a decade since a minor has obtained this recognition. It hasn’t always been this way: from 1935 to 1961, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Hollywood awarded actors under the age of 18 the Juvenile Oscar.