News

Spain’s Aquí y Allí Films, behind Antonio Méndez Esparza’s “Life and Nothing More,” winner of the John Cassavetes Spirit Award in 2017, is preparing a new film, “Stay,” an identity dramedy set in Madrid’s queer community.

London-based Altitude Films has boarded the project as its international sales agent.

In it, Sophie, a “normal” American girl who studies in Madrid is introduced to Spain’s queer community by her non-binary tutor, where she breaks free from the rules and expectations which have governed her life.

Set to be presented at the Spanish Screenings on Tour Producers’ Showcase at the American Film Market, “Stay” has been penned by American writer Angela Paolini and Spain’s Caru Basakatua.

Paolini has also been a consultant and co-editor on several novels, including five No. 1 New York Times bestsellers and is the author of one of the stories in the anthology “The Fork, The Witch,...

Write about what you know, the old adage runs. In “Rita,” her debut as a writer-director-producer, Spain’s Paz Vega has certainly taken that to heart. Years before breaking out with 2001’s “Sex and Lucia,” then starring opposite Adam Sandler in 2004’s “Spanglish,” Vega grew up in Triana, a district of Seville, in Spain’s Andalusia.

Set in 1984 in an unpretentious part of Vega’s native city, “Rita” co-stars Paz, one of Spain’s best-known faces in international cinema, but it’s a literally self-effacing turn. Although she plays Rita’s mother Mari, and she’s present in multiple scenes, her face is not seen until minute 14 of the film. The focus is on Rita, 7, just one year younger than Vega in real-life in 1984, and her little brother, Lolo, 5.

This is for the most part, or the earlier part of the “Rita,” a nostalgic recreation of Paz’s childhood whose...

Netflix Original “The Society of the Snow” won best picture and director for J.A. Bayona at Saturday night’s 38th Spanish Academy Goya Awards.

Those plaudits were two of a total 12 prizes, the third-highest kudos count for any title in the Goyas’ near 40-year history.

The lineup of best picture nominees was, however, a reminder in itself of the high quality and diversity of Spain’s current film production output. These took in Estibaliz’s Urresola Berlin triple winner “20,000 Species of Bees,” David Trueba’s real-life tender love story “Jokes & Cigarettes,” Isabel Coixet’s probing “Un Amor” and Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” an “aching ode to film, time and memory,” Variety wrote in its review.

Even after Bayona took best director there was still genuine suspense whether he would also win best picture, after best adapted screenplay went to “Robot Dreams” and “Jokes & Cigarettes” took best actor for David Verdaguer.

El País, a Spanish-language newspaper based in Madrid that is the second-largest newspaper in the country, is reporting that filmmaker Carlos Vermut sexually abused three women.

Vermut, winner of the San Sebastián Film Festival’s Golden Shell for the neo-noir movie Magical Girl (2014), said his relationships with his accusers were consensual. He was interviewed three times by the media outlet, and claimed not to have been “aware of having exercised sexual violence against any woman.”

“I have always practiced rough sex in a consensual manner, because I believe that consent is very important,” he said. “It’s another thing if the person… if she later felt bad — and maybe, at the time, was afraid to say it — I can’t know that.

“I would like it to be published that I’ve had many relationships of many types, always wanting the other person to be ok. And I think that...

Ken Loach’s ‘The Old Oak’ takes Spanish festival’s audience prize.

The 68th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as Seminci, wrapped on Saturday (October 28), giving its top award, the Golden Spike, to Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture.

It is the first time the best feature award at the long-running film festival has been won by a Spanish woman director.

Ferrés previously directed short film The Disinherited which won the Cannes Discovery Award for best short in 2017.

See below for full list of winners

The Permanent Picture is the story of an introverted middle-aged...

Spanish distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, broadcasters and platforms st the Merci market.

Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week, will host an expanded third edition of Spain’s Independent Film Market for the first time from October 25-27.

Known as Merci Valladolid, the market is jointly organised by Seminci and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).

The market used to be held at the Seville European Film Festival, which was previously run by Seminici’s new director José Luis Cienfuegos.

Sixteen Spanish independent distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, television networks and platforms at Merci Valladolid.

Three years ago, we heard that genre regular Álex de la Iglesia – whose credits include creating the HBO horror series 30 Coins – had signed a deal with Amazon Prime Video and Sony Pictures International Productions to produce a series of feature-length horror films under the banner of The Fear Collection. It was said that de la Iglesia would be directing part of the collection and the entries not directed by him would still be “made under his creative influence”. The collection has turned out to consist of de la Iglesia’s own Veneciafrenia, Jaume Balaguero’s Venus, and Paco Plaza’s La Abuela – and all three films are now available on VOD, including on Amazon’s Prime Video!

De la Iglesia, who made his feature directorial debut with Accion Mutante in 1993, directed Veneciafrenia (watch it Here) from a screenplay he wrote with Jorge Guerricaechevarría. This one explores the profound connection...

Following Goya and Catalan Gaudi prize wins for short “The Disinherited” which also won a Cannes Discovery Award, Laura Ferrés’ debut feature “The Permanent Picture” is setting its sights on the Golden Leopard at the Locarno Film Festival.

Drawing from a rich tapestry of personal and historical narratives, Ferrés showcases her distinctive approach to storytelling, blending dry humor and captivating cinematography with a resonant narrative.

The film is a journey through the lives of migrants who moved from Andalusia to Catalonia, inspired by the director’s own grandmother’s post-war experiences. Coupling real elements with fictional constructs, the film strikes a delicate balance between naturalism and artifice.

It opens in rural Southern Spain. We meet Antonia, played by Rosario Oretega, a teenager pushing against convention. In the opening moments she is challenged that those who can’t control themselves can’t be pretty, to which her retort is “Who said I wanted to be pretty?...

Former Film Factory executive Manon Barat joins company as dedicated sales executive.

Heading into Cannes XYZ Films has launched New Visions, an initiative to champion bold global voices, kicking off with Directors’ Fortnight entry In Flames.

Former Film Factory executive Manon Barat has joined the company as a dedicated sales executive and will work alongside longtime head of international acquisitions Todd Brown to oversee the slate.

The highly curated New Visions will discover and support the next generation of filmmakers and give established talents room to make smaller, more intimate and challenging work.

Besides Zarrar Kahn’s Pakistani-Canadian horror In Flames,...

XYZ Films has unveiled New Visions, an initiative designed to spotlight bold new voices alongside established talent striking a new path in the international cinema space.

The initiative will serve as a curated collection of films that “exists to discover and support the next generation of great filmmakers at the inception of their career, and to give established talents room to do something smaller, more intimate, or challenging outside of the usual box of independent filmmaking,” XYZ said in a statement.

The slate will launch in Cannes with Directors’ Fortnight selection “In Flames,” a Pakistani-Canadian horror film directed by Zarrar Kahn and executive produced by Shant Joshi. As revealed by Variety, XYZ had boarded the title last year. In the Karachi-set film, after the death of the family patriarch, a mother and daughter’s precarious existence is ripped apart by figures from their past – both real and phantasmal. They must...

XYZ Films have launched a new label for low-budget international genre films, called New Visions.

The company will launch its first New Visions slate at the Cannes Film Market next month with In Flames, the feature debut of Pakistani-Canadian director Zarrar Kahn. The Urdu-language horror movie, which was just picked for the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight lineup, follows a young woman who is tormented by vivid hallucinations after the death of her boyfriend. Other titles in the New Visions slate include the Czech science fiction title Restore Point from director Robert Hloz, and Irish folk horror All You Need Is Death from Very Extremely Dangerous helmer Paul Duane.

XYZ Films has hired Manon Barat, formerly a sales and marketing executive with Barcelona-based Film Factory Entertainment, as a dedicated sales executive overseeing the new slate, working alongside XYZ head of international acquisitions Todd Brown.

Brown framed the new label as a return to the roots for XYZ,...

XYZ Films has hired Manon Barat, a former executive at the Spanish sales company Film Factory, to head a slate of titles that will fall under the company’s newly-launched global film initiative, New Visions.

Barat will work alongside XYZ Head of International Acquisitions Todd Brown to oversee the new slate, which the company has described as a “highly curated collection of films.”

XYZ will launch the new slate in Cannes with In Flames, a Pakistani-Canadian horror film directed by Zarrar Kahn and executive produced by Shant Joshi. The pic will screen as part of the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar. Check out a first-look image from the film below.

Other titles from the initial New Visions slate include the Czech sci-fi pic Restore Point, directed by Robert Hloz and produced by Jan Kallista, which will have footage screened at the Marché du Film as part of the Fantastic 7 lineup. Paul Duane...

“Girl, Unknown,” the sophomore feature from Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”), currently ranks as one of the early buzz titles at the Málaga Film Festival, even before its world premiere.

The film adapts Paco Bezerra’s stage play “Grooming.” Maqueda, Bezerra and Haizea G. Viana wrote the script, which retains the play’s unsettling cat-and-mouse element. It delves into the recesses of desire, raising questions on depravity, sexuality, and the drive to be fulfilled. The story unfolds a pendulum swinging power dynamic between the seemingly innocent 16 year old Carolina, and a middle aged man she meets in a park named Leo. What begins and is a case of grooming morphs into something far more complex due to Carolina not being all she seems. Maqueda shows a Hanekesque talent in balancing the disturbing with the thrilling. On the film, Maqueda told Variety: “I feel the film as a kaleidoscope and the characters as masks.

Segundo Premio will tell the story of influential rock indie group Los Planetas.

Catalan director Isaki Lacuesta, a double Golden Shell winner at San Sebastian for Between Two Waters (2018) and The Double Steps (2011), is set to start shooting his new feature, musical Segundo Premio (English working title: Saturn Return).

The film is a co-production between La Terraza Films, Áralan Films, Ikiru Films and BTeam prods from Spain and France’s Capricci Films.

Although is not a biopic, Segundo Premio will tell the story of Los Planetas, an influential Spanish indie rock group. It will depict “a very special period of...

Segundo Premio will tell the story of influential rock indie group Los Planetas.

Catalan director Isaki Lacuesta, a double Golden Shell winner at San Sebastian for Between Two Waters (2018) and The Double Steps (2011), is set to start shooting his new feature, musical Segundo Premio (English working title: Saturn Return).

The film is a co-production between La Terraza Films, Áralan Films, Ikiru Films and BTeam prods from Spain and France’s Capricci Films.

Although is not a biopic, Segundo Premio will tell the story of Los Planetas, an influential Spanish indie rock group. It will depict “a very special period of...

Laura Ferrés’ “The Permanent Picture” has been acquired by Be For Films. The deal is announced a fortnight before the film screens at Malaga Wip where it ranks as the most buzzed of the section’s titles.

The debut follows Ferrés success with short “The Disinherited,” which won the 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week Leica Cine Discovery Prize, in addition to grabbing Goya and Gaudi gongs. It depicts the director’s own father reluctantly facing the end of the family business.

“The Permanent Picture” is produced by Spain’s Fasten Films, in co-production with Le Bureau (France), and Volta Production (Spain).

Selected by Variety as a Spanish talent to track, Ferrés studied at Barcelona’s prestigious Escac film school. Part of the inspiration for this film, though it’s not autobiographical, stems from the director’s years working as a casting director in the advertising sector.

Ferrés wrote the film in collaboration...

Madrid-based Aquí y Allí Films, one of Spain’s most successful auteur movie production houses, is joining forces with popular Spanish actor turned writer-director Daniel Guzmán to produce drama thriller “La deuda.”

Backed by Spain’s pay TV giant Movistar+ and public broadcaster Rtve, “La deuda” will be produced by Aquí y Allí’s Pedro Hernández and Guzmán at El Niño Producciones.

The film is scheduled to roll in Madrid by the fall.

Written by Guzmán, “La deuda” tells the story of Lucas, a 37-year-old man and the 86 year-old woman Antonia, who live together in a city too big to be alone. Lucas is looking for a job but the job seems not to be looking for him.

Despite the economic difficulties they are going through, and their generational difference, they live day to day with a certain enthusiasm. Until Lucas’ decision will change the rest of their lives.

“I...

Fresh off her 2023 Goya best actress win for “Lullaby” on Saturday night,” Laia Costa is set to star in the passionate romance drama “Un Amor,” by multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet.

Film Constellation, the London and now Paris-based production, finance & sales company, will introduce the new production to buyers at thus and next week’s Berlin European Film Market.

Distributor of Berlin competition entry “20,000 Species if Bees” and La Maternal, a San Sebastian best leading performance winner for Carla Quílez, BTeam Pictures will handle the film’s release in Spain.

Written by Spanish novelist and short-story writer Laura Ferrero and Coixet, “Un Amor” is based on an admired novel by Sara Mesa. A fiction study of emotional dependence in which Mesa returns to the themes of power and subjugation which thread much of her work, “Un Amor” was selected by Spanish newspaper El Pais as Spain’s 2020 book of the year.

Three first features from Spain’s burgeoning next generation of female filmmakers, led by Cannes Critics’ Week winner Laura Ferrès, is one highlight at this year’s Málaga Work in Progress, an Málaga Festival industry centerpiece where productions such as “The Platform” first saw the light of day.

Playing in Malaga Wip, “The Platform” was acquired by Latido Film which sold the title to Netflix at Toronto. It has gone on to rank as the third most-watched non-English movie ever on Netflix.

At least three titles – Spanish road movie “Devil Dog Road,” horror pic “The Hidden City,” the neo-noir “Foremost by Night” – boast genre gristle. Some titles turn on gender oppression (“As Neves”), female self-discovery (“Mara’s Vacation”) or sexual diversity (“I Trust You”). Many, especially from Spain, have social-issue overtones.

Production companies range from established indie forces – Madrid’s Aquí y Allí, Buenos Aires’ Magma Cine, Portugal’s Ukbar Filmes – to on-the-rise outfits,...

The manticore is a creature from Persian mythology with the head of a lion and the tail of a scorpion. It is capable of shooting poisonous spines at its enemies and prey. I like this minimalist and old school poster design for Carlos Vermut's Manticore, which was brought to my attention recently by our own Shelagh Rowan-Legg, who reviewed the film when it played in Toronto in the fall. The head of the lion here is replaced by the head (and gaze) of the films protagonist. It also evokes the one-eyed Jack in a deck of cards, a symbol in itself of rebirth. The rest of the eponymous creature is folded in upon itself to conform to the shape and constraints of the key art....

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

Cannes’ Critics Week winner Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture is among the projects.

Cannes’ Critics Week winner Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture and the new film from Tribeca winner Elina Psykou are among 14 feature projects in post-production selected for the 2022 in-person edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival Work in Progress session.

The annual industry event designed to help projects find international sales agents, distributors and festival premieres will run on Sunday, December 11 as part of the Industry Village at the 13th edition of the festival (December 11-19).

Scroll down for the full list of projects

This year,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ’The Beasts’ has 17 nominations.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts leads the nominees for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, with 17, followed closely by Alberto Rodríguez’s Prison 77 on 16.

The Beasts, which had its world premiere at Cannes, centres around a French couple who cause tensions in the local village to which they move. The psychological thriller is nominated in all major categories including best film where it lines up with Prison 77, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s Lullaby, Pilar Palomero’s La Maternal and Carla Simón’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs.

Scroll down for the full nominations

Alcarràs is...

The Torino Film Festival, which celebrates its 40th edition this year, will open with a special musical and visual event focusing on two of the most iconic British bands – the Beatles and the Rolling Stones – and their love for cinema, which led them to work with the likes of Richard Lester, Jean-Luc Godard, Jonas Mekas, Wim Wenders and Martin Scorsese.

The 70-minute event, set to be held at the prestigious Teatro Regio on Nov. 25 and broadcast by Rai Radio3, will feature “both rare and never-before-seen archive footage.”

Film critic Steve Della Casa, who served as the gathering’s artistic director from 1999-2002, is back at the helm. In his introductory remarks, he described Torino as “a true urban festival,” which places great importance on the theatrical experience, and set to attract both industry reps as well as a large young, cinephile audience. Moreover, this year’s edition will see the inauguration of Casa Festival,...

La Pietà.Something strange is brewing in Spain. At this year’s Fantastic Fest, the biggest genre festival in the US, two Spanish horror films picked up major awards: Eduardo Casanova’s La Pietà won the top prize in the Main Competition, and Carlota Pereda’s Piggy won best picture in the Horror Features category. This year’s selection included not just one or two, but eight Spanish-made horror films (plus one co-production and a series): the sci-fi adjacent Amazing Elisa and The Antares Paradox; new work by established names like Carlos Vermut with Manticore, Jaume Balangueró with Venus, and Casanova with La Pietà; and the series Garcia! (In the interest of full disclosure: I’m a programmer at the festival.) Outside of the strong representation at this year’s showcase, over the last few years there has been a noticeable upsurge in genre pictures coming from mainland Spain:...

Top Spanish arthouse distributor-producer Avalon had boarded “La niña de la cabra” (“Goat Girl”), the sophomore film by actor-director Ana Asensio whose “Most Beautiful Island” feature snagged the SXSW Grand Jury Award in 2017.

The project, which has just earned support from Spain’s Icaa film institute, is set up at Aquí y Allí Films and co-produced with Romania’s Avantpost Media. Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films is the producer behind Antonio Méndez Esparza’s festival hits “Here and There,” a Cannes Critics’ Week winner, and “Life and Nothing More.”

An allegorical drama set in the suburbs of Madrid in the late ’80s, “Goat Girl” is scheduled to roll in 2023 and has been acquired for international sales by Paris-based Alpha Violet.

Both Avalon and Aquí y Allí share a close relationship since they teamed on Carlos Vermut’s “Magical Girl,” which scooped San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, distribution...

Tokyo International Film Festival’s 35th edition will include titles from Bui Thac Chuyen, Olivia Wilde and Hiroki Ryuichi.

The 35th Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) today unveiled its line-up for its first full-scale physical edition since the pandemic started, with 15 international competition titles including its first from Vietnam - Bui Thac Chuyen’s Glorious Ashes.

Set to make its world premiere at TIFF, the film was a recipient of the Asean Co-production Fund (Acof) launched by the Film Development Council of the Philippines (Fdcp) and the Southeast Asia co-production grant (Scpg) established by the Singapore Film Commission (Sfc), as...

Iranian action drama “World War III,” which won two awards at the recent Venice festival, will feature among the main competition titles at next month’s Tokyo International Film Festival.

The festival will operate as an in-person event with foreign filmmakers, media and other guests in attendance from Oct. 24-Nov. 2, 2022.

“World War III” is joined in the competition section by the world premiere of Milcho Manchevski’s “Kaymak,” Spanish director Carlos Vermut’s “Manticore” and Roberta Torre’s “The Fabulous Ones,” Michale Boganim’s “Tel Aviv Beirut,” and Youssef Chebbi’s debut film “Ashkal.”

The 15-strong competition also includes two Japanese films Imaizumi Rikiya’s “By The Window” and Matsunaga Daishi’s “Egoist” and two Japanese co-productions, Fukunaga Takeshi’s “Mountain Woman,” and Kyrgyzstan director Aktan Arym Kubat’s “This Is What I Remember.”

Winners from the competition section will be chosen by a jury headed by Julie Taymor, along with Joao Pedro Rodrigues,...

Spanish filmmaker Carlos Vermut has never been one to shy away from difficult subjects or characters, whether it be cruel kidnappings or heartbreaking suicides, his methodical and considerate touch gives more insight and power to the brutality of his character's lives. It's no wonder that his latest film, Manticore, would tackle one of the most taboo subjects, and as usual, with Vermut's signature style that will leave much of its audience reeling in shameful fascination. Julián (Nacho Sánchez) is a graphic modeller for a video game company, creating the kind of monstors and creatures that gamers love to battle. In his social life, he is painfully shy, living in a fair-sized apartment, working from home as often as possible, and...

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

Spanish production and distribution company Elamedia has acquired “Tengo sueños eléctricos” (I Have Electric Dreams), the Locarno prize-winning debut by director Valentina Maurel, which will screen in the Horizontes Latinos section of the San Sebastian Film Festival. Elamedia will be releasing the film in Spanish theaters later this year.

Set in Costa Rica, “Electric Dreams” follows Eva (Daniela Marin Navarro), a strong-willed 16-year-old girl who lives with her mother, her younger sister and their cat, but desperately wants to move in with her estranged father (Reinaldo Amien Guttierez). Clinging onto him as he goes through a second adolescence, she balances between the tenderness and sensitivity of teenage life and the ruthlessness of the adult world.

Produced by Wrong Men (Belgium) and Geko Films (France) and co-produced with Tres Tigres (Costa Rica), the film had its world premiere in the international competition at Locarno, where Maurel won the award for best...

Set to film in 2023, the thriller will be presented at San Sebastian’s Creative Investors’ Conference.

Leading Spanish distribution and production company A Contracorriente has boarded Whalemen – At the Ends of Earth (Baleazaleak), which is to be directed by veteran Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur.

The project is at an advanced stage of development and will be presented to potential co-producers and international distributors at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s inaugural Creative Investors’ Conference, which runs on September 19 and 20 as part of the Spanish Screenings: Financing & Tech strand.

A Contracorriente has boarded as a co-producer and will distribute the title in Spain.

Ferrés’ debut feature started shooting this week near Barcelona.

Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.

Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.

Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.

Ferrés’ debut feature started shooting this week near Barcelona.

Director Carlos Vermut, whose Magical Girl won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, has teamed up with director Laura Ferrés to co-write a final version of the script for feature The Permanent Picture.

Ferrés’ feature debut The Permanent Picture started shooting this week in El Prat de Llobregat, near Barcelona. Ferrés previously directed 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited.

Producer Nadine Rothschild of newly-launched Barcelona-based independent production company Volta Films has also boarded The Permanent Picture, alongside Adrià Monés at Barcelona’s Fasten Films and Gabrielle Dumon at Le Bureau.

The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced the international arm of its festival. Taking place September 8 through 18, TIFF previously unveiled Sally El Hosaini’s opening night film “The Swimmers” as well as Special Presentations including the world premieres of Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical “The Fabelmans,” Rian Johnson’s “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” and Nicholas Stoller’s “Bros.”

“The Woman King,” “Catherine Called Birdy,” “The Menu,” “Moonage Daydream,” and “My Policeman” additionally debut at the festival.

Now, the Contemporary World Cinema slate has been announced for 2022 TIFF. The lineup includes features from more than 50 countries spanning the globe. The respective world premieres for “Bones of Crows” and “The Swearing Jar” are among programming highlights, as well as the North American premieres for Koji Fukada’s “Love Life” and Jerzy Skolimowski’s “Eo.”

“We are so proud of the TIFF Docs and Contemporary World Cinema programs,” Anita Lee, chief programming officer,...

Spanish thesp Luis Tosar has joined the cast of sci-fi comedy “Golem,” produced by Spain’s top indie house Aquí y Allí Films.

Directed by Juan González and Fernando Martínez (a.k.a. Burnin’ Percebes), the project toplines Brays Efe, star of Netflix hit series “Paquita Salas,” Goya Award winner Bruna Cusí (“Summer 1993”) and Javier Botet.

Aquí y Allí Films’ Pedro Hernández and Elamedia’s Roberto Butragueño produce the film, scheduled to roll in Madrid from August.

Elamedia will distribute in Spain.

Aquí y Allí is one of the five Spanish companies selected by Spain’s trade promotion board Icex and the Icaa film institute to pitch their production slates at Cannes’ Producers Network.

Burnin’ Percebes earned a reputation as a cult indie film pair with previous features “Searching for Meritxell,” “Ikea 2” and “The Lizard Queen.”

“Golem” narrates the story of two friends, Juan and David, who after an...

“El agua,” (Elena López Riera)

A Directors’ Fortnight title, the feature debut of Locarno winning López Riera (“Los Que Desean”), a fantasy-laced village-set critique of gender violence. S.A. Elle Driver

“Alcarràs,” (Carla Simón)

The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, Simón’s follow-up to “Summer 1993” and the flagship title for Catalonia and Spain’s newest filmmaking generation. S.A. MK2 Films

“Amazing Elisa,” (Sádrac González-Perellón)

The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González-Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, plans revenge after her mother’s tragic death. S.A. Filmax

“The Beasts,” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, playing Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte. S.A. Latido Films

“The Communion Girl,” (Víctor García)

A revenge thriller involving an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress. S.

Barcelona-based Filmax has picked up international sales rights to psychological thriller “Girl Unknown” (“La desconocida”), the sophomore film by Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”).

The film is based on the hit play “Grooming,” penned by Paco Bezerra, which has been adapted in more than 10 countries. Filmax is launching the film with a first promo at the European Film Market.

“Girl Unknown,” a Spanish co-production from Fórmula Cine Aie in association with Elamedia Estudio and La Fragua Producciones, shot on locations in Madrid and Albacete, and is currently in post.

Maqueda, Bezerra and Haizea G. Viana wrote the script, which retains the play’s cat and mouse element, as well as the constant plot twists.

The story follows Carolina, a seemingly naive and charming young girl who meets Leo, an adult man passing himself off as a 16-year-old boy, online. But when they meet in a remote city park, Leo...

Since the 1980s Alberto Iglesias has created beautiful, thrilling music for the screen working broadly throughout his native Spain and Hollywood and with a versatile array of directors and genres—underpinned by his iconic collaborations with Pedro Almodóvar. Iglesias' film suites are fashioned with lucious jazz and emotive orchestral poetry. He beautifully balances the tension of theatrical melodrama with voyages into memory and the vibrancy of inner-city life, with its sophisticated glamour and debauched underbellies. This mix provides a healthy dose of Iglesias collaborations with Almodóvar, from their early years with films such as The Flower of My Secret (1995) and Live Flesh (1997) to this year’s Parallel Mothers and The Human Voice (where Igelsias’s key focus was to riff on his Almodóvar themes of the past). Julio Medem’s Sex and Lucia (2001) defines the 2000s moment of contemporary Spanish cinema’s bursts on the global sphere, soundtracked by that early millenium “Igelsias” sound.

Based out of the U.S. and Spain, 34T Sales has taken international rights to surrealist romcom “The Queen of Lizards,” directed by Nando Martínez and Juan González, who go by the name of Burnin’ Percebes.

The feature is produced by Pedro Hernández at Madrid-based Aquí y Allí Films which first caught notice with “Here and There,” the debut feature of Antonio Méndez Esparza, which won Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize in 2012. Carlos Vermut’s “Magical Girl” scooped San Sebastian’s Golden Shell in 2016, while another Aqua y all production, Méndez Esparza’s “Life and Nothing More,” was proclaimed an “essential film2 of 2017 by Variety.

The Spanish producer has proven to have a keen eye for discovering young original talent working on stories deeply rooted in memorable characters.

Martínez and González broke out with their first feature, 2014’s “Searching for Meritxell,” then made “Ikea 2,” two low-cost indie features which confronted classic scenarios,...

The heart of Conecta Fiction is its pitching sessions where producers and creators bring onto the market, looking for partners and sales, projects which have often flown completely under the radar. Following, details of titles in the three main sections at Conecta Fiction:

Copro Series

“Antonio,” (Enrique Videla, Paula del Fierro, Zumbastico Studios, Pipeline Studios, Chile)

A sci-fi parable for the young teen crowd backed by Zumbastico (“Paper Port”), owned by Canada’s Pipeline Studios Group. Antonio (13) can repair most anything, except for his ailing mother. But by entering a strange mechanical world, he gets a chance to make that repair as well. From two of the writing stars of Chile’s fast burgeoning premium TV scene: Videla, whose credits take in Pablo Larrain’s “Prófugos,” Lucía Puenzo’s “La Jauria” and the upcoming “The Cliff,” from The Mediapro Studio and Vice Studios; and Del Fierro.

“Black Times,” (Alexandre Manneville,...

Vicente Canales’ Film Factory has acquired world sales rights to “Mantícora” (Manticore), the fourth feature from Carlos Vermut, whose second outing “Magical Girl” won best film and director at the 2015 San Sebastian Festival, reinforcing his status as a Spanish talent on the rise.

“Mantícora” is produced by Aquí y Allí Films, Bteam Prods (San Sebastian Golden Shell winner “Between Two Waters”) and Pablo Agüero’s French production label 77 Films.

“We are delighted to be back working on a project by Carlos after the great reception and recognition that ‘Quién te Cantará’ received. We are convinced that ‘Mantícora’ won’t leave anyone indifferent either,” Canales said to Variety.

Currently in pre-production, “Mantícora” follows Julian, a successful video game designer tortured by a dark secret. When Diana appears in his life, Julian will begin to see a chance at happiness.

According to Vermut, “Mantícora” dwells in the same universe of everyday...

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,...

Shooting on the Spanish filmmaker’s new horror movie, written by Carlos Vermut, finished a few days ago after the hiatus caused by the health crisis. The fact that Paco Plaza and Carlos Vermut, two masters at triggering restlessness and disquiet, have joined forces and pooled their skills is much more than excellent news. The former finished last 5 August shooting his La abuela, with a script written by the author of a recent gem of Spanish cinema, Magical Girl. As fans of the maker of Eye for an Eye may have guessed, this is a horror film that draws heavily on psychological tension. Shooting started in Madrid last February, shortly after which it was interrupted by the viral tsunami, but it resumed in summer and the film has just entered the next stage: post-production. As the movie synopsis explains, Susana is forced to leave her life in Paris, where she.

Despite dramatic times, there is room for some encouragement in recent moves by the Spanish film industry. Basque global hit “The Platform” proved the most-watched movie on Netflix in the U.S. The Mediapro Studio is upping film production with high-profile projects such as the Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas drama “Official Competition.” Meanwhile, Mr. Fields and Friends, headed by Bambú founders Ramón Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdés, debuted with “Malasaña 32,” as well as plans to produce three to five movies every two years. Powerhouse Morena Films is in production with “Historias lamentables,” a drama from the team behind Spanish box office smash “Champions.”

Six days before producers will be allowed to restart production shoots in Spain, Pedro Sánchez’s Psoe socialist government has powered up the tax breaks cap for Hollywood and other foreign shoots as part of a relief package for Spain’s cultural industries.

Plowed through a...

Indefatigable art film activist José María Riba, a former head of Cannes Critics’ Week, driving force behind San Sebastian’s Films in Progress and co-founder of Espagnolas en Paris, died on May 2 from cancer, exacerbated by the effects of Covid-19. He was 68.

With his death, Spain and Latin America loses one of the founding fathers of an international Spanish-language arthouse sector which flowered from the turn of the century, an unflagging, perpetually smiling, convivial advisor to a new generation of Spanish-language talent which changed the face of Latin American and Spanish cinema and made of their films one of the best things that these territories had to offer.

Born in Barcelona, Riba relocated to Paris where he spent the rest of his professional life. The move was his making. Working as a journalist for Liberation and, from 1982 to 2017, France Press, Riba brought to the Spanish-language cinema a conviction – unquestioned in Paris,...

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...

Madrid — Nicolás Britos’ “Nada,” Jorge Hernández and Ainara Mentxaka’s “Los años de plomo” and Pablo Díaz and Alberto Heredia’s “La novena provincia” figure among the seven TV drama projects in development set to be presented at the 2nd Madrid TV Pitchbox.

An event focused on Spanish TV drama, organized by online platform Filmarket Hub, The 2018 Madrid TV Pitchbox will take place on Dec. 18.

The seven projects will be pitched before executives from some of the most important Spain-based TV companies. Broadcasters Mediaset España, Rtve and Atresmedia Studios, and Telefónica’s leading paybox Movistar + have confirmed their presence.

For this upcoming edition, organizers are opening Madrid TV Pitchbox to key independent production houses such as Weekend Studio and Dynamo, which have good relations with global Ott operators.

After the pitching session, there will be a networking lunch, where projects representatives and companies’ executives will be able to share impressions.

Spanish writer/director Carlos Vermut has an unusual imagination. In his first feature film, Diamond Flash, a fantastical drama, five women circled each other with dangerous secrets and kidnappings; in his second, Magical Girl, neo-noir mixes with black comedy as a man in desperate need of money, tries to bribe a rich yet mentally unstable woman with ties to a strange Bdsm community. In his third feature, Quién Te Cantará (which translates as ‘who will sing to you’), Vermut combines Hitchcock-style mystery with Bergman-esque crisis of identity. Lila (Najwa Nimri), a famous pop star, is about to embark on her first tour in years. On the eve of it, however, Lila has an accident, and when she wakes up in hospital, she can't remember who she was,...

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

Pop stardom is having a movie moment. Every sentient being in the universe is about to be far-from-the-shallow, engulfed by Bradley Cooper‘s tsunamic “A Star is Born,” while enthusiasts for the weirder things in life also have”Vox Lux,” Brady Corbet‘s barmy brainiac take on the same to look forward to. And now comes a third, making it a definite trend, Carlos Vermut‘s terrifically noirish Spanish-language thriller “Quien Te Cantará” which boasts neither Lady Gaga nor Natalie Portman, lies somewhere in the middle of the axis of mainstream-to-arthouse those two represent, and yet indicates that there is plenty more to say about the nature of pop celebrity in this modern moment.

Continue reading Pop Fandom Meets ‘Persona’ In Delicious Psychodrama ‘Quien Te Cantará’ [San Sebastian Review] at The Playlist.

With its 66th edition running Sept. 21-29, San Sebastian is the highest-profile festival in the Spanish-speaking world. Here are 10 things to watch for at this year’s installment.

Pursuing Parity

Could the tide be turning? Following Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo and Venice, of European events, San Sebastian will sign a gender-parity charter at this year’s event. More eye-catching, San Sebastian joins a growing bevy of events — Venice Days and Mexico’s Morelia, for example — in having at least one major section with more titles directed by women than men. In San Sebastian’s case, it is the 2018 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. That makes sense: Screening finished films, festivals depend on women’s movies getting made, and highlighting projects can further that goal. “We support ways for more women’s films to get made,” says San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos.

Stars

Danny DeVito, Judi Dench and Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose “Shoplifters...

Brillante Mendoza’s “Alpha, the Right to Kill,” Felix Van Groeningen’s Brad Pitt-produced “Beautiful Boy,” Louis Garrel’s “A Faithful Man” and Peter Strickland’s “In Fabric” will compete for San Sebastian’s Golden Seashell, the Basque festival announced Friday.

Further new main competition titles unveiled take in Liu Jie’s “Baby” and Tuva Novotny’s debut “Blind Spot.”

The six titles join 12 already-announced competition contenders. San Sebastian has yet to unveil its closing film.

Festival’s official selection – which takes in competition and out-of-competition titles – opens Sept. 21 with Ricardo Darín and Mercedes Morán-starrer “An Unexpected Love.” Playing in competition, the film represents the directorial debut by Juan Vera, Argentine producer of titles by Pablo Trapero and Lucrecia Martel.

Felix Van Groeningen won the Panorama audience award at the 2013 Berlinale with “Alabama Monroe,” Oscar-nominated for best foreign language film. In “Beautiful Boy,” his English language debut, toplining Steve Carell and Timothée Chamalet,...