The Goya Awards () are Spain's main national annual film awards, commonly referred to as the Academy Awards of Spain. The awards were established in 1987, a year after the founding of the Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, and the first awards ceremony took place on March 16, 1987, at the Teatro Lope de Vega in Madrid. The ceremony continues to take place annually at Centro de Congresos Príncipe Felipe, around the end of January/beginning of February, and awards are given to films produced during the previous year. The award itself is a small bronze bust of Francisco Goya created by the sculptor José Luis Fernández, although the original sculpture for the first edition of the Goyas was by Miguel Ortiz Berrocal. History To reward the best Spanish films of each year, the Spanish Academy of Motion Pictures and Arts decided to create the Goya Awards. The Goya Awards are Spain's main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards. The inaugural ceremony took place on March 17, 1987, at the Lope de Vega theatre in Madrid. From the 2nd edition until 1995, the awards were held at the Palacio de Congresos in the Paseo de la Castellana. Then they moved to the similarly named Palacio Municipal de Congresos, also in Madrid. In 2000, the ceremony took place in Barcelona, at the Barcelona Auditorium. In 2003, a large number of film professionals took advantage of the Goya awards ceremony to express their opposition to the Aznar's government support of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In 2004, the AVT (an association against terrorism in Spain) demonstrated against terrorism and ETA, a paramilitary organization of Basque separatists, in front of the Lope de Vega theatre. In 2005, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero was the first prime minister in the history of Spain to attend the event. In 2013, the minister of culture and education José Ignacio Wert did not attend, saying he had “other things to do”. Some actors said that this decision reflected the government's lack of respect for their profession and industry. In the 2019 edition, the awards took place in Seville, and in 2020, the ceremony was held in Málaga. Awards The awards are currently delivered in 28 categories, excluding the Honorary Goya Award and the International Goya Award, with an increase of up to five nominees