Sundays nominated in 13 Goya categories

Zoom

Filmmaker Alauda Ruiz de Azúa will compete in the best film category against Sirat, Maspalomas, Deaf and The Dinner

Oskar Belategui

Bilbao

Wednesday, 14 January 2026, 13:09

Sundays (Los Domingos) is the favourite for the 40th Goya Awards, which will be presented in Barcelona on 28 February.

The third feature film by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa has been nominated in 13 categories. It will compete in the best film category against Sirat, Maspalomas, Deaf (Sorda) and The Dinner (La cena).

Winner of the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián Festival, Sundays was released in cinemas on 24 October. Since then, it has grossed four million euros and attracted more than 600,000 viewers. It will be released on Movistar Plus on 27 February.

The films with the most nominations following Sundays are Oliver Laxe's Sirat (11); Maspalomas by Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga (nine); The Dinner by Manuel Gómez Pereira (eight); Deaf by Eva Libertad, The Captive by Alejandro Amenábar and Los tigres by Alberto Rodríguez (seven each); and Romería by Carla Simón (six).

Among these films, only The Captive and Romería have not been nominated in the best film category. Veteran filmmaker Manuel Gómez Pereira, on the other hand, is among the five finalists with his return to comedy with The Dinner, which has brought more than 600,000 spectators to the cinemas.

A total of 218 Spanish films released last year were in the selection process for the 40th Goya Awards. Of these, 122 are feature-length fiction films, 87 documentaries and nine animated films, while 67 are debut works. Singer and dubbing actress Rigoberta Bandini and actor Luis Tosar, both Goya winners, will host the ceremony at Auditori del Centre de Convencions Internacionals, 25 years after the Spanish film awards were first held in Barcelona. A total of 28 Goya awards will be presented, plus the honorary award, which this year goes to filmmaker and writer Gonzalo Suárez.

Set in Bilbao, Sundays narrates the family upheaval that starts with a teenage girl's decision to enter a convent. Blanca Soroa's debut is as a student at a religious school determined to become a nun. Her loved ones cannot understand her call to faith, especially her aunt, played by Patricia López Arnaiz. At the premiere, director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (her portfolio includes Lullaby from 2022) provoked a social debate on religious indoctrination and the capacity of a minor to discern. Since the beginning, she has been saying that Sundays will be received according to the religious or ideological background that each spectator has. "The film is going to make you reflect," she said, although she has made it clear that the film "tries to defend the autonomy of the spectator faced with indoctrination or dogmas".