The Others, the thriller starring Nicole Kidman, has swept the board at Spain's prestigious Goya Film Awards.

The movie, directed by Spain's Alejandro Amenabar, 27, was nominated for 15 prizes and won eight, including best film, director and screenplay.

He said the award culminated "a long, three-year journey and amounts to recognition for hard work in a country where it is hard to get others to acknowledge you".

But the awards, now in their 16th year, caused controversy, with complaints that it was not really Spanish because it was done in English, although the film was financed with Spanish money.

Lord of the Rings is in the running at the Baftas

The film was set in a haunted house in Britain during World War II, and has been a box-office success on both sides of the Atlantic, and is called Los Otros in Spanish.

Although Kidman was nominated for a Goya as best actress, she lost out to Pilar Lopez de Ayala for her interpretation of Juana, the troubled daughter of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel.

Kidman did not attend the ceremony.

Film director Vicente Aranda, nominated for a Goya for best film for Juana la Loca about a 16th-Century Spanish queen, refused to attend Saturday night's ceremony.

Oscars

He said Hollywood already dominated Spanish cinema and nominating Kidman did not help.

The prize for best actor went to Eduard Fernandez for Fausto 5.0, a thriller about a doctor who treats the terminally ill and is led on a bizarre adventure when he runs into a former patient at a medical convention.

The awards are the latest in the build-up to the Oscars in March.

Last month's Golden Globes were dominated by Kidman and Rusell Crowe, and their films - the musical Moulin Rouge and the biopic A Beautiful Mind.

Meanwhile the adaptation of JRR Tolkien's The Lord Of The Rings and Moulin Rouge are each nominated for 12 British Academy Film Awards.

And the Screen Actors Guild Awards has nominated A Beautiful Mind and the dark drama, In The Bedroom for the majority of its awards.