Three months before Spanish premiere, Alejandro Amenábar gave a photo to the media to be shown all over the nation to make people get used to Bardem's make-up and forget about it while watching the film to pay attention to his performance.
This was the most awarded Spanish movie at the Goya Awards, winning 14 of the 15 awards for which it was nominated.
Javier Bardem recalls the scene where his character and Rosa (Lola Dueñas) are watching the sunset as one of the most magical moments of his career, because somehow they were so into the characters that were able to forget the crew and just be in the moment.
This is the second Spanish movie about Ramon Sampedro's life. The first one was Condenado a vivir (2001).
Selected by the Spanish Cinematographic Academy to represent Spain in the Best Foreign Language Film Category of the 2004 Oscars.