News

“The Talent,” a glitzy party-set psychological thriller toplining Ester Expósito, one of the biggest breakouts of “Elite” stars, will be brought onto the market at Berlin by Spain’s Film Factory Entertainment.

Handling many of Spain’s biggest non-global streamer movies, Film Factory has acquired worldwide rights to “The Talent”outside Spain. It will present at next month’s European Film Market a first promo of the movie whose talent package is compounded by Fernando León de Aranoa, who co-writes and produces. Helmer of San Sebastian Film Festival Golden Shell winner “Mondays in the Sun,” one of the early big breakthroughs for Javier Bardem, León directed Bardem once more in the Oscar shortlisted “The Good Boss,” which also won six 2021 Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent of the Oscars, including Best Film and Director, and the European Film Award for Best Comedy.

Produced by Leon’s Reposado PC and The Mediapro Studio,...

‘Salve María’ da la sorpresa.

© Efe

Ayer se celebró la gala de los Premios Feroz. Una gala cuyo protagonismo recayó indudablemente en el cine catalán, que se hizo con la mayor parte de los galardones en la categoría de cine. Aquí la lista completa de los premiados:

Mejor PELÍCULA DRAMÁTICA

Salve María

© Elástica Films Mejor PELÍCULA De Comedia

Casa en flames

© Vercine Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Pedro Almodóvar por La habitación de al lado

© El Deseo Mejor actriz protagonista de una película

Emma Vilarasau por Casa en flames

© Vercine Mejor actor protagonista de una película

Eduard Fernández por Marco

© BTeamPictures Mejor actriz de reparto de una película

Clara Segura por El 47

© A Contracorriente Films Mejor actor de reparto de una película

Óscar de la Fuente por La casa

© A Contracorriente Films Mejor Guion

Eduard Sola por Casa en flames

© Vercine Mejor MÚSICA Original

Alberto Iglesias por La habitación de al lado

© El...

Basada en la novela homónima de Rafael Chirbes. © Caramel Films

Ya se ha anunciado la fecha de estreno de la película La buena letra, de la cineasta sevillana Celia Rico Clavellino (Los pequeños amores) y basada en la novela homónima del autor valenciano Rafael Chirbes.

La buena letra se sitúa en un pueblo valenciano, durante la posguerra. Ana trata de salir adelante con su familia; la guerra civil ha abierto una profunda herida en todos ellos, especialmente en su cuñado, Antonio. Ana intenta curar esa herida a base de guisos, secretos y silencios, pero cuando Isabel, recién casada con Antonio, llega a la familia, las atenciones y cuidados de Ana valdrán de poco o nada: el sacrificio no siempre tiene su recompensa.

La película está protagonizada por Loreto Mauleón (Querer*), junto a Enric Auquer (El maestro que prometió el mar), Roger Casamajor (La mesías), Ana Rujas (La mesías), Teresa Lozano...

Movistar Plus+, the biggest Spanish SVOD/pay TV operator, has revealed four new scripted series for 2025, including a special on Pedro Almodóvar and struggling mother dramatic comedy “Yo siempre a veces” produced by “Veneno” and “La Mesías” creators Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo at their busy Madrid-based shingle Suma Content.

Also in the mix is “Los sin nombre,” from Pau Freixas and Filmax, a series spin-off from the movie, “La Canción,” a new title from “Hierro” co-writers and “Rapa” co-creators Pepe Coira and Fran Araujo, and espionage thriller “El Centro.”

News of new series comes as Movistar Plus+ scored in September both at Venice and San Sebastián, screening Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The New Years” at Venice’s series selection, alongside Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV+ Series “Disclaimer,” Joe Wright’s “M. Son Of The Century” and Thomas Vinterberg’s “Families Like Ours.”

Alauda Ruiz de Azua’s “Querer” was hailed...

Unspooling in Cadiz over Oct. 25-31, the South International Series Festival is a bellwether on trends and highlights for the current season. What could be some of its star performers? Following, 10 titles to track, which also often say something about the way the market is going.

“The Big Jump” (Atresmedia International Sales)

One of Atresmedia’s biggest bets at Mipcom, a biopic series about the rise to Olympic Gold Medals at Sydney and Athens of Spanish gymnast Gervasio Deferr and, in a second timeline, his descent into drugs and alcohol, incapable of accepting failure in competition and lost when retired. Oscar Casas plays Deferr, with “Gangs of Galicia” helmer Roger Gual directs. An Atresplayer Original Series, bowing on Nov. 17.

“La Favorita 1922” (Mediterraneo)

From “Grand Hotel” through “Velvet” and “Cable Girls,” Ramon Campos’ Studiocanal j.v. Bambu Producciones has carved out its international reputation, creating modern gender-agenda melodramas that make...

San Sebastian — With its awards ceremony Saturday night, the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition is heading into its final straits. Following, 10 takeaways from what looks like its biggest edition ever in star wattage, the caliber of Spanish filmmaking and the number of deals reported by Variety, set in the context of vertiginous change in international independent film and TV landscape.

San Sebastian 2024: The Stars Align

Johnny Depp visited kids in a San Sebastian hospital dressed as Jack Sparrow; Javier Bardem teared up remembering his mother, the exemplary Pilar Bardem; Pedro Almodóvar remembered back 44 years to his first San Sebastian, performing at disco Ku and ending up on the beach at 8 in the morning. Cate Blanchett, accepting her Donostia Award, praised the “uncertainty which drives me.”

Never before have so many stars descended on San Sebastian. Why? “I think two factors are at play,” San Sebastian Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos told Variety.

Two years ago, after it bowed in cinema theaters in Spain, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s feature debut “Lullaby” was described by Pedro Almodóvar as “undoubtedly the best Spanish debut for years.” So the big question at a set visit last October was what she would make of her first TV series “Querer.” That set visit gave some inkling.

Now the full answer is out, as the premium mini series, selected out of competition at San Sebastián, screened to the press in the entirety of its 212 minutes on Thursday night.

That total screening is understandable. “Querer” begins with Miren, the wife in a seemingly perfect marriage in outward appearance, goes to a police station to accuse her husband over 30 years of sexual assault. This and following episodes records the divergent impact of her decision on her elder son Aitor, loyal to his father and his demeanour, and his younger brother Jon,...

San Sebastian — At this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Basque cinema brings arguably its strong slate ever, fruits from its fast growing scene.

Among the throng of titles is Andrea Jaurrieta’s “Nina” offering a contemporary, feminist twist on the classic Western, featuring Patricia López Arnaiz as a woman seeking revenge in her coastal hometown. David Pérez Sañudo’s “The Last Romantics” presents a tale of second chances, starring Miren Gaztañaga as a woman confronting her mortality.

The documentary lineup is equally compelling, with Raúl de la Fuente’s “Los Williams” exploring race and identity through Basque soccer stars Iñaki and Nico Williams, and Carmen Chaplin’s “Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World” providing an unprecedented look at the legendary filmmaker’s Romani heritage.

Here’s the rundown:

Main Competition

“I’m Nevenka,”

Co-written with Isa Campo, Icíar Bollaín dramatizes the harrowing true story of Nevenka Fernández, the first...

San Sebastian — From when it began to incorporate Spanish TV series in its Official Selection – think 2017’s “The Plague” or 2020’s double whammy of “Patria” and “Riot Police” – San Sebastián has used its first Saturday to debate TV issues.

This time round, a panel highlighted crime series, featuring Movistar Plus+’s Susana Herreras, Laura Sarmiento, showrunner of Netflix hit “Intimacy” and lead writer on “Burning Body,” and Elías León Siminiani, co-creator of the 2017 docuseries “El caso Asunta (Operación Nenúfar)” which inspired the 2024 Netflix fiction series, “El Caso Asunta.”

Six takes on the panel discussion:

Spanish Crime Series Boom

The panel was entitled in Spanish “The Spanish Crime Series Boom.” That seems an understatement. According to Variety research, through Sept. 13 this year, seven Spanish titles hit No. 1 on Netflix’s Global Non-English TV series charts, occupying the top-charting position for a total 15 of the period’s total 35 weeks. That’s a...

No company has a more powerful spread of productions at this year’s San Sebastian Festival than Telefónica’s domestic platform and super-producer Movistar Plus+. The group brings a festival competition movie, “I’m Nevenka,” a premium drama series, “Querer,” a broad audience thriller series, “Celeste” and “Mugaritz,” a documentary feature about Spain’s most cerebral restaurant.

The diverse projects underscore Movistar Plus+’s muscular new content initiatives as the company drives ever more into nonfiction, emerging as Spain’s leader, and launching its first movie slate in January. Spain’s biggest national investor isn’t pulling out of content; in fact, it’s diving into deeper.

For nearly a decade, Movistar Plus+ has both increased the amount of content it produces and diversified the kinds of productions it backs. During the early days of streaming, Movistar Plus+ was a pioneer of local production by investing larger-than- ever budgets in its TV productions.

Una denuncia por violación hace saltar por los aires una familia aparentemente convencional. © Movistar Plus+

“Querer”, la serie de Alauda Ruiz de Azúa (“Cinco Lobitos”), tendrá su estreno mundial en la Sección Oficial del Festival de San Sebastián que se celebra del 20 al 28 de septiembre.

En “Querer”, la serie original de Movistar Plus+, tras 30 años de matrimonio y dos hijos en común, Miren abandona el domicilio conyugal y denuncia a su marido por violación continuada. Esta grave acusación obliga a los hijos a elegir entre creer a su madre o apoyar a un padre que defiende su inocencia. Un viaje familiar que avanza en paralelo al judicial con un mismo objetivo: conocer la verdad.

La serie de cuatro episodios está protagonizada por Nagore Aranburu, Pedro Casablanc, Miguel Bernardeau, Iván Pellicer y Loreto Mauleón.

La serie está dirigida por Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, coguionista de la serie junto a Eduard Sola...

Danis Tanović’s ‘My Late Summer’ To Open Sarajevo

Bosnian director Danis Tanović’s My Late Summer will open the 30th Sarajevo Film Festival this August. The film is billed as a comedy-drama about a young woman Maja who comes to a remote island to solve an issue of family inheritance. In a whirlwind of new emotions and through a series of unpredictable situations, she will finally face questions from her past. The search for inheritance becomes a search for her own identity, but also for forgiveness. Tanovic is one of Bosnia and Herzegovina most acclaimed directors. He broke out internationally with his Bosnia War inspired No Man’s Land which clinched the Oscar and Golden Globe for best foreign language film in 2002. He has also won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker (2013) and Death in Sarajevo (2016). My Late Summer is produced...

The San Sebastian Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, has unveiled a packed lineup of Spanish titles that is strong on women auteurs, led by Iciar Bollaín, Pilar Palomero, Paula Ortiz and Alauda Ruiz de Azua, who are now stepping up in scale or industry backing as big SVOD players – Movistar Plus+, Prime Video – move into the production of Spanish movies aimed at theatrical release or back their original series.

Vying in main competition, Bollaín’s “I Am Nevenka” looks like the first film to see the light of day from six auteur event movies co-produced by Movistar Plus+ and directed by leading cinematographic talent such as Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Alberto Fernández.

Also selected are two leading lights of a younger generation of women directors which have galvanised Spanish arthouse but are now looking for broader audiences.

Goya and San Sebastian winner Pilar Palomero competes in main competition with “Glimmers,...

French broadcaster Arte has joined Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s upcoming Movistar Plus+ series The New Years.

Arte and Spanish streamer Movistar Plus+ will co-produce the series, which is from Madrid-based Caballo Films — the production company Sorogoyen co-founded.

Production on the series began last year, and Arte has now snapped up French rights. Movistar Plus+ International will shop the title outside of Spain and France.

The series is set on New Year’s Eve every year for a decade, following a couple, played by Iria del Río (Riot Police) and Francesco Carril (Un Amor), who meet aged 30. Each episode follows updates their relationship and the trials they face to stay together, and the final shot is a single 40-minute take. “The narrative device allows you to consider change,” said Movistar Plus+ Director of Fiction and Entertainment Domingo Corral.

Alexandre Piel, Deputy Head of Drama at Arte France, said: “We’re very happy...

The incontrovertible and immediate effect of muscular tax credits, entering in force in 2023, have powered to a new level the shoot scene in Bilbao and Bizkaia – the Basque city and surrounding province in Northern Spain.

Introduced on Jan. 1, 2023, the new incentives offer an up-to-60% tax deduction for national and international co-productions of film and TV projects.

Enticing studios such as Toboggan and production houses Buendía Estudios and Tornasol to set up in Bizkaia and streaming giant Netflix to invest in original productions, the territory is fast capitalizing on its breaks.

Over 2023, 151 shoots filmed in Bilbao-Bizkaia, 76 from the Basque Country, 47 from Spain and 28 from abroad, according to the Bilbao-Bizkaia 2023 Year Book.

Total shoot spend in 2023 came in at €58.5 million ($63.7 million), 324% up on 2019’s figure of €13.8 million, six times up on €23.5 million ($25.6 million) in 2021. In all, productions shot 1,026 days in Bilbao or in the rest of Bizkaia, 74% more than 2022. The fact that...

“It is undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years,” Pedro Almodóvar announced of Alauda Ruíz de Azua’s movie “Lullaby,” as it began to prove one of Spain’s liveliest sleepers of 2022, going on to score a Spanish Academy Goya Award for new director.

Having made such an illustrious first feature, what kind of TV debut could Ruíz de Azua make directing her first series? Some large inkling was given on Wednesday as Movistar Plus+ opened up the set of miniseries “Querer” to a select delegation of Spanish press.

In short, if on-set interviews are anything to go by, in her TV debut Ruíz de Azua returns to an eye-opening intimate family drama set in her lush native Basque Country, a story which delivers once more some uncomfortable truths about women’s role in traditional family structures.

One large question which the series may pose is whether the...