Los Domingos, the latest feature from Alauda Ruiz De Azúa, leads this year’s Goya Award nominations.
Los Domingos debuted at last year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, where it won the top prize. Shot in De Azúa’s native Bilbao, the film follows the story of Ainara, an intelligent 17-year-old who is trying to decide what to study at university. However, the young woman begins to feel a calling from God and decides to embrace the life of a cloistered nun. The news takes her entire family by surprise, creating a chasm and putting everyone to the test.
We spoke with De Azúa about the film ahead of San Sebastian in 2025. You can read that interview here.
Trailing Los Domingos is Oliver Laxe’s Sirât, which landed 11 noms. The film debuted at Cannes last year, where it won the Jury Prize, and has become a surprise awards season frontrunner. The film is Spain’s submission for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. The film follows a father and his son who arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco. They are searching for Mar — their daughter and sister — who vanished months ago at one of these endless, sleepless parties.
Other standout titles in this year’s noms are Maspalomas (9), La cena (8), Sorda, El cautivo, and Los Tigres have 7 each. Carla Simon’s Romería landed 6 nominations, including Best Director.
The Best Director category also features Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, for Los Domingos, Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, for Maspalomas, Oliver Laxe, for Sirât, and Albert Serra, for Afternoons of Solitude.
In the Best New Director category are Ion de Sosa, for Balearic, Jaume Claret Muxart, for Estrany Riu, Gemma Blasco for La furia, Gerard Oms for Muy lejos, and Eva Libertad for Sorda.
The 2026 Goya Awards take place on February 28.