“Emmanuelle,” a new feature from French writer-director Audrey Diwan, will world premiere in competition as the opening film for the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival, which kicks off on September 20.
Inspired by the eponymous erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, the film tells the story of a woman looking for a lost pleasure. During a business trip to Hong Kong, she meets several new people, including a man named Kei, who constantly eludes her. According to the director, the story was conceived as an exploration of pleasure in the post #MeToo era.
Diwan, a Venice Golden Lion winner for her 2021 film “Happening,” co-wrote “Emmanuelle” with fellow filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, whose 2013 feature “Grand Central” screened in competition at Cannes and won the François Chalais Award.
Chantelouve, Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch) produce. “Emmanuelle” will be distributed by Pathé in France, where it will debut on September 25, and Beta Fiction in Spain.
Inspired by the eponymous erotic novel by Emmanuelle Arsan, the film tells the story of a woman looking for a lost pleasure. During a business trip to Hong Kong, she meets several new people, including a man named Kei, who constantly eludes her. According to the director, the story was conceived as an exploration of pleasure in the post #MeToo era.
Diwan, a Venice Golden Lion winner for her 2021 film “Happening,” co-wrote “Emmanuelle” with fellow filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, whose 2013 feature “Grand Central” screened in competition at Cannes and won the François Chalais Award.
Chantelouve, Rectangle Productions and Goodfellas (formerly Wild Bunch) produce. “Emmanuelle” will be distributed by Pathé in France, where it will debut on September 25, and Beta Fiction in Spain.
- 5/7/2024
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez’s,Saturn Return was the big winner at the Malaga Film Festival on March 9, taking home the awards for Golden Biznaga for best Spanish film, best director and best editing.
Other top prizes went to Celia Rico’s Little Loves, Álex Monoya’s La Casa, Pau Durá’s Birds Flying East (Pájaros) and Mexican drama Radical, by Christopher Zalla.
Saturn Return, a drama inspired by iconic indie rock band Los Planetas, is set in the late 1990s in Granada. It is produced by La Terraza Films, Áralan Films, Ikiru Films, Bteam Prods, Sideral Cinema and Los Ilusos Films.
Other top prizes went to Celia Rico’s Little Loves, Álex Monoya’s La Casa, Pau Durá’s Birds Flying East (Pájaros) and Mexican drama Radical, by Christopher Zalla.
Saturn Return, a drama inspired by iconic indie rock band Los Planetas, is set in the late 1990s in Granada. It is produced by La Terraza Films, Áralan Films, Ikiru Films, Bteam Prods, Sideral Cinema and Los Ilusos Films.
- 3/11/2024
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Money Heist: Berlin actor Julien Paschal has signed with international management company Alta Global Media.
The actor appears in the Netflix series playing Francois Polignac opposite star Pedro Alonso and Samantha Siquieros, who plays his wife Camille.
Berlin, which comes from Money Heist creator Álex Pina and Esther Martínez, is based around the life of Berlin, a character from the original series played by Alonso. Vancouver Media produces the show for Netflix, which launched the series globally on December 29 last year.
Set in Paris many years before the events of the original, it sees Berlin as the leader of a criminal gang who undertakes a jewel heist that becomes complicated when he falls in love with the victim’s wife.
Paschal has also appeared in Antidisturbios, which is written and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and in “Un Año, Una Noche” directed by Isaki Lacuesta.
The actor appears in the Netflix series playing Francois Polignac opposite star Pedro Alonso and Samantha Siquieros, who plays his wife Camille.
Berlin, which comes from Money Heist creator Álex Pina and Esther Martínez, is based around the life of Berlin, a character from the original series played by Alonso. Vancouver Media produces the show for Netflix, which launched the series globally on December 29 last year.
Set in Paris many years before the events of the original, it sees Berlin as the leader of a criminal gang who undertakes a jewel heist that becomes complicated when he falls in love with the victim’s wife.
Paschal has also appeared in Antidisturbios, which is written and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and in “Un Año, Una Noche” directed by Isaki Lacuesta.
- 2/14/2024
- by Jesse Whittock
- Deadline Film + TV
European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo.
Sánchez Arévalo, one of Spain’s foremost crossover filmmakers, is coming back with “Rondallas” to a movie project oriented to classic cinema theater exhibition and distribution, after creating and directing a feature film and a TV series for Netflix.
Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales on “Rondallas,” scheduled to roll from March in Galicia, Northern Spain, with a still undisclosed cast.
“Rondallas” is produced by Campos, creator and executive producer of flagship Spanish TV dramas such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet,” “Cable Girls” and “Fariña,” all set up at his Madrid-based Bambú, one of the most game-changing of TV production companies in Spain, and partially owned by Studiocanal.
With dedicated film production house Mr Fields and Friends, Campos has produced titles such...
Sánchez Arévalo, one of Spain’s foremost crossover filmmakers, is coming back with “Rondallas” to a movie project oriented to classic cinema theater exhibition and distribution, after creating and directing a feature film and a TV series for Netflix.
Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales on “Rondallas,” scheduled to roll from March in Galicia, Northern Spain, with a still undisclosed cast.
“Rondallas” is produced by Campos, creator and executive producer of flagship Spanish TV dramas such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet,” “Cable Girls” and “Fariña,” all set up at his Madrid-based Bambú, one of the most game-changing of TV production companies in Spain, and partially owned by Studiocanal.
With dedicated film production house Mr Fields and Friends, Campos has produced titles such...
- 9/26/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Madrid-based Latido Films has snagged international sales rights to Isaki Lacuesta’s “Saturn Return” (“Segundo premio”) and plans to kick off pre-sales at the Cannes market.
Currently shooting in Granada, the musical drama is set during the ‘90s when the Andalusian city was ground zero for an outburst of cultural effervescence, with the pioneering rock band Los Planetas at the center of it. The film focuses on the creative process behind the recording of their iconic third album, which also took them to New York.
Latido likens “Saturn Return” to “24 Hour Party People,” the 2002 British biographical dramedy about Manchester’s influential music scene, which spawned such bands as Factory Records’ Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays.
Based on a script by Fernando Navarro, the writer behind one of Netflix’s most viewed Spanish-language movies, “Below Zero,” the story is set at a time when the group was at its most fraught-ridden moments,...
Currently shooting in Granada, the musical drama is set during the ‘90s when the Andalusian city was ground zero for an outburst of cultural effervescence, with the pioneering rock band Los Planetas at the center of it. The film focuses on the creative process behind the recording of their iconic third album, which also took them to New York.
Latido likens “Saturn Return” to “24 Hour Party People,” the 2002 British biographical dramedy about Manchester’s influential music scene, which spawned such bands as Factory Records’ Joy Division, New Order and Happy Mondays.
Based on a script by Fernando Navarro, the writer behind one of Netflix’s most viewed Spanish-language movies, “Below Zero,” the story is set at a time when the group was at its most fraught-ridden moments,...
- 5/9/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
The stars are aligning on political thriller “The Chauffeur’s Son,” a six-part series from acclaimed Spanish creative duo Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo.
It is one of five projects that has pulled down a muscular €1.5 million (1.6 million) grant from Catalonia’s Icec film-tv aimed at ensuring potential production partners that the series can bring series money to the table.
It comes after the two which won two Golden Shells at San Sebastian, for “The Double Steps” (2011) and “Between Two Waters” (2018), have demonstrated their chops for directing broad audience drama series, directing and in Campo’s case writing two episodes in Movistar+’s series “Offworld,” a Variety 2022 Best International TV Series.
“Elite’s” Zeta Studios is producing “The Chauffeur’s Son.” It has also been selected to compete at this year’s Berlinale Series Market’s Co-Pro Series, one of Europe’s foremost drama series project showcases. It hits the pitching session on Feb.
It is one of five projects that has pulled down a muscular €1.5 million (1.6 million) grant from Catalonia’s Icec film-tv aimed at ensuring potential production partners that the series can bring series money to the table.
It comes after the two which won two Golden Shells at San Sebastian, for “The Double Steps” (2011) and “Between Two Waters” (2018), have demonstrated their chops for directing broad audience drama series, directing and in Campo’s case writing two episodes in Movistar+’s series “Offworld,” a Variety 2022 Best International TV Series.
“Elite’s” Zeta Studios is producing “The Chauffeur’s Son.” It has also been selected to compete at this year’s Berlinale Series Market’s Co-Pro Series, one of Europe’s foremost drama series project showcases. It hits the pitching session on Feb.
- 2/20/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
“Los pequeños amores,” the latest film from Celia Rico who made a splash at the 2018 San Sebastian Festival with “Journey to a Mother’s Room,” has been acquired for international sales by Spain-based Latido Films.
Produced by Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures, which co-produced Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s 2023 Goya winner and box office breakout “The Beasts, and France’s Noodles Production, Rico’s second feature is set in a bucolic countryside. It weighs in as a mother-daughter two-hander sparked after strongly independent mother Ani falls over walking the dog and is forced to use a wheelchair to get around.
Daughter Teresa cuts short a vacation to come to her side, their co-habitation grating and revealing multiple – sometime generational – differences as the film peels back the layers of their relation, exposing both women’s ambitions and fears.
Adriana Azores plays Ani, María Vázquez is Teresa.
“There are several reasons Latido had to be involved...
Produced by Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures, which co-produced Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s 2023 Goya winner and box office breakout “The Beasts, and France’s Noodles Production, Rico’s second feature is set in a bucolic countryside. It weighs in as a mother-daughter two-hander sparked after strongly independent mother Ani falls over walking the dog and is forced to use a wheelchair to get around.
Daughter Teresa cuts short a vacation to come to her side, their co-habitation grating and revealing multiple – sometime generational – differences as the film peels back the layers of their relation, exposing both women’s ambitions and fears.
Adriana Azores plays Ani, María Vázquez is Teresa.
“There are several reasons Latido had to be involved...
- 2/19/2023
- by Pablo Sandoval
- Variety Film + TV
Ester Expósito, one of the stars of Netflix global hit “Elite,” is attached to star “The Wailing” (“El Llanto”), co-written by Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s regular co-scribe Isabel Peña (“The Beasts”) and directed by talent-to-track Pedro Martín-Calero (“Secrets”). It’s one of the most powerful Spanish-language packages being brought onto Berlin’s European Film Market.
The auteur genre movie has gone into production, shooting in Madrid, Buenos Aires and La Plata.
Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international rights. “The Wailing” is lead produced by on-the-rise Madrid production house Caballo Films, behind Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s films, including “The Beasts,” a best picture Goya on Feb. 11.
The feature debut of Spain’s Pedro Martín-Calero, “The Wailing” turns on a seemingly invisible evil. “No one can see it with the naked eye, but its presence has always been there. 20 years ago he stalked Camila and Marie. Now, 10,000 kilometers away, Andrea has begun to hear the wailing,...
The auteur genre movie has gone into production, shooting in Madrid, Buenos Aires and La Plata.
Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international rights. “The Wailing” is lead produced by on-the-rise Madrid production house Caballo Films, behind Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s films, including “The Beasts,” a best picture Goya on Feb. 11.
The feature debut of Spain’s Pedro Martín-Calero, “The Wailing” turns on a seemingly invisible evil. “No one can see it with the naked eye, but its presence has always been there. 20 years ago he stalked Camila and Marie. Now, 10,000 kilometers away, Andrea has begun to hear the wailing,...
- 2/17/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.
The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.
The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.
The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.
The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...
- 2/12/2023
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.
The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.
The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...
Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.
The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.
The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...
- 2/12/2023
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
“Vive le cinéma!” goes the call from Tabakalera, International Centre of Contemporary Culture, at this year’s San Sebastián International Film Festival (Ssiff).
The Centre’s exhibition hall plays host to four cinematographic installations made by leading global filmmakers, a project which sees them transform their usual cinema-based practice into a more expansive and experimental gallery space.
The exhibition at Tabakalera marks a continuation of the series which began at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam last year in collaboration with the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Two works from the 2021 exhibition by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and Jia Zhang-ke will be on display again in San Sebastián, alongside two new productions from Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili (“Beginning”) and Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta.
“Our main mission is to promote artistic production and to act as a platform to connect a wide audience to the arts of our time,” says Tabakalera’s Cultural Director Clara Montero.
The Centre’s exhibition hall plays host to four cinematographic installations made by leading global filmmakers, a project which sees them transform their usual cinema-based practice into a more expansive and experimental gallery space.
The exhibition at Tabakalera marks a continuation of the series which began at the Eye Filmmuseum in Amsterdam last year in collaboration with the International Film Festival Rotterdam. Two works from the 2021 exhibition by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese and Jia Zhang-ke will be on display again in San Sebastián, alongside two new productions from Georgian filmmaker Dea Kulumbegashvili (“Beginning”) and Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta.
“Our main mission is to promote artistic production and to act as a platform to connect a wide audience to the arts of our time,” says Tabakalera’s Cultural Director Clara Montero.
- 9/20/2022
- by Caitlin Quinlan
- Variety Film + TV
Canal Plus Group-owned Studiocanal and Spain’s Bambu Producciones, producer of “Cable Girls” and “Velvet,” have teamed for “13 Exorcisms,” which looks to be one of Spain’s biggest genre movies in 2022.
Studiocanal is launching worldwide sales on the horror movie at Toronto.
New Spain-based distributor Beta Fiction will release “13 Exorcisms” theatrically in Spain Nov. 4.
Set in 2015 and starring María Romanillos (“Riot Police”), the title is the feature debut of Jacobo Martínez, who worked with Bambú on Netflix series “Jaguar.” It turns on Laura who, shy and highly sensitive, struggles to fit in at school. On Halloween, she takes part in a seance. From that day on, she is assailed by dark presences, horrifying visions, ominous voices and painful marks on her skin. Convinced she is possessed, her parents and the local priest force her to submit to a series of exorcisms, each more violent and terrifying than the last.
The...
Studiocanal is launching worldwide sales on the horror movie at Toronto.
New Spain-based distributor Beta Fiction will release “13 Exorcisms” theatrically in Spain Nov. 4.
Set in 2015 and starring María Romanillos (“Riot Police”), the title is the feature debut of Jacobo Martínez, who worked with Bambú on Netflix series “Jaguar.” It turns on Laura who, shy and highly sensitive, struggles to fit in at school. On Halloween, she takes part in a seance. From that day on, she is assailed by dark presences, horrifying visions, ominous voices and painful marks on her skin. Convinced she is possessed, her parents and the local priest force her to submit to a series of exorcisms, each more violent and terrifying than the last.
The...
- 9/8/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Marc Recha, director of “Pau and His Brother,” which played in Cannes competition, is initiating post-production on “Wild Road,” a thriller produced by Barcelona-based director label Parallamps.
Heaed by Montse Germán, a star in Cesc Gay’s “Fiction” and Sergi López” (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), “Wild Road” follows 50-year Ona, who is about to fulfill her dream of piloting a light aircraft. Then a chance encounter with some Serb ex-combatants will change her life and that of her loved ones, forcing her to face up to her own past.
A Locarno Fipresci prize winner for “The Cherry Tree,” in “Wild Road” Recha aims for a “cinema d’auteur for a wider audience. It’s a disturbing thriller but full of humanity,” producer Ana Stanič told Variety announcing “strong interest for the film in Spain, Central and Eastern Europe and further abroad.”
A sales agent deal is close to being closed.
The move...
Heaed by Montse Germán, a star in Cesc Gay’s “Fiction” and Sergi López” (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), “Wild Road” follows 50-year Ona, who is about to fulfill her dream of piloting a light aircraft. Then a chance encounter with some Serb ex-combatants will change her life and that of her loved ones, forcing her to face up to her own past.
A Locarno Fipresci prize winner for “The Cherry Tree,” in “Wild Road” Recha aims for a “cinema d’auteur for a wider audience. It’s a disturbing thriller but full of humanity,” producer Ana Stanič told Variety announcing “strong interest for the film in Spain, Central and Eastern Europe and further abroad.”
A sales agent deal is close to being closed.
The move...
- 5/23/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
It’s over six years since the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris that ruptured the country’s national consciousness and political agenda, but the events are only gaining currency for European filmmakers. This year’s Berlin festival brought us Isaki Lacesta’s “One Year, One Night,” an impressionistic reflection on survivor’s guilt in the long-term wake of the Bataclan nightclub massacre; at Cannes this year, Cedric Jimenez’s thriller “November” takes a more procedural approach to the aftermath. Another Cannes selection, Alice Winocour’s fictionalized but plainly Bataclan-inspired “Paris Memories,” effectively splits the difference, delving into a survivor’s damaged psyche following a mass restaurant shooting in Paris, but giving her a linear, investigative course of healing, as she tracks down sympathetic strangers to help disentangle her memories of that night.
It’s a modest film with a heart very much on its torn sleeve, given force and ballast...
It’s a modest film with a heart very much on its torn sleeve, given force and ballast...
- 5/22/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“Alcarràs,” from Catalonia’s Carla Simón, won Berlin’s top Golden Bear in February. “One Year, One Night,” from Catalan Isaki Lacuesta, also played in main competition. This May “Pacifiction,” from Albert Serra, another Catalan, has scored a competition berth at Cannes.
Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.
If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.
The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...
Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.
If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.
The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...
- 5/18/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
From Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarrás’ to Cannes Competition title ‘Pacifiction,’ these projects will represent Catalonia at Cannes.
Alcarràs
Director: Carla Simón
The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.
Sales: MK2 Films
Amazing Elisa
Director: Sadrac 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, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.
Sales: Filmax
The Beasts
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.
Sales: Latido Films
The Communion Girl
Director: Víctor García
Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.
Sales: Film...
Alcarràs
Director: Carla Simón
The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.
Sales: MK2 Films
Amazing Elisa
Director: Sadrac 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, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.
Sales: Filmax
The Beasts
Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen
One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.
Sales: Latido Films
The Communion Girl
Director: Víctor García
Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.
Sales: Film...
- 5/18/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
I’ve been following the career of French actress Noemie Merlant since I saw her in Celine’s Sciamma queer romance film Portrait of a Lady on Fire at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019. Since her performance as Marian in Sciamma’s film, Merlant has worked non-stop as an actress appearing films including:
Jumbo directed by Zoe Wittock which premiered at Sundance 2020. A Good Man from frequent collaborator, director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar. One Year, One Night by director Isaki Lacuesta which premiered at Berlinale this year.
And the Todd Field’s film Tar where she acts alongside two-time Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett. The actress told the Guardian that working with Blanchett was a dream come true and inspiration. “Cate Blanchett – she’s always been a key reference for me. I like to rewatch my favourite scenes of hers, sometimes right before I shoot a scene myself – not to copy her,...
Jumbo directed by Zoe Wittock which premiered at Sundance 2020. A Good Man from frequent collaborator, director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar. One Year, One Night by director Isaki Lacuesta which premiered at Berlinale this year.
And the Todd Field’s film Tar where she acts alongside two-time Oscar winning actress Cate Blanchett. The actress told the Guardian that working with Blanchett was a dream come true and inspiration. “Cate Blanchett – she’s always been a key reference for me. I like to rewatch my favourite scenes of hers, sometimes right before I shoot a scene myself – not to copy her,...
- 4/13/2022
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
Wrapping March 26, the 25th Malaga Festival and its Spanish Screenings delivered another confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a new platform era.
Following, nine final takes on what may prove a historic edition.
A Vibrant Spanish Screenings
Málaga’s plus-size 2022 Spanish Screenings fairly rocked. Extra funding from Spain’s Avs Hub Plan, covering far more buyers’ flights, meant attendance skyrocketed. Screenings delegate numbers shot up to 609 by early week, overall industry attendees to over 1,100 . It showed. “They were highly successful,” said Latido Films’ head Antonio Saura said of the event. “Buyers were able to see movies which at other festivals they often just can’t catch,” he added. “There was a lot more dynamism to trading, taking the Screenings to a new level,” agreed Ivan Díaz, Filmax head of international.
’Lullaby,’ ‘Utama’ Sweep Awards
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s finely observed mother-daughter relationship drama “Lullaby” and Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s “Utama,...
Following, nine final takes on what may prove a historic edition.
A Vibrant Spanish Screenings
Málaga’s plus-size 2022 Spanish Screenings fairly rocked. Extra funding from Spain’s Avs Hub Plan, covering far more buyers’ flights, meant attendance skyrocketed. Screenings delegate numbers shot up to 609 by early week, overall industry attendees to over 1,100 . It showed. “They were highly successful,” said Latido Films’ head Antonio Saura said of the event. “Buyers were able to see movies which at other festivals they often just can’t catch,” he added. “There was a lot more dynamism to trading, taking the Screenings to a new level,” agreed Ivan Díaz, Filmax head of international.
’Lullaby,’ ‘Utama’ Sweep Awards
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s finely observed mother-daughter relationship drama “Lullaby” and Alejandro Loayza Grisi’s “Utama,...
- 3/27/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Launched in 1998, the Malaga Film Festival first grabbed attention as a Spanish movie showcase and birthplace of a Spanish star system, TV actors walking a red carpet to acclaim from milling throngs.
Under Juan Antonio Vigar, director from 2013, it has consolidated as a platform for a new generation of Spanish filmmakers while adding ever increasing industry heft – co-pro forums, WIPs, a Hack digital forum initiative – and also opening up to TV.
In 2021, however, Malaga Festival and Spanish Screenings have exploded in scale, impact and attendance. The narrative of this year’s event is largely one of that growth. Eight takes on this and other Malaga highlights:
Malaga Lifts Off
Little wonder Malaga forms part of what’s now the Spanish Screenings Xxl. In its first full edition since 2019 with festival and industry onsite and aligned, Malaga has truly taken off. It received almost 2,000 film and TV submissions, says Vigar. Attendance has skyrocketed to over 1,100 delegates,...
Under Juan Antonio Vigar, director from 2013, it has consolidated as a platform for a new generation of Spanish filmmakers while adding ever increasing industry heft – co-pro forums, WIPs, a Hack digital forum initiative – and also opening up to TV.
In 2021, however, Malaga Festival and Spanish Screenings have exploded in scale, impact and attendance. The narrative of this year’s event is largely one of that growth. Eight takes on this and other Malaga highlights:
Malaga Lifts Off
Little wonder Malaga forms part of what’s now the Spanish Screenings Xxl. In its first full edition since 2019 with festival and industry onsite and aligned, Malaga has truly taken off. It received almost 2,000 film and TV submissions, says Vigar. Attendance has skyrocketed to over 1,100 delegates,...
- 3/21/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
It took seven years before any filmmaker dared touch the Utøya massacre; then in 2018, all of a sudden, we had two too many. It probably didn’t help that the films weren’t very good. 22 July‘s Hollywood simplicity seemed crass, not least for the awkward fact that it was made by Paul Greengrass; Erik Poppe’s Utøya, a visceral account of the atrocity presented in real-time, and from the eyes of a victim, appeared queasily excited by its own design. You didn’t have to be from the surrounding area to feel a bit uneasy.
This November will mark the seven-year anniversary of the attacks in Paris, most infamously at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in the Bataclan theatre, where 90 were killed and many others critically injured. At this year’s Berlinale we are confronted with two films that take those terrors (and the bus attack that happened...
This November will mark the seven-year anniversary of the attacks in Paris, most infamously at an Eagles of Death Metal concert in the Bataclan theatre, where 90 were killed and many others critically injured. At this year’s Berlinale we are confronted with two films that take those terrors (and the bus attack that happened...
- 2/24/2022
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
It’s been nearly seven years since the devastating November 2015 terrorist attacks on Paris that left 137 dead, and while the effects of the tragedy have been indirectly felt in a surge of French films centered on terrorism, security fears and cultural conflict, filmmakers have largely shied away from direct dramatizations of the events and their fallout. Isaki Lacuesta shows no such hesitation in his ambitious, windingly structured “One Year, One Night,” which provides an explicit anatomy of trauma as experienced over the course of a year by a Franco-Spanish couple who survived the Bataclan nightclub massacre — itself reconstructed in claustrophobic, stomach-knotting flashbacks. Fictional but drawn from first-hand accounts, it’s a sprawling, empathetic work that sometimes loses clarity amid its sheer weight of feeling.
Poised to be an international arthouse breakthrough for its Spanish writer-director — who has twice won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but remains...
Poised to be an international arthouse breakthrough for its Spanish writer-director — who has twice won the top prize at the San Sebastian Film Festival, but remains...
- 2/14/2022
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
A couple struggles to process the aftermath of the Bataclan terrorist attack in One Year, One Night, an affecting Berlin Film Festival competition title from Spanish director Isaki Lacuesta (Between Two Waters). Inspired by a book from Ramón González entitled Peace, Love and Death Metal, it’s based on recollections from real survivors of the 2015 attack in Paris, and the level of detail is compelling.
We first meet Frenchwoman Céline (Noémie Merlant) and her Spanish boyfriend Ramón (Nahuel Pérez) when they are wrapped in a foil recovery blanket, wandering dazed through the Paris streets and locking eyes with other survivors as they shiver and shine in silver in the dark.
The next morning, they try to carry on with their daily lives in their small Parisian apartment. But terrifying flashbacks and anxiety attacks begin to plague Ramón. Meanwhile, Céline goes back to her work at a...
We first meet Frenchwoman Céline (Noémie Merlant) and her Spanish boyfriend Ramón (Nahuel Pérez) when they are wrapped in a foil recovery blanket, wandering dazed through the Paris streets and locking eyes with other survivors as they shiver and shine in silver in the dark.
The next morning, they try to carry on with their daily lives in their small Parisian apartment. But terrifying flashbacks and anxiety attacks begin to plague Ramón. Meanwhile, Céline goes back to her work at a...
- 2/14/2022
- by Anna Smith
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: Isaki Lacuesta’s drama One Year, One Night, about survivors grappling with trauma following the devastating terrorist attack at Paris’ Bataclan theater on November 13, 2015, world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival today. Check out a clip above as a group of friends discusses messages of support they received in the wake of the tragedy.
Nahuel Pérez (120 Battements Par Minute) and Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) star in the film. Pérez is Ramón and Merlant plays Céline, a young couple who attended the concert that fateful night, and while they survived, they are no longer the same. The event leaves a deep scar on both their lives as each tries to cope with the aftermath as best they can. Céline desperately strives to leave it behind her, clinging to her previous life, while Ramón repeatedly revisits the events, trying to remember and understand what happened.
Nahuel Pérez (120 Battements Par Minute) and Noémie Merlant (Portrait Of A Lady On Fire) star in the film. Pérez is Ramón and Merlant plays Céline, a young couple who attended the concert that fateful night, and while they survived, they are no longer the same. The event leaves a deep scar on both their lives as each tries to cope with the aftermath as best they can. Céline desperately strives to leave it behind her, clinging to her previous life, while Ramón repeatedly revisits the events, trying to remember and understand what happened.
- 2/14/2022
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Pretty well from when he started out in 2002, melding fiction, recreation and direct reportage in films that won him two San Sebastián Golden Shells but bamboozled more mainstream critics, Spain’s Isaki Lacuesta has maintained that he wanted to make larger audience movies.
With his tenth feature, Berlin competition player “One Year, One Night,” taking in the 2015 Bataclan Paris terrorist attack, he finally has his chance.
Produced by Lacuesta’s label La Termita Films and Spain’s Bambu Producciones, the company behind milestone Spanish TV shows “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Cable Girls,” “One Year, One Night” cost six times the budget of Lacuesta’s most expensive film before that, the director says.
It stars Argentina’s Nahuel Pérez (“Bpm (Beats Per Minute)”) and Noémie Merlant (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), two of the most admired young actors currently working in France, and it’s backed by the distribution and sales muscle of Studiocanal,...
With his tenth feature, Berlin competition player “One Year, One Night,” taking in the 2015 Bataclan Paris terrorist attack, he finally has his chance.
Produced by Lacuesta’s label La Termita Films and Spain’s Bambu Producciones, the company behind milestone Spanish TV shows “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Cable Girls,” “One Year, One Night” cost six times the budget of Lacuesta’s most expensive film before that, the director says.
It stars Argentina’s Nahuel Pérez (“Bpm (Beats Per Minute)”) and Noémie Merlant (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”), two of the most admired young actors currently working in France, and it’s backed by the distribution and sales muscle of Studiocanal,...
- 2/13/2022
- by John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Shortlisted for the Academy Awards in the international feature film category, Fernando León de Aranoa’s “The Good Boss” capped a record 20 Spanish Academy Goya nominations by scoring best picture and actor for Javier Bardem at Saturday’s Goya prize ceremony.
The prizes marked both Leon and Bardem’s seventh Goya wins. Produced by El Reposado and The Mediapro Studio, and a workplace dramedy skewering the abuse of power practised by a seemingly benign factory owner, “The Good Boss” also won best director and original screenplay for León, as well as best score and editing.
Blanca Portillo beat out “Parallel Mothers’” Oscar-nominated Penélope Cruz, thanks to Portillo’s powerful performance as Maixabel Lasa, the real life widow of former Basque Country governor Juan Mari Jauregui who agreed in 2011 to meet one of his Eta killers. Her forgiveness, and Portillo’s portrait, has touched a large nerve in Spain.
One highlight...
The prizes marked both Leon and Bardem’s seventh Goya wins. Produced by El Reposado and The Mediapro Studio, and a workplace dramedy skewering the abuse of power practised by a seemingly benign factory owner, “The Good Boss” also won best director and original screenplay for León, as well as best score and editing.
Blanca Portillo beat out “Parallel Mothers’” Oscar-nominated Penélope Cruz, thanks to Portillo’s powerful performance as Maixabel Lasa, the real life widow of former Basque Country governor Juan Mari Jauregui who agreed in 2011 to meet one of his Eta killers. Her forgiveness, and Portillo’s portrait, has touched a large nerve in Spain.
One highlight...
- 2/13/2022
- by John Hopewell and Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Spain has two films in this year’s main competition at the Berlinale, and a record haul of films participating across all sections. Similarly, the country boasts an impressive list of productions looking for buyers at the festival’s EFM. Below, a list of standouts from Spain looking to make moves on the global market.
“Prison 77” (Alberto Rodríguez)
A potential jewel in Spanish cinema’s 2022 crown, “Modelo 77” is produced by Spanish pay TV-vod giant Movistar Plus and Madrid-based Atípica Films, Rodríguez’s career-long producer. S.A. Film Factory
“Alcarràs” (Carla Simón)
In Berlin’s main competition, the much anticipated follow up to Simón’s “Summer 1993,” “Alcarrás” tracks the final harvest at a multi-generational family farm. Co-produced with Italy. S.A. MK2 Films
“The Beast” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
A Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”) and his regular co-scribe Esther Peña.
“Beyond the Summit” (Ibon Cormenzana)
Javier Rey and Patricia Lopez...
“Prison 77” (Alberto Rodríguez)
A potential jewel in Spanish cinema’s 2022 crown, “Modelo 77” is produced by Spanish pay TV-vod giant Movistar Plus and Madrid-based Atípica Films, Rodríguez’s career-long producer. S.A. Film Factory
“Alcarràs” (Carla Simón)
In Berlin’s main competition, the much anticipated follow up to Simón’s “Summer 1993,” “Alcarrás” tracks the final harvest at a multi-generational family farm. Co-produced with Italy. S.A. MK2 Films
“The Beast” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
A Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”) and his regular co-scribe Esther Peña.
“Beyond the Summit” (Ibon Cormenzana)
Javier Rey and Patricia Lopez...
- 2/11/2022
- by Emilio Mayorga and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The success of Spain’s regional talent peppers the country’s record-setting Berlinale presence. Both movies in Competition – Isaki Lacuesta’s “One Year, One Night” and Carla Simón’s “Alcarrás” – are made by Catalan directors and are Catalan co-productions. From the Panorama section, “Lullaby” is a Basque and Lois Patiño, whose short “El sembrador de estrellas” competes in official competition, is from Galicia and has one of the most buzzed Spanish projects up for grabs at this year’s EFM in “Samsara.”
Other Catalan Berlin participants include Forum player “Afterwater,” an international co-production including Catalonia’s Andergraun Films; shorts “Agrilogistics” and The Sower of Stars,” “Lullaby” in Panorama and several standout projects at this year’s EFM.
The rise of filmmakers from different areas from Spain says a lot about new film financing structures consolidating in the country. Productions, Spanish or international, that receive Spanish nationality have access to tax...
Other Catalan Berlin participants include Forum player “Afterwater,” an international co-production including Catalonia’s Andergraun Films; shorts “Agrilogistics” and The Sower of Stars,” “Lullaby” in Panorama and several standout projects at this year’s EFM.
The rise of filmmakers from different areas from Spain says a lot about new film financing structures consolidating in the country. Productions, Spanish or international, that receive Spanish nationality have access to tax...
- 2/11/2022
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Post-covid, Spanish sales companies look poised for a comeback to the global scene. Although, as Berlin’s EFM has gone virtual once again, their long-awaited physical reunion with the international industry will have to wait until Cannes… hopefully.
An argument for optimism: Spanish-language films continue gaining ground on the global market, especially as platforms boom. Standout examples include Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” and Lluís Quílez’s “Below Zero,” which both breach the top 10 most watched non-English language Netflix films of all time, per Variety’s estimations. Other Spanish films such as “The Paramedic,” “Sky High” and “Xtreme” have also performed well for the streamer.
Measuring with another analytic – Spain’s presence at landmark film events – the year kicked-off with good news from Berlin.
For the first time in the last quarter-century, two Spanish titles: “Alcarrás,” from “Summer 1993” director Carla Simon, and “One Year, One Night,” by two-time San...
An argument for optimism: Spanish-language films continue gaining ground on the global market, especially as platforms boom. Standout examples include Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” and Lluís Quílez’s “Below Zero,” which both breach the top 10 most watched non-English language Netflix films of all time, per Variety’s estimations. Other Spanish films such as “The Paramedic,” “Sky High” and “Xtreme” have also performed well for the streamer.
Measuring with another analytic – Spain’s presence at landmark film events – the year kicked-off with good news from Berlin.
For the first time in the last quarter-century, two Spanish titles: “Alcarrás,” from “Summer 1993” director Carla Simon, and “One Year, One Night,” by two-time San...
- 2/11/2022
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Since 2018, Spain’s film and TV industries has gone through a revolution. Accustomed to the success of standout movie auteurs – Almodóvar, Amenabar and Trueba – for two decades or more Spain has blown U.S. shows out of its domestic free-to-air primetime and been one of the world’s most successful exporter of fiction TV formats.
Now, Spain’s place on the periphery of global TV business is history. Through October, four Netflix Spanish shows or movies – “Money Heist”, “The Platform,” (56 million), “Below Zero” (47 million) and “Elite” – were some of the most watched non-English language Netflix titles of all time.
Spain’s Canary Islands boasts one of the highest shoot incentives – 50% of a first €1 million ($1.1 million) spend – anywhere in the world.
Capping that, in March 2021 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the most ambitious film-tv incentive drive in history: the Spain Avs Hub Plan, worth a total €1.6 billion ($1.81 billion) in investment or state engineered financing.
Now, Spain’s place on the periphery of global TV business is history. Through October, four Netflix Spanish shows or movies – “Money Heist”, “The Platform,” (56 million), “Below Zero” (47 million) and “Elite” – were some of the most watched non-English language Netflix titles of all time.
Spain’s Canary Islands boasts one of the highest shoot incentives – 50% of a first €1 million ($1.1 million) spend – anywhere in the world.
Capping that, in March 2021 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the most ambitious film-tv incentive drive in history: the Spain Avs Hub Plan, worth a total €1.6 billion ($1.81 billion) in investment or state engineered financing.
- 2/11/2022
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
A feature film sequel to the animated French family hit “Ernest & Celestine” is coming soon, and Studiocanal has revealed a first look at the film along with new details ahead of launching worldwide sales on the movie.
“Ernest & Celestine 2: A Trip to Gibberitia” is a sequel to the Oscar-nominated 2012 film, which picked up six Annie Award nominations and won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Though the sequel was first announced as far back as 2017 in France, with production beginning in May 2020, the film is finally close to completion, and Studiocanal plans to release it in France on December 14, 2022.
The distributor will also be launching worldwide sales on the title at the European Film Market.
The original film is based on a series of books and tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a bear named Ernest and a mouse named Celestine, who go on the...
“Ernest & Celestine 2: A Trip to Gibberitia” is a sequel to the Oscar-nominated 2012 film, which picked up six Annie Award nominations and won a prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Though the sequel was first announced as far back as 2017 in France, with production beginning in May 2020, the film is finally close to completion, and Studiocanal plans to release it in France on December 14, 2022.
The distributor will also be launching worldwide sales on the title at the European Film Market.
The original film is based on a series of books and tells the story of the unlikely friendship between a bear named Ernest and a mouse named Celestine, who go on the...
- 2/4/2022
- by Brian Welk
- The Wrap
‘Joika’ First Look
Above is your first look at Joika, the pic inspired by the story of American ballerina Joy Womack, which stars Talia Ryder and Diane Kruger. Principal photography is underway on the movie in Poland. Joining the cast are professional ballet dancers including Oleg Ivenko, as well as Tomasz Kot, Charlotte Ubben, Natasha Alderslade, Karolina Gruszka, and Borys Szyc. James Napier Robertson wrote and is directing the movie, producers are Napier Robertson and Tom Hern’s Four Knights Film, Madants’ Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska Belindalee Hope, and Paul Green. Embankment are representing international sales and co-representing domestic rights with UTA Independent Film Group.
Screen Engine/Asi Teams With Louis Chater
Exclusive: Market research firm Screen Engine/Asi has formed an exclusive strategic relationship in media and entertainment with Louise Chater to focus on building its global content and qualitative research business. Reporting to Se/Asi president Bob Levin, Chater will...
Above is your first look at Joika, the pic inspired by the story of American ballerina Joy Womack, which stars Talia Ryder and Diane Kruger. Principal photography is underway on the movie in Poland. Joining the cast are professional ballet dancers including Oleg Ivenko, as well as Tomasz Kot, Charlotte Ubben, Natasha Alderslade, Karolina Gruszka, and Borys Szyc. James Napier Robertson wrote and is directing the movie, producers are Napier Robertson and Tom Hern’s Four Knights Film, Madants’ Klaudia Smieja-Rostworowska Belindalee Hope, and Paul Green. Embankment are representing international sales and co-representing domestic rights with UTA Independent Film Group.
Screen Engine/Asi Teams With Louis Chater
Exclusive: Market research firm Screen Engine/Asi has formed an exclusive strategic relationship in media and entertainment with Louise Chater to focus on building its global content and qualitative research business. Reporting to Se/Asi president Bob Levin, Chater will...
- 2/4/2022
- by Tom Grater
- Deadline Film + TV
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