# Mi Gran Noche
**Mi gran noche** (English title: *My Big Night*) is a 2015 Spanish comedy film directed by Álex de la Iglesia and written by de la Iglesia with Jorge Guerricaechevarría. It stars the singer Raphael as Alphonso, an aging music star determined to secure maximum television audience for his performance, alongside [Mario Casas](https://www.edgepedia.org/mario-casas), Pepón Nieto, and [Blanca Suárez](https://www.edgepedia.org/blanca-suarez).[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/mx/pelicula/mi-gran-noche) The film takes its title from Raphael's 1968 song of the same name, itself an adaptation of Salvatore Adamo's 1966 French song "Tenez-vous bien".[3](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/02/17/una-pelicula-argentina-y-una-adaptacion-francesa-la-intrahistoria-de-mi-gran-noche-de-raphael-cadena-ser/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Álex de la Iglesia; screenplay by de la Iglesia and Jorge Guerricaechevarría[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) |
| Production | Enrique Cerezo P.C. (90%) and Telefónica Studios S.L.U. (10%), with participation of TVE and ICAA[4](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A03110f0d-8bf2-4b35-8e8e-d18eabfae3d1/Ficcion-Fiction3-2015.pdf) |
| Spanish release | 23 October 2015; runtime 93 minutes; rated not recommended under 12[5](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714) |
| Spanish box office | €2,423,116.55 from 473,660 admissions[5](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714) |
| Principal cast | Raphael (Alphonso), Mario Casas (Adanne), Pepón Nieto (Jose), Blanca Suárez (Paloma)[2](https://www.justwatch.com/mx/pelicula/mi-gran-noche) |
| Goya Awards, 30th edition | 4 nominations from 30 inscriptions: production design, costume design, sound, and special effects[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) |
| Festival honors | Latin Beat Film Festival 2015, Tokyo: best director and best actor (Raphael)[5](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Jose, an unemployed man, is sent by a temporary employment agency (ETT) to work as an extra in the taping of a [New Year's Eve](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-years-eve) television special, filmed in an industrial pavilion on the outskirts of Madrid in the middle of August.[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) Hundreds of people like him have been confined day and night for a week and a half, sweating as they fake laughter and celebrate the false arrival of the new year over and over.[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/)
Around this premise the film runs several parallel storylines. Alphonso, the charismatic star of the show, will do anything to guarantee his performance the maximum audience share; his antagonist Adanne, a young Latin singer, is harassed by fans trying to blackmail him. The show's presenters hate each other and compete for the favor of the producer, who fights to keep the channel from closing. Nobody expects that Alphonso's life will come under threat, while the extras descend into madness and Jose falls in love.[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) A scholarly account of the film notes that the script continues the directors' recurring interest in microcosms of the cultural industries and their workers, and that its dialogue reflects a form of exploitation that worsened in the Spanish film and television industry during the economic crisis.[6](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/69745/1/Triana%20Toribio%20final%20edit%20with%20corrections.pdf)
## Production
De la Iglesia and Guerricaechevarría wrote the script with Raphael in mind from the start and without a fallback plan. The director said they did not approach the singer beforehand, reasoning that if they had explained the film without a finished script he would have said no; Raphael accepted after reading it, and the film was presented in the Official Section (out of competition) of the San Sebastián Festival in September 2015.[7](https://bloguionistas.com/2015/09/22/alex-de-la-iglesia-cuando-mas-local-resulta-algo-mejor-funciona-fuera/) Telefónica Studios announced its participation as co-producer in February 2015, describing the film as starring Raphael, who was returning to acting, and noting the production of Enrique Cerezo P.C. with the participation of TVE.[8](https://www.telefonica.com/es/sala-comunicacion/prensa/telefonica-studios-coproduce-mi-gran-noche-de-alex-de-la-iglesia/)
The supporting cast is large and largely drawn from de la Iglesia's regular ensemble: Santiago Segura, Carmen Machi, Hugo Silva, Carlos Areces, Terele Pávez, Carolina Bang, Carmen Ruiz, Enrique Villén, Luis Callejo, and Jaime Ordóñez, among others.[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) In an interview, actors Pepón Nieto and Blanca Suárez connected the film's spirit to the old New Year's Eve galas in which champagne was real and everything was recorded in a single take.[9](https://www.ecartelera.com/noticias/mi-gran-noche-entrevista-blanca-suarez-pepon-nieto-26533/)
De la Iglesia acknowledged that the film touches on recent Spanish social strains, including employment regulation proceedings, police violence, and corruption, but said the film is perfectly understandable without those elements, which he added to give it something more.[7](https://bloguionistas.com/2015/09/22/alex-de-la-iglesia-cuando-mas-local-resulta-algo-mejor-funciona-fuera/)
## Release and reception
The film was certified by the ICAA on 1 October 2015 and released in Spanish cinemas on 23 October 2015.[5](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714) It went on to open the 33rd Miami International Film Festival, held March 4–13, 2016, where the Miami Herald described it as a glitzy comedy about backstage antics at a taping of a television New Year's Eve special, with Raphael starring as a fictionalized version of himself.[10](https://www.mdc.edu/main/images/The%202016%20Miami%20Film%20Festival%20celebrates%20films%20from%20Spain%20_%20Miami%20Herald_tcm6-101740.pdf)
**Critical response was divided.** Aggregated scores put the film in middling territory: eCartelera lists 6.1 out of 10, [JustWatch](https://www.edgepedia.org/justwatch) shows 67 percent with an IMDb rating of 6.1 from about 5,100 votes, and SensaCine's press average is 3.4 out of 5.[11](https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/mi-gran-noche/criticas/) • [2](https://www.justwatch.com/mx/pelicula/mi-gran-noche) • [12](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-231417/criticas-prensa/) Reviewers singled out Raphael's performance for praise across the spectrum: Fotogramas wrote that the film's endurance beyond its effectiveness rests on its sophisticated strategy around the iconic Raphael, while El Mundo's critic said the film starts as a parody of New Year's Eve programs and ends up becoming just another one, adding that "Raphael arrasa" (Raphael sweeps all before him).[11](https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/mi-gran-noche/criticas/) • [12](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-231417/criticas-prensa/) At the negative end, Carlos Boyero of El País gave it 20 out of 100, complaining that the film tried constantly to make him laugh without changing his expression.[11](https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/mi-gran-noche/criticas/)
## Awards
At the 30th [Goya Awards](https://www.edgepedia.org/goya-awards) the film received 30 inscriptions and 4 nominations: best production design (Arturo García "Biaffra" and José Luis Arrizabalaga "Arri"), best costume design (Paola Torres), best sound (Sergio Bürmann, Nicolás de Poulpiquet, and David Rodríguez), and best special effects (Juan R. Molina and Curro Muñoz).[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) Its inscriptions also included best film, best director, best original screenplay, best original song ("Distance with your Lies", composed by Jimmy Barnatan), and acting categories for Raphael, Pepón Nieto, Blanca Suárez, and much of the supporting cast.[1](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/) At the Latin Beat Film Festival 2015 in Tokyo it won best director and best actor (Raphael).[5](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714)
## The song and later echoes
The title comes from "Mi gran noche", recorded by Raphael in 1968 for the film *Digan lo que digan*, in which he performs it during a scene in Buenos Aires. The song is an adaptation of "Tenez-vous bien", released in 1966 by the Italian-Belgian singer Salvatore Adamo; the two versions share music but tell different stories, Adamo's being the more pessimistic of the two. The Spanish version had a more modest success at the time than it enjoys today, and it has since become one of the most recognizable songs in Spanish popular music.[3](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/02/17/una-pelicula-argentina-y-una-adaptacion-francesa-la-intrahistoria-de-mi-gran-noche-de-raphael-cadena-ser/)
The film's title has been reused on Spanish television. TVE's New Year's Eve broadcast for 2025 carried the subtitle "Mi gran noche", hosted by the comedian Lalachus and presenter Aitor Albizua with a record participation of up to 130 public-broadcasting personalities,[13](https://elpais.com/television/2025-12-16/tve-presenta-su-navidad-jugando-al-despiste-con-sus-campanadas-a-dos-semanas-de-nochevieja.html) and RTVE's 2025 edition of the charity program Telepasión was also titled "Mi gran noche".[14](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/telepasion-espanola/telepasion-2025-gran-noche/16872206/) A 2018 immersive cinema experience in Paterna, Valencia, staged the film with about 300 attendees seated at festive tables celebrating a fictional [New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-year) 2016 party, mirroring the film's premise.[15](https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/03/03/actualidad/1520092489_678057.html?outputType=amp)
## References
1. [Mi gran noche, Premios Goya (30th edition film page)](https://www.premiosgoya.com/pelicula/mi-gran-noche/)
2. [Mi gran noche (2015), JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/mx/pelicula/mi-gran-noche)
3. [Una película, Argentina y una adaptación francesa: la intrahistoria de 'Mi gran noche' de Raphael, Cadena SER](https://cadenaser.com/nacional/2026/02/17/una-pelicula-argentina-y-una-adaptacion-francesa-la-intrahistoria-de-mi-gran-noche-de-raphael-cadena-ser/)
4. [MI GRAN NOCHE, production dossier, Ministerio de Cultura de España](https://www.cultura.gob.es/dam/jcr%3A03110f0d-8bf2-4b35-8e8e-d18eabfae3d1/Ficcion-Fiction3-2015.pdf)
5. [MI GRAN NOCHE, ICAA Film Database, file 124714](https://sede.mcu.gob.es/CatalogoICAA/Peliculas/Detalle?Pelicula=124714)
6. [Triana Toribio, academic article on Mi gran noche, University of Kent repository](https://kar.kent.ac.uk/69745/1/Triana%20Toribio%20final%20edit%20with%20corrections.pdf)
7. [Álex de la Iglesia: "Cuando más local resulta algo, mejor funciona fuera", Bloguionistas (22 September 2015)](https://bloguionistas.com/2015/09/22/alex-de-la-iglesia-cuando-mas-local-resulta-algo-mejor-funciona-fuera/)
8. [Telefónica Studios coproduce 'Mi gran noche' de Álex de la Iglesia, Telefónica press release (19 February 2015)](https://www.telefonica.com/es/sala-comunicacion/prensa/telefonica-studios-coproduce-mi-gran-noche-de-alex-de-la-iglesia/)
9. [Blanca Suárez: "No sé cómo Álex de la Iglesia ha podido hacer algo coherente de la locura que es 'Mi Gran Noche'", eCartelera](https://www.ecartelera.com/noticias/mi-gran-noche-entrevista-blanca-suarez-pepon-nieto-26533/)
10. [The 2016 Miami Film Festival celebrates films from Spain, Miami Herald (PDF)](https://www.mdc.edu/main/images/The%202016%20Miami%20Film%20Festival%20celebrates%20films%20from%20Spain%20_%20Miami%20Herald_tcm6-101740.pdf)
11. [Críticas de Mi gran noche (2015), eCartelera](https://www.ecartelera.com/peliculas/mi-gran-noche/criticas/)
12. [Críticas de prensa para la película Mi gran noche, SensaCine](https://www.sensacine.com/peliculas/pelicula-231417/criticas-prensa/)
13. [TVE presenta su Navidad jugando al despiste con sus campanadas, El País (16 December 2025)](https://elpais.com/television/2025-12-16/tve-presenta-su-navidad-jugando-al-despiste-con-sus-campanadas-a-dos-semanas-de-nochevieja.html)
14. [Telepasión 2025 - Mi gran noche, RTVE Play](https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/telepasion-espanola/telepasion-2025-gran-noche/16872206/)
15. ['Mi gran noche' dentro de la película de Álex de la Iglesia, El País (4 March 2018)](https://elpais.com/cultura/2018/03/03/actualidad/1520092489_678057.html?outputType=amp)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2015 to 2016 › Titles K to Z*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license