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In case you haven’t heard, the 2020 Oscar nominations were announced this Monday morning and—no surprise here—they are lacking diversity as well as women nominees in all the major categories. However, there was a silver lining when it came to the foreign language films this year. Spanish actor Antonio Banderas received his first Oscar nomination for his role in Pain and Glory, which left him teeming with excitement.
“I was surprised,” Antonio revealed to Deadline. In the semi-autobiographical film, Antonio stars as Salvador Mallo, a film director in his physical decline. The actor has previously spoken about how the character is inspired by the movie’s own director Pedro Almodóvar. Not only is this a major triumph for Antonio, it’s a win for foreign language films. The movie, which is completely in Spanish, wasn’t the only foreign language film to get a major nod in this year’s nominations—the Korean-language movie Parasite also received nods, including Best Director and Best Movie.
According to the Spanish actor, this is a sign for what’s to come in the future of cinema. “There is this period of the Oscars becoming the big awards worldwide, not only American, but worldwide,” Antonio explained. “It’s logical though that it takes time to adapt, and see what the future is of these important awards. It will be very interesting if it actually covers the whole entire world.”
For a full rundown of this year’s nominees, check out the the complete list of the 2020 Oscar nominations .