Almodovar quits Spanish Academy

Oscar-winning film-maker Pedro Almodovar has quit the Spanish Film Academy because he is disgusted with its voting procedure for annual awards.

The Talk to Her director was aghast when his latest offering Bad Education lost out to The Sea Inside for the Spanish Best Foreign Film Oscar nomination, and failed to win any Goyas (Spain's national film award) while Alejandro Amenabar's movie picked up 14 statuettes.

Almodovar and his producer brother Augustin criticised new voting protocol, saying they disagreed with new directives which mean artists can only be nominated for awards by members of their own discipline.

Augustin says: "We think that the current voting system is seriously unfavourable to certain films like ours and means very important people or work are left out."