As announced in a prior post, Marco, the Invented Truth was released in November 2024. Back then I pointed out that the film had been very well received at the Venice International Film Festival, where it was nominated for Best Film. Additionally, Eduard Fernández’s performance in the role of Marco was highly praised. Today’s post is to say that Eduard Fernández has won the Best Leading Actor Award at the Goya Awards for his role in Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño’s true-life tale of Enric Marco.
The 39th edition of the Goya Awards of the Spanish Film Academy, which were held at the city of Granada, had no clear favourites, as there were two films leading the way: El 47 by Marcel Barrena, which had racked up 14 nominations, and La infiltrada by Arantxa Echeverría, which followed closely with 13 nominations. As a matter of fact, there was an unexpected tie, as these two titles shared the Best Film prize. Eduard Fernández, for his part, was the betting favourite at -200 odds to win the Best Leading Actor Award. There were no surprises.
This Goya makes Goya No 4 for the Catalan actor, which means that he is one of the actors that has the most Goyas in the acting categories of all times. Javier Bardem is the only actor who has surpassed a significant award milestone: he has won six Goyas.
After expressing gratitude for the award, Eduard Fernández took the opportunity to address important points concerning current politics. He warned about the “dangers of fascism, the danger of ambiguous hand gestures”, which several media have interpreted as being a direct reference to Elon Musk (Roces 2025; Juesas 2025). In his speech, which is available in full here, he also pointed out that Marco was a “contradictory, hateful, manipulative babbler, but also a charming figure”, whose life story should be used to remember “the high number of Spaniards who were imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps”.
References:
Roces, Pablo R. “Eduard Fernández gana el Goya a mejor actor protagonista y acecha el trono de Javier Bardem: “No hay que olvidar el peligro del fascismo y de un saludo ambiguo”. El Mundo. Available at: https://www.elmundo.es/cultura/premios-goya/2025/02/09/67a7f60cfdddff4ea88b4580.html
Related News:
Juesas, María. 2025. “Eduard Fernández lanza un impactante aviso y provoca una sonora ovación en los Premios Goya: “Cuidado, que vienen a caballo”. Fotogramas. Available at: https://www.fotogramas.es/premios-goya/a63719280/eduard-fernandez-premios-goya-mejor-actor-principal-marco-discurso-aviso-alerta/
Pilar, Samuel. 2024. “https://www.rtve.es/noticias/20250209/eduard-fernandez-gana-goya-a-mejor-actor-por-marco/16435786.shtml”. RTVE. Available at: https://elpais.com/cultura/2024-08-31/todas-las-mentiras-de-enric-marco-el-falso-superviviente-del-horror-nazi-reviven-en-el-festival-de-venecia.html
