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In 2023, Spanish animation stunned the world when “Robot Dreams,” a melancholic tale of friendship and loss directed by Pablo Berger, earned an Oscar nomination. Though Berger hails from Madrid, the film was backed by the Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures, a detail that underscores a larger trend: Catalonia has quietly but steadily transformed into one of Europe’s most exciting hubs for animation.

Now, in 2025, the Catalan animation industry stands at a pivotal moment. With a wave of exciting new titles like “Olivia and the Invisible Earthquake,” “The Light of Aisha” and “The Treasure of Barracuda,” and a robust ecosystem of institutions and talent behind them, this momentum no longer feels like a fluke; it feels like a movement.

Ahead of this year’s Annecy Animation Festival, Variety spoke with the producers who are making waves in the region to better understand what’s behind this creative boom and what challenges remain.

Laxe triunfa en el Festival con ‘Sirat’, que comparte el Premio del Jurado. © Getty Images

La 78ª edición del Festival de Cannes ha llegado a su fin y ya conocemos el palmarés completo. En esta edición, la codiciadísima Palma de Oro, el máximo galardón del Festival al que aspira todo cineasta que pasa por la Croisette, ha ido a parar a la película It Was Just An Accident, dirigida por el iraní Jafar Panahi. Este triunfo no solo consagra al cineasta –que completa así la prestigiosa y casi inalcanzable “triple corona” de Festivales y entra en un selectísimo grupo–, sino que también permite a Neon hacer historia: se trata de su sexta Palma consecutiva tras Anora (2024), Anatomía de una caída (2023), El triángulo de la tristeza (2022), Titane (2021) y Parásitos (2019).

El cine español, por su parte, ha tenido un protagonismo especial (y es para celebrarlo). El director gallego Oliver Laxe se ha...

In the animated film space, two things naturally come to mind: stories for children and big-budget, formulaic projects. The former idea is something directors have been fighting for years, a recent example being the successful and not-so-child-friendly Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, but the formulaic factor has recently been challenged too — by an uprising in independent animation — and it’s changing the awards landscape.

One of the first films to break through in this way was Flee, a 2021 animated documentary film from Denmark about a gay man looking back on his life as a child refugee from Afghanistan. The film received widespread acclaim for its LGBTQ representation, archival footage and subject matter, leading to many festival awards and three Oscar nominations.

‘Flee’, 2021 Janus Films/Everett Collection

Related: Cannes Film Festival 2025: Read All Of Deadline’s Movie Reviews

Competing against three Disney films — Encanto, Luca and Raya and the Last Dragon...

Animated works from Spain, Brazil and Uruguay topped the eighth Quirino Awards, the premier celebration of Ibero-American animation.

Spain’s David Baute scored best feature with his debut “Black Butterflies,” a migration-themed climate drama that has already won praise at Annecy, the Goyas and the Platino Awards. Brazil’s irreverent “Jorel’s Brother” clinched best series for its fifth season, while Uruguay’s Alfredo Soderguit took best short for “Capybaras,” an allegory of prejudice and friendship.

Known for his documentary background, Tenerife-born director Baute crafts a sweeping tale of three women from different corners of the world, each forced into migration by the climate crisis. The feature builds on Baute’s 2020 doc Climate Exodus and has already claimed prizes at the Goya and Platino Awards. Co-written with Yaiza Berrocal, “Black Butterflies” is produced by Spain’s Ikiru Films and Tinglado Film, in collaboration with Panama’s Anangu Grup.

Brazil’s beloved...

There was a time where Disney wasn't just top of the animation industry, but a pioneer in the art form. The company was so synonymous with classic cartoon characters and full-length features that it helped shape the business we know today.

The thing about progress is it always progresses, as the saying goes. While Disney has been at the forefront of animation's evolution, it's been trying to do the next big thing for far too long. It might be better to get back to basics.

Back to the drawing board (literally!)

Rumors have circulated for the past few years that Disney Animation should return to its original hand-drawn style, and there are more than a few good reasons that there might be some truth in that idea. As the market becomes overbloated with CGI, alternative animated styles like hand-drawn and 2D are falling into the indie market more and more.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold I Animate: Animation Film Festival starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Photo from Fdcp

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is top billed by renowned world cinema titles led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw (The Missing)”, the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow,”and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Other acclaimed full-length films to be screened are “Cleaners”by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre,”Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai.

The festival also includes short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

The Film Development Council of the Philippines ( Fdcp) will hold “I Animate: Animation Film Festival” starting April 24 to May 7 in its regional Cinematheque Centres and select Sm cinemas

Revealed last April 15, 2025, the lineup is led by Cinemalaya 2023 Best Film “Iti Mapukpukaw” (The Missing), the Oscar 2025 Best Animated Feature Film “Flow”, and BFI London Film Festival Best Film “Memoir of a Snail.”

Acclaimed Asian full-length features to be screened are “Cleaners” by Glenn Barit, “Saving Sally” by Avid Liongoren, “Wolf Children” by Mamoru Hosoda, “Ghost Cat Anzu” by Yôko Kuno and Nobuhiro Yamashita, and “Weathering With You” by Makoto Shinkai. “Loving Vincent” by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, “Le Petit Nicolas” by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre, and “Robot Dreams” by Pablo Berger are the other world cinema titles in the festival.

I Animate also includes Philippine short films under the following three sections: Animated Short Focus, From the Archives, and Student Shorts Showcase.

The Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards are entering a new era with the appointment of Argentine Silvina Cornillón as the new director. Cornillón, a pivotal figure in the animation industry for over two decades, steps into the role following her tenure as an ambassador in Latin America and coordinator of the Quirino Awards Residency.

Cornillón’s appointment comes at a time when the Quirino Awards have received a record number of submissions for their upcoming eighth edition. A total of 263 works from 17 countries have been submitted, marking a 6.4% increase over the previous year. This surge in entries underscores the growing importance of the Quirino Awards among the global animation community.

Cornillón replaces Bea Bartolomé, who has coordinated the Co-Production and Business Forum since the awards’ inception. José Luis Farias, the current executive producer of the awards, previously held the position. Cornillón’s extensive experience includes serving as assistant manager of animation...

The Brothers Grimm tale of Snow White is back in the zeitgeist again with the upcoming Disney live-action remake, but there have been many non-Disney adaptations of the story in Hollywood history that have flown under the radar. One such example is Pablo Berger's 2012 film Blancanieves. This film takes the premise of Snow White and sets it in Spain within a much darker and realer setting. Starring Macarena García as Carmen (Snow White), Maribel Verdú as her evil stepmother Encarna, and Daniel Giménez Cacho as Carmen's father Antonio, Blancanieves is one of the strangest, most surreal fairy tale adaptations out there and definitely worth a watch.

Hablamos en exclusiva con el cineasta letón sobre su película, los Oscar y qué animal sería, entre otros temas.

El cineasta letón Gints Zilbalodis se desplazó hace unas semanas a la capital hispalense para presentar su maravillosa película Flow en el marco de la vigésimo primera edición del Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla, y no pasó desapercibido: su película obtuvo tres más que merecidos galardones – el Gran Premio del Jurado, el Premio al Mejor Montaje y el (recién estrenado) Premio Puerta América –, concedidos por un jurado del que formaban parte el distinguido productor David Puttnam y el conocidísimo actor británico Jeremy Irons.

Unas distinciones que se suman, entre otras, a los cuatro premios con los que se hizo en la premiere de la película el pasado mes de junio en Annecy, el más importante Festival de cine de animación: el Premio del Jurado, el Premio de la Fundación Gan a la Distribución,...

From its inception in 1908 with Émile Cohl’s Fantasmagorie, film animation has always been a medium that esteems the conveyance of visuals, by its very definition. As animation as we know it has evolved in its 116 years of official existence, animators have consistently used the medium as an incubator for...

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This November, Hulu is bringing you a lot of entertainment, from the surreal action comedy-drama series Interior Chinatown to the Christmas comedy-drama film Nutcrackers. However, for this article, we only included the films that are coming to Hulu this month and have a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score. So, check out the 7 best films that are coming to Hulu in November 2024 with a 90% or higher Rotten Tomatoes score.

Aliens (November 1) Rotten Tomatoes Score: 94% Credit – 20th Century Fox

Aliens is a sci-fi action thriller drama film written and directed by James Cameron. The 1986 film is set in a dystopian future and it follows Ellen Ripley who is sent back to the planet Lv-426 to establish communication with a terraforming colony but when she gets there she is hunted by an Alien Queen who is out for her life. Aliens stars Sigourney Weaver,...

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Hulu is ready with an entertainment-packed November this year. The upcoming month will see the return of some popular K-drama shows The Fiery Priest and also new original movies like Nutcrackers. Just like every month, Hulu is ready to overload you with great content. So, we’re here to tell you about the 10 new movies and TV shows coming to Hulu in November 2024.

Gangnam B-Side Season 1 (November 6)

Gangnam B-Side is an action mystery crime thriller drama series directed by Park Noo Ri from a screenplay by Jo Won Gyu. The Disney+ series is set in Gangnam, Seoul and it revolves around the disappearance of a young woman who had information about a series of disappearances. Now, a detective, an outlaw, and a Prosecutor all try to find her for their own reasons. Gangnam B-Side stars Jo Woo-jin, Ji Chang-wook,...

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The Wild Robot is an animated sci-fi survival adventure comedy-drama film written and directed by Chris Sanders. Based on the 2016 novel of the same name by author Peter Brown, the 2024 film follows Roz, a service robot whose ship crash lands on an uninhabited island and now she must make herself familiar with her new surroundings and the local wildlife. Roz soon makes an unlikely connection with an orphaned goose named Brightbill. The Wild Robot’s voice cast includes Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Kit Connor, Bill Nighy, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Catherine O’Hara, Matt Berry, and Ving Rhames. So, if you loved the vibrant visuals, emotional and hilariously heartwarming story, and compelling characters in The Wild Robot here are some similar movies you should check out next.

The Iron Giant (Rent on Prime Video) Credit – Warner Bros.

The Iron Giant...

The European Film Academy on Wednesday unveiled the 5 nominees for best animated feature for this year’s European Film Awards.

The 2024 animated nominees include Gints Zilbalodis Flow, a dialog-free eco-fable about a cat that bands together with other animals to try and survive a cataclysmic flood; Living Large, a coming-of-age tale from Kristina Dufková about a heavy-set 12-year-boy with a talent in the kitchen; Savages, Claude Barras’ Boreno-set drama about deforestation and a lost baby orangutan; Isabel Herguera’s Sultana’s Dream, about a Spanish artist who becomes obsessed with finding a female utopia where women can live in peace; and They Shot the Piano Player from directors Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal, a portrait of Francisco Tenório Júnior, a leading light of the thriving Brazilian music scene of the 1960s and ’70s who went missing in 1976.

Sultana’s Dream They Shot the Piano Player

All 5 nominees will also be...

The Oscars race is wide open this year, and so is the question of which film will win the coveted TIFF Audience Award.

With A-listers like Selena Gomez and Angelina Jolie and breakout stars like Mikey Madison and Gabriel Labelle, the 49th annual Toronto International Film Festival concludes on Sunday after screening 278 films over its 10-day run. Following Pedro Almodóvar’s stunning melodrama, “The Room Next Door,” taking the Golden Lion at Venice, attention shifts to the Canadian festival to see which film will get a significant boost in the early days of the best picture race.

While some films here scream awards potential, others are destined only for commercial success, while others are just blips in the massive lineup. Below are potential awards contenders from other films screened at the festival and Variety’s predictions on which film will win the TIFF Audience Award on Sunday, Sept. 15.

Read: You...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Civil War (Alex Garland)

While bound to spark hundreds of think pieces, Alex Garland’s stirring Civil War will undoubtedly go down, too, as one of the most provocative films of the year. It’s also an early contender for one of the best, offering a stunning warning: no matter what the cause, war is hell. Civil War is less interested in the causes of conflict and more about front lines as the Western Forces march towards the W

Where to Stream: Max

The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed (Joanna Arnow)

In The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Ann, a lugubrious New Yorker, sleepwalks through her daily life––colorless job, perennially disappointed parents––while...

FilmSharks has released the international trailer for “The Bus of Life,” the latest feature from Barcelona-based Arcadia Motion Pictures, producers of Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated movie “Robot Dreams” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Cesar and Goya-winner “The Beasts.”

“The Bus of Life,” which will be released in Spain by A Contracorriente Films on July 3, is directed by Ibón Cormenzana, a producer of both of those films.

In the film, Andrés, a music teacher diagnosed with cancer, heads into the city to seek treatment for the illness. He makes the commute in a dilapidated school bus accompanied by other cancer patients. The bus is inspired by the real-life experiences of a Basque relative of Cormenzana’s.

Despite the consequences of their journey, the passengers strike quick friendships and turn the voyage into a celebratory one, where many learn a more joyous understanding of life. Andrés also learns to face his fears, such as stage fright,...

Based on the comic by Sara Varon | Written and Directed by Pablo Berger

Based on Sara Varon’s 2007 comic of the same name, Robot Dreams is brought alive by writer/director Pablo Berger. Unfolding in a version of ‘80s New York where animals inhabit the world, the story follows Dog as he grows tired of being alone. In an effort to combat loneliness, he places an order for a robot friend to share his life with. When Robot arrives, a friendship blossoms between the pair as they enjoy their days skating, at the beach, and listening to Earth, Wind and Fire’s September.

Among Berger’s prior filmography is Blancanieves, a 2012 retelling of the Snow White fairy tale as a black-and-white silent movie. A similar tactic is used in this animation, as the story is brought alive wordlessly while saying so much through the central pairing. The journeys taken touch...

Chicago – Patrick McDonald of HollywoodChicago.com audio film review for “Robot Dreams,” a co-directorial collaboration between Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan of 2019’s “Saint Frances,” from a Kelly O’Sullivan script. Currently in theaters, including Chicago’s Gene Siskel Film Center.

Rating: 5.0/5.0

Based on a popular graphic novel, this Best Animated Feature nominee from this year’s Oscars was created by Pablo Berger in a co-production from Spain/France. The story involves a lonely Dog who finds joy and companionship with a mail order Robot. Their adventures together are interrupted by a beach outing that causes the Robot to be trapped, rusting away on the beach. Can they overcome this separation?

”Robot Dreams” is in theaters Now, including (click link) the Gene Siskel Film Center. Screenplay adapted and directed by Pablo Berger. Not Rated.

Click Here for Patrick McDonald’s audio review of “Robot Dreams”

Robot Dreams

Photo credit: Neon...

Cardio is good. Sony Pictures Classics’ 4k rerelease of Run Lola Run had a healthy weekend, opening to an estimated $154k on 275 screens. This is the 25th anniversary of the U.S. debut of Tom Tykwer’s German experimental thriller that sees flame-haired Lola (Franka Potente) on the move in Berlin, pounding the pavement to come up with 100,000 Deutschmarks in 20 minutes to save her boyfriend’s life. (This was before the euro arrived). See Deadline interview here. A handful of rereleases/restorations have been box office stars post-Covid and this is another indie win.

A24’s Tuesday, a modern-day fairy tale with Julia Louis-Dreyfus, launched to $26k on two screens. Daina O. Pusic’s directorial debut premiered at Telluride. The modern-day fairy tale had sold out Q&As shows throughout the weekend and expands to a moderate nationwide footprint next week.

Utopia reunited with Shiva Baby (and Bottoms) star Rachel Sennott...

“Robot Dreams”, a new.animated feature directed by Pablo Berger, recently nominated for an Academy Award, stars Ivan Labanda , Tito Trifol , Rafa Calvo and José García Tos, releasing June 7, 2024 in a limited theatrical release:lease

Based on the graphic novel title by Sara Varon, ‘Robot Dreams’ tells the adventures and misfortunes of ‘Dog’ and ‘Robot’…

“…in NYC during the 1980’s.

Click the images to enlarge…...

Filmmaker Pablo Berger had never made an animated film before. He’d never even considered it until he read Sara Varon’s graphic novel “Robot Dreams.” Having recently lost his best friend and mother, the story of friendship and loss spoke to him on such an emotional level that he decided to adapt it — and learn how to make an animated film.

He spent two-and-years on animation education, but wanted to bring something from his previous directing experience: working with some of the best Spanish actors. Said Berger while on the Toolkit podcast, “In most animated film, [the characters] tend to overact.”

Berger began by working with a small animation team led by art director José Luis Ágreda and character supervisor Daniel Fernández Casas before “an army” of animators brought his vision to life.

“I started saying [to the animators], ‘I’m going to treat you as actors, you are my actors,’” said Berger. “They...

Quick Links A Vibrant '80s Setting Refreshing 2D Animation The Whimsical

Robot Dreams warms your soul as a beautifully animated reminder of friendship's value and the deep loss felt in its absence. Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger is sublime in a dialogue-free adventure that whisks you back to a vibrant early '80s New York City. Toes will tap as Earth, Wind, and Fire's classic "September" fuels a groovy soundtrack of uplifting hits. The film honestly addresses the difficulties some have in making personal connections. Loneliness can feel like an unbearable weight, but finding a significant other parts clouds of darkness to let rays of sunshine through.

Dog sits in his Manhattan apartment watching TV late at night. He sighs while flipping through hilarious infomercials when a particular advertisement for an Amica 2000 robot catches his attention. Dog picks up the phone and excitedly dials the 800 number to order a mechanical best friend.

In A Violent Nature, an undead murderous monster’s slow striding through the woods, has generated IFC Films’ second-best opening ever since its indie horror hit Late Night With The Devil in March.

The artsy slasher written and directed by Chris Nash will see an estimated weekend gross of $2.1 million on 1,426 screens, IFC’s widest opening ever, and a no. 8 spot at the domestic box office.

Late Night, by Cameron and Colin Cairnes, which opened to $2.8 million at 1,034 locations, is pushing $10 million. It returns to theaters June 6 and runs through the weekend on about 500 screens.

In A Violent Nature “has been steadily making waves for redefining the classic slasher genre” since its Sundance premiere, said Scott Shooman, head of AMC Networks Film Group, calling Nash’s feature debut “a film that will have a lasting impact in the horror space.”

At 87% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, the film is one...

Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated Spanish film hits theaters this week, and TheWrap is here to fill you in with all the details on how to watch.

“Robot Dreams,” adapted from Sara Varon’s 2007 graphic novel of the same name, follows the journey of a lonely dog named Dog in 1980s New York who resorts to creating his own robot companion.

The silent animated musical was written and directed by Pablo Berger, and was produced by Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia, Jérôme Vidal, Sylvie Pialat and distributed by Neon.

Here’s everything you need to know about how to watch.

When does “Robot Dreams” come out?

“Robot Dreams” releases in theaters on Friday, May 31.

Is “Robot Dreams” streaming?

Not yet, but it will be. “Robot Dreams” will be available to stream on Apple TV+ sometime after its theatrical release.

Check out the links below for “Robot Dreams” showtimes and tickets near you.

Few big new studio wide releases, yes, but Viggo Mortensen’s latest is on 700 screens, plus limited openings for Chris Wilcha’s Flipside, Judd Apatow EP, and Spanish animated, Oscar-nominated Robot Dreams from Neon. Bleecker Street’s family drama Ezra and IFC Films’ arthouse slasher In A Violent Nature are technically wide but both well under 1,500 screens.

Viggo Mortensen directed, wrote and stars in Western The Dead Don’t Hurt presented by Shout! Studios on 730 screens. The story of star-crossed lovers on the western U.S. frontier in the 1860s sees Vivienne Le Coudy (Vicky Krieps), a fiercely independent woman, settle in Nevada with Danish immigrant Holger Olsen (Mortensen). But the outbreak of the Civil War separates them as Olsen goes to fight with the Union army, leaving Vivienne alone in a town full of corrupt officials. Premiered in Toronto, see Deadline review. It’s Mortensen’s second outing behind the camera since 2020’s Falling.

Do androids dream of electric sheep? A better question: What if their R.E.M. cycles were filled with the same wish-fulfillment scenarios and sweaty-palm nightmares that the rest of us have, as thoughts of love and loneliness and hopes and fears danced through their metallic heads?

Based on Sarah Varon’s 2007 graphic novel, Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams treats that idea as a given — one of this animated masterpiece’s main characters is, after all, a mechanical being designed to be a loyal companion, even if some initial assembly is required.

Robot Dreams is grounded in reality and filled with thematic richness. The film provides emotional and nuanced storytelling. The animation is an all-ages piece of entertainment promoting empathy.

I've never understood the bias some have against animation, but watching Robot Dreams, it occurred to me that the language used to defend it has also done it a disservice. When forced to focus on what animation can do that live-action filmmaking cannot, we naturally emphasize fantastical, stylized movies with big imaginations that take us to new places. This is a worthy vein to pursue, and many of my favorite animated films fit this mold. But, to paraphrase Guillermo del Toro, it might be as unfair a pigeonhole for this medium as calling it a "genre for kids."

8/10 ProsJoyfully and cleverly animatedEmotionally intelligent and involvingStorytelling is so clear, it doesn't need dialogueImmersive worldbuilding through a textured soundscape

Robot Dreams has fantasy sequences,...

Robot Dreams Photo: Neon Eclectic Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger has made silent movies before, but never one quite like Robot Dreams. A New York tourism advert for anyone who thinks Wall-e sold out to Big Talkie after breaking its opening vow of silence, Robot Dreams communicates the aches, pains, and...

Robot Dreams

Photo: Neon

Eclectic Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger has made silent movies before, but never one quite like Robot Dreams. A New York tourism advert for anyone who thinks Wall-e sold out to Big Talkie after breaking its opening vow of silence, Robot Dreams communicates the aches, pains, and...

May comes to a close with a quieter weekend full of odds and ends and nothing particularly wide in terms of studio releases. Read on for Gold Derby’s box office preview.

After a fairly disappointing Memorial Day weekend, the month ends with a number of moderately wide releases. Since most of these new films are smaller, few theater counts have been reported, making it tougher to determine how some of them might perform, though it’s likely that only one will be getting a wide enough release to potentially break into the Top 5. Otherwise, we’re looking at a repeat of the Top 4 with the slightest chance that “The Garfield Movie” might pass “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” with few of the new releases targeting family audiences.

The one movie that has the best chance at cracking the Top 5 would probably be Crunchyroll’s latest Anime feature “Haikyu!! The Dumpster Battle,...

Writer-director Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams opens on a nighttime shot of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan skyline in the distance. The year is 1984, and the Twin Towers loom, figuratively and literally, as ghostly figures. Berger’s breathtaking adaptation of Sara Varon’s graphic novel of the same name isn’t about the towers in any specific fashion, but about a world in which change is the only constant, life of any kind is at the mercy of randomness, and joy and melancholy are in ongoing symbiosis. In other words, our world—albeit one populated here, not by humans, but by anthropomorphic, humanoid animals.

Our surrogate in this world is Dog. At home by himself on a summer night, he’s drawn to a television commercial’s beckoning text (“Are you alone?”) and orders the product advertised, initially unseen by the viewer. Robot is soon delivered (some assembly required), and...

The first significant deal at last year’s Marché du Film was Neon’s acquisition of Pablo Berger’s eventual Oscar nominee, “Robot Dreams.” Whether or not another Spanish animated film can have that kind of impact in 2024 remains to be seen, but there is a long list of contenders to consider.

Perhaps the buzziest Spanish title at this year’s market is adult animation auteur Alberto Vázquez’s “Decorado,” sold by French powerhouse Le Pacte. Like his previous titles, “Decorado” is based on a Vázquez short adapted from one of his graphic novels. Uniko, Abano Producións, The Glow Animation Studio and Sardinha em Lata produce.

“Girl and Wolf” marks the feature debut of animator and graphic novelist Roc Espinet, touted as Spain’s next adult animation auteur. Produced by Hampa Studio, Sygnatia and Alesa Films, the Latido-sold film will certainly look an appealing prospect to distributors of indie animation.

Eight years after his stop-motion breakout debut My Life as a Zucchini, which premiered in the Directors’ Fortnight, Swiss director Claude Barras is back at the Cannes Film Festival this year with Sauvages (Savages).

My Life as a Zucchini was an Academy Award nominee in 2017, and Barras’ new feature is, if anything, even more ambitious. It tells the story of Kéria, an 11-year-old girl who lives with her father, a Swiss ethnologist who now works for a logging company, in the rural suburbs of the province of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo. She’s a typical urban girl, who loves her cell phone, hip-hop music and all things modern. She has largely turned her back on the traditions of her late mother, who was a member of the Penan, a nomadic group of hunter-gatherers whose way of life is threatened by industrial deforestation. But when her father rescues a baby orangutan,...

Spanish animation is experiencing a historic boom. Shorts and features from the country are achieving notable success at festivals and the box office, while Spanish artists are contributing to some of the most influential film and TV productions coming from Hollywood today.

The question now is what steps should be taken to build on recent success.

Spaniard Almu Redondo won an Emmy this year for her work on the Cartoon Saloon-produced “Star Wars: Visions” episode “Screecher’s Reach,” and Pablo Berger’s Spanish feature “Robot Dreams” was nominated for a 2024 animated feature Academy Award. Few artists had as profound an impact on the aesthetic of the “Spider-Verse” films as Alberto Mielgo, who also won the animated short Oscar in 2022 for his film “The Windshield Wiper.”

Spanish artists flourishing abroad is a longstanding tradition, but one that may be waning. Many animation professionals are now staying in Spain, while...

Spanish cinema is expanding, opening up attractive film avenues to reach the worldwide market, driven by upscale commercial projects, blending of genres and a new generation of emerging female directors.

The country’s filmmakers landed three Oscar nominations: Juan A. Bayona with “Society of the Snow” (inter- national feature and makeup and hair styling); and Pablo Berger with “Robot Dreams” (animated feature). Also, four of Netflix’s top five most-popular non-English films ever are from Spain.

“The boom in talent is making for a unique and very diverse cinema,” says Guillermo Farré, Movistar Plus+ head of original films and Spanish cinema.

“The great foreign perception of Spanish cinema is driven by the productions’ quality and their international diffusion,” says Elástica Films’ María Zamora, producer of Carla Simón’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner “Alcarrás.”

“Spanish cinema is evolving with the appearance of new voices especially female and new ways of narrating,...

After serving as the U.S. distributor for Julia Ducournau’s Palme d’Or-winning 2021 body horror Titane, Neon is getting back into business with the filmmaker as the North American distributor for her next genre-bending feature, Alpha.

Golshifteh Farahani (Paterson) and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian) are set to star, with production on the film to kick off next fall. Details as to the plot of the film are under wraps.

Producers are Jean des Forêts and Amelie Jacquis of Petit Film and Eric & Nicolas Altmayer of Mandarin & Compagnie, with Frakas Productions co-producing. Charades and FilmNation Entertainment are handling sales in the rest of the world during the Cannes Film Festival.

Picking up Ducournau’s last feature ahead of its launch at Cannes, Neon most recently acquired worldwide rights to Longlegs helmer Osgood Perkins’ next film Keeper, starring Tatiana Maslany and Rossif Sutherland, and Steven Soderbergh’s Presence. In Cannes,...

The seventh edition of the Quirino Awards, an annual event dedicated to promoting animation in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America, saw Spain win five of the 10 awards on offer. Housed in the Teatro Leal, in the Canary Island’s Santa Cruz de Tenerife, an eclectic and, at times, musical gala concluded an upbeat Quirino Awards.

Pablo Berger’s first foray into animation, the Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams,” continued its charge, winning awards for best feature film and sound design. A first Neon pick-up at Cannes last year, the film has won plaudits just about everywhere, described by Variety as a “sweetly sorrowful buddy movie .”

For the second year running, best series went to Spain’s “Jasmine & Jambo – Season 2” by Silvia Cortés. Series leads Jasmine and Jambo are music-obsessed and reside in Soundland. The series effortlessly educates through music-infused plots for kids, produced by Catalan company Teidees Audiovisuals in co-production with Corporació Catalana de Mitjans Audiovisuals.

Exclusive: Neon has hired marketing and publicity veteran Joey Monteiro as EVP, International Marketing and Ashley Hirsch as Manager of International Sales and Marketing. The move further expands the company’s global footprint as it grows its international sales arm headed up by seasoned sales executive Kristen Figeroid.

With a career spanning more than two and a half decades, Monteiro joins Neon from Sierra-Affinity/eOne, where he served as EVP of Marketing and Publicity and was responsible for creative marketing across film markets and festivals as well as international distribution. He handled campaigns on Academy Award-winning titles including: Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive, starring Ryan Gosling; Miles Teller starrer Whiplash; Margot Robbie starrer I, Tonya; Manchester By The Sea with Casey Affleck; and Nightcrawler with Jake Gyllenhaal, among others.

Prior to that, Monteiro worked at Warner Brothers Pictures as Director of Digital Marketing and Lionsgate as SVP of International Marketing,...

While Hayao Miyazaki deservedly took home the Oscar for The Boy and the Heron, another nominee is well worth your attention. Pablo Berger’s Cannes favorite Robot Dreams, which had an awards-qualifying run way back in December (solidifying it as a 2023 film), will finally properly open next month from Neon. Ahead of the release, a new trailer has arrived.

Here’s the simple synopsis: “Dog lives in Manhattan and he’s tired of being alone. One day he decides to build himself a robot, a companion. Their friendship blossoms, until they become inseparable, to the rhythm of 80’s NYC. One summer night, Dog, with great sadness, is forced to abandon Robot at the beach.”

John Fink said in his review, “By far one of the most delightful films of the year––even when it breaks your heart––Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams is a deceptively simple take on companionship that...

“Robot Dreams”, a new.animated feature directed by Pablo Berger, recently nominated for an Academy Award, stars Ivan Labanda , Tito Trifol , Rafa Calvo and José García Tos, with a streaming release Tba:

Based on the graphic novel title by Sara Varon, ‘Robot Dreams’ tells the adventures and misfortunes of ‘Dog’ and ‘Robot’…

“…in NYC during the 1980’s.

Click the images to enlarge…...

Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” is getting a theatrical release almost one year after its Cannes debut.

Directed by Pablo Berger, “Robot Dreams” is based on a graphic novel by Sara Varon and follows the unexpected friendship between a dog and a robot. Dog lives in Manhattan and is tired of being alone, so he does what any good boy would do: build himself a robot companion. Their friendship blossoms until they become inseparable — until Dog is forced to abandon Robot at the beach. And it’s all set to ’80s music.

The Oscar-nominated feature premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival and later won the Special Jury Prize at the Animation Is Film Festival. “Robot Dreams” marks the “Blancanieves” filmmaker Berger’s animated feature debut.

“With ‘Robot Dreams’ I wanted to explore the infinite narrative possibilities of animation. A medium

where everything is possible and there are no formal limits,” Berger said in a press statement.

Neon has released the trailer for the whimsical Oscar-nominated animated feature Robot Dreams. The film will open in New York on May 31 at the Film Forum and in Los Angeles on June 7. It will expand to more theaters throughout June.

Robot Dreams is an Academy Award nominee for Best Animated Feature and the 2024 Goya Award winner for Best Animated Feature and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In the film, from writer and director Pablo Berger, Dog lives in Manhattan and is tired of being alone. One day, he decides to build himself a robot, a companion.

Their friendship blossoms until they become inseparable from the rhythm of ’80s NYC. One summer night, Dog, with great sadness, is forced to abandon Robot at the beach. Will they ever meet again?

A tender, affecting tale of friendship, the animated Robot Dreams – adapted from the graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon – is...

"It will double the size of your heart." Oh yes it will! Neon has finally unveiled the official US trailer for the beloved animated film Robot Dreams, made by director Pablo Berger, which first premiered at the 2023 Cannes and Annecy Film Festivals. The film snuck in and ended up getting nominated for Best Animated Film at the 2024 Academy Awards (after a small qualifying theatrical release in the US last fall). Neon has finally scheduled Robot Dreams to open in US theaters on May 31st - so if you've been waiting to watch it, not too much longer now. A story about friendship, its importance, and its fragility. The wonderful dialogue-free film is based on the popular graphic novel by Sara Varon, about the adventures and misfortunes of Dog and Robot in New York City during the '80s. Dog is lonely so he orders a Robot companion, but then Robot...

RankFilm (distributor)Three-day gross (Apr 5-7)Total gross to dateWeek 1. Kung Fu Panda 4 (Universal) £2.8m £12.8m 2 2. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (Warner Bros) £2m £9.2m 2 3. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (Sony) £1.4m £12.1m 3 4. Dune: Part Two (Warner Bros) £1.1m £36.8m 6 5. Monkey Man (Universal) £763,004 £809,767 1

Gbp to Usd conversion rate: 1.26

Universal animation Kung Fu Panda 4 knocked Godzilla x Kong: A New Empire off top spot at the UK-Ireland box office this weekend; as Dev Patel’s Monkey Man started in fifth place.

Kung Fu Panda 4 added £2.8m on its second weekend – a 28% drop that brings it to £12.8m. It is already...

“I’m Nevenka,” a Movistar Plus+ original film and the awaited next feature from Spain’s Iciar Bollaín, has closed its earliest pre-sales, struck by Film Factory Entertainment, including a bellwether deal in France.

The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.

Daniel Chabannes’ Epicentre Films, a classic 30-year-old distributor and producer of non-English language art pics, especially from Europe and Latin America, whose recent acquisitions take in San Sebastian Gold Shell winner “The Rye Horn” and Amos Gitai’s “It’s Not Over,” has acquired French rights.

A distributor of both big Cannes winners – “Triangle of Sadness,” “Rosetta,” “The Child” – and slightly more out-there propositions, such as Pablo Berger’s silent movie “Blancanieves,” Xenix Film Distribution has clinched rights to Switzerland.

Iciar Bollaín: A Broader Audience Auteur

The early pre-sales are hardly surprising. Since her big breakout,...

The Killing star Sofie Gråbøl is leading the Canneseries jury.

Gråbøl will be joined by Olivier Abbou, Amine Bouhafa, Alice Braga, Macarena García and Alix Poisson in the six-strong jury judging a strong competition lineup that includes the likes of Denmark’s Dark Horse, Euro co-pro This is Not Sweden and Beta Film’s Operation Sabre.

Multi-award-winner Gråbøl is best known as the star of Scandi noir smash The Killing, in which she played the role of police inspector Sarah Lund, which brought her international fame. Past credits include breakout Early Spring, Taxa and Nikolaj og Julie.

She is joined by Abbou, the director and producer of a number of series and movies including Madame Hollywood, Territories and Get In, along with Braga, the Brazilian actress who has starred in internationally-acclaimed City of God and Hollywood movies such as The Suicide Squad.

García, meanwhile, made her film debut with Pablo Berger...

Neon, the indie studio behind “Parasite” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” has tapped the producers of “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” Jon Read and Allison Rose Carter, to lead their growing production arm. Read and Carter are the co-founders of Savage Rose Films.

The pact comes as Neon has moved more aggressively into developing and producing its own movies, instead of focusing purely on acquiring completed films. The company’s recent foray into production have included Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool,” Bishal Dutta’s “It Lives Inside,” Theda Hammel’s “Stress Positions,” Jazmin Jones’s “Seeking Mavis Beacon” and Tilman Singer’s “Cuckoo.” This new in-house focus also includes upcoming projects from Joshua Oppenheimer, Boots Riley and David Robert Mitchell. Under the terms of the deal, Neon will have a first-look at Savage Rose Films’ roster of projects while Read and Carter will also run Neon’s productions, reporting to Jeff Deutchman,...

The Sudanese drama Goodbye Julia is continuing its impressive awards run, earning the Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Feature over the weekend at the Sonoma International Film Festival in California.

Mohamed Kordofani directed the story set in the context of the secessionist movement that led to the establishment of the independent nation of South Sudan in 2011.

“We commend the festival for its impressive selection of narrative features and unanimously select Goodbye Julia as the best film,” jurors wrote. “An outstanding first feature from Mohamed Kordofani, anchored by two stellar performances from Eiman Yousif and Siran Riak, Goodbye Julia provides a glimpse into a culture and region that’s underrepresented and underexplored in contemporary cinema.”

The jury, comprised of Rosa Bosch (Begin Again Films), Tyler Coates (The Hollywood Reporter), Rebecca Fisher (Magnolia Pictures), Jason Hellerstein (Sideshow), and Julie Huntsinger (Telluride Film Festival), awarded a Special Mention to Hesitation Wound, describing...