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Toledo Spain — “K-Dream” and “The Adventures of a Turbo-Folk Princess,” two scripted shows about young women chasing their dream of becoming pop stars, won big at Thursday evening’s Gala Awards at this year’s Conecta Fiction.

Shot in Spanish and Korean, musical drama “K-Dream,” now in development and directed at teens, sees a Venezuelan-Spanish teenager, a victim of bullying, focusing on her musical career to achieve her goal: Creating her very own K-pop band in Korea. The eight part half-hour turns on her “discovering a non-label-able identity that doesn’t fit into her snobbish and classist environment,” stated creator Mi Hoa Lee, who also exec produces alongside Rosa Castro at Spain’s Angeli Pictures.

Flamboyant musical dramedy “Turbo-Folk Princess” features Vaska, who quits home under the mentorship of beguiling prostitute Eboni, aiming at taking the pop folk Balkavision Song Contest by storm. The journey of two women struggling with “their inner demons,...

Portuguese producers are looking to strike gold with a hit series that could follow in the footsteps of European shows such as “Money Heist,” “Hierro,” “The Bridge,” “Trapped” or “Skam.”

They have several advantages: Portugal has competitive production costs which can compensate for more limited budgets; they’re fast learners, as shown by the rapid development of a successful domestic telenovelas industry in the early 2000s; and they are good at international networking, as confirmed by the solid network of foreign co-productions in place for film and TV productions.

Still, challenges remain, including difficulties in raising financing, as well as the need for greater investment in script development.

ONSeries Lisboa has highlighted three genre categories where there has been strong series production in Portugal: Historical fiction, romance and crime drama.

Of these, crime drama has been the strongest area for co-production. Rtp’s Jose Fragoso explains that this is because...

Italian director Paolo Genovese and Chinese actress Zhao Tao are among members of the jury for the upcoming Shanghai International Film Festival. They join the previously announced jury president, 2014 Cannes Palme d’Or winner Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the Turkish director behind last year’s “The Wild Pear Tree.”

Genovese’s 2016 film “Perfect Strangers” made $7.7 million at Chinese theaters last year, while “Kill Mobile,” its Chinese remake, made $92.7 million a few months later.

Joining them in judging the 22nd Siff Golden Goblet Award will also be Russia’s Aleksey German Jr. (“Dovlatov”), India’s Rajkumar Hirani (“3 Idiots”), Mexican producer Nicolas Celis (“Roma”) and Chinese actor Wang Jingchun. The documentary film section will be headed by Russian director Viktor Kossakovsky (“Aquarela“), accompanied by jury members Zhou Hao (“The Chinese Mayor”) and Dutch producer Isabelle Arrate Fernandez.

Irish director Tomm Moore will lead the animation jury, while American director Raul Garcia (“Extraordinary Tales...

"Ten Stories. Ten Cursed Coins Circulating Through Us." That would be the English translation for the tagline for The Ten ("O Dez").

The Portuguse project brings together a number of popular directors, screen writers and actors to tell ten stories, each with the connection of a cursed coin. The series, produced by Leonel Vieira, was initially packaged as a compilation film but as the project grew, so did the scope and the final result is this: a collection of ten horror films being distributed to the public via both the web and television.

The first episode went live yesterday at Sapo which will be hosting a new entry every few days while Rtp, Portugal’s national television station, will air the films starting on March 13th.

I like the concept, the first two films are good but above all, I’m happy to see that horror is alive and well in Portugal!

PARIS -- Twenty-two promising young producers will take the spotlight at this year's Festival de Cannes as part of European Film Promotion's ninth annual Producers on the Move program.

The initiative to promote young producers, financed by the European Union's MEDIA program and EFP member organizations, will feature roundtable discussions, co-production lunches and meetings May 17-20.

"Particularly for young producers, it is extremely important that they can network with producers from other European countries and have an exchange of ideas on a high international level," EFP managing director Renate Rose said.

This year's crop of hopefuls selected from the EFP's member organizations includes Marc-Antoine Robert of 2.4.7. Films, whose animated hit "Persepolis" already has made waves across the Atlantic, and Swedish producer Fredrik Heinig of St. Paul Film, whose first film, "Darling", has been an international success.

Other Producers on the Move participants include Manuel Cristobal (Perro Verde Films), Maria Drandaki (Bad Movies), Silje Hopland Eik (Cinenord), Alise Gelze (Film Angels Studio), Oana Giurgiu (Libra Film Production), Grzegorz Hajdarowicz (Gremi Film Production), Laura Hastings-Smith (Wayward Films), Dalma Hidasi (Extreme Film), Sigrid Hoerner (moneypenny filmproduktion), Max Karli, (Rita Prods.), Macdara Kelleher (Fastnet Films), Jiri Konecny (Endorfilm), Daniele Mazzocca (Verdeoro), Bernard Michaux (Lucil), Reinier Selen (Rinkel Film & TV Prods.), Magnus Vidar Sigurdsson, (Saga Film), Ulla Simonen, Marko Skop (Artileria), Louise Vesth (Zentropa) and Leonel Vieira (Stopline Films).

PARIS -- Young producers will be in the spotlight at May's Festival de Cannes, with the European Film Promotion unveiling the names of 22 promising producers from across the continent Monday for the ninth year of its Producers on the Move program.

The initiative to promote young producers, financed by the European Union's MEDIA program and EFP member organizations, will feature round table discussions, co-production lunches and meetings from May 17-20.

"Particularly for young producers, it is extremely important that they can network with producers from other European countries and have an exchange of ideas on a high international level," EFP managing director Renate Rose said.

This year's crop of producing hopefuls selected from the EFP's member organizations includes Marc-Antoine Robert of 2.4.7. Films, whose animated hit Persepolis has already made waves across the Atlantic, in addition to Swedish producer Fredrik Heinig of St Paul Film whose first film Darling has been an international success.

Other Producers on the Move include: Manuel Cristobal (Perro Verde Films), Maria Drandaki (Bad Movies), Silje Hopland Eik (Cinenord), Alise Gelze (Film Angels Studio), Oana Giurgiu (Libra Film Production), Grzegorz Hajdarowicz (Gremi Film Production), Laura Hastings-Smith (Wayward Films), Dalma Hidasi, (Extreme Film), Sigrid Hoerner (moneypenny filmproduktion), Max Karli, (Rita Productions), Macdara Kelleher (Fastnet Films), Jiri Konecny (Endorfilm), Daniele Mazzocca (Verdeoro), Bernard Michaux (Lucil), Reinier Selen (Rinkel Film & TV Productions), Magnus Vidar Sigurdsson, (Saga Film), Ulla Simonen, Marko Skop (Artileria), Louise Vesth (Zentropa) and Leonel Vieira (Stopline Films).