In today's post, we roll out the red carpet and put on our best outfit to talk about films in Spanish that have won an Academy Award. Set your Spanish homework aside and put your listening skills into action by watching these cultural touchstones.

Did you know that the first Hispanic Academy Award-winning director (from outside the US) earned his statue for a movie that was filmed mostly in French, not Spanish? The Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel had to shoot the 1972 film The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (French: Le Charme discret de la bourgeoisie) in France due to the censorship in force during the Franco dictatorship. Hence, the Spanish language had to wait until the early 80s.

Enjoy this post in Spanish if you prefer. 

Remember also that the new awards season is beginning, and with it, all the film festivals in Spain... do not miss the best premieres!

Academy Award-winning films in Spanish

1.- Begin the Beguine (Volver a empezar) (Spain, 1982)

Director: José Luis Garci.

Cast: Antonio Ferrandis and Encarna Paso.

Begin the Beguine tells the moving story of a prestigious writer, winner of a Nobel Prize, who returns to Gijón (Asturias, Spain) to die in his hometown after many years of exile.

The movie won the first Oscar for a Spanish-language film in 1983 (Best Non-English Language Film), an international recognition that opened the door for Spanish to make its way into Hollywood.

2.- The Official Story (La historia oficial) (Argentina, 1985)

Director: Luis Puenzo.

Cast: Norma Aleandro, Analía Castro, and Héctor Alterio.

The Official Story (1985) was the first Latin American film to receive the valued statuette (Best Non-English Language Film). It is a cinematographic work that takes us to the last days of the Argentine military dictatorship (1976-1983). In the film, Puenzo depicts a country in crisis after the loss of the Falklands in 1982; a nation going through the final stage of an oppressive regime that led to the “disappearance” of thousands of people.

The plot takes place between the house of Alicia, Roberto, and Gabi (the main characters of this story) and the high school where Alicia teaches Argentine History classes. In this way, the home is linked to the family atmosphere of the time, while the educational center represents the Argentine sociopolitical sphere.

3.- Belle Époque (Spain, 1992).

Director: Fernando Trueba.

Cast: Miriam Díaz Aroca, Penélope Cruz, Ariadna Gil, Fernando Fernán Gómez, Jorge Sanz, and Maribel Verdú.

Although Belle Époque was canceled three times due to lack of budget, the film was finally shot in Portugal to reduce costs. The movie won the Oscar for Best Non-English Language Film in 1993.

According to Trueba himself, Belle Époque represents a "bright and cheerful vision of Spain," “something we were not used to in 1992." It tells the story of a young man named Fernando who arrives in a small Spanish town in 1930, just before the proclamation of the Second Spanish Republic. After deciding to  leave the army during the Jaca uprising, the handsome soldier is taken in by a widowed artist who has four daughters with very different personalities.

4.- All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre) (Spain, 1999)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar.

Cast: Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, Penélope Cruz, Candela Peña, and Rosa María Sardá.

All About My Mother tells the story of Manuela, a mother who, after losing her son the day he turned 17, returns to Barcelona to find the boy's father. During the trip, we enjoy a tragicomedy in the purest style of the Spanish director, suffering the pain along with Manuela.

In the end, Almodóvar received the Oscar (Best Non-English-Speaking Film) from his muse Penelope Cruz, an iconic moment that went down in Spanish film history.

5.- Talk to Her (Hable con ella) (Spain, 2003)

Director: Pedro Almodóvar

Cast: Javier Cámara, Darío Grandinetti Leonor Watling, Geraldine Chaplin, and Rosario Flores.

Four years later, Almodóvar won the Academy Award again, but this time on a larger scale. For the first and only time in history, a Hispanic film won an Oscar under one of the main categories: Best Original Screenplay. The director also broke his own mold with this film by shooting with two male characters, in defiance of those who said that he was only able to direct women.

Talk to her tells the story of two men who fight against loneliness as they care for the women they love: both are in a coma. Benigno is a nurse who has fallen in love with a dancer who is in a coma after an accident. In the meantime, Marcos looks after his girlfriend, who undergoes the same situation after being gored while bullfighting.

6.- The Sea Inside (Mar adentro) (Spain, 2004)

Director: Alejandro Amenábar.

Cast: Javier Bardem, Belén Rueda, and Lola Dueñas.

This movie put on the table the debate on the use of euthanasia and assisted suicide for people with irreversible or terminal illnesses. The Sea Inside tells the real story of Ramón Sampedro, who, after a tragic dive into the sea, remains bedridden for the rest of his life. After three decades in these conditions, claiming his right to die, he succeeds with the assistance of his lawyer and a close friend and neighbor.

Alejandro Amenábar won the Oscar for Best Non-English Language Film in 2005.

7.- The Secret In Their Eyes (El secreto de sus ojos) (Argentina, 2009)

Director: Juan José Campanella.

Cast: Ricardo Darín, Soledad Villamil, Pablo Rago, and Javier Godino.

Benjamín Espósito is an official who used to work at a Criminal Court in Buenos Aires and has just retired. He is obsessed with a crime he witnessed 25 years ago and decides to write a novel about the murder. During the creation process, he also recalls a past and not forgotten love.

This is a thriller with a captivating plot and high technical quality. The Secret In Their Eyes won the Oscar for Best Non-English Language Film in 2010, the second Academy Award for Argentina’s film industry.

8.- A Fantastic Woman (Una mujer fantástica) (Chile, 2017)

Director: Sebastián Lelio.

Cast: Daniela Vega and Francisco Reyes.

A fantastic woman was the second cinematographic work to receive the golden statuette in the history of Chilean cinema, after the animated short film Historia de un oso (2014). It won the Oscar in 2018 in the category of Best Non-English Language Film.

The plot focuses on Marina (a young waitress who wants to be a singer) and her partner, Orlando, twenty years older than her. One day, Marina has to take Orlando to the emergency room, where he dies in her arms. Then, she must face the rejection of Orlando’s social circle due to her transgender identity.

To sum up, Spanish language movies have plenty of reasons to be proud. From Luis Buñuel to Pedro Almodóvar, Spanish speakers started winning the hearts and earning the praise of Hollywood film critics and audiences in the second half of the 20th century and have been reaping success ever since. This year it’s Almodóvar’s turn again…we wish him all the best with his film Pain and Glory (2019), which has been selected by the Spanish Academy as its submission for the international feature film Academy Award. 

If you want to learn more about Spanish and film, we encourage you watch this video with some of the funniest Spanish translations of classic movie titles.

As the song of the Spanish music band Los Piratas says, "No te echaré de menos en septiembre" (I won’t miss you in September). Every year, Spanish schoolchildren get prepared for the new course that begins with the arrival of the fall.

Click here to read this post in Spanish to improve your reading skills.

1.- The beginning of a new term:

While in Canada and the US back-to-school shopping is associated with Labor Day (first Monday of September), in Spain, we know the new term is approaching when we see publicity campaigns advertising the back-to-school season. Now it’s time to buy textbooks and cover them with great care, a ritual I imagine will be disappeared soon since the tendency is to change paper for modern tablets.

September is the month to get hold of back-to-school supplies: a new diary, some pencils, pens and an eraser (I still can remember that characteristic smell of stationery shops). Some will even have to get a new backpack as the old one is tattered after so much rattle!

But what we really need before starting this new stage are a good attitude and a lot of enthusiasm to commence this new cycle and take up new projects: studying languages, doing some sport, and, especially, being persevering students.

In don Quijote, we encourage you to visit us if you are considering learning Spanish in Spain or improving your level.

Here you go some basics you should know if studying in Spain and want to be prepared for the new school year.

2.- Education in Spain

In Spain, we talk about Centros de Educación Primaria and Centros de Educación Secundaria (the so-called institutos), as far as compulsory education is concerned. Children must go to school since they’re 6 years old (although most start at the age of 3) and remain studying at least until they’re 16.

When students finish compulsory education in Spain, they have different options to continue studying: they can do either bachillerato (High School) to access to a ciclo formativo de grado superior (Higher Professional Training) or University; or just a ciclo formativo de grado medio (Basic Vocational Training).

If you want to go further, go to our website and learn more about the Spanish Education System.

3.- When does the school year begin in Spain?

The new school year will begin between the first and second week of September , depending on the region and the corresponding educational stage.

In the case of the so-called escuelas de primaria (Primary Schools), the academic year starts around September 10; while institutos (High Schools) and centros de FP (Vocational Education Centers) get started around September 15. Besides, university students normally wait until the end of September or even the beginning of October to go back to their lessons.

4.- The length of the school year in Spain:

The school year in Spain lasts over nine months, distributed into three different trimestres (trimesters) separated by vacation periods at the end of each term. The first one coincides with fall months (from September to December), and closes with the Holiday Season. The second one comes with the entry of winter, and ends with the arrival of spring and the Easter holidays (January - April). Finally, we reach the end of the term with the third trimester, which runs until the end of June.

At universities, the academic year is divided into cuatrimestres (quarters). The first one goes from October to January and the second one from February to May.

5.- The longed-for vacations

If there’s something we all like (whether we are students or workers), that is the vacation period. After months of routine and daily effort, we count the days we have left to enjoy that rest we were waiting for so much.

The first holiday period comes with Christmas. Spain is a country of Catholic tradition, and two of the three main holiday periods commemorate this kind of festivities. At Christmas, holidays are usually extended for two weeks for schoolchildren. This is because the day of the Three Wise Men (January 6) is an important celebration, as most of us receive and make gifts throughout that day.

After the Holiday Season, we must wait until Easter to have a break again (except for students in the Canary Islands, who enjoy a week in carnival). This vacation period (10 days in the Peninsula and Balearic Islands and 7 in the Canary Islands) is usually re-scheduled every year since it comes from a pagan holiday and it’s celebrated on the first full moon of the spring season.

Finally, we close the cycle again with summer vacations. In Spain, this period lasts from the last week of June (for most educational stages) until the month of September (the week depends on the different regions and the educational stage as we have already commented before). Besides, many schoolchildren take advantage of these months to sign up for summer camps to make the most of their time.

Apart from these and depending on each term’s school calendar, there are other public holidays and celebrations.

We hope this post helps you to organize the new school term. Ready to keep your studies up-to date?

If you are a film lover who enjoys watching foreign films, you may have realized by now that movie titles change a lot when translated into another language. Spanish speakers know that very well, because movie titles are usually transformed into something completely different compared to the original version.

Keep on reading to find out the reason behind this metamorphosis and have a laugh with some of the seventh art’s funniest translations. If you prefer to read this post in Spanish, click here. Lights, camera, action!

Mistranslation or localization?

When a new movie is released, many viewers criticize its title’s translation. However, we don’t usually ask ourselves why it changed so much. In don Quijote we want to stand up for translators, because this lack of textual coincidence with the original title is not always due to mistranslation.

Professionals who are in charge of the translation need to adapt to the culture and the market where the movie is going to be distributed. As it occurs with brands, when thinking about a title, translating is not enough – copyright, cultural issues, and more need to be considered as well. However, that doesn’t mean that those little marketing experiments don’t end up giving us very funny titles every now and then.

One language, several titles

Did you know there are several Spanish versions for the same foreign movie? Due to the richness of the Spanish language, producers order several dubbed versions for Spain and Latin America. As a consequence, movie titles are also different in each Spanish-speaking country.

Watching movies and series in Spanish is one of the best ways to practice the language. However, having such different titles, sometimes it is hard to find out the name of that film you’ve been wanting to watch. Here’s a trick for all Spanish students: Internet Movie Database is a website which hosts information about thousands of movies. Among other things, it lists the title of a movie in each country.

Movie titles in Spanish

Let’s get down to business. Here are some of the funniest movie titles in Spanish. Some of the titles we have chosen for this post belong to the Spanish version of the movie and some other to the Latin American versions. Enjoy!

1. The Sound of Music is… Sonrisas y lágrimas (Smiles and Tears)

This popular Broadway drama film tops our list for obvious reasons. The literal translation would be ‘El sonido de la música’, but ‘Smiles and Tears’ sounds equally beautiful, right? Fun fact: in Latin America, this movie was called La novicia rebelde (The Reckless Nun). 

2. Home Alone is… Mi pobre angelito (My Poor Little Angel)

Although in Spain they kept the title as ‘Solo en casa’, in Latin America they chose something more emotional: ‘My Poor Little Angel’. Truth is, the face of the little Macaulay Culkin is sweet as sugar.

3. Die Hard is… La jungla de cristal (Glass Jungle)

Ok, got it. There is a huge difference between ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Glass Jungle’. But the first option doesn’t sound very appealing in Spanish: ‘muere fuertemente’. Long life to free translation! In Latin America they got a little bit closer to the original title and named this movie ‘Duro de matar’.

4. 101 Dalmatians is… La noche de las narices frías (The Night of the Cold Noses)

Spain and Latin America never come to an agreement. While in Europe they kept the translation as ‘101 dálmatas’, across the pond they let their imagination run free with this funny title. Like it or not, this title describes the movie’s protagonists.

These are just some examples among plenty of funny titles you can find all over the Internet. Hope this post encouraged you to get hands on Spanish through cinema. In case you didn’t know, don Quijote’s web shows how much an average cinema ticket costs in each of our destinations in Spain. Start planning your trip and enjoy your movies in Spanish!

Learn more about the movies above by watching this video.