News

Beta Film, the leading European independent film-tv company, has picked up international sales rights to Leticia Dolera’s family drama “Pubertat – Secrets, Lies and Human Castles,” the Spanish writer-director-actor’s follow-up to “Perfect Life,” her Canneseries wining take on adult relationships and challenged coming of age,

Structured as a six one-hour-episode series, “Pubertat” completes Beta’s line-up at the upcoming London TV Screenings, which runs Feb. 23-28.

In “Pubertat,” a Max Original series, Dolera takes a look at lost love between parents and their teenage children and how it might be rediscovered, after an alleged sexual assault that sheds light on the adults’ sexual taboos.

The series is set in a Catalan town with a long-standing tradition of building human towers, the “castells.” Declared Intangible Heritage of Humanity by Unesco, “castells” are not only a spectacle of local festivities but a symbol of the importance of each of its members,...

It’s no big secret I love horror films, but 2012 hasn’t been a great year. In my top ten, three films carry over from 2011, two won’t be released until 2013, two are animated and another isn’t much of a horror film. With that said, 2012 gave us Berberian Sound Studio and Cabin In The Woods, and for that, I am forever grateful. Here is a list of the 21 horror films from 2012 I liked best.

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#1: Berberian Sound Studio

Directed by Peter Strickland

Written by Peter Strickland

UK, 2012

Berberian Sound Studio reminds us of the power of sound over the visual image, and can surely join the ranks of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and Brian DePalma’s Blow Out as an absorbing appreciation of sound design. But both thematically and visually, Berberian is more of a descendant of the school of David Lynch and Roman Polanski. As things get increasingly,...

[Rec]³ Génesis

Directed by Paco Plaza

Written by Paco Plaza, Luiso Berdejo and David Gallart

Spain, 2012

The first [Rec] was a haunting and sinister horror film that ended on an intended note of malevolent ambiguity. [Rec] ², for better or worse, tried to elucidate the questions posed in the first. In [Rec]³ Génesis, however, it feels like the franchise was hijacked by misguided works of fan fiction, by people who loved the two previous chapters, but who fundamentally misunderstood why they were so effective. As a result, [Rec]³ is a film that forges a misbegotten identity of its own by categorically burning the bridges with its predecessors, betraying the very reason why we gave a damn about the third installment in the first place.

Génesis takes place a few hours before the events of one and two, at a wedding between Spanish couple Clara (Leticia Dolera) and Koldo (Diego Martín). Unbeknownst to them, one of the guests,...

Elena Anaya, Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In No Rest For The Wicked Tops, Pedro Almodóvar Empty-Handed: Goyas 2012 Winners Best Film La Piel que habito / The Skin I Live In, Pedro Almodóvar * No habrá paz para los malvados / No Rest for the Wicked, Enrique Urbizu La Voz dormida / The Sleeping Voice, Benito Zambrano Blackthorn. Sin destino / Blackthorn, Mateo Gil Best Foreign Film in the Spanish Language Boleto al paraíso (Cuba), Gerardo Chijona Miss Bala (Mexico), Gerardo Naranjo * Un cuento chino / Chinese Take-Away (Argentina), Sebastián Borensztein Violeta se fue a los cielos (Chile), Andrés Wood Best European Film Jane Eyre (United Kingdom), Cary Fukunaga Melancholia (Germany / Denmark / France), Lars von Trier * The Artist (France), Michel Hazanavicius Carnage (France), Roman Polanski Best Director Pedro Almodóvar, The Skin I Live In Benito Zambrano, The Sleeping Voice * Enrique Urbizu, No Rest for the Wicked Mateo Gil, Blackthorn Best New Director Paula Ortiz, De tu ventana a la mía...

The Skin I Live In (La piel que habito) and the other nominations for the 2012 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) have been announced. The 26th Annual Goya Awards (Premios Goyas), presented by the Academia de las Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas de España (Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences), is “Spain’s main national film awards, considered by many in Spain, and internationally, to be the Spanish equivalent of the American Academy Awards.” The awards will be handed out on February 19, 2012 in Madrid, Spain.

The full listing of the 2012 Goya Awards (Premios Goyas) nominations is below.

Film

La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In), Pedro Almodovar

No habrá paz para los malvados (No Rest for the Wicked), Enrique Urbizu

La voz dormida (The Sleeping Voice), Benito Zambrano

Blackthorn. Sin destino (Blackthorn), Mateo Gil

Director

Pedro Almodovar, La piel que habito (The Skin I Live In)

Benito Zambrano, La voz dormida...

Today is October 1st and like every year I spend the majority of the month watching as many horror movies as I possibly can. So I decided to take it upon myself to list off the greatest horror movies ever made. I felt the need to break up the list into several categories. You see, usually when people ask me for recommendations of what horror films they should see, they still have some idea of what sub genre they are interested in watching. So as appose to having one big jumbled list, I’ve broken it down to help with those looking for recommendations in a specific area. Please Note: by the end of the month, the last entry in this series will include a list of what I think are without a doubt, the 31 greatest horror movies ever made. For now, I present to you my list of the...

[Rec] 2 Directed by Jaume Balagueró [1] & Paco Plaza [2] Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza are back with [Rec]2, the realtime sequel to their terrifying 2007 horror film. The original derived much of its cult following from its unforgettable ending, and the sequel begins 15 minutes after its predecessor ends, taking three heavily armed members of a Special Operations Unit and an official from the Ministry Of Health (Jonathan Mellor) into the building that was quarantined in the first film. [Rec]2 delivers the same nonstop thrills but adds on a new spin to the tale, taking cues from Aliens and The Exorcist with a subplot about demonic possession. This is far from your cut and dry sequel. It has enough invention and wit to keep fans happy; it's a non stop adrenaline pumping terror ride into hell. Much like [Rec], the sequel blends a clever mutation of horror standards seen in everything from Romero's films to Outbreak to The Blair Witch Project.

[Rec] 2 Directed by Jaume Balagueró [1] & Paco Plaza [2] Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza are back with [Rec]2, the realtime sequel to their terrifying 2007 horror film. The original derived much of its cult following from its unforgettable ending, and the sequel begins 15 minutes after its predecessor ends, taking three heavily armed members of a Special Operations Unit and an official from the Ministry Of Health (Jonathan Mellor) into the building that was quarantined in the first film. [Rec]2 delivers the same nonstop thrills but adds on a new spin to the tale, taking cues from Aliens and The Exorcist with a subplot about demonic possession. This is far from your cut and dry sequel. It has enough invention and wit to keep fans happy; it's a non stop adrenaline pumping terror ride into hell. Much like [Rec], the sequel blends a clever mutation of horror standards seen in everything from Romero's films to Outbreak to The Blair Witch Project.

[Rec] 2, the sequel to last year’s record-breaking Spanish horror hit, starts filming next Monday, November 10 in Barcelona. The original raked in $27 million worldwide and picked up prizes at all the major European horror festivals, including Sitges, Fantasporto, Brussels and Amsterdam, and inspired the recent U.S. remake Quarantine.

Once again produced by Julio Fernández for Filmax and directed by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza, [Rec 2] kicks off its story a few hours after the events portrayed in its predecessor. The shoot is scheduled to last six weeks, and returning crew members include art director Gemma Fauria, director of photography Pablo Rosso, editor David Gallart (Goya Award winner for the first film) and sound engineers Xavi Mas and Oriol Tarragó; the latter nabbed a Goya for his work on the year’s other Spanish genre blockbuster, The Orphanage. Special makeup FX will once more be handled by David Ambit (pictured, making up...

• edro Almodóvar and Guillermo del Toro you can both breathe a sign of relief. Spanish cinema is rejuvenated. The split-screen/drama that was premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at last year's Cannes (I'm guilty for having fallen asleep to this one: victim of watching one too many films and not necessarily the film itself) has walked away from Spain's equivalent to the Oscar with top honors: Best Film and Best Director. Jaime Rosales' La Soledad (Solitary Fragments) (two parallel urban stories highlighting the fragility and simplicity of human existence) beat out the heavy favorite The Orphanage (the Picturehouse-released pic that investigates the power the dead have over the living, especially over children in the most imaginative and vulnerable stages). For a full list of the winners: scroll below. Picture"Solitary Fragments," Jaime Rosales ACTRESSMaribel Verdu, "Seven Billiards Tables" ACTORAlberto San Juan, "Under the Stars" DIRECTORJaime Rosales,

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