An unprecedented event in the history of Spanish football marred the achievement of the women’s team in Sydney, when they had just become world champions for the first time, when the then president of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, kissed Gini Hermoso without her consent during the medal ceremony. The world turned to the player, while the man from Motril refused to resign and was disqualified. A year later, the voice of the international players could be heard through the documentary #It’s Over: The Hero’s Diarieswhich was granted on Monday International Emmy Award.
Directed by Joanna Pardos and produced by Netflix, with You First Originals’ Luis Calvo and Javier Martinez Suarez serving as executive producers. Docuseries have established themselves in New York as Best sports documentary of 2025going beyond titles like Argentina 78, Chasing the sun 2 and Sven. “It’s a feeling of complete disbelief, because it’s the most important award that can be given to you at international level. It’s as if you see it far away, and it’s happening to other people, and it’s a completely inexplicable feeling,” he expressed in a conversation with 20 minutes, Javier Martinez.
“We are very happy with this story, because this helps a lot in reaching more people, and it is worth it. He adds: “Reaching people’s hearts is the most important thing for us, and we are happy for the players,” noting that “production is work that is not fun sometimes. It’s a bad time, and this (award) makes up for those tough moments a little bit.“It wasn’t easy for me #SeAcabó: Diary of Heroes See the light
In this sense, Martinez recalled the pressures they had to face to implement the project: “It was a very difficult year and a half, because you touched on a very sensitive and complex topic to deal with, We had to deal with a lot of things that were not easy.. “With a topic that has also generated a lot of controversy and polarized the community a lot.”
“We are committed to telling stories and what we reflected were the testimonies of these players, who were so brave, because it is not easy to show it to the 190+ countries where Netflix has a presence, where you will receive comments of all kinds. They said ‘enough’ and they spoke their truth. We reflected their story, which until now we have not been able to reflect.” They did not have those speakers that Rubiales and the federation had at the time to tell their versionSays the director of You First Originals, who avoided evaluating the new book by Luis Rubiales, Rubiales was killedwhere he tells his version of events.
Regarding the project’s heroes, the Spanish international players, Martinez revealed that director Joana Pardo “exchanged some letters” with them. “They turn the page, tell their story and that’s it. They are in their daily lives, in their sports performance, and that They will receive it with great pride. “Thanks to them, because they decided to speak out, this documentary exists.”
A year after the documentary’s premiere, there is now also a new phase in the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), which in the past has refused to participate in the project. “The relationship with Al-Ittihad is very good, things have changed and they are in another stage. We will talk to them and I am sure they will be very happyHe explained: “I hope they will have a very positive contribution, especially for women’s football, and Let them do very great things with them because they are so good “And they deserve it.”
The affection of Joana Pardo and Luis Calvo
“It’s something you dream of if you love moviesEven more so with a story like this,” Bardos celebrated with great enthusiasm on Monday after receiving the award. “After we made a documentary about this topic on a globally powerful platform like Netflix, which chose this topic and the freedom to tell it, This means that the rules change tooAt the same time as remembering the heroes, he added: “Let the girls pursue all their dreams, because Alexia, Jenny and Erin taught us that we can jump hurdles.”
Luis Calvo was also very happy with the recognition in New York, recalling the process of creating the documentary. “It was a very complex project, with many versions.”“, he thus expressed that “it is clear that the whole society did not think in the same way”, and stressed the goal of the project: “We want to leave that message that contradicts the very unbalanced official narrative “We want to balance this story with the history of the heroes.”