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Un grupo de cocineros republicanos debe preparar la cena de Franco mientras planean huir. © A Contracorriente Films

Arranca el rodaje de La cena, una comedia dirigida por Manuel Gómez Pereira (Entre las piernas) y con guion de Joaquín Oristrell (El campeón), Yolanda García Serrano (Hit) y el mismo Gómez Pereira, que se desarrollará en Valencia, Madrid y Gran Canaria.

La cena nos sitúa en el 15 de abril de 1939, apenas dos semanas después del fin de la Guerra Civil Española. Con la victoria franquista consumada, el dictador decide celebrar el triunfo con una cena en el Hotel Palace, acompañado de sus generales. Lo que no saben, es que la cena la prepararán unos cocineros republicanos que están ante su última oportunidad de huir del país.

La película está protagonizada por Mario Casas (Escape) y Alberto San Juan (Casa en llamas) acompañados de un reparto coral con Asier Etxeandia (Citas Barcelona), Nora Hernández...

Few European arthouse-crossover film sales agents have better weathered the ebb and flow of international market dynamics than Madrid’s Latido Films, which turns 20 in 2023.

Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.

Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.

If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”

Companies with which Latido has held or holds...

“17 Khz,” (Mediacrest)

Cut off in a border region, five people from different generations and countries confront Tiamat, a conspiracy of young teens who have ermined that the inly way to stop climate change is to eliminate all adults. That, for Tiamat, however, is not the end of their plan, just a beginning. A three-season fantasy thriller from Mediacrest, a fast-growing production-distribution outfit, multi-prized at September’s Conecta Fiction, partnered in Spain by A Contracorriente Films. ID: Mediacrest.

“The Age of Anger,” (“La edad de la ira,” Atresmedia Televisión, Big Bang Media, Masficción)

Penned by renowned young Spanish playwright Lucía Carballal, a writer on “Locked Up,” a high-school thriller plumbing the social angst assailing today’s youth. Produced by Atresmedia TV and The Mediapro Studio – a fertile production axis – through Tms’s Big Bang Media (“Caronte”) as well as by Masficción (“Hospital Central”). ID: Atresmedia TV International Sales, The Mediapro Studio Distribution

“Cardo,...

Madrid — To face up to global platforms, high-end series from Europe have to be different. That’s almost a truism these days. One way is for shows to drink deep at the well of their national culture.

So the question of what makes a show “Spanish” threaded many of the panel reflections and presentations this week at an upbeat Rtve Showcase, a enterprising launch pad for new shows and seasons from the public broadcaster which ran May 26-28 at the Hotel Puerta de América in Madrid.

At a centerpiece panel, “Creating Fiction for a Global Audience,” answers were supplied by some of the finest minds and creators in Spain’s business: Showrunners Ramón Campos and Daniel Ecija, producers José Manuel Lorenzo at Banijay’s Dlo/Magnolia and Tedy Villaba at Boomerang and screenwriter Joaquín Oristrell (“Cuéntame cómo pasó”).

The panel was moderated by Fernando Lopez Puig, Tve content & fiction production director,...

Now called Accidental Love, comedy Nailed began as a David O Russell movie more than seven years ago. Here's a look at its strange story...

Despite its stellar cast, which includes Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal and James Brolin, it's possible that you've never heard of the forthcoming comedy Accidental Love. It's almost certain that you haven't heard of its director Stephen Greene, because he doesn't exist.

The Accidental Love saga takes in Oscar-nominated director David O Russell, dodgy financiers, multiple production shut-downs, cast walk-outs and questionable name changes. Until recently, it looked as though the film would never see the light of day at all.

Accidental Love began life as Nailed, a screwball political comedy co-written by Russell and Kristin Gore (daughter of Us politician Al Gore). For Russell, whose previous film I Heart Huckabees had struggled at the box office, Nailed was supposed to be a "fresh page and...

When is a David O. Russell movie not a David O. Russell movie? When it's credited to some guy named Stephen Greene. And who is Stephen Greene? Well, considering he doesn't exist on IMDb, we'll wager it's an Alan Smithee-like pseudonym used by the folks behind "Nailed" — now called "Accidental Love" — who obviously couldn't put Russell's name on the picture. As you'll recall, way back in 2008 the troubled production was essentially a stop-and-start affair. Producers struggled to keep the movie financed, and filming was stopped one day before schedule, and before Russell could film the crucial scene he needed to tie it all together. But that hasn't stopped Millennium Entertainment from trying to make this work — they've put the movie back together again and are bringing it to theaters, and the first trailer is here. Jessica Biel, Jake Gyllenhaal, Catherine Keener, Tracy Morgan, James Marsden, Bill Hader and more...

Fernando Guillén dies: Pedro Almodóvar Collaborator, Goya Award winner for Don Juan in Hell Fernando Guillén, a Spanish acting legend whose film, stage, and television career spanned close to six decades, died of cancer earlier today at a Madrid hospital. The Barcelona-born Guillén was 81 according to the daily El Mundo. (As per the IMDb, he was 80; born on Nov. 22, 1932.) Curiously, Fernando Guillén became more active in Spanish cinema in the last three decades. Among his movies are three directed by Pedro Almodóvar: Law of the Desire (1987), in which Guillén plays the police investigator; the Academy Award-nominated Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988), as Carmen Maura’s jerk ex-boyfriend; and the Oscar-winning All About My Mother (1999), as the Doctor featured in the play A Streetcar Named Desire starring Marisa Paredes as Blanche DuBois. (Correction: Penélope Cruz’s father is played by Fernando Fernán Gómez.) [Photo: Fernando Guillén.] Other Guillén movies include...

Reinas / Queens (2005) Director: Manuel Gómez Pereira. Screenplay: Yolanda García Serrano, Joaquín Oristrell, and Manuel Gómez Pereira. Cast: Betiana Blum, Carmen Maura, Verónica Forqué, Marisa Paredes, Mercedes Sampietro, Gustavo Salmerón, Unax Ugalde, Hugo Silva, Daniel Hendler, Paco León, Raúl Jiménez, Tito Valverde, Lluís Homar Reinas / Queens is Manuel Gómez Pereira's dramatic comedy about five mothers (Verónica Forqué, Carmen Maura, Betiana Blum, Mercedes Sampietro, and Marisa Paredes) who must cope with their gay sons' (and their own) romantic problems as they all get ready for Spain's first mass gay wedding ceremony. The film, made by Warner Bros. Spain, has the look and feel of a glossy Hollywood flick — or of a non-English-language film begging for an American remake. But cheesy commercialism and sentimentality aside, Reinas boasts a couple of first-rate performances — Forqué as a nymphomaniac, Blum as a sweet-as-overripe-apple-pie Mom — and delivers more than a few good laughs. Additionally, the climactic big-wedding finale is quite touching.

Cologne, Germany -- The Berlinale has finalized the menu for this year's Culinary Cinema sidebar and the spread is a typical smorgasbord of documentaries and dramas with a meaty cuisine hook.

Now in its third year, Berlin's Culinary Cinema section takes the dinner-and-a-movie concept to the next level, featuring gala screenings of food-themed films followed by meals prepared by some of Europe's finest chefs.

Robert Kenner's "Food Inc.," a documentary based on the best-selling expose of the international food production industry, will open the event Feb. 8. Berlin chef Tim Raue will follow up with a non-mass-produced meal for attendees.

Other highlights this year include Gianni Di Gregorio's "Mid-August Lunch," which will run on a double bill with a meal from Luxembourg chef Lea Linster; the Spanish comedy "Dieta Mediterranea" by Joaquin Oristrell, which has inspired a dish from Kolja Kleeberg of Berlin's hip Vau restaurant and Aida Begic's "Snow,...

Writing team and real-life couple David A. Lee and Daniel Vaillancourt have optioned the rights to the English-language remake of "Queens" from Warner Bros./Spain.

The story line in the 2005 Spanish-language feature known as "Reinas" in Europe revolves around five mothers who prepare for Spain's first legal mass wedding for same-sex couples. Manuel Gomez Pereira directed and Joaquin Oristrell and Yolanda Garcia Serrano wrote the original comedy.

Lee said the two had wanted to write the American version of "Queens" since viewing it at 2006 Outfest in Los Anegles. Vaillancourt said he expects the script to offer five substantial roles for older actresses.

"We think it's an ensemble piece that has 'crossover' written all over it," said Vaillancourt.

Lee and Vaillancourt, who were legally married in Canada in 2004, also are writing the feature adaptation of Neil Miller's 2002 nonfiction book "Sex-Crime Panic" for Funny Boy Films.

Their credits include MTV's "Undressed".

They are repped by attorneys Michael Donaldson and Lisa Callif.