The Film Academy speaks out three days after the complaints against Carlos Vermut for alleged sexual assault

The Film Academy issued a statement this Monday after several women accused the filmmaker Carlos Vermouth of alleged sexual assault. Three women declared to El País that they had been victims of sexual violence by the director of Manticore y Magical Girl, as announced by said media last Friday, January 26, just a few hours before the Feroz Awards gala was held. While waiting for the Goya Awards ceremony, the institution has reported that it will demand “the end of abuses in cinema” on February 10 in Valladolid.

“The Film Academy wants to show its solidarity with the victims of sexual violence. Sexist attitudes, abuses of power and violence against women, which can take many different forms, are present transversally throughout society, and the audiovisual sector is no exception. This institution, which represents all film professionals in our country, wants to condemn any abuse and reaffirm its total rejection of such acts, as well as its solidarity and support for the victims who report such abuse and the need to continue reporting any situation. of this type”, they advance in the writing.

The Academy has stressed that “it will make visible at the Goya Awards ceremony (…) the demand that sexual violence and abuses of power have no place in the world of cinema or in Spanish society as a whole.” “At the Goya gala we will also have a protocol to prevent and combat any possible case of sexual and/or gender aggression and harassment,” they added.

“For the Film Academy it is essential that women's safety and gender equality become a reality. The group of professionals that the institution brings together demands and demands it. No woman should be put in a position of danger , of inferiority or contempt, and “No violence should go unanswered.”read the last lines of the statement.

The accusations and Vermut's response

A film student, an employee of one of her productions and a worker in the cultural sector They accuse Vermut of having committed sexual violence against them between May 2014 and February 2022. The aforementioned newspaper details the stories of these three women, who agree that They did not report the events at the time out of fear. Two of them maintain that they feared losing their jobs and the third believed that if she reported she would not get one again. Her testimonies are anonymous for fear of reprisals, and have the support of other workers in the sector who confirm these facts to The country. The three women were between 21 and 26 years old at the time.

Vermut, for its part, rejected the accusations and spoke of consent. He said “he was not aware of having committed sexual violence against any woman.” “I have always practiced rough sex consensually, because I think consent is very important,” she said. “Another thing is that the person in her house after her felt bad and perhaps at the time was afraid to say it. I can't know that,” she added. “I would like it to be published that I have had many relationships of many types, always wanting the other person to be well. And I think that having had a promiscuous sexual life and having had sex of many types can lead you to situations like these,” he stated in their statements.

Tension in the Feroz: “It's over”

Last Friday, at the Feroz gala, the president of the Association of Cinematographic Informants of Spain (AICE), Maria Guerra, condemned these acts and showed its support for the victims. “We must report it, we will be with you,” she said. Later, the journalist added: “We are in 2024 and the global hashtag is #Seacabó.”

The journalist also recalled the complaint of sexual assault that stained the last edition of the awards and that “It was stopped thanks to the violet protocol since the victims reported it”. Guerra assured that, although “cinema and sports are two gigantic focuses” to denounce sexist violence, “abuse is everywhere and it especially targets the weak.”

In the absence of denouncing this scourge in speeches, some celebrities took a stand on this issue on the red carpet. Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Carolina Yuste, Berto Romero and Juan Antonio Bayona They showed their support for the victims. Others, like Jose Coronado, they also tried to do it, but including some 'but' in advance – the actor assessed that these women should have reported “in the courts” and “not in a newspaper” -. The Minister of Labor also spoke, Yolanda Diazand the Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun.