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Something Is About to Happen finds Antonio Méndez Esparza returning to his native Spain after a career in U.S. indie cinema to bring Juan José Millás’s novel Que Nadie Duerma vividly to life. At its center is Lucía (Malena Alterio), a forty‑year‑old It support worker whose world collapses when corporate fraud costs her job—and, with it, the stability she thought she’d earned. In a restless act of self‑reinvention, she trades cubicles for the driver’s seat of a Madrid taxi, traversing both the city’s neon‑lit boulevards and its quieter, neglected edges.

Alterio’s performance anchors this transformation, shifting from subdued caretaker to audacious night‑owl with just a glance or a tightened jaw. The film weaves dark comedy and social satire into episodic vignettes—passengers become character studies, each ride revealing a facet of urban alienation or defiant joy.

A sly...

A character study, a dark comedy, a social satire, with a sly revenge thriller snuck in for good measure, Antonio Méndez Esparza’s portentously titled Something Is About To Happen has a lot going on in its two-hour runtime. One might think too much, if it were not its gripping central performance from Malena Alterio who as Lucia, transforms from a meek and miserable It support worker balancing her time with daily errands and care for her dementia stricken father, to a risk happy taxi driver with a serious case of carpe diem. The film, both formally and feverishly, blends the mundane struggle of making ends meet in the big city, with the extreme highs and lows of operatic events. Lucia is introduced, dwarfed by...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The sophomore edition of Spain’s South International Series Festival, unspooling in Cadiz from Oct. 25-30, will spotlight Andalusia’s burgeoning audiovisual sector.

More than twenty festival activities will focus on the Andalusian audiovisual sector, with industry panels, screenings and talks highlighting the strength of the region’s output.

While presenting this year’s festival poster, Sisf’s director Joan Alvarez declared that Andalusia is entering its “Hollywood moment.” The buzzy timing in the region sees not only increased production in the South but also greater support from local bodies such as Junta Andalusia and Andalusia’s public broadcaster Canal Sur, plus the creation of events like the South International Series Festival, which offers a gathering place for local industry heads.

“We believe it’s a great opportunity for European producers to focus on what is going on in Andalusia,” Head of Programming and Industry at Sisf Carles Montiel told...

Amazon hosted its annual Prime Video Presents event in Madrid this afternoon, where the streaming giant made a raft of announcements, including new theatrical features, true crime docuseries, returning drama programs and the next season of Spain’s uber-popular singing competition “Operación Triunfo.”

Ricardo Carbonero, director of Prime Video in Spain and Portugal, and Maria José Rodríguez, head of Amazon Studios’ Spanish Originals, were in attendance. Joining them were local stars Mario Casas (“Tres metros sobre el cielo”), Elena Anaya (“The Skin I Live In”), Malena Alterio (“Aquí no hay quien viva”), Najwa Nimri (“Money Heist”), Anna Castillo (“Nowhere”) and Maxi Iglesias (“Los artistas: primeros trazos”). Also in attendence were several of the streamer’s current filmakers, including Dani de la Torre (“La sombra de la ley”), Paula Ortiz (“La novia”), Hugo Stuven (“El desafio”) and Ginesta Guindal (“Élite”).

Prime Video Presents, Madrid

According to the streamer, the first half...

Una comedia gamberra dirigida por Fer García-Ruiz. © Filmax

Se ha publicado el tráiler oficial de “Mala Persona”, una nueva comedia española, dirigida por Fer García-Ruiz (“Descarrilados”).

“Mala Persona” sigue a Pepe (Valls), querido por todos sin excepción. Es el ángel del barrio. Ese ser humano al que te llevarías a casa. Pero un día recibe la terrible noticia, esa que nadie quiere recibir: le quedan pocos meses de vida. Pepe, “fenomenalmente” aconsejado por su mejor amigo, decide pasarse al lado oscuro de la conducta humana. Una historia gamberra que narra cómo Pepe decide convertirse en un ser deleznable para que su familia y amigos no lo echen de menos cuando ya no esté.

La comedia está protagonizada por Arturo Valls, Malena Alterio (“Que Nadie Duerma”), Julián Villagrán (“Operación Camarón”) y cuenta también con la colaboración especial de José Corbacho. Completan el reparto Víctor Benjumea (“El Ministerio del Tiempo”), Teresa Lozano...

“La sociedad de la nieve” cubre de blanco la gala con 12 premios.

Ayer tuvo lugar la ceremonia de entrega de premios de los Goya. Una 38ª edición en la que “La sociedad de la nieve” se ha llevado 12 de los 13 premios a los que optaba. A la película de Bayona le sigue “20.000 especies de abejas” con 3 premios y “Robot Dreams” con 2 premios, incluido el de Mejor Guion Adaptado (probablemente la sorpresa de la noche).

Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los ganadores de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

La sociedad de la nieve

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Mejor Guion Adaptado

Robot Dreams

Mejor Guion Original

20.000 especies de abejas

Mejor Actriz Protagonista

Malena Alterio, Que Nadie Duerma

Mejor Actor Protagonista

David Verdaguer, Saben Aquell

Mejor Actriz De Reparto

Ane Gabarain, 20.000 Especies de Abejas

Mejor Actor De Reparto

Jose Coronado,...

Spanish cinema was celebrated at the 38th Annual Goya Awards in Valladolid, with Netflix’s The Society of the Snow taking a total of 12 trophies, the most of the night.

J.A. Bayona won in the Best Director category for The Society of the Snow (La Sociedad de la Nieve), with the film also taking Best Film.

The top acting awards went to Malena Alterio for Antonio Méndez Esparza’s Que Nadie Duerma (Something Is About to Happen) and to David Verdaguer for David Trueba’s Saben aquell (Jokes & Cigarettes).

Sigourney Weaver was honored with an International Goya during the ceremony with Juan Mariné receiving an honorary Goya.

See all the winners in the list below.

Premios Goya 2024 Complete Winners List

Honorary Goya

Juan Mariné

Best Supporting Actor

José Coronado

Cerrar los ojos (Close Your Eyes)

Best Original Song

“Yo solo quiero amor”

Rigoberta Bandini

Te estoy amando locamente

Best...

“20.000 especies de abejas”, “La sociedad de la nieve”, “Saben Aquell” y “Cerrar los Ojos” encabezan las nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024.

El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

20.000 especies de abejas

Cerrar los ojos

La sociedad de la nieve

Saben aquell

Un amor

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos

Elena Martín, Creatura

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

David Trueba, Saben aquell

Isabel Coixet, Un amor

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Aftersun (Reino Unido)

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Las ocho montañas (Italia)

Safe Place (Croacia)

Sala de profesores...

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, have dominated the nominations at this year’s Goya Film Awards.

The nominations for Spain’s premiere film awards event were released this morning. 20,000 species of bees clocked 15 noms, including best film, screenplay, and best new director. Bayona’s Society Of The Snow clocked 13 noms, also landing in best film. Veteran Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice trails behind with 11 nominations for his comeback feature Close Your Eyes, starring Ana Torrent.

20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.

Bayona...

Ten years after clinching Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize with “Aquí y allá,” and half a decade following “Life and Nothing More,” which earned a John Cassavetes Award at the Independent Spirit Awards – a film Variety hailed as ‘outstanding’—Antonio Méndez Esparza returns with his fourth feature, “Something is About to Happen.”

Co-written with Clara Roquet, a Critics’ Week-selected director for “Libertad,” Esparza’s latest film delves into the life of Lucía, who loses her It job at a failing dental firm and becomes a taxi driver.

The profession she chooses is apt as we follow a character sat in loneliness moving among people while longing to connect deeply with someone. The clarity of the title and immediate rising strings of the soundtrack set the screw of tension turning in this fascinating character piece.

Esparza’s previous two features have a neorealist, almost documentary-like quality, working with non actors and using improvisation heavily.

The 68th edition will screen a mix of new Spanish films and 2023 favourites and host an expanded industry programme.

The 68th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week opens this weekend (October 21) with a screening of The Movie Teller, directed by Lone Scherfig, starring Bérénice Béjo, Antonio de la Torre and Daniel Brühl and written by Walter Salles, Isabel Coixet and Rafa Russo.

For what is a vital launchpad into the Spanish market, new festival director José Luis Cienfuegos has programmed a series of international festival favourites from 2023 alongside new films by Spanish directors Antonio Méndez Esparza and...

Oscar award-winning veteran producer Gerardo Herrero, (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) returns to the director’s chair with “Under Therapy,” his stark and unnerving big screen rendition of playwright Matías Del Federico’s theatrical production. The project bowed in competition at the Málaga Film festival earlier this week and is set for broader theatrical release in Spanish cinemas on Friday.

Latido Films handles international sales.

Enamored with the staged rendition, Herrero was inspired to add a distinctly cinematic touch to the script, honoring its darker underpinnings amidst the narratives’ anxious banter.

“The first time that I saw the production, I fell in love with the work,” Herrero told Variety. “Despite the fact that the show’s very well directed, written and performed, for me it’s much lighter than the movie. The movie’s not a comedy, it’s a drama with humor,” he revealed. “I love that they laugh and that afterwards they freeze,...

Que nadie duerma

Settling into his fourth feature film (and third fiction following 2020’s Courtroom 3H) in February of last year, Spaniard Antonio Mendez Esparza teamed with writer-director Clara Roquet on the screenplay for professional impasse in a woman’s life. Starring Aitana Sánchez-Gijón and Malena Alterio, this was originally titled “Madrid It Is,” and is about reinvention and….revenge and is based on Juan José Millás’ novel. Esparza first blasted onto the scene with 2012’s Aquí y Allá (a Cannes Critic’s Week winner) and 2017’s Life and Nothing More (TIFF/San Sebastián entry), the filmmaker reteamed with Barbu Balasoiu. Aquí y Allí Films’ Pedro Hernández produced what smells like a comedy tweaked with darkness.…...

Spanish producer-distributor Wanda Films is set to co-produce Antonio Méndez Esparza‘s “Madrid Is It,” a thriller with comedic touches produced by Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films, the Madrid-based outfit that has backed all of the features directed by Esparza, one of Spain’s most laureled and lauded directors.

“Madrid Is It” focuses on Lucía, who leads a discrete life, has a peculiar sense of humor and sense of duty, and a dreamy personality. Her quiet life suddenly changes, however, when her boss embezzles funds at the company and everybody lose their jobs. She decides to reinvent her life, working as a taxi driver. When her life finally seems to regain a certain stability and ease, Lucía sees how everything takes another turn for the worst and the film, to this point a comedy, turns into a revenge thriller.

“‘Madrid Is It’ will also be a road movie across Madrid,...

El rey tuerto director’s second film is currently shooting in Navarre and stars Verónica Forqué, Santi Millán, Malena Alterio and Natalia Molina among other actors. The filming of Marc Crehuet’s Espejo espejo began the first days of August in Pamplona. The filmmaker made his debut in feature films four years ago with The One-eyed King, which earned a Goya nomination in the Best New Director category. The cast included a number of renowned actors: Verónica Forqué, Santi Millán, Natalia de Molina, Malena Alterio, Carlos Areces, Toni Acosta, Carlos Bardem, Silvia Abascal, Antonio Resines, Loles León, Luis Bermejo and Marta Tomasa. With Crehuet also as the scriptwriter, the film tells the story of the 50th anniversary of Manie Cosmetics, all members of staff are excited and nervous. Alex, the marketing and communication director, knows that redundancies will be made and wants to show the new CEO that although he is almost.

San Sebastian — Barcelona-based boutique studio Filmax has acquired international rights to Argentine producer-director Beda Docampo’s “The Curse of the Handsome Man,” produced by Ibón Cormenzana’s Arcadia Motion Pictures alongside Cados Producciones and Damned Besso –based in Spain—in co-production with Cecilia Díez’s Zarlek Producciones (“Medianeras”) in Argentina.

The film is backed by Spanish public broadcaster Tve and national agencies Icaa (Spain) and Incaa Argentina).

“Curse” marks a new partnership between Filmax and Arcadia who teamed on Mateo Gil’s “Lazarus Project” and “Kilian Jornet: Path to Everest.” A scam-driven romantic comedy, its cast includes Gonzalo de Castro (Javier Ruiz Caldera’s “Superlopez”), Juan Grandinetti (Federico Godfrid’s “Pinamar”), Malena Alterio (TV series “Spanish Shame”), Cayetana Guillén Cuervo (Cesc Gay’s “A Gun in Each Hand”) and Ginés García Millán (TV series “Slaughterhouse”).

“This con-man romantic comedy is not only funny, its elegance is reminiscent of a Woody Allen film,...

Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Que nadie duerma,” Fernando Franco’s “La consagración de la primavera” and Agustí Villaronga’s “3.000 obstáculos” figure among the seven projects to be pitched at Paris’ Small Is Biutiful forum.

The closing event for the alternative Spanish film festival Dífferent 12!, Small Is Biutiful takes place June 26, bringing together French distributors and sales executives around a selection of Spanish feature projects seeking partners.

Backed by the Cannes Film Market, Different! is organised by Espagnolas en Paris and the Ile-de-France Film Commission.

Past projects presented at Small Is Biutiful take in Oliver Laxe’s “Mimosas,” which won Cannes 2016 Critics’ Week; Carlos Vermut’s “Magical Girl,” San Sebastián’s top Golden Shell Award in 2014, and Arantxa Echevarría’s “Carmen & Lola,” winner of breakout director and supporting actress nods at February’s Goya Awards, as well as a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight contender.

“Que nadie duerma” is produced by Pedro Hernández...

Production on comedy underway in Madrid.

Source: Sony

Sony Pictures International Productions (Spip) and FeelGood Media will jointly produce comedy Under The Same Roof (Bajo El Mismo Techo) from director Juana Macías (Embarazados).

Styled as a novel twist on a traditional story of a couple’s conflict, the film Bajo El Mismo Techo follows a middle-aged couple as they weigh up whether to divorce or stay together amid rising tensions.

Jordi Sánchez, Silvia Abril, Daniel Guzmán, Malena Alterio, Álvaro Cervantes, Cristina Castaño and Ana Morgade star. Macías (pictured) has begun shooting in Madrid.

“Under The Same Roof is about one of the toughest tests to which one can be subjected: divorcing your partner and having to keep living under the same roof,” the director said.

“I was very interested in putting two normal people in an extreme situation that is both recognizable and fun at the same time, a situation in which my protagonists are as contradictory...

Sony Pictures International has come on board to produce Spanish-language comedy Under the Same Roof from Juana Macias, the director of the 2016 hit We Are Pregnant. 

The feature tells the story of a couple who bought their house during the heydey of Spain's real-estate bubble. Years later, when their daughter leaves home, the couple decides to divorce but continue to live under the same roof, because house prices have collapsed, and they can't afford to sell their home.

Jordi Sanchez and Silvia Abril star as the couple, with Daniel Guzman, Malena Alterio, Alvaro Cervantes, Cristina Castano and Ana Morgade...