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Una Sección Oficial de mayor presencia femenina. © Festival Málaga | mundoCine

El 28 Festival de Málaga, que se celebra del 14 al 23 de marzo, ha anunciado las primeras películas que competirán por la ansiada Biznaga de Oro. Y recordemos que el año pasado, el galardón recayó en Segundo premio, de Isaki Lacuesta y Pol Rodríguez, y este fue solo el primero de los muchos reconocimientos –a la espera de ver qué se lleva en los Goya– de la película elegida (pero no nominada) para representar a España en los Óscar 2025.

En esta edición, la Sección Oficial se distingue por una mayor presencia femenina, con cinco películas españolas por ahora anunciadas a concurso firmadas por directoras: La furia, de Gemma Blasco, Los Tortuga, de Belén Funes, Sorda, de Eva Libertad, La buena suerte, de Gracia Querejeta, y La buena letra, de Celia Rico.

© Festival Málaga

Empezando por la primera de ellas, Gemma Blasco se...

Basada en la novela de Alejandro Palomas. © Filmax

El rodaje de Un hijo, la nueva película de Nacho La Casa, ha comenzado en el País Vasco y Sevilla.

Un hijo sigue a María, una psicóloga escolar sin experiencia, que intuye que, tras la aparente felicidad de un niño de 8 años recién llegado al colegio, se esconde un drama de terribles consecuencias. Para averiguarlo, deberá descifrar lo que la mente de Guille traduce en dibujos y, además, vencer la agresiva resistencia de su padre.

La película, cuyo guion ha escrito Nacho La Casa junto a Juan R. Apolo a partir de la novela homónima de Alejandro Palomas, galardonado con el Premio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil, está protagonizada por Macarena García (Casa en Flames), Hugo Silva (Buscando a Coque) y el joven debutante Ian Cortegoso.

Un hijo se estrenará próximamente en cines de la mano de Filmax.

© Filmax

¡SÍGUENOS!

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Hulu has shared the official trailer and key art for the Spanish drama series Fleeting Lies, which will make its U.S. debut on the streaming service on Thursday, October 10. Pedro Almodóvar produces the show.

When Lucia, an executive at a high-tech beauty company, goes to work expecting a promotion and winds up accused of corporate espionage and unceremoniously fired, she goes to great lengths to hide her shame and clear her name.

Also known as Mentiras pasajeras, the series stars Elena Anaya, Pilar Castro, Hugo Silva, Quim Gutiérrez, and Susi Sánchez. The guest stars include María Botto, Pedro Casablanc, Estefanía de los Santos, and María León.

One month before her wedding and the day of her supposed big promotion, Lucía is accused of corporate espionage and fired from her job. Suddenly, Lucía’s life and future take a drastic turn for the worst, as she ponders how to tell her fiancé,...

In 2009, nine production companies were operating in the Canary Islands using Zec preferential tax rates for being established here. Flash forward 15 years, there are now 31 companies doing live action. Below, some of the Canary Islands pacemaker production companies, and titles to track:

Anaga Media Productions

The Canary Islands’ newest kid on the block, founded in June 2023 by two U.S.-raised Venezuelans: Gisberg Bermúdez, director of hit chiller “Whistler: the Origins,” and actress-turned-producer Malena González, now based out of Tenerife’s San Cristobal de La Laguna. There it hit the ground offering production services on “Bruha,” which shot in November, directed and co-written by Bermúdez for Elizabeth Avellán. Currently in post, it stars Clara Rosager McCaul Lombardi, Jeff Fahey and González. Now developing “Black Lotus” which will be Anaga’s first production. Interested in both international co-production and offering production services, say González and Bermúdez.

Buendía Estudios Canarias

The biggest...

Studios that call the Canary Islands home are curating top talent to further diversify their audiovisual offerings, luring and retaining creatives dedicated to costume design, sound, production, animation and editing. Others are simply born in the Islands.

A further testament to the sustained development of the local sector and its increasing relevance to a broader global cinematic landscape, the Islands have seen growing audiences for their domestic films.

More on six of the players currently anchoring the regional production push:

Orlando Harris

The Santa Cruz de Tenerife-born art director and green-screen foreman has put his muster behind large studio bets such as Netflix hits “The Witcher” and “La Palma,” as well as Amazon’s “The Rings of Power.” A frequent collaborator with the isles’ Volcano Films, he notes that his work with them “has always been, without a doubt, the most rewarding professional experience.” Ahead, several international productions and a...

When director Dani de la Torre read a news article detailing how the Spanish coastal town of Marbella became the playing ground for hundreds of international criminal organizations, he knew he had a new show on his hands. His “La Unidad” producing partners agreed and thus became Movistar Plus+ original series “Marbella,” premiering in Spain on May 2, to large media impact.

During a preview of the show at the Berlinale Series Market de la Torre remarked how the underbelly of Marbella was “unknown” in Spain when he first read an in-depth investigation into the criminal activities in the Málaga province. “More than 132 different gangs call Marbella their home turf and have their headquarters there. This was a novelty I was immediately attracted to.”

“Every day, news stories are coming out about the Marbella gangs, but these organizations have so much money that it makes it very difficult for the police to properly fight against them.

Exclusive: Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has sold a series of its EFM titles, including Spanish horror pic The Boogeyman: The Origin of the Myth (El Hombre Del Saco) and a new 4K remastered version of the cult Argentinian thriller Nine Queens, to multiple international territories.

The Boogeyman: The Origin of the Myth has been sold to Rusia/Cis (Nashe Kino) for theatrical, Cambodia and Laos (Westec), and German-speaking Europe (Busch Medien). Previous deals on the pic include Mantícora, which picked up all rights for Latin America, the U.S., and Canada. Amazon’s Prime Video has acquired Spanish SVOD rights, and Antena 3 grabbed free Tvv rights.

The company has also sold the Spanish-Argentine supernatural horror drama, Restless Waters, Shivering Lights from director Ángeles Hernández, starring Hugo Silva, to Spain (Alfa) for theatrical and Kinologistica (Russia/Cis). Finally, FilmSharks has locked a deal for a theatrical release in France via Eurozoom...

A remote and dilapidated lighthouse proves an increasingly sinister backdrop for newly widowed father, Pablo (Hugo Silva) and his adolescent daughter Lidia (Zoe Arnao) in the first international teaser trailer for the upcoming Ángeles Hernández thriller “Restless Waters, Shivering Lights” (“El Faro”).

Distribution in Spain is handled by Alfa Pictures with an expected release date of Jan. 26.

Buenos Aires-based sales-production outfit FilmSharks handles global sales outside of Spain. It has shared with Variety in exclusivity a first look international teaser trailer with founder Guido Rud relaying the project is a modern take on horror along the lines of “Relic” and “Shutter Island” admitting, “the audience is welcoming and pre-sales are hot.”

The narrative follows father and daughter through their strained relations after the death of the family matriarch (Irene Montalà). When Lidia attempts to take her own life, they’re forced to take a pause and reconnect at the family’s long-abandoned property,...

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

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

Mejor PELÍCULA

20.000 especies de abejas

Cerrar los ojos

La sociedad de la nieve

Saben aquell

Un amor

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos

Elena Martín, Creatura

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

David Trueba, Saben aquell

Isabel Coixet, Un amor

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Aftersun (Reino Unido)

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Las ocho montañas (Italia)

Safe Place (Croacia)

Sala de profesores...

The Society Of The Snow has garnered 13 nominations, followed by Close Your Eyes and Jokes & Cigarettes with 11.

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees leads the nominations for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, which will be presented on February 10, 2024.

20,000 Species Of Bees premiered in competition at Berlin, going on to win the Silver Bear for best performance for Sofía Otero, playing an eight-year-old girl who spends a summer working in the Basque Country’s beehives while exploring her identity.

The film scored 15 nominations, including best film, best director and four nods in the acting categories.

Ja Bayona’s...

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

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

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

Bayona...

An idyllic getaway goes awry after a freak accident leaving teen Lidia (Zoe Arnao) and her father, Pablo (Hugo Silva) to mourn the loss of the family matriarch (Irene Montalà) by escaping to their isolated lighthouse where the paranormal flirts with their fragile dispositions while a troubled family friend (Sergio Castellanos) stirs the pot on the periphery.

A lot’s at stake in “Restless Waters, Shivering Lights,” (“Faro”), a tension-laden thriller from Ángeles Hernández that plumbs depths of despair, examining the deterioration of once-tight bonds distorted by overwhelming grief, the perfect emotional foundation for descending fright.

“Our own insecurities let loose the horror. Those ghosts sneak into the father–daughter relationship and try to destroy it. One of the more complex exercises when shooting is to keep the pulse and balance between Lidia’s dream world and how it affects her reality. And, on the other hand, a father who...

The latest from “The Platform” co-producers Mr Miyagi and rising shock meister Hugo Cardozo will be sneak peeked as pix-in-post at this year’s Ventana Sur Blood Window Screenings.

Both are sold, and Cardozo’s “Do Not Enter” produced by Guido Rud’s FilmSharks as sales agents, as this week’s American Film Market attests, are driving ever more into horror genre.

Unlike action thrillers and romantic comedies, the other go-to movie types in a market ever more attuned to streamer tastes, that could be that horror doesn’t need name actors. Mister Smith Ent.’s David Garrett said before the AFM.

Latin American genre is not so much as fitting into market trends as a push-phenomenon driven by genre fanboys and girls. Two at least make the cut, with Argentina’s Jose María Cicala, who will introduce his “Charming,” and Peru’s young Farid Rodríguez, who multi-tasks as a film and fest director,...

The negotiations of adult sexual relationships, as well as the demands forced upon single women in society, are recurring fascinations in the work of Spanish writer-director Isabel Coixet, albeit to erratic effect: In recent years, particularly in such English-language efforts as “It Snows in Benidorm” and “The Bookshop,” her voice has felt unconfident, even a little stifled. But Coixet strikes with a renewed sense of conviction in “Un Amor,” an adaptation of Sara Mesa’s Spanish-language bestseller that plays to her unusual strengths as a full-blooded feminist filmmaker. Making no cozy compromises in its portrayal of a young woman socially and sexually exploited by rural patriarchy — while still foregrounding the consuming strength and autonomy of her desire — it’s a tricky balancing act that mostly works, thanks also to a crackling lead performance by Laia Costa.

The combined draws of Costa and popular, much-translated source material should ensure “Un Amor...

The 12th edition of the Spanish festival runs October 18-24

Isabel Coixet’s Un Amor will open the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival while Lone Scherfig’s The Movie Teller will close the 12th edition of the Palma event.

Coixet will also receive the festival’s 2023 vision award. The Spanish filmmaker and her cast of Laia Costa, Hovik Keuchkerian and Hugo Silva, are expected to attend.

Un Amor is based on Sara Mesa’s novel and explores a complicated sexual relationship between a young woman and her older neighbour. It will world premiere at San Sebastian before screening at the UK’s Raindance Film Festival.

The San Sebastián Film Festival has revealed the lineup of Spanish titles that will screen as part of the Official Selection of its latest edition, which is due to unfold from September 22 — 30. Scroll down for the full list.

Selected titles include Un Amor from Isabel Coixet, who competes for the festival’s Golden Shell for the first time with the pic based on the book of the same name by Sara Mesa and starring Laia Costa at the head of a cast also featuring Hovik Keuchkerian, Hugo Silva, Luis Bermejo, Ingrid García-Jonsson and Francesco Carril.

Filmmaker Fernando Trueba, of the Oscar-nominated feature Chico & Rita (2012), will present his latest project, They Shot the Piano Player, directed alongside Javier Mariscal in the fest’s Special Screening sidebar. The film, narrated by the voice of Jeff Goldblum, follows the figure of Brazilian musician Tenorio Jr. during the early days of the musical movement known as bossa nova.

A Boyfriend For My Wife, Do Not Enter entice buyers.

Guido Rud’s Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has reported a raft of business on its Cannes slate led by a major deal with the TelevisaUnivision’s ViX platform on rom-com A Boyfriend For My Wife (Un Novio Para Mi Mujer).

The streamer is building its nascent pipeline after launching in 2022 and acquired US and Spanish-speaking Latin American rights to Laura Mana’s completed Spanish remake of the Argentinian smash starring Belen Cuesta, Hugo Silva and Diego Martin. AMC has acquired the film for Eastern Europe, Kinologistica for Cis, and Anuvu for airlines.

Rio De Janeiro, March 21 (Ians) Portuguese manager Pepa has been named head coach of Cruzeiro until the end of Brazil’s 2023 domestic season.

The 42-year-old replaces Paulo Pezzolano, who parted ways with the Belo Horizonte outfit after a 2-1 loss at America Mineiro in the Mineiro championship on Sunday, reports Xinhua.

Pepa’s backroom staff will include assistant coaches Samuel Correia and Hugo Silva, fitness coach Pedro Oliveira and performance analyst Pedro Azevedo, according to a statement on Cruzeiro’s official website.

Pepa, a former Benfica forward who turned to coach in 2010, has been out of work since parting ways with Saudi Arabia’s Al-Tai in January.

Cruzeiro will begin their Brazilian Serie A season with a visit to Corinthians on April 15.

–Ians

cs...

He’s become one of Spain’s most successful auteur directors of big audience hits. Now director-writer-producer Alex de la Iglesia and producing partner, the actor-producer Carolina Bang (“The Last Circus”), have turned to wayward soccer players for their latest TV outing, HBO Max show “Headless Chickens.”

The starting point for this upcoming Spanish series is curiosity, Bang explained at an afternoon Q&a session at the Berlinale Series Market on Tuesday scheduled in the Next from Spain strand.

“Alex and I don’t like soccer very much but we have a lot of curiosity about the industry,” said Bang. “You have a lot of young people that became very rich very quickly. It destroys your head.”

Indeed, a teaser for “Headless Chickens” featured a beautiful footballer parading in a big, white fluffy coat through a nightclub with women falling at his feat. The swagger was amusing.

“It’s a...

This year’s Berlinale Series Market kicks off Monday as Spanish series “The Snow Girl,” a missing girl suspense thriller produced by Spain’s Atípica Films, has attracted huge heat for Netflix, punching 101.7 million hours watched in its first three weeks. Doing so, it ranked as the streamer’s No. 1 non-English show in the world over Jan. 30 – Feb. 5.

In all, Spain has more shows and movies in Netflix’s all time non-English Top 10s than any other country in the world, seven to France’s two, for example.

Spain, it could be argued, has cracked online. But its drama series industry wants to ring more options.

As scripted commissions look to have dropped from second half 2022 in not only the U.S. but also Europe and Latin America, an energetic posse of Spanish producers and stars are rolling into Berlin to present new productions. These look set to explore an...

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.

This review contains spoilers for all three episodes of BBC drama Crossfire

The ingredients of Crossfire are an all-inclusive buffet of delights. The terrifying prospect of an idyllic Canary Island hotel besieged by determined gunmen with a grudge. A magnificent cast including Keeley Hawes, Josette Simon and Lee Ingleby. A slick three-episode BBC production airing over consecutive nights with the added allure of a binge-it-all-on-iPlayer option.

So when Crossfire opens with a dazed Keeley Hawes voiceover vaguely pontificating about the nonlinear nature of time while we watch her swimming in a luxurious (but mysteriously empty for a massive holiday complex) pool, you can consider it an omen that all is not quite right with this BBC drama. Still, we’re teased with a scene where Keeley Hawes’ character Jo is alone on her hotel room balcony, one minute waving at her son as he dives into the now crowded pool,...

How many bad shows can a good actor star in before you have to start considering the possibly uncomfortable reality that they are, in fact, a bad actor? Well, this is an experiment that Keeley Hawes seems to be undertaking. Her second project of the year, after a middling adaptation of The Midwich Cuckoos, is the BBC’s new drama, Crossfire, written by Apple Tree Yard’s Louise Doughty. It finds Hawes trapped in a Spanish holiday resort as baby-faced gunmen go on the rampage. If her agent was looking for a project to make The Bodyguard look cerebral, boy did they find it.

Hawes is Jo, wife of Jason (Lee Ingleby) and mother of Adam (Noah Leggott) and Amara (Shalisha James-Davis). She’s just arrived on holiday with two other couples: Vikash Bhai’s Chinar and Anneika Rose’s Abhi, and Miriam (Josette Simon) and Ben (Daniel Ryan). The...

Britain’s leading lady of the TV action thriller, Keeley Hawes, is back.

The star of “Bodyguard” returns in “Crossfire,” another nail-biting thriller for the BBC in which Hawes plays a holidaymaker whose sunbathing session on her hotel balcony becomes a nightmare when shots ring out across the complex, turning her world upside down.

The scenario will remind audiences of her turn as the U.K. home secretary alongside Richard Madden’s bodyguard in the eponymous BBC drama, which became a global hit when it was picked up by Netflix.

The setting for “Crossfire,” however, is a far cry from London’s Westminster, instead set at a luxury resort in the Canary Islands.

Produced by Fremantle’s Dancing Ledge Productions (“The Salisbury Poisonings”), the drama is the first original series from author Louise Doughty, who previously adapted her novel “Apple Tree Yard” for a hugely popular BBC limited series.

Dancing...

Warner Bros Discovery left Spain out of its clampdown on European original programs for HBO Max, and has now doubled down on the country by ordering a soccer comedy there.

Production is underway in Madrid on Playing Dirty (Monos con Pistola) The seven-part series comes from Jorge Valdano Sáenz and Pablo Tébar and is based on an idea from Carolina Bang and Álex de la Iglesia, whose drama 30 Coins is one HBO Max Europe’s most high-profile originals. The series is produced by Bang and de la Iglesia’s Pokeepsie Films, which is part of Banijay Iberia.

Playing Dirty follows the life of soccer agent Alberto Martín Ruiz, otherwise known as ‘Beto,’ as he leaves the comfortable life of working at a large soccer agency to go it alone and start his own venture. Navigating between his daily delirious struggle with soccer players and his stressful family life, his only solace is his girlfriend,...

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has picked up world sales rights to Ángeles Hernández’s supernatural horror film “El faro” (“The Lighthouse”), set up at Mr. Miyagi Films, co-producer of Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s multi-awarded Netflix smash hit “The Platform.”

“The Lighthouse” ended shooting in May; FilmSharks is showing first footage to buyers at Cannes.

Film toplines Spanish film and TV star Hugo Silva plus Irene Montalà (“Un asunto privado”), Zoe Arnao and Sergio Castellanos.

Produced by Hernández and David Matamoros at Barcelona-based Mr. Miyagi, “The Lighthouse” turns on Lidia and her father, Pablo, returning to the family lighthouse after her mother’s death.

Pablo, aware of Lidia’s fragile emotional balance, worries about a possible relapse after her suicide attempt. Lidia, annoyed by her father’s lack of trust, discovers that something’s not right at the lighthouse, and that dire danger awaits them if they do not find out the truth.

Hit Argentinian romantic comedy has been remade in more than 12 countries.

Guido Rud’s Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks’ The Remake Co. has struck a French deal for remake rights to hit Argentinian romantic comedy A Boyfriend For My Wife (Un Novio Para Mi Mujer).

Abel Nahmias’ Paris-based Echo Films is the latest company to adapt Juan Taratuto’s 2008 film. Nahmias’ credits include It Boy and Blood: The Last Vampire.

The story has been remade in more than 12 countries and centres on a frustrated husband who adopts the unusual strategy of hiring a flirtatious man in the hopes of getting rid of his wife.

After more than a two decades relationship, media conglom Atresmedia Group and the Málaga Film Festival have grown what looks like a unique case of symbiosis in the Spanish film-tv industry.

Atresmedia, a driving force in Spain’s film and TV sectors, joined the Málaga Festival as an official sponsor in 2000.

The DeAPlaneta-controlled broadcaster and Málaga, today Spain’s biggest festival dedicated to local and Latin American film and TV, have been faithful witnesses of the evolution of the Spanish film and TV industry.

The relationship has benefited both partners.

The Málaga Festival launched in 1998; one year later, a law began to oblige Spanish broadcasters to invest 5% of their annual revenues in local and European films. Broadcasters’ relevance in Spanish film financing rapidly multiplied.

Atresmedia -until 10 years ago Antena 3- started by tabling an economic contribution to the festival budget. At the same time, part of its annual...

Eliza Rycembel, star of Oscar-nominated “Corpus Christi,” and Panos Mouzourakis, whose credits include “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” have joined the cast of “Nasdrovia,” Season 2, which bows Feb. 25 on Movistar Plus, produced with The Mediapro Studio’s Globomedia – a powerful partnership of two of Spain’s biggest content creators.

Variety has had exclusive access to a behind-the-scenes trailer where Rycembel and Mouzourakis talk about their characters, both contract killers: George, played by a tongue-in-cheek Rycembel and Mouzourakis’s Ringo, a charmingly ridiculous ‘70s throwback who, as he comments in the video, wants to take George under his wing, but still show her “who’s the man in the house.”

Season 2 continues the downward spiral of Edurne (Leonor Watling) and Julian (Hugo Silva). In Season 1, they suffer a midlife crisis, abandoning careers as lawyers to the rich and corrupt to run a Russian restaurant, only for the establishment to become...

Universal Pictures Int’l Spain has snatched theatrical distribution rights to the Spanish remake of romcom “A Boyfriend for my Wife” (“Un Novio para mi Mujer”), now shooting in Barcelona.

The 2008 Argentine original by Juan Taratuto, starring Adrian Suar, lured up to 1.5 million admissions in Argentina and has been remade in a slew of territories, including Mexico, Brazil, Italy, China, France, Chile, Vietnam and, most successfully, in South Korea where it sold five million admissions.

Its story revolves around a man who finds a rather unorthodox way of getting rid of his lovely but insufferable wife: Finding her a boyfriend so that she dumps him instead. He picks a well-known Lothario to seduce her but the scheme backfires on him.

Directed by Laura Mañá from a screenplay penned with Pol Cortecans (“Bienvenidos a la familia”), the Spanish remake is produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures and Athos Pictures along with the...

Madrid — Movistar Plus and The Mediapro Studio have greenlit development on Season 2 of “Nasdrovia,” an upcoming comedy-drama tracking an ex-couple’s excruciating decent into hell, as they fall into the maws of the Russian mob.

Season 2 is being written by the show’s creators, Sergio Sarra, Miguel Esteban and Luismi Perez, and its showrunnner, Marc Vigil.

“One of the things which we can certainly do in these extraordinary circumstances is develop new shows,” Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus dictator of original fiction, said at an online presentation by Movistar Plus and The Mediapro Studio on Wednesday.

The Mediapro Studio Distribution handles international sales, with “Nasdrovia” being brought onto the international market via selection for MipTV’s online Drama Buyers Summit, held from late March, and now April 22’s presentation by Corral, showrunner Marc Vigil, and The Mediapro Studio Distribution head Marta Ezpeleta.

Sharply written with a clipped, rhythmic delivery of dialog...

Madrid — Movistar Plus, the pay TV/Svod arm of giant European telecom Telefonica, is upping the ante. On New Year’s Eve, it announced a first 2020 release line-up – more titles may be added – that has two big swings, more emphasis on action, and a larger number of comedy and non-fiction plays.

2020’s 14 new series or seasons marks an all-time company record.

That, however, is just Movistar Plus, and does not count any big series in the second half of the year, or any that it might put into development via a new joint production venture, announced in September, with broadcast network Atresmedia.

Also, there may be more feature films, following on the company’s first original movie, Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War,” which earned a gratifying €11.0 million at the Spanish box office this year, and established the pay TV unit as one of the very few companies in Spain...

A selection of Basque pictures, projects and productions in 2018:

70 Big Ones

Sayaka Producciones, Pokeepsie Films, La Panda Producciones and Setenta Invisibles L.P. Aie produce the next thriller from Basque genre specialist Koldo Serra (“The Backwoods”), starring Emma Suárez, Nathalie Poza and Hugo Silva. It features a desperate woman in need of $41,000, with two muggers in her way. Filmax handles world sales.

Above 592 Metres

Maddi Barber’s latest explores the life chances left when a territory is completely altered by the construction of the Itoiz dam in the Navarrese Pyrenees. Selected by prestigious shorts program Kimuak, “Above” screens at the 9th Zinemira Basque film showcase and competes for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award.

Advantages Of Traveling By Train

Acquired by Entertainment One’s Seville International and produced by San Sebastian-based Sr. y Sra. and Madrid’s Morena Films, this film, starring Luis Tosar and Pilar Castro, marks Aritz Moreno’s feature debut,...

Madrid — In an alliance which links three of the potential key players in Spain’s new TV scene, broadcast network Mediaset España and Warner Bros. International TV Production España will produce, with the participation of Netflix, primetime cop thriller “Brigada Costa del Sol.”

Starring Hugo Silva, and set in southern Spain, over 1977-82, “Brigada Costa del Sol” will screen first on Mediaset España’s main Telecinco channel, and then globally on Netflix in a first window and second window for Spain.

Inspired by the history of one of Spain’s first anti-narcotics squads, the Grupo Especial de Estupefacientes Costa del Sol, the thriller, set in Torremolinos, narrates the humble origins but huge success of the operation. Shooting from June 7 on location in Malaga and its environs, the series will mix police procedural with drama, romance and the protagonist’s voice over, given his own “subjective and cynical viewpoint” counterpointing the...

Stars: Macarena Gómez, Nadia de Santiago, Hugo Silva, Luis Tosar, Gracia Olayo, Lucía González, Carolina Bang | Written by Juanfer Andrés, Sofía Cuenca | Directed by Juanfer Andrés, Esteban Roel

In the mood for a Spanish-language psycho-drama? Shrew’s Nest is another Shudder exclusive and is a fun jaunt into the weird world of sisters Montse (Macarena Gómez) and Nia (Nadia de Santiago).

Montse and Nia live in an apartment in Madrid in the 1950s. Montse has raised Nia alone since their mother died in childbirth and their father disappeared some years afterwards. Whilst Nia has an outgoing and sunny disposition, Montse is a highly strung, paranoid agoraphobic, suffering crippling panic attacks if she so much as takes a step outside their home and is reliant on doses of morphine supplied by a friend and customer of her dress-tailoring business that she runs from the apartment.

The lives of both sisters change when their upstairs neighbour,...

Compared to their American equivalents, Spanish imports rock a vibe that can’t be duplicated. Just check any of Telemundo’s saucy daytime dramas versus our straight-faced network soap operas, and you’ll be treated to silliness abound. But that’s on a nationally televised level – graduate to big-budget theatrics, and we’re talking productions that are nuttier than a Payday bar (or whatever your favorite peanut-laced treat is).

My Big Night is, without a doubt, one of the more ludicrous ensemble pieces I’ve seen in recent memory, guided by the zany ambition of Álex de la Iglesia (The Last Circus and Witching & Bitching). Are you ready for over-dramatized comedics and a cornucopia of chaos driven by goofy, slapstick maturity? Or, would it be immaturity? Not quite sure. How would you define a subplot where some Fabio-lookin’ pop star has his semen stolen by a Bj-specialist who doesn’t swallow?...

Below you will find our favorite films of the 66th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Daniel Kasmantop Picksi. From the Notebook Of..., Marble Ass, Tout une nuitII. A Quiet Passion, The Adventure of Denchu-Kozo & Isolation of 1/880000, Creepy, Things to Come, Short StayIII. Hanasareru Gang, Tempestad, Karla, A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery, Le fils de Joseph, Ta'angIV. Between Fences, Fire at Sea, Doomed Love – A Journey through German Genre FilmsCOVERAGEAwardsHail...Cinema?: Hail Caesar! (Joel & Ethan Coen)Two Women in Mexico's Storm: Tempestad (Tatiana Huezo)Why Not Stay in Philly?: Short Stay (Ted Fendt)The Title Says It Best: Creepy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Women Poets and Philosophers: A Quiet Passion (Terence Davies), Things to Come (Mia Hansen-Løve)Refugee Cinema: Fire at Sea (Gianfranco Rosi), Ta'ang (Wang Bing), Havarie (Philip Scheffner)Cryptograms: Crosscurrent (Yang Chao), Life After Life (Zhang Hanyi)Lost Souls of the...

An Outpost of Progress“Shadow,” said he,“Where can it be –This land of Eldorado?” —Edgar Allan Poe, “Eldorado”, 1849While critics mine film festivals for hidden or sometimes unattainable gems, a parallel quest for an El Dorado can be seen as a thematic undercurrent within the larger focus of the Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum section on migration. This quest is especially apparent in the gold mines of the Peruvian Andes in Salomé Lamas’ Eldorado Xxi and the jade mines of northern Myanmar in Midi Z’s City of Jade. Set in the same war-torn region as the latter film, Wang Bing’s Ta'ang follows people from the eponymous minority group seeking safer shelter across the Chinese border. In An Outpost of Progress and competition film Letters from War, the Portuguese filmmakers Hugo Vieira da Silva and Ivo M. Ferreira deal explicitly with the colonial connotations of the notion of El Dorado.

The Berlin International Film Festival continued to challenge expectations in its 66th edition, landing another auteur heavy competition line-up, albeit a slightly less sensational one than the landmark 2015 program. Although an attempt continues to be made to establish grand motifs between films in competition and the more experimental sidebars, topical issues seemed to be the name of the game across the board, particularly immigration. This culminated with this year’s Golden Bear winner, Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea, a documentary which was the clear early favorite and remained so up until the awards ceremony. Rosi has now won two major film festivals with his documentary work (previously taking home the top prize at Venice 2013 for Sacro Gra), and further solidifies an argument for the Cannes Film Festival to follow suit and allow documentary titles to play in the main competition. Berlin notably had two documentaries in the main competition this year,...

Returning with another diverse, auteur heavy line-up with their 66th edition, the Berlin International Film Festival continues to impress just as much with selections available outside of the titles competing for the coveted Golden Bear (including the festival’s second edition of a Critics’ Week, where the latest titles from Andrzej Zulawski and Philippe Grandrieux are playing). New items from Bence Fliegauf, Eugene Green, Anna Muylaert, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Doris Dorrie are also significant highlights, but here’s a glance at my top five most anticipated.

#5. An Outpost of Progress – Dir. Hugo Vieira da Silva

Portuguese director Hugo Vieira da Silva returns with this adaptation of a Joseph Conrad story (the author considered this his best work), a tale of two colonial officials in a remote ivory trading post on the Congo. Conrad remains a difficult author to translate to the screen (some great exceptions from Coppola, Patrice Chereau, and...

Programme includes 34 world premieres.

The line-up for the 46th Berlinale Forum has been announced and will feature a total of 44 films in its main programme, of which 34 are world premieres and nine international premieres.

One focus of this year’s programme is the Arab region, with films shot by mainly young directors from an area that stretches between Egypt and Saudi Arabia, exploring both the past and present of their homelands.

In A Magical Substance Flows into Me, artist Jumana Manna sets out in search of the musical diversity of the Palestinian region.

Tamer El Said’s feature In the Last Days of the City (Akher ayam el madina) sends his alter-ego Khalid through the director’s home city of Cairo, which is in a state of uproar.

Maher Abi Samra’s documentary A Maid for Each (Makhdoumin) grapples with the employment of maids from the Global South in middle-class Lebanese households, a practice...

Plus: Sony offers free Concussion screening to NFL players; and more…

Breaking Glass has acquired North American rights to Álex de la Iglesia’s ensemble black comedy My Big Night, about the backstage preparations for a New Year’s Eve TV spectacular.

Spain’s Raphael, Mario Casas, Blanca Suarez and Hugo Silva star in the film that premiered in Toronto. Breaking Glass plans an April theatrical release after brokering the deal with Film Factory at Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires earlier this month.

Sony Pictures Entertainment has offered NFL players and their families free admission to Concussion when they present their Nflpa membership card at any Cinemark theatre in the Us. The offer extends for the duration of the film’s run starting on December 25 opening day. Will Smith plays forensic neuropathologist Bennet Omalu, who discovered Cte, a football-related brain trauma, in a pro player.Mpi Media Group has wrapped production on Catfight by Onur Tukel. [link...

Álex de la Iglesia’s comedy will head a strand of Spanish films set to play at the 33rd Miami International Film Festival that runs from March 4-13, 2016.

My Big Night (Mi Gran Noche) follow the backstage shenanigans before a TV special celebrating a legendary pop singer. Star and Spanish pop icon Raphael is scheduled to attend the festival.

The film also stars Mario Casas, Santiago Segura, Carlos Areces, Blanca Suarez, Hugo Silva, Carmen Machi and Carolina Bang.

“Álex de la Iglesia has made a perfect pop movie with My Big Night,” said the festival’s executive director and director of programming Jaie Laplante. “This riotously funny film is much more than one of the very best films by de la Iglesia, it is a party!”

The Spanish line-up includes Cinedwntwn Galas Truman from Cesc Gay starring Ricardo Darín and Javier Cámara; Emilio Martínez Lázaro’s Spanish Affair 2 (Ocho Apellidos Catalanes) – now the biggest Spanish film of...

The Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts of Spain (Icaa) alongsie the American Cinematheque and Egeda, announced the 21st edition of Recent Spanish Cinema series, a showcase of the most outstanding recent Spanish films at the Egyptian Theatre. The film screenings will take place October 15-18, 2015. This year the producers of this annual film series will collaborate with Spanish Filmmaker, journalist, writer and producer Guillermo Fesser, who has created the poster and the promo spot with theme “Let your Spanish side out” bringing his sense of humor and unique Spanish style to the marketing campaign.

Read More: MiamiFF Review: 'Marshland' is a Provocative Thriller with Unique Political Undertones

The full schedule will be announced October 1st , but several of the films to screen as part of this exciting program have already been revealed. Take a look at some of the highlights below including "Marshland," which our writer Carlos Aguilar described as "a technically immaculate production that feels like a major motion picture while retaining its art house appeal."

- "Off Course" (Perdiendo el Norte) , 2015, 102 min. Dir. Nacho G Velilla.International Distribution: DeAPlaneta International.Hugo (Yon González) and Braulio (Julián López) both have university degrees but no jobs, and think they can escape the economic doldrums by leaving Spain for Germany. But what looked like a land of opportunity on TV presents more challenges to the two friends than they expected in this sparkling comedy. In Castillan and German with English subtitles. One of the biggest Box office hits in 2015 .

- "Happy 140" (Felices 140), 2015, 98 min. Dir. Gracia Querejeta. International Sales: Latido Films. Elia (Maribel Verdu) has just hit the jackpot – literally. One of the things she spends her 140 million euro lottery prize on is a 40th birthday bash in the Canary Islands, to which she invites a motley group of family and friends, including the ex she still pines for. But proximity to wealth can warp even the closest relationships, and the reunion soon takes a shocking turn.

-"Shrew's Nest" (Musarañas), 2014, 95 min. International Sales: Film Factory. First-time feature directors Juan Fernando Andres and Esteban Roel (and producer Alex De La Iglesia) lead viewers through a terrifying psychological maze in 1950s Spain. At its center is the apartment of Montse (Macarena Gómez, in one of the wildest performances you’ll see all year), who has raised her younger sister to the brink of adulthood. But agoraphobia and religious ritual have taken their toll on Montse, and when an injured young man (Hugo Silva) turns up at the door, help is the last thing she gives him. With Luis Tosar as the spectral father figure. In Spanish with English subtitles.

-"Magical Girl," 2014, 127 min. Dir. Carlos Vermut. International Sales: Films Distribution. Luis (Luis Bermejo) has a 12-year-old daughter with a terminal illness and a last wish – to have a dress just like the main character of her favorite Japanese anime series. The unemployed professor doesn’t have the money to purchase the dress, but thinks he can get it with a little help from a former teacher (José Sacristán) and an unbalanced young woman (Goya and Feroz winner Bárbara Lennie). Vermut’s sure directorial hand weaves multiple storylines together in this haunting (and occasionally intense) drama. In Spanish with English subtitles.

"Sidetracked" (Las Overjas No Pierden El Tren), 2014, 103 min. Dir. Alvaro Fernandez Armero. International Sales: Film Factory. The mid-life crises of three Spanish couples provide the laughs in this gleeful ensemble comedy. Luisa (Inma Cuesta of Three Many Weddings) and Alberto (Raúl Arévalo) move to the countryside, thinking it a better place to raise kids, though the change puts a damper on their sex life. Luisa’s sister (Candela Peña) and Alberto’s brother (Alberto San Juan) have their own relationship challenges - her obsessive pursuit scares men away, while his much-younger girlfriend is a little on the impulsive side.

"Requirements to Be a Normal Person (Requisitos Para Ser Una Persona Norma), 2015, 90 min.Everybody tries to fit in, but few people go about it as methodically as Maria de la Montana (writer-director Leticia Dolera), who hopes to reach normality through a 7-item checklist. Her mentally challenged younger brother (Jordi Llodra) and overweight friend (Manuel Burque) seem to have most of the bases covered, and the success of Maria’s quest may boil down to just being herself. Brightly colored and boasting a jangly folk score from Luthea Salom, this romantic comedy is, as one might hope from its title, charmingly eccentric. Winner of the Best New Screenwriter, Cinematography and Editing Awards at the Málaga Spanish Film Festival.

"Marshland" (La Isla Minima), 2014, 105 min. Dir. Alberto Rodriguez. Us Distribution: Outsider Pictures. Spain’s democracy was still on wobbly legs in 1980, particularly in the backwater of Andalucia where this tense crime drama is set. City cops Juan (Javier Gutiérrez) and Pedro (Raúl Arévalo) are dispatched to the depressed rural area to investigate the disappearance of two sisters; their differing backgrounds – one a ruthless veteran and the other an idealistic rookie – lead to increasingly unsettling discoveries. Winner of 10 Goya Awards, including Best Film, Director, Lead Actor (Gutiérrez) and Cinematography (Alex Catalán’s aerial shots are truly dazzling).

British actress to receive career award; festival guest list includes Tom Hiddleston, Ellen Page, Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro.

Emily Watson, star of Breaking The Waves, The Book Thief and Everest, is receive the Donostia Award at the 63rd San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 18-26) in recognition of her 30 years in film.

The British actress will collect the award at a gala on Sept 25 in San Sebastian’s Kursaal Auditorium.

The festival also unveiled some high-profile names and juries for its upcoming edition.

Actors attending include stars of Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, Sienna Miller, Tom Hiddleston and Luke Evans; Freeheld actress Ellen Page; Sicario stars Emily Blunt and Benicio del Toro; Tim Roth, at the festival with 600 Miles and Chronic; Louise Bourgoin, star of The White Knights; and Karin Viard and Isabelle Carré from 21 nuits avec Pattie.

Filmmakers in attendance include Pablo Agüero (Eva Doesn’t Sleep), Laurie Anderson (Heart of a Dog), Scott Cooper ([link...

Rejoice, fans of Alex de la Iglesia, for the Spanish madman shows no signs of slowing down. The Accion Mutante director kicks off his latest production next week with a cast sure to keep fans old and new very happy.Single named Spanish singer Raphael takes the lead role in My Big Night, playing a media hungry diva taping a New Years Eve special well in advance on a sweltering August evening. Regular collaborator Jorge Guerricaechevarria co-writes with the director while the cast includes stars Santiago Segura, Hugo Silva, Mario Casas, and Blanca Suarez.Segura and de la Iglesia partnered often in the director's early days but have worked together far less frequently in recent years, so his presence alone is enough to grab attention. Throw in...

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

When analyzing some of the more popular phobias prevalent in society, I’m surprised more filmmakers don’t utilize agoraphobia when trying to envision thrilling or horrific scenarios. Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel appear to agree with me, because their film Shrew’s Nest (Musarañas) wonderfully exploits one woman’s social insanity after being condemned to an apartment prison by her own fears. Agoraphobia may sound silly to most, but for its victims, passing through a domicile’s entryway is like a portal directly into hell, bringing on panic attacks, insurmountable fear and irrational dread – a fantastic wrench thrown into any horror film’s story. No, Shrew’s Nest isn’t the next great animal attack scenario (that’s Backcountry), but instead, it’s a slow-burn mystery that explodes like a fireworks finale once the side effects of agoraphobia transform in a wild fit of genre psychosis.

Montse (Macarena Gómez...

Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia returns with Witching and Bitching, a nod to his particular brand of zany, over-the-top genre comedy that marked some of his better known titles from 1990s, particularly The Day of the Beast (1995). Bigger budgets and a cadre of returning cast members from his filmography make his latest film of a higher pedigree than those roughhewn beginnings, but the director still insists on bloating his running time as an overstuffed extravaganza. As usual, this gilds the energetic exuberance to a desensitizing mass of standout moments rising out of chintzy, cheeseball antics.

Disguised as live street performers in Madrid, Jose (Hugo Silva) and Tony (Mario Casas) hold up a jewel shop and steal a bunch of gold rings. Jose is desperate to flee with his son from ex-wife Silvia (Macarena Gomez) since he’s tired of paying alimony. While several of their street performing cohorts are...

Shrew’s Nest

Written by Juanfer Andrés

Directed by Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel

Spain, 2014

Family can be a mysterious and dangerous matrix of locked doors and supressed secrets, with loving family members willing to do almost anything to preserve a thin veneer of moral unity. That’s the central premise of Shrew’s Nest, another gory, effective entry in the recent plague of Spanish shock cinema which has infected markets beyond the Iberian motherland. Restricted to one expansive apartment in a post-civil war Madrid, the film unfolds as an interlocking cavalcade of cause and effect, leading to a the illumination of a family’s most brutal and buried secrets.

The tightly wound and anxiously agoraphobic Montse (a wonderfully suppressed and deranged Macarena Gómez) works is a seamstresses for private clients, maintaining the family home for her more outgoing sister Elisa (Nadia de Santiago), who is gradually coming into the...

On the run after a bank heist, José and Tony need a place to lay low for awhile, especially since a handful of hostages and José’s son are along for the ride. They stop at a small tavern in the countryside, but they would have been better off turning themselves over to the law, as their pitstop is inhabited by a coven of merciless, wicked witches in IFC Midnight’s Witching & Bitching, coming to DVD in the Us on October 14th.

“When a bank heist in the city doesn’t all go according to plan, Jose and Tony find themselves in possession of some hostages and speeding through the mountains of Spain, hoping to quietly slip over the border. Not wanting to give up his custody days to his ex-wife, Jose has also brought his son along for both the robbery and the ride. Little do they know that...