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Madrid — Rolling off the success of “El Pueblo” on both Spain’s Amazon Prime Video and Telecinco, the main commercial channel of top Spanish broadcast network Mediaset España, the U.S. online giant has clinched pay/TV and Svod rights to four Mediaset España dramas and two docu series.

The deal was sealed between Amazon Prime Video and Mediterráneo Mediaset España Group, the broadcaster’s sales and distribution arm.

Announced Tuesday in Madrid, the agreement takes in the second season of rural relocation comedy series “El Pueblo,” whose Season 1 bowed May 14 last year on Amazon Prime Video, and then on Jan. 15 on Telecinco, to buoyant audience results.

“El Pueblo” turns on a group of urbanites who flee the city for different reasons – existential and economic crisis, need for fresh air, search for peace, inspiration to compose – and the conflict in the way of living between them and their new rural neighbors.

“Why aren’t you crying?” a boy asks 6-year-old Frida as St. Joan fireworks—a Catalan summer solstice festivity—crackle in the background. Frida however doesn’t answer—instead she stoically gazes at the blazing night sky. That’s how Carla Simón’s incredibly poignant personal feature debut begins. Based on Simón’s own experiences with the loss of her parents at a very young age, Summer 1993 centers on Frida, a sly, precocious orphan compellingly played by the gifted young Laia Artigas. We quickly learn Frida’s parents died of AIDS and that she is taken in by her aunt and uncle, played by emerging talent Bruna Cusí and the mustached Catalan heartthrob David Verdaguer, popularly known for 10.000 km. They take Frida to the countryside for the summer with the hopes of returning some semblance of normalcy to her life. There, we find out the reason Frida is not crying...

We have the full list of the Sitges International Film Festival of Catalonia 2008 award winners. Among those taking home prizes was "Surveillance," a film by Jennfier Chambers Lynch which captured the Best Motion Picture award. Lynch writes alongside Kent Harper, the crime drama/thriller which stars Julia Ormond, Bill Pullman, Pell James and Ryan Simpkins. Also taking significant awards was Brian Cox for his work on "Red," Fernando Meilelles' "Blindness" drama starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and "Let the Right One In." What is Sitges? The number one fantasy film festival in the world and represents, at the same time, the cultural expression with the most media impact in Catalonia. With a solid experience, the Sitges Festival is a stimulating universe of encounters, exhibitions, presentations and screenings of fantasy films from all over the world. As announced, here are the winners announced by Sitges: Surveillance, by Jennifer Lynch, Best...

• The jury composed of Walter Carvalho, Saverio Costanzo, Irène Jacob, Jia Zhang-ke, Romuald Karmakar and Bruno Todeschini gave out a bunch of leopards on the weekend. Masahiro Kobayashi (see pic above) won the Golden Leopard for his film Ai no yokan (The Rebirth). Best Director was awarded to Capitaine Achab by Philippe Ramos (France) and the Special Jury Prize went to Memories (Jeonju Digital Project 2007) by Pedro Costa, Harun Farocki and Eugène Green. Spanish actress Carmen Maura and the French actor Michel Piccoli both received an Excellence Award (Michel Piccoli also received the prize for best actor in Sous les toits de Paris, joint winner was Michele Venitucci in Fuori dalle corde). And finally (and not surprisingly), Death at a Funeral (the Brit comedy by Frank Oz) won the audience award – this making it the 5th or 6th time that it has walked away from an international festival with such honors.

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