The actor Javier Bardem, who is a native of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and who this morning received the [Oscar->http://oscars-awards.com] for best supporting actor from the Hollywood Academy, will receive in 2009 the Lady Harimaguada of honor on the tenth anniversary of the Film Festival of the capital, as well as the title of Favorite Son that the City Council granted him in 2002, but that he never came to collect due to alleged political differences with the municipal government of the PP that then directed the corporation.
Aday Ruiz, Councilor for Tourism and President of Promotion of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the municipal society that, among other events, organizes the Film Festival, made this announcement during the presentation of this year's event. The mayor acknowledged that he had not yet spoken with Bardem, who would be celebrating the achievement of the first [Oscar->http://oscars-awards.com] of Spanish cinema, but announced that the mayor of the city, Jerónimo Saavedra, had asked him to announce the purpose that "our citizen", as the municipal leader defined the actor born in the capital, would be honored next year within the framework of the Film Festival.
Bardem had been proposed at the end of 2001 as Favorite Son after having been nominated for the [Oscar->http://oscars-awards.com] of Hollywood for Before Night Falls, but finally did not obtain the award. His designation was the subject of a strong confrontation between the municipal government of the time, led by the current vice president of the Government of the Canary Islands, José Manuel Soria and regional president of the PP, and the opposition, led by the PSC-PSOE.
The socialists accused the popular of having 'appropriated' Bardem's nomination as Favorite Son, even providing letters addressed to Bardem that would prove that they had advanced the local government in the proposal, but the truth is that it was approved in a municipal Plenary at the request of the popular.
But the controversy did not end there, since when the moment of the award ceremony arrived, at the beginning of the summer of 2002, Bardem did not attend the event. Although his absence was excused for agenda reasons, in the background there were political reasons, supposedly for not sharing conservative positions.
ACN Press
