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Marisa Crespo and Moises Romera’s You Are Not Me is effective as a genre flick, if you can overlook the predictability and allow it some brownie points of creating a persuasive, unnerving sense of atmosphere. Yes, some moves are uninspired but there’s some fun to be had in watching an uptight family unravel, secrets tumbling to the fore, all brought together in a stew of fear and edgy discomfort.

What Romera and Crespo particularly succeed in building is a creeping, amplifying sense of unease, a dread that lingers beneath placid surfaces. The composure and niceties of families come under the scanner, revealing grotesque energies simmering beneath. Who can be trusted? There are all sorts of uncertain elements to be grappled with, realisations to be made peace with, confrontations demanding explanation.

The film hints at dramatic change but weaves them in slow, careful gradations, dropping the scale of it on us in terrifying,...

A film set during Christmas in Spain depicts a family reunion that takes an unexpected turn. The scene unfolds in a grand family home, presenting characters representing contemporary social diversity. Initial moments suggest warmth and connection, reminiscent of traditional holiday gatherings. Subtle undercurrents of tension emerge beneath the surface.

The narrative explores the experience of returning home after prolonged separation, holding hope for reconnection and renewal. Gradually, the comfortable family setting transforms, introducing psychological tension that surprises the audience with its dramatic shift.

The story explores familial relationships under stress, offering a nuanced view of queer family interactions. By challenging conventional family structures, the film reflects current social transformations, prompting viewers to examine complex dynamics between personal identity and societal pressures.

Narrative & Plot Structure

Aitana returns to her childhood home after three years abroad, bringing Gabi and their adopted child. The family reunion begins with a veneer of hope that quickly turns cold.

You Are Not Me (Tú no eres yo) understands the anxiety of holiday family gatherings. It weaponizes it and taps into the fear of rejection and the paranoia stemming from not being loved enough — or at least not in the way one wants. Such is the case for Aitana (Roser Tapias), who’s visiting her parents for Christmas with partner Gabi (Yapoena Silva) and adopted son in tow. Naturally, she expects a warm welcome but her parents — Dori (Pilar Almería) and Oriol (Álvaro Báguena) — are not excited to see her and are put off by her surprise appearance.

The Thriller Plays Up The Anxiety Of Aitana’s Situation

Writer-directors Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera build tension through this complex family relationship. Things get especially heated as Aitana learns her parents have taken in Nadia (Anna Kurikka), a refugee-turned-caretaker for Aitana’s brother (Jorge Motos), and are treating her like more...

"Aitana returns home for the first time in three years, excited to introduce her wife and their adopted infant son to her extended family and celebrate Christmas together. The family villa in the Spanish countryside is exactly as she remembers – except for the addition of Nadia, a Romanian refugee who has claimed Aitana’s bedroom, her clothes, and her family heirlooms. Why have Aitana’s conservative parents, long suspicious of immigrants, embraced the mysterious Nadia with such uncharacteristic warmth? Is Nadia a shrewd usurper, or an unwitting vessel for darker forces spreading across the land? A twisty thriller that locates the uncanny in the reflexive cordiality of the holiday season, You Are Not Me is a dark and disturbing dispatch from the most irrational realm: family."

Written & Directed By Marisa Crespo, Moisés Romera Starring Roser Tapias, Pilar Almeria, Anna Kurikka

For more details, including a list of theatrical engagements, visit: https://www.

"An exciting new take on Christmas horror." Doppelgänger Releasing has unveiled an official trailer for the Spanish horror thriller film called You Are Not Me, made by two filmmakers from the Valencia region of Spain named Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera. This first premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2023 and it will finally getting released more than year later via Doppelgänger. Aitana returns home for Christmas, the first time after three years, to find that her parents have replaced her with a strange, unknown young woman who is being treated like their daughter. She discovers a disturbing and bloody truth. What could it be?! Are all these people at the Christmas dinner aliens or possessed or what?? This horror film stars Roser Tapias, Álvaro Báguena, and Pilar Almeria. Early reviews state the film is a "decent psychological horror that taps into the anxiety of rejection from those who you believe love you.

A woman returns home for Christmas only to find she’s been replaced with a new stand-in daughter in Spanish thriller You Are Not Me, and our exclusive trailer debut teases that it’s only the start of the dark secrets uncovered this holiday season.

You Are Not Me releases in theaters and on Digital on December 6, 2024.

About the film: “Aitana returns home for the first time in three years, excited to introduce her wife and their adopted infant son to her extended family and celebrate Christmas together. The family villa in the Spanish countryside is exactly as she remembers – except for the addition of Nadia, a Romanian refugee who has claimed Aitana’s bedroom, her clothes, and her family heirlooms. Why have Aitana’s conservative parents, long suspicious of immigrants, embraced the mysterious Nadia with such uncharacteristic warmth? Is Nadia a shrewd usurper, or an unwitting vessel for darker forces spreading across the land?...

German distributor-producer SquareOne Entertainment, part of rising European film studio Vuelta Group, has acquired German film and TV production, distribution and licensing company Telepool, which was owned by Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Westbrook.

The news was announced Wednesday by Vuelta Group chairman Jerome Levy and CEO of SquareOne and Vuelta Group Germany Al Munteanu.

Munteanu will spearhead the newly combined entity under the SquareOne banner with Michael Heyd serving as CFO/COO.

The newly combined SquareOne entity will boast a library consisting of over 1,200 titles such as “Drive,” “Intouchables,” “The Olympus Has Fallen,” “The Hitman’s Bodyguard,” “Imitation Game,” “Lone Survivor,” “Book Club,” “Transporter 3,” “King Richard,” “Maurice the Tomcat” and the recently released “One Life” among others.

“For over 60 years, Telepool has been one of the leading global content houses and we are proud of the work we did with the company,” said Westbrook CEO Kosaku Yada.

It’s Christmas Time at Fantastic Fest! This year, the festival programmers seem to have gotten the holiday spirit a bit early, and there are a number of holiday horror films on the program. In addition to The Sacrifice Game, I have seen a handful of others that are not only enjoyable, but each have a unique take on the Yuletide Spirit.

The Uncle 5/5

Some films are to be savored. You walk in knowing little about the plot, outside of a simple premise. The lights go down, the movie starts, and you find yourself asking….”What the Hell is going on here?”

That’s the joy of The Uncle. It keeps you guessing. It drops information like breadcrumbs. Bit by bit, we gain more understanding of our characters and the strange situation they find themselves in.

At the beginning of the film, a family prepares for their Christmas celebration. The turkey is roasting,...

The sales company will start talking to buyesr

German sales outfit Global Screen has snapped up world sales rights to odd couple romantic comedy The Intangible Joy Of Love, directed by Lars Kraume and will start talking to buyers at TIFF.

Based on Simon Stephens’ play Heisenberg, the film stars Caroline Peters and Burghart Klaussner, who both also starred in the original stage production. The film is about the unlikely romance between a bankrupt elderly butcher and an unpredictable school secretary.

Klaussner initially brought the project to X Filme and made the first connection with Stephens. The film is produced...

You’re Not Me, the feature debut by directors Moisés Romera and Marisa Crespo, has been acquired for worldwide theatrical distribution by Global Screen, per Variety.

The Christmas-set thriller is described as “a dark elevated genre thriller with elements of satire, focusing on two of the filmmakers’ obsessions: family relationships and social differences.”

In the film, “Aitana returns home for Christmas, for the first time in three years, to find that her parents have replaced her with an unknown woman. She is her own age, sleeping in her bed, wearing her clothes, living in her house, and treated by her parents as if she were their daughter. From that moment on, torn by jealousy, suspicion, and misunderstanding, Aitana tries to find out what is happening and who the intruder is that has taken her place in the family – until she discovers an unexpected and disturbing truth that is darker and...

Munich-based sales agency Global Screen has acquired “You’re Not Me,” the debut feature of the directors Moisés Romera and Marisa Crespo, for worldwide theatrical distribution. It is a dark elevated genre thriller with elements of satire, focusing on two of the filmmakers’ obsessions: family relationships and social differences.

In the film, Aitana returns home for Christmas, for the first time in three years, to find that her parents have replaced her with an unknown woman. She is her own age, sleeping in her bed, wearing her clothes, living in her house, and treated by her parents as if she were their daughter.

From that moment on, torn by jealousy, suspicion, and misunderstanding, Aitana tries to find out what is happening and who the intruder is that has taken her place in the family – until she discovers an unexpected and disturbing truth that is darker and way bloodier than she would ever have thought possible.

“My Emptiness and I,”“The Barbaric,” and “Saudade Became Home Inside” has all won big at a key industry section at Spain’s Malaga Festival, its Work in Progress, which first shone a light on such titles as “The Platform,” Netflix’s most-watched movie in the U.S. for some days last year.

This year, at the 4th Malaga Work in Progress Awards, which ran May 20 – June 11, all three titles scooped a trio of prizes.

The third feature of Adrián Silvestre, whose “The Objects of Love” took a Fipresci award at 2016’s Seville Festival, “My Emptiness and I” won Arachne, Abycine Lanza, and Rec prizes. The story of Raphi, an androgynous diagnosed with gender dysphoria who begins a gender transition, the film is produced by Javier Pérez Santana, one of the producers behind Agustí Villaronga’s “The Belly of the Sea,” the Malaga Fest main competition winner this year.

Seen...

Madrid — M.C.ed in 2017 by Guillermo del Toro, and Ron Perlman last year, the Sitges Festival’s Sitges Pitchbox, a genre movie project pitching event organized by the festival and online market Filmarket Hub, has opened for 2019 business, launching a call for applications which runs through Aug. 21.

That matters. Running Oct. 4, The Pitchbox, which, will see directors and producers talk up seven projects, each for seven minutes, offers as prizes invitations to Ventana Sur’s Blood Window, Latin America’s biggest genre film market, South Korea’s Bucheon Intl. Film Festival, and possible selection for Macao’s The Crouching Tigers Project Lab. Elamedia Estudios offers a distribution contract for Spain.

In a bigger picture, Barcelona, the Sitges Festival, and Spain and Latin America, which supplies part of the Pitchbox, are a greenhouse for global genre talent.

It was at Sitges, a Mecca for horror fanboys, that “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom...

Winners to be announced on December 14.

The second round of Blood Window pitches at Ventana Sur on Thursday (13) included an Argentine film about a vampire hunter, a Uruguayan film about an evil doppelganger, and an India story about a nightmare train journey.

The session complemented Wednesday’s pitches and the winners will be announced on Friday (14).

Vurdalak Blood (Argentina) from director Santiago Fernandez Calvete and producer Roxana Ramos won Incaa’s National Feature Films Contest and is an adaptation of Aleksey Tolstoy’s gothic novella The Family Of The Vourdalak and follows a vampire hunter whose daughter discovers he has...

Barcelona — Projects “Deus Irae,” “The Occupant,” “9 Steps’ and ‘Fiesta” won prizes at the 4th Sitges Pitchbox, hosted by Spain’s Sitges Fantastic Film Festival in partnership with online platform Filmarket Hub and godfathered this year by Ron Perlman. Awards were announced Friday Oct. 5.

“Deus Irae” aims to be the feature debut of Argentine Pedro Cristiani, a co-writer of the acclaimed sci-fi short “Moebius.” A supernatural thriller and a follow-up to Cristiani’s short of the same name, “Deus Irae” follows Father Javier whose mandate is to examine and explain alleged miracles and Satanic events.

According to Cristiani, “the horror elements are explicit, but the visual treatment enhances its monstrous beauty.” Creature design is inspired by the creations of Dante Alighieri, Hieronymus Bosch and Francis Bacon.

The first 26 minutes are already produced and the film expected to be completed in Argentina. It is backed by Cristiani, Simon Ratziel and Guido Volpi,...

Barcelona — “The Occupant,” “9 Steps” and “They Vanished” are among seven projects to be pitched at the 4th Sitges Pitchbox on Oct 5.

The in-development forum for horror, science fiction or fantastic genre feature films is hosted by the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia and Filmarket Hub, the online platform for films and series in development.

Following on Guillermo del Toro, “Hellboy” and “Alien: Resurrection” star Ron Perlman will be this year’s special guest. Before the pitching sessions, the actor will deliver a speech encouraging the debutants’ careers, and sharing tips on how to navigate the rough waters of genre cinema.

A fantasy thriller, “They Vanished” focuses on Alicia, a reserved agent retired from the Chilean Police, struggling with a ruthless depression after losing her only son. Her retirement will take a turn when she is forced back into service to investigate an impossible case: the mass disappearance of...