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One of the first of the central Piazza Grande screenings at this year’s Locarno Film Festival, the premiere of The Birthday Party brought an old-world European glamour well suited to the 78th edition of the glitzy showcase in the Swiss Alps. Adapted from a 2007 novel of the same name by Parnos Karnezis, Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s The Birthday Party stars Willem Dafoe as aging businessman Marcos Timoleon, who’s hosting a lavish celebration on his private Greek island for the birthday of his twentysomething daughter, Sofia (Vic Carmen Sonne).

Boasting an impressive global network and significant political influence, the character bears a number of similarities to real-world Greek tycoon Aristotle Onassis—even down to the death of his son at a young age, which features as a prologue here before an unspecified years-long time jump, casting a dark pallor over the apparently jubilant festivities that follow. The Birthday Party...

Exclusive: Hot on the heels of its world premiere last night (August 7) in Locarno’s Piazza Grande, The Birthday Party, directed by Miguel Angel Jimenez and starring Willem Dafoe, has secured distribution across a wide range of international territories.

The film, which started pre-sales at this year’s European Film Market, is represented by Heretic and Bankside Films. Both companies said the Locarno premiere has added momentum to the global sales push.

Paradiso has acquired rights for Benelux, with Praesens on board for Switzerland. Warner Bros Discovery has purchased the broadcast rights to the film, set to be launched after...

The Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande was the site of a demonstration last night (August 8) organised by local activists calling for an end to violence in Gaza.

The brief demonstration took place ahead of the world premiere screening of Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s The Birthday Party, starring Willem Dafoe, Vic Carmen Sonne and Emma Suárez.

A minute’s silence was held, and many attendees held up cards that included the words‘Stop Genocide. Words and actions for peace, against indifference’. The cards also included images of blood red bandages.

The demonstration was organised without approval from the festival, with...

Willem Dafoe stars as a Greek billionaire in Miguel Ángel Jiménez‘s The Birthday Party, which celebrates its world premiere at the 78th edition of the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland on Thursday evening.

His megalomaniacal shipping magnate may remind people of Aristotle Onassis, but Dafoe didn’t model his character after anyone specific, the star shared mid-day Thursday ahead of the movie’s debut during a press conference with his director and co-stars Vic Carmen Sonne (The Girl With the Needle), Emma Suárez, Joe Cole and Carlos Cuevas.

“It being a film set in the ‘70s, and with some of his relationship with some political figures, I had to understand that kind of mindset, what the situation was about resources, about the shipping industry,” he said. “And those sorts of things brought me close to some people, but I didn’t think of a model for it.”

Continued Dafoe...

The Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the films that will play in its Open Air Program, which include Joachim Trier’s Cannes Grand Prix winner “Sentimental Value,” Michel Franco’s Berlin competitor “Dreams,” Nadia Fall’s Sundance competition title “Brides,” Dominik Moll’s Cannes competitor “Case 137,” and Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s Locarno title “The Birthday Party.”

Some of the screenings will be attended by stars or directors of the films, who will be in Sarajevo to receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, including Willem Dafoe with “The Birthday Party,” Stellan Skarsgård with “Sentimental Value,” Franco with “Dreams,” and Paolo Sorrentino with “The Great Beauty.”

The program is divided into two sections: Open Air is for festival favorites and cinematic classics, and Open Air Premiere will showcase films from the former Yugoslav region.

Open Air Program

The Pavilion – Opening Film

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Serbia, Montenegro, 2025, 100 min.

Director: Dino Mustafić

Cast: Rade Šerbedžija,...

The 31st edition of the Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the lineup for its Open Air Program, consisting of two sections, Open Air and Open Air Premiere.

The program set for the Coca-Cola Open Air Cinema will be “showcasing some of the most important arthouse films of the year, as well as cinematic classics,” organizers said. “Some of the films in this program will be presented by acclaimed directors, actors, and screenwriters, [2025] recipients of the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo, including Paolo Sorrentino, Willem Dafoe, Ray Winstone, Stellan Skarsgård, and Michel Franco,” who received the honor several years ago.

Meanwhile, the new Open Air Premiere lineup will “showcase films from the former Yugoslav region in the unique setting of the Uniqa Open Air Cinema Stari Grad,” fest organizers highlighted.

Check out the full Sarajevo open air lineups below.

Open Air Program

The Pavilion (Paviljon) – opening film

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia,...

El largometraje de Irene Iborra está basado en la premiada novela infantil ‘La Película de la Vida’. © Filmax

Ya se ha desvelado el primer tráiler y póster de la película en stop-motion Olivia y el terremoto invisible, de la cineasta española Irene Iborra.

Adaptación de la novela La película de la vida, de la escritora Maite Carranza, con más de 24.000 ejemplares vendidos en España y traducida a ocho idiomas, Olivia y el terremoto invisible sigue a Olivia, su hermano pequeño Tim y su madre Ingrid cuando son expulsados de casa y tienen que empezar de cero en otro barrio. Mientras Ingrid hace malabarismos para resolver la situación, Olivia inventa una fantasía protectora para su hermano y para ella: todo lo que viven no es real y están rodando una película. Pero este invento tendrá consecuencias inesperadas. Afortunadamente, a su alrededor se formará una nueva y pintoresca familia con la que vivirán extrañas aventuras.

Un thriller de acción y comedia que sigue a tres mujeres sin nada que perder y un plan para recuperar sus vidas. © Prime Video

Prime Video ha dado luz verde a su nueva película original española Todo Arde, adaptación cinematográfica del bestseller de Juan Gómez-Jurado. La película, que acaba de iniciar su rodaje en Madrid, llevará a la pantalla la primera entrega de la trilogía superventas.

En Todo arde, Aura Reyes está a punto de ir a la cárcel por un delito que no ha cometido. Era inversora en un banco, toda una tiburona, y ahora se la han comido. Le cabrea haber sido víctima de una injusticia, y todavía más dejar solas a sus gemelas de diez años. Pero el único plan que se le ocurre para quedar libre es un delirio con muchas papeletas de salir mal: atracar un casino clandestino. Aura sabe que no puede hacerlo sola.

April was a sneaky good month for new Netflix shows to watch!

Looking at the list of new Netflix shows, You starring Penn Badgley is the obvious choice to be the most-watched of the month. The final season of the Netflix original series was added on Thursday, April 23. We also had a new season of Black Mirror released on April 10.

With most viewers' attention going to those two returning shows and March hits like Adolescence and more, it's easy for a few of the best Netflix shows of April 2025 to slip through the cracks. To make sure you saw all of the good Netflix shows, we shared a list of the five best Netflix shows you probably missed this month.

Pulse Pulse. (L to R) Willa Fitzgerald as Danny Simms and Colin Woodell as Xander Phillips in Episode 109 of Pulse. Cr. Courtesy of Netflix © 2025 | Netflix

Medical dramas are all the rage on TV right now!

Es la primera mujer de nuestro país que dirige un largometraje en stop-motion. © Filmax

¡Buenas noticias para nuestro cine! La película de stop-motion Olivia y el terremoto invisible, de la cineasta española Irene Iborra, celebrará su première mundial en el Festival de Annecy 2025, que tiene lugar del 8 al 14 de junio y se considera como la gran cita mundial de la animación (el año pasado se proyectaron dos películas que fueron a los Óscar: Flow y Memoir of a Snail).

Adaptación de la novela La película de la vida, de la escritora Maite Carranza, con más de 24.000 ejemplares vendidos en España y traducida a ocho idiomas, Olivia y el terremoto invisible sigue a Olivia, su hermano pequeño Tim y su madre Ingrid cuando son expulsados de casa y tienen que empezar de cero en otro barrio. Mientras Ingrid hace malabarismos para resolver la situación, Olivia inventa una fantasía protectora para...

Netflix’s The Gardener (El jardinero) is a gripping Spanish romantic thriller that premiered on April 11, 2025. Created by Miguel Sáez Carral, the six-episode series delves into the life of Elmer, an emotionless assassin raised by his manipulative mother, La China Jurado. Their gardening business serves as a front for contract killings. However, Elmer’s world shifts when he develops feelings for Violeta, a kindergarten teacher and his next target. This unexpected romance threatens their covert operations, leading to a tense narrative filled with moral dilemmas and emotional awakenings.

Plot Overview

Elmer, emotionally detached due to a childhood accident, is molded by his mother, La China Jurado, into a meticulous hitman. Operating under the guise of a gardening business, they eliminate targets using plant-based poisons. Their latest assignment involves Violeta, a gentle kindergarten teacher. As Elmer observes her, he experiences unfamiliar emotions, complicating his mission. His newfound feelings challenge his loyalty...

"A good gardener never reveals his secrets." What a funny line. Netflix has unveiled an official trailer for a Spanish romantic thriller series titled The Gardener, arriving to watch this month streaming globally on Netflix. How's this for a romantic twist: His lack of emotions makes Elmer the perfect hitman — something his mother aka "La China Jurado" has exploited for years with an assassination business. But everything changes when Elmer falls in love with his next target. Will that love be the grave he digs for himself...? This seems like a story we've seen before, but this time it's with Spanish sensibilities and intimacy. The Gardener is a six-episode mini-series starring Álvaro Rico & Catalina Sopelana as lovers Elmer & Violeta, plus Cecilia Suárez as La China Jurado, Ivan Massagué, Emma Suárez, & Javier Morgade. Emotionless after an accident, Elmer falls for Violeta, a teacher he's hired to kill. He must learn to...

Estreno este abril. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el primer tráiler y póster de la serie El jardinero, creada por Miguel Sáez Carral (Ni una más).

El jardinero sigue a Elmer (Rico) y de su controladora madre, La China Jurado (Suárez), gerente de un vivero que sirve de tapadera a un próspero negocio clandestino de asesinatos por encargo. Para Elmer, matar es lo más fácil del mundo, ya que un accidente le privó de sentimientos. Sin embargo, cuando planea el asesinato de la encantadora Violeta (Sopelana), una maestra de guardería, se enamora de ella. Ahora, Elmer debe aprender a amar mientras su madre hace todo lo posible para acabar con la vida de Violeta.

La serie de seis episodios está protagonizada por Álvaro Rico (Élite), Cecilia Suárez (Puntos suspensivos) y Catalina Sopelana. Completan el reparto Ivan Massagué (El hoyo), Emma Suárez (Desmontando un elefante), María Vázquez (Los pequeños amores) y Javier Morgade,...

Estreno este abril. © Netflix

Netflix ha publicado el primer avance de la serie El jardinero, creada por Miguel Sáez Carral (Ni una más), y ha anunciado su fecha de estreno.

El jardinero sigue a Elmer (Rico) y de su controladora madre, La China Jurado (Suárez), gerente de un vivero que sirve de tapadera a un próspero negocio clandestino de asesinatos por encargo. Para Elmer, matar es lo más fácil del mundo, ya que un accidente le privó de sentimientos. Sin embargo, cuando planea el asesinato de la encantadora Violeta (Sopelana), una maestra de guardería, se enamora de ella. Ahora, Elmer debe aprender a amar mientras su madre hace todo lo posible para acabar con la vida de Violeta.

La serie de seis episodios está protagonizada por Álvaro Rico (Élite), Cecilia Suárez (Puntos suspensivos) y Catalina Sopelana. Completan el reparto Ivan Massagué (El hoyo), Emma Suárez (Desmontando un elefante), María Vázquez...

Bankside Films and Heretic are co-repping worldwide sales on Miguel Ángel Jimenéz’s “The Birthday Party,” featuring a star-studded cast led by four-time Academy Award nominee Willem Dafoe. The companies will be introducing the film to buyers and showing a promo during the European Film Market.

Written and directed by Jimenéz, with additional writing credits going to Giorgos Karnavas and Nikos Panayotopoulos, “The Birthday Party” is based on the novel of the same name by Panos Karnezis. Variety has been given exclusive access to a first look image from the film, which is currently in post-production.

Set in the late 1970s somewhere in the Mediterranean, “The Birthday Party” stars Dafoe as Marcos Timoleon, an Onassis-like tycoon who’s throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday celebration for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island.

Used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him whatever the cost, Marcos is...

Dismantling an Elephant, a new Spanish film offers a striking and intimate look at the consequences of addiction on families. Aitor Echeverría’s debut film features acclaimed actors Emma Suárez and Natalia de Molina as a mother and daughter caught in the grip of addiction.

Blanca (Suárez) and Marga (de Molina) are major characters in the story, and their lives are inextricably linked and affected by addiction. The film goes beyond the individual struggle to show how the sickness spreads across families, hurting everyone. Suárez and de Molina’s performances convey an emotive and nuanced picture of this shared pain.

In preparation for their roles, both women immersed themselves in the world of addiction. They attended family therapy sessions and toured rehabilitation facilities, learning from firsthand accounts. “The people we met were so generous in sharing their stories and vulnerabilities,” Suárez told me.

De Molina addressed the interconnectedness of addiction throughout the film.

In “Dismantling an Elephant,” Spanish director Aitor Echeverría delivers an exploration of addiction’s ripple effects within a family, framed through an intimate mother-daughter dynamic. The film stars Emma Suárez, a triple Goya winner known for Pedro Almodóvar’s “Julieta,” and Natalia de Molina, who has claimed two Goyas, including one for “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed.” Co-stars include Darío Grandinetti (“Talk to Her”) and Alba Guilera.

For both of the film’s lead actors, Echeverría’s vision and the script were immediate draws. “It had such an original cinematic take on addiction, the story was told in a subtle way and the visual language was very elegant,” Suárez tells Variety. “And then, meeting Aitor, the director. He transmitted a lot of confidence and put a lot of faith in our work.”

De Molina echoes her co-star’s sentiment, explaining that her journey with the film began years ago.

Julie Delpy’s Meet The Barbarians will open the 21st edition of the Seville European Film Festival on November 8. The Spanish festival turns the spotlight on European films during this year’s awards season.

Meet The Barbarians is a satire about the arrival of a group of refugees in a village in Brittany.

The official selection includes 19 titles in competition for its top award: the Golden Giraldillo, named after the statue that crowns Sevilla’s Cathedral, La Giralda.

The prize comes with €40,000 for the Spanish distributor of the winning film or €20,000 for the company that submitted the film to the...

Un íntimo y revelador retrato familiar marcado por el tabú y la relación entre una madre y su hija. © Filmax

Ya se ha publicado el primer tráiler y póster de la ópera prima de Aitor Echeverría, Desmontando un elefante, que competirá en la Sección Oficial del 21 Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla.

Desmontando un elefante sigue a Marga (Emma Suárez), una arquitecta de éxito que regresa a casa tras pasar dos meses en un centro de rehabilitación por un problema de adicción con el que su familia ha convivido en silencio durante años. Tras su llegada, Marga intentará rehacer su vida anterior mientras su hija menor, Blanca (Natalia de Molina), verá cómo la atención que presta a su madre afecta tanto a sus relaciones como a su carrera como bailarina profesional. Un año después, el elefante sigue siendo tan enorme como siempre. Aunque al menos, ahora, todo el mundo puede verlo.

Spanish production-sales-distribution house Filmax has boarded “Dismantling an Elephant,” the latest film from Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures, producer of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s foreign-language Cesar winner “The Beasts” and Academy Award-nominated animated feature “Robot Dreams.”

Sold outside Spain by Filmax, “Dismantling an Elephant” toplines Emma Suárez, the triple Goya-winning star of Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta,” and Natalia de Molina, who has won two Goyas, one for David Trueba’s “Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed,”which swept the Spanish Academy 2014 Goya Awards

At this week’s American Film Market, Filmax will show buyers a trailer of the film, which is currently finalising post-production.

“Dismantling an Elephant” looks to offer Suárez the typically gutsy role in which she excels, playing a mother trapped by both a close bond to her daughter, which is also a source of conflict, and a day-to-day life whose elephant in the room is her own addiction, which nobody mentions,...

Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton, deals with a controversial topic: euthanasia.

Marking Almodóvar’s first English-language feature, “The Room Next Door” stars the two Oscar winners as Ingrid (Moore) and Martha (Swinton), who were close friends in their youth when they worked at the same magazine. After years of separation, they meet again when Martha is diagnosed with a terminal illness and decides to take her life into her own hands.

During the film’s Venice Film Festival press conference on Monday, the Spanish auteur spoke passionately about addressing the subject in the film and why he thinks it should be an option for those facing the same fate.

“This movie is in favor of euthanasia,” he said, speaking in Spanish. “It is something we admire about the character of Tilda, she decides that getting rid of cancer can only be done...

Exclusive: Acclaimed actor Willem Dafoe, who recently starred in Oscar-nominated pic Poor Things and can next be seen in Tim Burton’s upcoming Venice opener Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, has just wrapped filming tycoon family drama The Birthday Party from Greek production house Heretic.

The project, which has been kept under wraps until now, is directed by Miguel Angel Jimenéz based on the novel of the same name by Panos Karnezis. Dafoe stars along side Emma Suarez, Joe Cole and Vic Carmen Sonne. Additional cast includes Christos Stergioglou, Carlos Cuevas, Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos, Fransesc Garrido, Maria Pau Pigem, Pelle Heikkilä and Elsa Lekkakou.

The story is set in the late 1970s somewhere in the Mediterranean where Marcos Timoleon, an Aristotle Onassis-like tycoon, is throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island. The party is a perfect excuse for various people in his...

Fantastic Pavilion, the genre business hub launched at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, announced a slew of deals closed at the venue this year, with L..A-based Severin Films, a boutique Blu-ray and DVD label, inking a pact to release eleven Special Edition physical discs of the most popular Originals and licensed features from horror subscription streamer Shudder and IFC Films.

Initial titles include Joko Anwar’s “Satan’s Slaves”; Brandon Cronenberg’s “Antiviral”; Can Evrenol’s “Baskin”; Franck Khalfoun’s 2012 remake of “Maniac”; Douglas Buck’s 2006 remake of “Sisters” and André Øvredal’s “The Autopsy of Jane Doe.”

The deal was brokered by Severin Film’s co-founder-ceo David Gregory, Shudder’s Vice President of Programming Sam Zimmerman, and AMC Networks Director of Content Sales Lucas Verga.

“The work done at Severin Films is astounding,” said Zimmerman, adding: “They are directly responsible for some of the greatest home video releases ever...

Screen shines a light on 30 European titles that look set to grab the attention of festival directors in 2023, including new features by Tom Tykwer, Paz Vega, Paolo Sorrentino, Cecilia Verheyden and Baltasar Kormakur.

For our separate list of French festival hopefuls for 2024, click here.

Ariel (Sp-Por)

Dir. Lois Patiño

Patiño won the Encounters special jury prize at Berlin last year for Samsara and picked up the emerging director prize at Locarno in 2013 with Coast Of Death. His latest is a free adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, shot in Galicia and The Azores islands. Ariel stars Goya winner Irene Escolar...

Inspired by the tragic case of Spanish toddler Jonathan Vega, abducted in broad daylight from a Madrid shopping center, writer-director Marc Romero (“75 Days”) is set to begin production on “Hour and Twenty” (“Hora y Veinte”), alongside producers El Orgullo Producciones, La Cochera, Sorenfilms, La Raíz, Shift Dif and Corax Films.

The directors’ second high-octane feature shoots later this month, filming in Torrevieja (Alicante), Martos (Jaén), and Madrid over a five week stretch, further sponsored by Ayuntamiento de Torrevieja (Alicante) in collaboration with Ayuntamiento de Martos (Jaén). The film is slated to hit theaters this fall.

“We chose locations such as the Parque Natural de Las Lagunas de La Mata y Torrevieja (Alicante), because of its picturesque landscape of huge salt mountains surrounded by pink waters—it’s the perfect contrast to our thrilling, dark story,” Romero relayed.

The narrative centers on Manuela, played by Goya nominee Macarena Gómez (“Shrew’s Nest...

Almudena Amor stars in female-led story.

Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures is at AFM with worldwide rights to the feminist genre film Ancestral from Pablo Aragüés and Marta Cabrera.

Almudena Amor (Sitges and London 2021 entry The Grandmother) stars in the Spanish-language, female-led story about Carla, a pregnant woman who returns to her childhood town where she reunites with her mother and a group of women who seem to be the only inhabitants.

However they are not alone, and Carla is forced to delve into her past to confront an ancestral curse and liberate the women of the town.

The cast...

Daniela Fejerman and Elvira Lindo’s “Someone Who Takes Care of Me,” a celebration of actors, their passion, craft and historical legacy, opened this year’s Malaga Film Festival in a fitting tribute to the Spanish entertainment industry.

The film, which screened out of competition, centers on three women whose careers have spanned stage, film and television, actresses of different generations whose fortunes in life have greatly differed and who struggle with untold secrets and unresolved conflicts.

Aura Garrido stars as Nora, a young, award-winning actress with a promising future who carefully balances between the two main pillars in her life, her grandmother Lilith (Magüi Mira), who reigned for decades as a renowned theater star, and her mother Cecilia (Emma Suárez), whose career has languished after having achieved some glory in the 1980s, a decade of excess in which she heavily partook.

As Nora experiences success in her burgeoning career,...

Spanish sales agency takes international rights to ’Tic Toc’ director’s latest.

Spanish sales agency Film Factory has landed international rights to The Tenderness, the next comedy from Vicente Villanueva.

Villanueva is the director of Spanish hit Toc Toc, which took 7.2m at the Spanish box-office in 2016 and was handled internationally by Warner Bros.

The Tenderness is produced by David Naranjo at Pris & Batty, the company behind Spanish Affair and Spanish Affair 2, which rank as the two highest-grossing Spanish films of all time in Spain.

The film is backed by Rtve and Movistar Plus+. Universal Pictures will handle Spanish distribution.

Elena Trapé, whose character-driven ensemble pieces “Blog” and “The Distances” marked her out as a talent to watch, is attached to direct “Gwendolyne, Diary of a Fan,”, one of two series being brought onto the market at Ventana Sur’s Spanish Screenings by Barcelona-based Coming Soon Films.

Screenplay for “Gewndlyne” is by Marta Buisán and Jordi Casado and Miguel Ibánez Monroy.

Led by Marta Ramírez, post-production coordinator on J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage,” Coming Soon, which already produced Trapé’s “The Distances,” is also introducing in Buenos Aires “The Summer of Dead Toys,” (“El verano de los juguetes muertos”), a procedural adapting Catalan Tony Hill’s acclaimed debut crime novel of the same title, produced with Barcelona’s Corte y Confección de Películas.

“Gwendolyne’s” titular protagonist, now 30, had one of the times of her life – one of the only times of her life – when 15, she was chasing the Sexy Gods,...

“El agua,” (Elena López Riera)

A Directors’ Fortnight title, the feature debut of Locarno winning López Riera (“Los Que Desean”), a fantasy-laced village-set critique of gender violence. S.A. Elle Driver

“Alcarràs,” (Carla Simón)

The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, Simón’s follow-up to “Summer 1993” and the flagship title for Catalonia and Spain’s newest filmmaking generation. S.A. MK2 Films

“Amazing Elisa,” (Sádrac González-Perellón)

The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González-Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, plans revenge after her mother’s tragic death. S.A. Filmax

“The Beasts,” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, playing Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte. S.A. Latido Films

“The Communion Girl,” (Víctor García)

A revenge thriller involving an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress. S.

Unspooling March 21-25, the Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event project (Maff) provides a forum for Latin American film projects to seek international production partnerships. Costa Rican productions will be highlighted by subsection Costa Rica Guest Country.

The socially impactful film “Silence of the Earth” will feature in the Maff Social subsection. Female directors earn special emphasis in the Women Screen Industry section.

Following, the profiles of Maff production.

“All My Journey Are Journeys of Return,”

A time-jumping, genre-blending “delirious adventure,” say its makers, from Los Niños Films and Vorágine, currently in production on the World Cinema Fund-backed “Carropasajero.” It depicts a journey which begins in the Rio Magdalena, in the early 19th century, during a search for poet Gaspar de la Noche, who has gone missing in northern Sweden. Carolina Zarate produces.

“Before the Memory,”

Shepherded by Agustina Chiarino, one of Uruguay’s most ambitious film producers, González’s...

‘The Good Boss’ leads Icíar Bollaín’s ‘Maixabel’ and Pedro Almodóvar’s ‘Parallel Mothers’.

The Good Boss, directed by Fernando León de Aranoa and starring Javier Bardem, led the Goya nominations from the Spanish Film Academy with 20 nods, an all-time record.

The satire, also Spain’s entry for the Oscars, is ahead of Icíar Bollaín’s Maixabel and Pedro Almodóvar’s Parallel Mothers, on 14 and eight nominations respectively.

The Good Boss is the fifth highest-grossing film in Spain this year with €2.6m. Written and directed by León de Aranoa, it follows the petty boss of an industrial scales factory, played...

Already selected as this year’s Spanish Best International Feature Film submission for the Oscars, Fernando León de Aranoa’s dark workplace comedy “The Good Boss,” starring Javier Bardem, has set a new record for most Spanish Academy Goya Award nominations with 20, ahead of Icíar Bollaín’s standout Basque drama “Maixabel” with 14 and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Parallel Mothers,” which secured eight.

The 20 nominations include: Best picture, director, original screenplay, original music, lead actor, three nominations for supporting actor, supporting actress, two nominations for best new male actor and one for best new female actor, production design, cinematography, editing, art direction, costume design, makeup, sound design and special effects. It’s a total which breaks an almost 30-year-old record held by Imanol Uribe’s “Numbered Days,” which received 19 nominations in 1994.

León’s latest, produced by The Mediapro Studio and Reposado PC, is a return to a fruitful partnership between the director and his leading man.

No event in the world offers a broader spread of recent movies from Spain than the Malaga de Cine – Spanish Screenings. Unspooling online over Oct. 20-22, this year’s lineup offers buyers a chance to catch up with titles at San Sebastian, as well as upcoming releases, 2021 Malaga fest winners and its pix-in-post panorama. At the heart of the event are its Screenings, new or newish titles which in an ordinary onsite year would play in cinema theaters in Malaga. Variety drills down on a score of films playing at this year’s event, including a clutch of notable debuts.

“All the Moons,” (Arcadia Motion Pictures, Kowalski Films, Pris & Batty, Ilargia Films, Noodles Production)

A fantasy vampire period drama, set in 19th century Spain during its Carlist wars. Bullish sales prospects. Sales agency: Filmax

“Ama,” (Julia de Paz Solvas, La Dalia Films)

Paz Solvas’ first feature and a Malaga best...

Juan (Roberto Álamo), a prison security officer, is a man of few words: In fact, in the first near four minutes of “Josephine,” he doesn’t say anything at all as the film fills us in on his daily routine.

It’s a sad, solitary existence of bathetic detail: The film begins with a frontal shot of a spin-dryer turning: Few things seem more banal. And when he finally wants to talk, following a woman, Berta (Emma Suárez), whom he spies one day on the bus to the jail, he opens his mouth but is stumped for words.

Berta’s son is serving time in the jail. The spectator never finds out why. When Juan finally does get to talk to Berta,

flummoxed, afraid he will put her off if she’s knows he’s a guard, he claims he has a daughter Josephine, who’s also an inmate.

That...

Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the most important film meet in the Spanish-speaking world, has unveiled the 13 title lineup of its 2021 New Directors lineup, which includes awaited debuts such as Argentine Mara Pescio’s “That Weekend” and Spaniard Javier Marco’s “Josephine” plus Jeonju Fest double winner “Aloners.”

Here are the titles and some descriptions. More details to come:

“Aloners”

Winner at May’s Jeonju Intl. Film Festival of the best actor prize for Gong Seung-yeon who plays a loner woman working at a customer call center who discourages any social contact. A psychological study in solitariness, “Aloners” also scooped the Cgv Arthouse award.

“Between Two Dawns”

A standout and eventual double winner at San Sebastian’s 2020 Wip Europa, Nacar’s debut, about a man struggling to do the right thing following an accident in his family’s business.

“Carajita”

Set in the Dominican Republic and the Argentine directorial duo’s follow-up to 2017 “Tigre,...

Adriana Ugarte, star of hit Spanish TV drama “The Time in Between” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Julieta,” will play the lead role in Atresmedia original series “Madre.”

A remake of successful Turkish TV drama “Anne,” in turn an adaptation of Japanese series “Mother,” “Madre” continues Spanish media conglomerate Atresmedia’s bet on re-versioning recent standout Turkish scripted series. This strategy kicked-off with “Alba,” the Elena Rivera-starring redo of female empowerment skein “Fatmagul,” a modern Turkish classic.

A 13-hour series, “Madre” is produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Buendía Estudios, the joint-venture launched last year by Atresmedia and Telefonica-owned pay TV operator Movistar Plus.

Scheduled to premiere this year on Atresmedia’s SVOD service Atresplayer Premium and then launch on the group’s core channel Antena 3 in Spanish TV primetime, “Madre” will follow the same release windowing as “Alba,” which bowed in March on Atresplayer and now awaits a free-to-air TV debut.

The streamer has also launched two reality TV projects.

Netflix Spain has unveiled a slate of seven new film and TV projects, including a romantic feature directed by Marçal Fores.

A Través De Mi Ventana (which translates as ‘Through My Window’) is an adaptation of Venezuelan author Ariana Godoy’s novel of the same name.

The novel was written via online story creation website Wattpad, which has previously been home to adaptations including Netflix hit The Kissing Booth and the successful After series.

The story centres on a young woman who is madly in love with her mysterious neighbour and...

At one of its increasingly regular presentations, on Thursday Netflix Spain unveiled seven new projects including “If Only,” a Spanish adaptation of the Netflix Turkish original canceled before shooting by Turkish authorities.

Where once Netflix would host its presentations early in the year and announce its ambitions for the next 12 months, the platform’s original Spanish programming pipeline has grown to an extent that Thursday’s showcase only covers the next few months and hinted at plenty more to come in late 2021.

In both level and volume of production, the day’s announcements confirm Netflix as one of if not the, foremost investors in original Spanish series and movies, at the same as its talent pool is expanding to include ever more of the principal producers in Spain. New Netflix originals are now being produced by now-regular partners Nostromo, producers of “The Minions of Midas”; “Élite” producers Zeta Studios; “Money Heist...

Netflix has unveiled a new slate for Spain, including three dramas, a couple of original features, and some non-scripted formats, among them a new docu-reality show focused on Instagram star Georgina Rodríguez.

Among the new shows are Intimidad, a drama series from Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento which stars Itziar Ituno, Patricia López Arnaiz, Verónica Echegui, Ana Wagener, and Emma Suárez and follows four women caught up in a sex scandal with deep political implications; Baruca from Victor Sierra and  Xosé Morais, an action drama set in prison under siege; and Si lo hubiera sabido (If Only), a drama created by the Turkish screenwriter ...

Netflix has unveiled a new slate for Spain, including three dramas, a couple of original features, and some non-scripted formats, among them a new docu-reality show focused on Instagram star Georgina Rodríguez.

Among the new shows are Intimidad, a drama series from Verónica Fernández and Laura Sarmiento which stars Itziar Ituno, Patricia López Arnaiz, Verónica Echegui, Ana Wagener, and Emma Suárez and follows four women caught up in a sex scandal with deep political implications; Baruca from Victor Sierra and  Xosé Morais, an action drama set in prison under siege; and Si lo hubiera sabido (If Only), a drama created by the Turkish screenwriter ...

At the heart of the Spanish Screenings are its market premieres, new titles coming onto the market post-San Sebastian, sometimes with fest runs at other smaller festivals. Variety drills down on a score of titles at this year’s event, including a clutch of 2020 Malaga fest winners.

“Amateur,”.

A 2020 Malaga Wip entry, where it won best production, Gutiérrez’s first doc feature marks a strong personal take on what home means to him. Knit by three different stories, Gutierrez, shoots vignettes of life in a small mountain village. Also an Abycine and Fidba Prize winner at Malaga.

“Antonio Machado, the Blue Days,” (Laura Hojman)

Seville-based Summer Films, which also produces “Once Again,” delivers one take on the life story of Spanish poet Antonio Machado. The second film from Hojman after 2018’s “Solar Lands,” about poet Ruben Darío’s escape from Paris to Andalusia.

“Boat Rower Girl”

Blanco’s feature debut,...

Gracia Querejeta’s “The Invisible,” toplining Emma Suárez, star of Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta,” and Toni Bestard’s “Pullman” have been acquired for international sales by Feel Content.

They will be made available for online access to buyers as part of next week’s Malaga Festival’s Spanish Screenings Market Premieres showcase, one of the industry event’s main draws.

A distinguished director of now 10 increasingly varied features – including 2017 dark melodrama “Happy 140” and doc feature “Tanto Monta,” and 2018’s absurdist thriller “Crime Wave” – “The Invisible” sees Querejeta returning to her more observational, character-driven mode of 2004’s Malaga Festival winner “Hector,” and “15 Years and One Day,” a 2013 best picture Goya contender, and Spain’s 2014 Academy Awards submission.

She does so in “The Invisible,” written with regular co-scribe Antonio Mercero, with a directness contrasting with her early often more oblique work.

In what Querejeta herself recognizes as her most personal work to date,...

Pedro Almodóvar has a lot on his plate, with at least three new projects in the mix, but he’s not too busy to do his part during the pandemic and wear a mask, as seen in a recent photo out of Madrid shared by his brother and producing partner Agustín. In the photo, Almodóvar and his star Tilda Swinton are sporting their personal protective equipment while on the first day of shooting “The Human Voice,” the Academy Award-winning director’s latest short film and first screen collaboration with Tilda Swinton. See below.

“The Human Voice” is based on a one-act play by Jean Cocteau, written in 1928 and first mounted in France in 1930. It concerns one woman’s final phone conversation with her longtime lover, who has plans to marry another woman. Almodóvar previously alluded to interest in the material before, including as inspiration for his Oscar-nominated 1988 breakout “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown...

The Miami Film Festival will open on March 6 with “The Burnt Orange Heresy,” starring Mick Jagger, Donald Sutherland, Elizabeth Debicki and Claes Bang.

Miami Dade College’s festival, now in its 37th edition and running March 6-15, will screen more than 125 narrative features, documentaries and shorts from 30 countries.

“Charles Willeford’s classic 1971 art world noir thriller ‘The Burnt Orange Heresy’ has been updated by director Giuseppe Capotondi and Academy Award-nominated screenwriter Scott Smith into a biting satire of the world of contemporary high art and the attendant, controversial role of art criticism that swirls around it – an apt examination for Miami’s current major destination status on the international art market,” said festival director Jaie Laplante. “The film is swanky, steamy and sexy, with Willeford’s jet-black, cruelly ironic humor firmly intact.”

A 30th anniversary screening of “Miami Blues,” also adapted from a Willeford story,

will screen during the festival,...

Argentinian Oscar winner Juan José Campanella to present comedy The Weasels.

The 37th Miami Film Festival will open on March 6 with The Burnt Orange Heresy and close with Netflix’s recent Sundance world premiere Mucho Mucho Amor on March 15.

Besides the roster of more than 125 feature narratives, documentaries and short films from 30 countries, festival director Jaie Laplante and his team have selected Amy Ryan to receive the Precious Gem Awards on March 9 accompanied a screening of another Sundance selection, Liz Garbus’ Lost Girls.

Midsommar director Ari Aster, Stella Meghie (The Photograph starring Issa Rae) and The Farewell director Lulu Wang...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Miguel Ángel Jiménez’s “Una Ventana al Mar” (Window to the Sea), a romantic drama starring Emma Suárez which will have its world premiere at the EiTB Gala held during the San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival.

Heretic Outreach is handling world sales. The film will have its market premiere in Toronto. Filmax will distribute the film in Spain.

The film follows a middle-aged Spanish woman (Suárez) who, faced with life-changing news, decides to take a trip to Greece with her closest girlfriends, against the advice of her doctors and son.

A spontaneous decision takes her to the island of Nisyros, a tiny slice of paradise that immediately feels like home. There she meets a Greek man, Stefanos (Akilas Karazisis), and finds herself falling in love against all odds. What began as a brief escape from reality soon turns into an...

Just over two weeks before its Sept. 20 global launch, Netflix has dropped its first full franchise trailer of “Criminal,” a 12-episode, four-part police interrogation anthology which reworks the procedural format taking it to a new European level, while focusing on what episodic drama is often held to disdain: Character and actors’ performance.

Netflix has already teased the crime thriller’s best-of-their class European key cast. Others trailers have targeted the individual countries where “Criminal” episodes are set – U.K., Spain, France and Germany – three in each country.

Wednesday’s trailer is, however, the first full-franchise reveal of action across the series, hinting at some of the its major fascinations, innovations and character details.

Playing suspects, many of “Criminal’s” guests stars are hailed in home countries as among their generation’s finest actors. Of U.K. stars, entering a lift at the beginning of the trailer is the bulky former...

Netflix has set the premiere date for its police interrogation drama Criminal. The series, which stars For Life’s Nicholas Pinnock, Doctor Who’s David Tennant and Agent Carter’s Hayley Atwell, will launch on September 20.

The Svod service has also unveiled the first images for the format bending series.

Criminal consists of 12 episodes of 45 minutes with three episodes each set across four countries – France, Spain, Germany and the UK. The drama takes place exclusively within the confines of a police interview suite. It is a stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question.

Pinnock, Cheat’s Katherine Kelly, Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf star in the UK episodes with Tennant and Atwell guest starring alongside Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas, Stéphane Jobert, Anne Azoulay and Mhamed Arezki...

Here’s a series taking a new spin on the old British procedural. Netflix is bringing us an anthology series that set in four different countries, with different casts and directors, and different stories… that are all set in the interrogation rooms in police stations.

The series will be set in France, Spain, Germany and the U.K. The series is described by Deadline as a “stripped down, cat-and-mouse drama that will focus on the intense mental conflict between the police officer and the suspect in question” that will be written, directed, and produced by the local language and talent to each country.

Deadline reports the following descriptions and cast info for each installment:

Pinnock, Cheat’s Katherine Kelly Lee Ingleby, Mark Stanley, Rochenda Sandall and Shubham Saraf star in the UK episodes with Tennant and Atwell guest starring alongside Youssef Kerkour, and Clare-Hope Ashitey.

In France, Margot Bancilhon, Laurent Lucas,...