Catalan triumph in Cannes: Aina Clotet, Revelation of the Week of the Critics award

Special correspondent to the Cannes Film FestivalCannes definitely brings luck to Aina Clotet. When she presented the series Això no és Suècia at the Canneseries festival, she won the award for best actress, and three years later she has won the Revelation Award at the Semaine de la Critique in Cannes for her first film as a director, Viva, which she also stars in. "Thank you for believing in our film and for opening doors to the world for us," said Clotet as she took the stage at the Miramar space this Wednesday to receive the award, which the Semaine de la Critique presents together with the Louis Roederer Foundation and which last year was won by the film Nino by the French Pauline Loquès.

Viva revolves around the intense desire to live fully that invades Nora (Aina Clotet) after overcoming breast cancer that has left her with the scar of a mastectomy. The intense attraction she feels for a friend's cousin, much younger, pushes her to cheat on her husband and start a high-voltage sexual affair that she experiences as a kind of vital rebirth.

The jury of the Semaine de la Critique, presided over by Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia (

La llum que imaginem), highlights that the protagonist of Viva, a woman who has just overcome cancer and starts a relationship with a younger man, is a "radical" and "difficult" character who nevertheless makes herself loved. Furthermore, it highlights Clotet's "visceral" and "extremely funny" performance.

The actress and director collected the award accompanied by her team, which includes screenwriter Valentina Viso and her brother, Marc Clotet, who is one of the producers of the short film. "To make a film, it is very important to have a good team, and I have had the best I could have dreamed of," thanked Clotet before dedicating the award to her children and the rest of her family.