Goya Awards, Unicorn Wars | “The movie is the same with or without Joya; the interesting thing is to keep working on this”
After a few hours of sleep, the director came out of A Coruña Alberto VasquezYesterday he returned with another Goya Award under his arm – though only metaphorically, because the statuette is not in his home -, the fourth of his career, this time, for Best Animated Feature, Unicorn Wars.
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Was I very nervous?I did what I had to do, which was make the movie and the movie was made and distributed, I did all the promotion, so I did everything I could, at the ceremony, with the award coming up, yeah, you’re going to be a little bit more patient. It was very emotional because the family and people from the team came in and everyone had high expectations.In his thanks, he points out the fact that four years of work on an animated film do not take away from anyone …It was very important for me to say that, because I started this movie five or six years ago, and now I’m starting another one, and if all goes well, it’ll be released in five years. We have a chance every five or six years, if we’re lucky, to take part in some prize, and after that, we still have to win. You have to give it all the value of an award, because Unicorn Wars has competed with very good films as well, some with more resources than ours, which is why it was very nice to win and I’m happy.Was the film at some point in danger, especially when they had already started work and the pandemic arrived with restricted movement and restrictions? The truth is, there was no going back, the pandemic caused production to start and we couldn’t stop. So, we had to do a lot of remote work here and with other studios, we had one in A Coruña, another in Bilbao and two in France, and I couldn’t travel there because it fell on us in the most difficult time of confinement, when we couldn’t leave the house; The movie had to be done with a yes or yes, there was no option to take a year off. It was very hard, because everyone was a little bit more crazy at the time, more affected on a psychological level, and if you add to that the stress of making a movie… it was hard, but everything worked out just fine. Since the movie came out so well and had an impact, winning over Goya is a very nice finishing touch.On a practical level, does winning Joya open more doors for you to promote new projects, or is it just recognition of a job well done? Everything helps, the more stuff you have and the more experience the easier it will be to fund the next movie, plus this prize can help Unicorn Wars be re-released in some theaters or another platform can buy it – currently it can be seen on Movistar + – Which is interesting, because it can give you more visibility because in Spain, the awards that people know and follow are Goyas and Oscars, so an award like this puts you back in the market. Although it is also true that winning a Joya does not guarantee that you will work more, there are people who won it and then don’t make more films. Everything helps, but it’s not the only thing.What is that moment that almost crosses the screen, because Goya’s party, as a fan, would have seen it so much, and yesterday, it was the protagonist? Although this was not his first time.It affects a lot too, because in the end, it’s my fourth Goya win and my sixth, and it’s not the same as the first, and it’s the one that makes you more excited, now you’re already thinking that if you win, good, but if you don’t win, that’s good Also because the movie is the same with or without an award, it doesn’t get better because it won a Goya award.Knowing he was able to continue working when he won Goya and when he didn’t, I suppose also gives him peace of mind.its just. The interesting thing about awards is being able to keep working on this. And about the ceremony, it’s long, and our prize is the fifth for the finalist, so they’ve already delivered more than two dozen before. It’s a long time to spend over three hours waiting to see if they give you the prize. Once they say that, I am already very happy for myself, for the film and for all the people who worked with such enthusiasm on it. In that moment, you feel the emotions through other people, because so much happiness around you is contagious.
How many professionals have worked on Unicorn Wars? In the end, about 250 people, yeah it’s true that not all the time and not all of them at the same time. There was a hard core of about sixty people who were there the whole time and after that, they went in and out according to the phases. Animation is an art in which you can tell stories but it’s also an industry that creates jobs, like other industries, and you have to see it that way too, as a sector that generates a lot of jobs, and it’s research-oriented. New things. It is a sector that is constantly growing and that also has a lot to do with the video game industry, it is a sector that must be promoted and helped.How much is the budget for this project? Three million euros. Animation is very expensive because we have been working in offices for two and a half or three years, about seventy or eighty people and that means paying salaries, computers, buildings and electricity, and there are many expenses … It’s just that sixty salaries is the amount of a lot of money, that’s why Fewer animated films are being produced, because it is more difficult to finance and more difficult to make, because a fantasy film is shot in a month, but our filming takes two and a half years, and that is why it costs more, although people do not know.So, the next movie is already in the works…We are in the first scenario, sketches and concepts stage. We’re going to present it internationally next month at a fair called Cartoon Movie in Brussels to start looking for partners, TV stations and people to help us fund this project that’s going to be amazing.
