The presence of content creators and influencers at the Goya and the Malaga Festival, where they move like fish out of water, has a reason for being and an economic justification, which has generated considerable controversy. The episode of Ona Gonfaus, unable to name a Spanish film at a film festival dedicated to Spanish cinema, has condensed everything that is happening with surgical precision. Although beyond that there are also uncomfortable questions that the actors are not willing to ask themselves.
Goyas without actors. On February 28, 2026, the 40th edition of the Goya Awards was held in Barcelona. Posh influencers such as Dulceida, Laura Escanes, Marina Rivers and Jessica Goicoechea walked the red carpet. The actress Yolanda Ramos saw it from homein pajamas: “Except when I was nominated and the following year, neither before nor since have I ever been invited.” A few days before, Marc Biarnés had published a video asking, bluntly, what certain influencers were up to on Spanish cinema night. Norma Ruiz, who in 2025 had filmed four films, I had not received an invitation either.. It took a week for the spark to catch fire at the Malaga Festival.
What happens in Malaga. The 29th edition of the Malaga competition, dedicated to Spanish cinema, opened on March 6 with the debate still hot. The media took advantage of the red carpet to take the pulse of the sector. Carmen Maura summed it up with no room for interpretation: “influencers seem very good to me, but they don’t make films.” The director Isabel Coixet signed a column of opinion in which he compared the precarious situation of many creators in the industry with the preferential treatment given to influencers.
Ona Gonfaus arrives. The Catalan influencer paraded on the red carpet of the Cervantes Theater on Friday, March 7, when a reporter asked him to recommend a movie. “I don’t know now… a movie about what?” he responded. The journalist insisted: “a Spanish one, since we are at the Malaga Film Festival.” Gonfaus proposed “the new Eight surnames.” He was referring to ‘Eight Moroccan Surnames’, released in December 2023 and which, obviously, had no link with the festival’s programming. The singer Olivia Bay, who I only remembered ‘La casa de papel’.
The background mechanism. The Film Academy does not improvise these invitations, although it does not completely control them either. Agency sources confirmed that content creators who attend events like the Goya do so “associated with the sponsors.” The brands that advertise have the possibility of bringing guests to the event with the greatest media coverage of Spanish cinema, and they want their ambassadors there. photocall. In most cases, the influencers They don’t even access the auditorium: they generate content for Instagram or TikTok and follow the gala from annex spaces, not from the stalls.
The importance of influencer. The third edition of the ‘Influencer Economy’ study, Published in February 2026 with data from 154 million pieces of content, it confirms that Spain has 285,000 active creators with more than 10,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok. The volume of sponsored content grew by 73% on TikTok and 45% on Instagram during 2025. The previous year, the influencer marketing business had already grown by 40%. It is obvious that there is an amount of money at stake that is beyond what the Spanish film industry can move.
The uncomfortable truth. There is an argument that the actors avoid formulating directly, although it is implicit in the entire controversy: a good part of the influencers of lifestyle They are, right now, better known than most of them among the public between 16 and 25 years old. Lola Lolita He has 13.3 million followers on TikTok and 4.3 million on Instagram. Marina Rivers exceeds 7.9 million on TikTok. The reach of its daily publications frequently exceeds the total number of spectators that any Spanish film of the year has had in theaters.
Of course, acting and accumulating followers are very different things, but it certainly explains why brands prefer that presence on red carpets: the return in impressions is incomparably more substantial. And it also explains why the organization of a festival that depends on sponsors cannot do without them. The number of followers it doesn’t explain everythingbut it is still the metric with which brands decide where to invest their quota of invitations.
A possible solution. What could be questioned is what type of influencer is invited. There are creators with notable audiences who dedicate their platforms to cinema, regularly recommend Spanish films and know the industry inside out. But it’s not those (as Javier Ibarreche, Javi Ponzoeither It’s not a movie) to those who invite the Goya or the Malaga Festival. Profiles of lifestyle who have never published anything related to the medium, and whose presence advertises cosmetics, fashion or travel brands.
A film influencer with a million followers who knowingly recommends a film from the festival would be doing something more valuable than inviting someone who cannot name a title when asked on the red carpet. But perhaps it is too much to demand a balance between economic performance and going beyond ‘Three Moroccan surnames’.
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