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Netflix’s Olympo isn’t just a sports drama. Created by Daniel Monzón, the Spanish series mixes the intensity of competitive athletics with deeper themes of identity, abuse, survival, and queer expression. Set in a high-performance sports academy, Olympo examines the dark underbelly of elite training—where mental and physical pressure, systemic exploitation, and toxic mentorship collide. The series is gritty but emotionally charged, blending the suspense of a psychological thriller with the vulnerability of a coming-of-age story. It tackles topics like male sexual abuse, power dynamics in mentorship, and queerness in sports—all through the lives of young athletes trying to make sense of their place in a world that demands perfection.

In this article, we’ll break down the plot of Olympo, take a close look at its cast and characters, explore where and how to watch the series, and most importantly—unpack that ambiguous, haunting ending and...

If you expect that adapting a successful TV series for a different market is easier than creating a brand new one, you may want to think again! That was the message and insight shared by Sergio Mendoza, vp, scripted development at NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises, during an appearance on the final day of the ninth edition of Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Cuenca, Spain.

“We think adapting is less work than writing,” he said Thursday during a panel discussion on the internationalization of Spanish content. “But from an executive point of view, it is actually more time-consuming.”

Especially franchises with huge and passionate fan bases can cause creators much headache, he highlighted. “If the [franchise] is so popular and well-known, you must be very careful about every choice you make because you will always get audience feedback,” Mendoza explained. “They will either say, ‘Why is it just like the original?’ or ‘You deviated...

Set to deliver a masterclass this Wednesday at Brazil’s mega creativity event Rio2C, Iberseries & Platino Industria co-director Samuel Castro has doubled down on the major new strategic directions this annual conference, forum and market is taking in 2025: Europe and international distribution.

“We remain firmly committed to strengthening cultural identity, boosting commercial exchange, and showcasing Ibero-American talent to the world,” Castro said of the Madrid event, whose fifth edition runs Sept. 30-Oct. 3.

As markets contract, however, for non-English language films and series, Iberseries & Platino Industry is expanding its reach. “The positioning of Iberseries & Platino Industria as a bridge between Latin America and the United States, with a special focus on the Hispanic market, and now with a clear outlook toward Europe, marks a pivotal moment to expand our reach by strengthening the international sale of Spanish-language content,” Castro added.

Over the last decades, producers and sales agents in...

At France’s Series Mania in April, now firmly consolidated as Europe’s biggest TV festival, Spain scored a historic double, scooping its two top awards, Competition’s Grand Prize with “Querer” and its International Panorama major sidebar with “Celeste.”

Both “Querer” and “Celeste” were produced by Spain’s Movistar Plus+, “Celeste” along with The Mediapro Studio. Since Series Mania launched its International Panorama in 2018, no country, let alone the same company, has won its two biggest prizes in one and the same year.

In recent dealing, Arte France, the French leg of pan-European public broadcaster Arte, also co-produced Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The New Years” and acquired “Querer” and “La Mesías,” the biggest series to date from “Velvet” creators and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – “Los Javis.”

“It’s the first time that we have so many projects at the same time with the same commissioner and the same program...

This year’s Series Mania was introduced to a new kind of police procedural on Wednesday, one that blends scenic backdrops, cross-cultural tension and a surprising amount of heart.

“Weiss & Morales,” a Spanish-German co-production from Rtve and Zdf, showcased its vibrant tone and compelling characters in a sneak peek and panel hosted by Variety, featuring lead actors Miguel Ángel Silvestre and Katia Fellin, Zdf commissioner Laura Mae Harding and Rtve director of film and fiction José Pastor.

Set against the striking volcanic landscapes of the Canary Islands, the series follows Nina Weiss (Fellin), a German Bka investigator, who unexpectedly partners with local Civil Guard Sergeant Raúl Morales (Silvestre) to solve crimes among locals and the German expat community. Each episode features a new case, but the true heart of the show lies in the evolving relationship between its central characters and the vibrant world around them.

A Friendship Over...

The romantic comedyTokyo Crush has won the best project award at Series Mania Forum’s annual Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

The France-Japan coproductionwas selected from 15 projects for the €50,000 prize, one of the most prestigious awards at the Forum, the industry section of the Series Mania festival taking place this week in Lille, France.

Tokyo Crush is produced by Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto for France’s Salle Commune, which launched in 2022 with backing from Charades, and Hiroko Oda for Japan’s Flag Inc. It is written by Clémence Dargent.

The series centres on Mona, a bold Parisian chef, who is...

French-Japanese comedy romance Tokyo Crush has won the best project award at Series Mania Forum’s annual Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

Tokyo Crush was selected from 15 projects for the €50,000 prize, one of the most prestigious awards at the Forum, the industry section of the Series Mania festival taking place this week in Lille, France.

Tokyo Crush is produced by Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto for France’s Salle Commune, which launched in 2022 with backing from Charades, and Hiroko Oda for Japan’s Flag Inc. It is written by Clémence Dargent.

The series centres on Mona, a bold Parisian chef, who...

“Tokyo Crush,” a pioneering France-Japan comedy romance, won the Series Mania Forum Best Project Award, awarded for best title at the French TV festival’s hugely popular Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Series Mania’s industry centerpieces, the Pitching Sessions saw 15 projects presented to an industry audience on Tuesday at Series Mania in Lille, northern France.

Carrying a €50,000 cash prize, the award was announced by Laurence Herszberg, Series Mania founder and general director, and the Co-Pro Pitching Sessions jury president, M.K. Kennedy, Studiocanal executive managing director of TV Series.

“It really stood out. It was a truly inspiring project where we found space for conflict and characters that would really offer different points of entry for different members of the audience. We found it was truly singular,” she said.

“It’s not easy being selected among 400 projects from all over the world and it’s even harder to be on...

Tokyo Crush, a French-Japanese culture clash rom-com took home the top prize at Series Mania Forum’s annual Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, organizers announced Tuesday night.

The eight-episode, 30-minute series follows Mona, a bold Parisian chef tasked with reinventing a struggling Tokyo izakaya who clashes with Toshiro, the talented and stubborn grandson of the restaurant’s founder.

Clémence Dargent wrote Tokyo Crush, with Jonas Ben Haiem and Jean-Félix Dealberto producing for Salle Commune (France) and Hiroko Oda for Flag Inc. (Japan). The project’s producing team was awarded the co-pro €50,000 ($54,000) development prize.

M-k Kennedy, executive managing director of TV series for Studiocanal, headed up the co-production jury, together with André Béraud (Ici Radio-Canada Télé, Canada), Henriette Marienlund (Dr Drama, Denmark), José Pastor (Rtve, Spain) and Frank Seyberth (Zdf, Germany).

The series was picked from 15 projects presented on the opening day of Series Forum, the industry arm of the Series Mania television festival.

French-Japanese comedy romance series Tokyo Crush has won the Series Mania Co-Pro Pitching Sessions event.

The result was announced by Series Mania founder and Director General Laurence Herszberg in the past few minutes, with the series from Clémence Dargent beating off competition from 14 others to claim the win.

The series follows Mona, a bold Parisian chef, who is hired to reinvent a struggling Tokyo izakaya (an informal Japanese drinks bar), only to be foiled by Toshiro, the talented, and annoyingly handsome, grandson of the founder, would let her.

This lands the project the Series Mania Forum Best Project Award and a check for €50,000. The jury was led by Studiocanal Executive Managing Director of TV Series M-k Kennedy.

“After a good amount of debate, we chose Tokyo Crush because we loved the potential we saw for the story in and out of the kitchen,” said Kennedy. “It felt fresh like a...

The 15 projects competing at this year’s Series Mania Co-Pro Pitching Sessions have been unveiled.

Shows from the likes of Denmark’s Zentropa, Australia’s Wooden Horse and Israel’s Sipur will fight for a €50,000 development prize, selected by a jury headed up by President M-k Kennedy, Executive Managing Director of TV Series at Studiocanal in the UK.

A sixteenth project, U.S.-Germany co-pro Ruth’s Ghosts, has been selected but will not compete for the grand prize.

Zentropa is behind Christoffer Boe-penned thriller Cecilie Mars, Wooden Horse’s Jude Troy is co-creator of Elise McCredie’s drama The Chaplain and Sipur is working on UK-Israeli co-pro Intimacy, which is written by Dan Berlinka.

Other notable projects include Icelandic crime thriller Masquerade, which is from Glassriver; Greek crime drama Antiparos; German political thriller Consultants; Franco-Belgian period crime drama Heist; “flamboyant” crime comedy Nest, which has Belgian, British and...

Berlin tuned into TV, Monday, and the drama crowd in Germany were told that after scaling the peaks, it’s time to survey the “open plain.”

Ampere’s influential analyst Guy Bisson broke out key data in a presentation titled: ‘The Open Plains After Peak TV’. “What do you land on after a peak? Either a valley or possibly an open plain. We are on the open plain of post peak TV. We are flat, and we’ve been flat since the end of 2022,” he said.

“It’s a new world order,” he continued. “The industry was scaled for 100% peak TV, and it now has to navigate 75%. There’s a rethink required about how companies interact and operate with and against one another.”

The Ampere founder detailed what he termed the “broadcastification” of streaming services. With market saturation, subscriber acquisition is no longer the SVoD’s priority and as streamers...

At Sweden’s Göteborg Film Festival last month, Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson observed that “today’s production market was scaled for 100% Peak TV. Global scripted first-run series orders are now, however, 75% of Peak TV.”

Is Spain any different? Yes, if it’s bullishness at Berlin Series Market, the Berlin Festival’s TV Forum, is anything to go by.

No county has more series at Bsm’s screening showcase Berlinale Series Market Selects than Spain.

Taking place Monday Feb. 17, Spain’s double-backed TV showcase features Spanish Thrillers, two first-look panel sessions staged by Iberseries & Platino Industry and part of a now three-year old agreement with the Berlinale Series Market, representing Iberseries’ opening up to Europe. It is followed by Spanish Connection, a pitching event backed by Spain’s Icex and part of Spain’s Country in Focus.

Put together, and adding a screening on Tuesday of the critically acclaimed Red Flags – “a YA jewel,...

Commissioners from four of Europe’s top public broadcasters assembled in Madrid on Tuesday for a roundtable discussion about what they’re looking for in potential scripted projects.

Hosted by the Iberseries & Platino Industria forum and emceed by María Valenzuela, the panel included speakers Morad Koufane, France Télévisions’ director of international and young adult series; José Pastor, director of cinema and fiction at Rtve in Spain; Michele Zatta, commissioning editor in charge of international co-productions for Italy’s Rai; and Laura Mae Harding, commissioning editor for international co-productions at Zdf in Germany.

In addition to sharing what excites them about pitches, the panel also discussed the importance of international co-productions, the differences in their audiences, appealing to younger viewers and why public broadcasters are number one on the list of favored production partners.

Here are five key takeaways from the enlightening conversation.

Co-Pro Plan A and Plan B

The day...

“Weiss & Morales” is a new light crime drama procedural co-produced between Spain and Germany. It has received considerable industry attention over the past several weeks as broadcasters Zdf and Rtve have increased their PR for the show, which could represent an evolution in how pan-European series are developed and produced at an affordable cost without sacrificing quality.

Zdf and Rtve co-produced the series alongside Zdf Studios and Nadcon in Germany and Portocabo in Spain. Rtve has exclusive rights to the series in Spain, while Zdf handles international sales outside Spanish-speaking territories.

Last week, at Conecta Fiction & Entertainment in Toledo, Spain, José Pastor (Rtve), Wolfgang Feindt (Zdf), Nina Hernández (Portocabo), Peter Nadermann (Nadcon), and Susanne Frank (Zdf Studios) hosted a lively discussion about the show and the implications it could have for European co-production.

‘Weiss & Morales’ Conecta Fiction Panel

“Weiss & Morales,” which started filming in the Canary Islands several weeks ago,...

Quick Links What Is Raising Voices About? What Happens at the End of Raising Voices? Who Does Alma End Up With in Raising Voices? Raising Voices on Netflix covers teenage sexual abuse, suicide, and finding strength to seek justice. The show shifts between past and present, focusing on lost innocence and regaining voice. The ending is bittersweet, with Alma achieving professional success after outing her abuser.

New to Netflix in May 2024, Raising Voices is a Spanish TV drama that tackles serious issues involving teenage sexual abuse, suicide, and healing redemption. The plot follows 17-year-old Alma (Nicole Wallace), a troubled teen who shocks her school by hanging a poster informing the students and faculty that there is a "rapist" on campus. Her friends Greta (Clara Galle), Nata (Aicha Villaverde), and Berta (Teresa de Mera) help her expose the sexual predator and bring them to justice, leading to a devastating conclusion that merits further examination.

Spanish public broadcaster Rtve held its fifth annual Rtve Showcase late last week in Madrid. Eight of the network’s top shows were profiled for international buyers, and several panels debated the current state of affairs in Spain’s TV production industry.

Professionals from around the world tuned into this year’s Showcase, which had the overriding theme of international co-production. Guest speakers from across Europe attended and shared details about their recent experiences working with Rtve and what future collaborations are in the works.

According to Rodolfo Domínguez, Rtve commercial director, more than 200 attendees tuned in to this year’s Showcase, including 70 international buyers from more than 30 territories. Of them, 50% were from Europe, 30% from the Americas, and the other 20% from Asia and the Middle East.

Below, we reflect on two of this year’s most internationally relevant panels and briefly break down Rtve’s original programming lineup featured during the Showcase.

Top Spanish Titles brought to market at MipTV:

“Dating in Barcelona,” (Filmax)

Produced by Filmax’s Arca, Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat and Prime Video in Spain, a first season of “Dating in Barcelona” bowed last year in Spain to big ratings, both on its first-window debut on 3Cat and on Prime Video, where it became one of the streaming service’s most-watched debuts. A modern take on romance and sex in an online age, “Dating in Barcelona” also reflects a swing in TV towards a lighter, more episodic fare, whether in crime thrillers or other categories. Each episode features two dates which, as Variety has observed, play off each other. Powered in creative terms by Pau Freixas, behind iconic series from “Red Band Society” To “I Know Who You Are” And “Todos Mienten,” All Produced By Filmax, “Dating In Barcelona” features a top-tier cast, this time round in Season...

Malaga, Spain — Traditionally, until a few years back, a Spanish film industry debate led to a “Wall of Laments” which ended up as a call for increased governmental support.

That was then. €70 million ($76.8 million) in 2023, €100 million ($109 million) last year, Spain’s Icaa film institute budget could add another €30 million ($32.7 million) with a little luck this year, said Rocío Juanas de Toledo, its secretary general at a panel, Spanish Cinema Models Examined, one of the key industry debates at this week’s Malaga Festival.

Panelists represented Spain’s three biggest content investors – Movistar Plus+, Atresmedia and Rtve – and two top producers: Morena Films and Elástica Films.

It took speakers less than two minutes to zero in on Spain’s biggest immediate challenge: Its still underperforming box office, down 24% on pre-pandemic levels.

“Our major concern is how to recuperate the cinema theater audiences we had before the pandemic,” said Jaime Ortiz, Atresmedia Cine director general.

This year, Spain has more titles at the Berlinale’s two TV showcases, Co-Pro Series and Berlinale Market Selects, than any other country in the world— a total of four shows, beating the U.S. with one, and even Germany, which has three.

On top of that, running Feb. 19-20 at the fest’s CinemaxX screening hub, the Spanish showcase at the Berlinale

Market Series highlights three more shows and features a panel, in what may be the big- gest national TV showcase at 2024’s Berlin Festival.

What this bullish presence says about the state of the state of Spanish TV production is an- other matter. Seven key takes:

Second-Phase Boom

Spain’s Berlin bonanza is only natural. Netflix scored its first global TV blockbuster with Spain’s “Money Heist” in 2018, and now the country is now riding a second wave as a strong supplier of the global streamer. In...

Series from Atresmedia TV, Rtve, Movistar Plus+, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi (“La Mesías”), Zeta Studios (“Elite”) and director Carlota Pereda and Morena Films (behind Sundance hit “Piggy”) will unspool or be unveiled at the Berlinale. They underscore the breadth and depth of Spanish TV output:

“Death to Love,”

Carlota Pereda dazzled at Sundance with first feature, “Piggy.” Now, Pereda’s at the Berlinale Co-Pro Series on Feb. 20 with her debut series, “Death to Love,” in which afemale vampire struggles over centuries to end a toxic relationship with her vampire female lover and culminates in a modern-day climax. “A visceral and romantic proposition,” Pereda says.

“Dressed in Blue: Veneno Season 2,”

The Sundance world premiere “La Mesías” sealed the standing of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi as most probably the coolest creative duo in Spain. This time around, they produce, with Mikel Rueda, a director on “Veneno,” and Claudia Costafreda and Ian de la Rosa,...

“The Catalan industry is healthy in the sense that we’re producing a lot,” says producer-director David Matamoros.

Led by Escac, “Society of the Snow” director J.A. Bayona’s alma mater, its film schools turn out top notch novel directors and technicians.

Produced by Barcelona’s Arcadia Motion Pictures, “Robot Dreams” has just scored an Academy Award nomination for best animated feature, while proving one of Neon’s first U.S. pick-ups announced at Cannes.

In 2022, the last year for which records are available, international shoots generated more investment in Catalonia, €77.8 million ($85.6 million), apart from the Canary Islands (€112.9 million: $120.8 million).

Catalonia’s government is also aiming for larger TV industry overseas impact, while firing up 3Cat, Catalonia’s public broadcaster, as an international player.

From 2023, every year, producers of up to five higher-end Catalan-language series, budgeted at over €4 million ($4.3 million), can receive a grant of €1.5 million ($1.6 million). 3Cat can add...

Content Americas, the fast-rising trade event in Miami, has unveiled the finalists for its 2024 Content Americas CoPro Pitch and Content Americas Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch.

According to event organizer C21, more than 80 submissions rolled in for the CoPro Pitch and over 50 for the Kids Pitch from seasoned producers across Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Among the CoPro Pitch finalists are scripted series “Hot Sur,” an adaptation of the Laura Restrepo bestseller about an undocumented Mexican immigrant looking after her bipolar sister in the U.S. This hails from Chilean powerhouse shingle, Fabula, run by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larrain, in partnership with Fremantle. Spain’s The Mediapro Studio submitted “El mal,” an 8-episode thriller based on actual events. Set in Barcelona during the pandemic lockdown, a serial killer has been targeting those who literally have no refuge, the homeless.

Leading the Hispanic Kids Programming Pitch entries are animated adventure pic,...

Spain’s TV market saw 82 new fiction series commissions over September 2022 to August 2023, 61% of them aimed at exclusive online release, compared to 52% the year before, according to TV research firm The Wit.

A few years ago, online was an afterthought. Now, to various degrees and in different ways, it is replacing linear as operators’ major concern.“Linear operators are refocusing their productions with the perspective of reaching a younger audience,” says the Wit’s Caroline Servy.

The clout of platforms within the industry has progressed very quickly.Atresplayer, the platform run by leading broadcaster Atresmedia, has increasingly become an energetic driver behind the local TV production sector since its 2013 launch. Public broadcaster Rtve is venturing into co-production as it has committed to provide exclusive and original content to its Rtve Play platform.

On Aug. 1, Movistar Plus, Telefónica’s pay TV/VOD operator, bowed a new souped-up version of its basic tier as a streaming service.

Spain’s TV fiction industry is exercising some caution after high-end Spanish-language series lifted off in 2018.

“We all wanted to launch so many projects, so many new platforms arrived that there was no time for analysis,” says Bambú co-founder Ramón Campos.

As streamers scale back on originals and sales cycles slow, the industry has time for larger re-calculation.

“We come from a spectacular moment, in terms of both quality and volume,” says Sonia Martínez, series editorial director at Buendía Estudios.

That groundbreaking moment, championed by series like “Money Heist” and “Elite,” propelled Spanish fiction production to historic heights of global popularity.

“There is a virtuous circle that began in 2018 and has been continuously regenerating. Spain’s talent base already interests international audiences,” says María Valenzuela, Movistar Plus Intl.’s general manager.

But the country’s TV production scene is still cycling through the fruits of the boom: the number of...

The Disney-backed “How to Be a Carioca,” from “Ice Age” creator Carlos Saldanha, and “Allende, the Thousand Days,” an adventurous Chilean-Spanish pick-up from Spanish pubcaster Rtve, will both world premiere at Iberscreenings, catching new evolution on the Spain-Portugal-Latin America TV scene.

A comedy, showrun by Saldanha, consolidating his exploration of live action after Netflix’s 2021 “Invisible City,” “Carioca,” whose first episode will be screened at I&pi, is produced by the Star Original Productions label, bowing soon on Star+ in Latin America and on the Walt Disney Company’s streaming services globally, such as Disney+ Spain.

An international co-production, “Allende, the Thousand Days” was originated by Chile’s Parox (“Invisible Heroes”), partnered by Spain’s Mediterráneo Media Entertainment and Argentina’s Aleph, Mente Colectiva and HD Argentina. A character focused chronicle of Allende’s three years in government before Pinochet’s 1973 military coup, the series has been acquired for broadcast by Chile’s Tvn,...

Toledo, Spain — At this month’s Annecy, France’s Canal+, France Télévisions and even Gulli delighted the business by unveiling new production slates which boasted some of the boldest projects being brought to market at the French festival.

At one and the same time, major European broadcasters, the BBC and France Télévisions again, were talking up their streaming services at Annecy.

These used to be treated as a complement to their linear offering. Now it’s increasingly the other way round.

Annecy, of course, is animation. But could the same market forces be at work in live action TV and in Spain?

More than a hint of a step-by-step revolution at work at Rtve, Spain’s public broadcaster, was sensed at an upbeat showcase on Wednesday.

Moderated by José Pastor, Rtve’s director of film and fiction, the show-case, Rtve Co-Productions on Board, featured three shows, “Allende, the Thousand Days,...

The 7th edition of Spain’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the Europe-Latin America TV and networking forum, will dedicate this year its countries focus to Poland and Mexico.

For the first time ever, the event will also host a Spanish Content Showcase, integrating a series of activities to highlight the freshest and most attractive contents and formats from top Spanish distributors.

Conecta Fiction unspools June 26-29 for the second year running at the El Greco Palace of Congress in Toledo, the capital of Spain’s Castilla-La Mancha, just south of Madrid.

The 4th Rtve Showcase will run parallel to Conecta Fiction over June 27-28, bringing buyers from 30 countries and sparking synergies such as a showcase of Rtve’s ongoing international co-productions at a Conecta Fiction panel.

“We will offer an in-depth analysis of Mexico and Poland as focus countries; workshops to optimise budgets and develop new funding models; keynotes in which trends such as eSports,...

Coming Next from Spain, a showcase of five series, unspooled at Series Mania on March 21 just after a Spanish series, “Wrong Side of the Tracks” from Mediaset España and Alea Media, had scored 149.6 million watching hours in three weeks on Netflix for Seasons 1 and 2.

That platform connection and power of Spanish series threaded most of the series and much of the commentary at Tuesday’s Next from Spain, supported by Audiiovisual from Spain.

At least in terms of titles now ready to hit the market, there’s little sign as yet of platform pullback in Spain. Rather, it remains a ground zero in the streamer wars.

2023 will see the release of 70 new Spanish scripted series and 27 returning seasons of titles such as “Elite” “Rapa” “30 Coins” and “Veneno,” presenter Irene Jiménez, at Audiovisual 451, told a Next From Spain audience.

Of these new titles, 36% will be produced by linear TV broadcasters,...

BBC Greenlights ‘The Gold: The Inside Story’ Companion Doc

The BBC has greenlit a documentary telling the real story of the £26M ($31.2M) Brink’s-Mat robbery spotlighted in Neil Forsyth drama The Gold. The Gold: The Inside Story will hear from the detectives who investigated Britain’s biggest bullion heist and led the hunt for three tonnes of gold. Archive footage and eyewitness testimony detail the cat-and-mouse chase across borders and continents and the tracking of a corrupt network of professionals, lawyers and accountants who helped to launder the money through a complex network of foreign bank accounts and companies. Starring Dominic Cooper and Jack Lowden, The Gold drama finished last week on BBC One, attracting positive reviews and strong ratings. Bohemia Films is producing the documentary, which BBC Head of History Simon Young said will “give a frank and unvarnished account of the challenges the police failed in attempting...

The lengthy, successful career of Miguel Bosé is making its way to streaming. On Thursday, Dec. 1, Paramount+ is set to release Bosé in the United States, a new six-episode series that gives an inside look at the Spanish icon’s life and legacy as a musician.

“They are obsessed with calling me a druggie and a queen,” Bosé says in a trailer released Wednesday, flashing images of him at parties, having sex, and getting his blood drawn. “And if I was an addict, so what? And if I was a faggot,...

Cannes — Paramount+ has revealed a premiere date – Nov. 3 – as well as trailer and key art for “Bosé,” a biopic of the famed Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé which is shaping up as one of Spain’s biggest and most anticipated series of 2022.

Shared in exclusivity with Variety, the trailer, like the version glimpsed at Iberseries in one of that market’s biggest sneak peeks, captures Bosé’s art – a mix between David Bowie glam and sexual ambiguity and softer Italian melody.

It also drive into what looks like the emotional heart and narrative structure of the story, showing Miguel Bosé (played by Iván Sánchez and José Pastor), in a present-day timeline during the promotion of his multi-platinum album “Papito,” as he debates becoming a father.

Here he must reconcile himself with memories of his own padre, famed philandering bullfighter Luis Miguel Dominguín, whom Bosé loved but who despised his son for not being a real hombre.

The Lumière Festival’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) in Lyon, France, is celebrating its 10th edition this year with a wide-ranging program focusing on bolstering classic film distribution, the prospects of new commercial territories, film education and a focus on Spain’s heritage film sector.

The Mifc, which runs Oct. 18-21, kicks off with a keynote by Gian Luca Farinelli, director of Italy’s Cineteca di Bologna film archive. Market organizers praise Farinelli for “allowing classic films to be found, restored, reviewed and, most often, put back on the market firstly through the Il Cinema Ritrovato Festival, exhibition and distribution activities within the foundation, while maintaining strong links with cinemathques from around the world.”

Farinelli’s work, the Mifc notes, “contributes to ensuring that the history of cinema is always active, alive and accessible.” Many who work in the classic film sector would second that opinion.

The Classic Film Market,...

Today Focus Features opens Tár, the strikingly original return of Todd Field, in four locations in NY and LA. The film premiered at Venice winning star Cate Blanchett Best Actress as musician and conductor Lydia Tár. Early this week, it seemed to mesmerize a sold-out Alice Tully Hall at the New York Film Festival.

A 97 with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, Deadline’s review here called Field’s first film since Little Children 16 years ago, a “daring and quite comprehensive immersion in a rarified world [that] features a lead performance the likes of which doesn’t come along very often.” Field wrote the part for Blanchett but at an NYFF Q&a he said he waited to send her the script until it was done and Focus chairman Peter Kujawski “asked me, ‘Who do you have in mind?’ I said I was still thinking about it. Because I was superstitious. That she would say no.

There’s a reason Carlota Pereda films Sara (Laura Galán) urinating through her clothes as an old friend (Irene Ferreiro’s Claudia), who’s drifted away towards the clique that bullies her, puts a bloody hand on the back window of a serial killer’s van while screaming for help. We need to understand her fear. Just because Sara is a teenager who’s been brutally victimized by an entire town of peers doesn’t mean she’s measuring the situation and deciding to let Claudia, Maca (Claudia Salas), and Roci (Camille Aguilar) die. She’s afraid for her own life. What if she tries to save them and the killer (Richard Holmes) watching from the driver’s seat simply throws her in the back? So she freezes. And, to her surprise, he helps her instead.

Therein lies the complexity of Piggy, a feature expansion of Pereda’s short film of the same name.

A premiere at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Carlota Pereda’s Piggy takes a Carrie-esque look at fighting back at bullies with a horror twist. Set in rural Spain, the film follows Sara, a teenager who is subject to ruthlessly bullying. Her day finally comes when she witnesses her tormentors being kidnapped and the story gets darker from there, to say the least. Ahead of an October release, the first trailer has now arrived.

During the sweltering summertime of rural Spain, Sara carries an extra load of teenage agony due to the perpetual bullying from her peers. She’s also an outsider at home—her parents and little brother just don’t understand her—so, feelings internalized, she’s often found buried in her headphones, drowning out her surroundings. One day, Sara’s usual solo dip at the local pool is disrupted by the presence of a mysterious stranger...

Germany’s Zdf Studios has boarded six-part series “Boundless,” (“Sin Límites”), an epic adventure tale of the first circumnavigation of the world 500 years ago whose backers include Spanish pubic broadcaster Rtve.

Directed by Simon West, “Boundless” stars Alvaro Morte, the Professor in “Money Heist,” as Spaniard Juan Sebastián Elcano and “Westworld’s” Rodrigo Santoro as Portugal’s Ferdinand Magellan.

The six-part series is described by Robert Franke, VP drama, Zdf Studios, as “one of the biggest and most ambitious dramas that Zdf Studios has ever had the pleasure of being involved with.”

“Boundless” is produced by Miguel Menéndez de Zubillaga (“Loving Pablo”) for Madrid-based Mono Films (“Descarrilados”) in co-production with Leo Pearlman and Heather Greenwood at London’s Fullwell 73. It is co-produced by Patrick Fischer and Richard Kondal.

Backed by Spanish public broadcaster Rtve, it is also one of the biggest Spanish-language plays to date of Amazon’s Prime Video...

“Bosé,” the highly anticipated Paramount Plus Original, has wrapped production. The announcement comes as Paramount Plus has also confirmed the remainder of the internationally recognised cast of the six-part series, a biopic of Spanish singer-songwriter Miguel Bosé.

Two behind-the-scenes images, shared in exclusivity with Variety, also hint at the production ambitions of the series, one of the biggest Spanish-language series to date at Paramount Plus, which turns on one of the most resonant figures in recent times in Spain. Resonant for his hits, which span a remarkably long six-decade career, and for his life story, which charts Spain’s emergence from more oppressive times to hard-won freedoms in democracy.

Produced by Vis, a division of Paramount, in collaboration with Shine Iberia, part of Banijay Iberia, Pepe Baston’s Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock, “Bosé” will premiere exclusively on the Paramount Plus International streaming service in the coming months, Paramount Plus also confirmed Tuesday.

Spain’s TV industry will make history at Series Mania Forum 2022, with its biggest panel and sneak peek series presentation presence ever at a major TV market.

The Spanish conference attendance – alongside Finland’s panel spread – also weighs in as the biggest from any single country at the upcoming edition of the most important co-production event for scripted TV series in Europe.

Series Mania Forum runs on-site over March 22-24 in Lille, northern France, under the larger Series Mania Festival umbrella.

Organized by Icex Spain Trade & Investment, the country’s export and inward investment board, the Spanish pavilion at the Lille Grand Palais will host a record-breaking delegation for Spain of around 20 companies and more than 50 executives.

That’s a sign of just how much Series Mania has grown as an industry forum in the last few years, and of Spain’s ambition to ramp up exports of Spanish movies...

Piggy Review — Piggy (2022) Film Review from the 44th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Carlota Martinez-Pereda, starring Laura Galán, Carmen Machi, Fernando Delgado-Hierro, Julián Valcárcel, José Pastor, Claudia Salas, Pilar Castro, Camille Aguilar, and Richard Holmes. If vacationing teenaged girls were the only bullies targeting overweight Sara (Laura Galán), the daughter [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Piggy: Town Scapegoat Lifts Herself Up to Grindhouse Hero [Sundance 2022]...

Spain’s Iván Sánchez, star of Telemundo’s Intl. Emmy-nominated “You Cannot Hide,” and up-and-coming Spanish actor José Pastor will portray Latin music icon Miguel Bosé in the upcoming biopic, “Bosé.”

One of the biggest original series on Paramount Plus’ international lineup, “Bosé” has gone into production, shooting in Spain.

The premium series is produced by powerhouse ViacomCBS International Studios (Vis) in collaboration with Shine Iberia (Banijay Iberia), Pepe Bastón’s Elefantec Global and Legacy Rock.

Variety has had exclusive access to a behind-the-scenes teaser clip in which the two actors practice the grave but sensual lilting baritone voice of Bosé’s singing “Como un Lobo,” a song in which Bosé imagines himself as a Russian Steppe wolf pursuing the object of his desire.

With a career on both sides of the Atlantic, Sánchez is an established star, a well-known face who broke out playing El Gallego in Telemundo’s...

Where Do You Go When There Is No Place To Hide? Compulsion Available On Demand 10/27/20 Written & Directed By ÁNGEL GONZÁLEZ Produced By ÁNGEL GONZÁLEZ, JOSÉ Pastor Starring Susana Abaitua | Pol Cardona | Marina Esteve | Paco Manzanedo Synopsis A fairytale relationship comes to an end when a shy woman suspects that her …

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