40th Goya Awards

The 40th Goya Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences of Spain, will take place in Barcelona, Catalonia, in February 2026.^[1]

In May 2025, Academy president Fernando Méndez-Leite announced Barcelona as the host city.^[2] In July 2025 the Academy presented the regulations for the 2026 awards. A key feature was the modification of the eligibility criteria for the Goya Award for Best New Director, changing the nature of the debut work from first ICAA-assessed feature film to first feature film released in theatres,^[3] thus enabling directors such as Eva Libertad (Deaf) with previous works without theatrical distribution (Nikolina) to be eligible for the award.^[4] In addition it was established than only one previously designated awardee was allowed to deliver a thank you speech during the gala for each award presentation.^[3]

On 29 July 2025, director, screenwriter, producer, writer, sports journalist, and actor Gonzalo Suárez was announced as the recipient of the Honorary Goya Award.^[5] The managing board of the academy recognised "a trajectory from which he has developed a surprising filmography, in which he has experimented with all genres and from all attitudes, and which has contributed to make him a key man in the Spanish culture of the last sixty years".^[6]