Spanish "Oscar" winner depends on unemployment benefits

MADRID, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Eneko Sagardoy, who recently obtained a Goya award, said winning the Spanish equivalent of Hollywood's Oscars has limited effects on his career and he still depends on unemployment benefits, local media reported Wednesday.

"At the moment I am on unemployment benefits," Sagardoy told El Correo, a leading newspaper in northern Spain, adding that he was using that money to "pay promotion expenses, which are not free."

"I still don't feel as if the Goya has got my name on it. My mother has put it on a shelf between some books," said Sagardoy.

Sagardoy got the Goya Award for Best New Actor for his role as the "Giant of Altzo" in the film "Handia."

The film, which won 10 of the Goya awards, is the most successful film ever made in the Basque language. It tells the story of Miguel Joaquin Eleicegui Arteaga, better known as the "Giant of Altzo," a real giant in European history.

Born in 1818, Eleicegui Arteaga grew to a height of between 2.27 meters and 2.4 meters and became famous in Spain and Europe before dying at the age of 43. Enditem