Bardem was selected for the $46,500 prize for “goals achieved throughout a long career.”

The ministry, in a statement Wednesday, highlighted the 39-year-old actor’s “defense of the acting profession and a constant commitment to Spanish cinema.”

Bardem won a best supporting actor Oscar for “No Country for Old Men.” His screen credits also include “Before Night Falls.”

Source: AP

How do you get attention for your cause if you are a marginalised people, ignored for thirty years in the desert? When I spoke to several Saharawi refugees in a camp this month in Southern Algeria they felt they had two options. One: violence - freedom fighting, from their point of view; terrorism, according to their enemies - or two: hosting an arts festival and getting some celebrities along to garner some media attention.

‘If me being here helps in any way, I am glad to help’ - Javier Bardem with Manu Chao and Javier Carcuera, director of the Sahara Film Festival

Some of the world’s coolest stars were to be found in Dajla earlier this month at the Sahara Film Festival. One night I stumbled into a tent to find Oscar-winning actor Javier Bardem playing the bongos. Assorted TV stars from Spain danced the night away. Bardem also played percussion for Manu Chao, the multi-million selling radical pop star, at a concert in the dunes the next night.

The Festival showed many films outdoors and at one indoor venue. Chao and Bardem said they were there because they wanted to raise the profile of the plight of the Saharawi refugees, approximately 200,000 of whom are stranded close to the remote Saharan outpost of Tindouf in the inhospitable desert of Southern Algeria.

The refugees originally came there more than 30 years ago during the war between Morocco and Western Sahara, which until 1975 was the Spanish Sahara. Despite a United Nations mandate in 1991 that ushered in a ceasefire based on the agreement that there should be a referendum to decide the fate of the country, nothing has happened. Assorted plans have come and gone, but meanwhile as the gears of diplomacy move incredibly slowly, the refugees stay put, supported by aid.
Manu Chao plays at the Sahara Film Festival

Manu Chao plays to an audience of Saharawi refugees and visitors to the Festival from around the world

Because they have kept to the ceasefire and not gone in for guerrilla activity or suicide bombing, they have been out of the news, often described as “the forgotten people”. Bardem described the camps to me as “the backyard of hell”.

“If me being here helps in any way, I am glad to help”. A bit different from the Oscars? “That was for professional recognition – this is something else.”

What is remarkable is that over thirty years the Saharawis have managed to set up an entire functioning society in the camps, complete with hospitals backed by aid agencies, and - judging from numerous students I met at the film screenings - a good standard of education.

Will getting a few celebs down make any difference? Maybe not. But Bardem and Chao’s suggestion that the Spanish, as the ex-colonial masters of Western Sahara, were responsible for the situation and should help sort out the mess, did get significant coverage in the Spanish media and has put some pressure on Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero’s government to do something.

At least someone seems to be listening. Which was the aim of the Festival - that and several thousands refugees getting to see some great films.

Source: Telegraph

Variety offers some quotes of the film and Javier’s performance:

“Vicky Cristina Barcelona” is a sexy, funny divertissement that passes as enjoyably as an idle summer’s afternoon in the titular Spanish city. With Javier Barden starring as a bohemian artist involved variously with Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall, pic offers potent romantic fantasy elements for men and women and a cast that should produce the best commercial returns for a Woody Allen film since “Match Point.”

Even if the film provides a strictly tourist’s view of the city (a perspective justified by the scenario, in fact), and one just as upscale and heedless of money as ever for Allen, “VCB” is by several degrees more hot-blooded than his usual norm, thanks especially due to the palpable chemistry of Bardem and Cruz in the second half.

Looking macho but speaking mostly in a tender, sincere way to his women, Bardem is a thoroughly convincing and likable ladies’ man.

Bardem’s exit marks his second departure from a major project in as many months, following the announcement that Carmen Maura (”Volver”) has replaced him in Francis Ford Coppola’s family drama “Tetro”. That move was officially attributed to Coppola’s decision that the role was better filled by a female, though it has been reported that Bardem simply became unavailable.

The Spanish actor will next be seen in the Woody Allen-directed “Vicky Christina Barcelona”, which will debut at Cannes.

Source: Variety / Entertainment Weekly

The Oscar winner jetted off to southwestern Algeria near the border with the Western Sahara to partake in the cinema gala’s fifth installment Thursday and took time out of his schedule to visit the Dakhla refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria. There, the 39-year-old was welcomed with open arms by numerous exiled Sahrawi families.

The Saharawis fled their native Western Sahara more than 30 years ago to escape Moroccan and Mauritanian oppression.

Javier arrived with his brother, Carlos, for the festival, which aims to promote and raise awareness of the Sahrawi refugee population culture. The actor, an avid supporter of the cause, visited with his bro last year as well.

During his time there, Javier has taken in the sights of the desert and immersed himself within the Sahrawi culture, donning a turban and riding camels.

Source: OK! Magazine

Bardem, who won this year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “No Country For Old Men”, is thought to have proposed last month during a holiday in France.

Sources told the National Enquirer that he popped the question after mum Pilar urged him to take the relationship to the next level.

A friend said: “Pilar took her son aside and told him, ‘What’s the matter with you? She’s perfect! You love her, she loves you. Get married.’”

The couple began dating last summer after hooking up on the set of Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” in Spain.

The wedding is rumoured to be taking place later this year.

Source: Digital Spy

The Oscar-winning pair are in talks to join Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, Marion Cotillard and Sophia Loren in Rob Marshall’s adaptation of the Tony-winning Broadway musical.

The 1982 show, itself an adaptation of Federico Fellini’s autobiographical opus “8 1/2,” revolves around a film director (Bardem) juggling the demands of several women in his life.

The Weinstein Co. project was slated to begin principal photography in March but was postponed when the late writer-director Anthony Minghella didn’t have enough time to rework Michael Tolkin’s screenplay before the WGA strike. Extra work was needed to coordinate the choreography and Maury Yeston’s music and lyrics with a new draft. The film is now tentatively scheduled for a September start.

Kidman is due to give birth in the summer, giving her several months of maternity leave before the film’s proposed start date. Her filming also might be scheduled in the latter part of the shoot.

Plenty of people are familiar with Kidman’s singing and dancing chops from “Moulin Rouge,” but far fewer are aware of Dench’s extensive musical theater experience. She played Sally Bowles in the original London production of “Cabaret” in 1968, and won the 1995 Olivier Award for best actress in a musical in a revival of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music.”

Kidman is repped by CAA. Dench is repped by Julian Belfrage & Associates and manager Gene Parseghian.

Source: Hollywood Reporter