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Spanish actors Joana and Mireia Vilapuig, who rose to fame with Spanish television phenomenon “The Red Band Society,” star in the drama series “Selftape,” which they co-wrote with Ivan Mercadé, Carlos Robisco and Clara Esparrach. The show plays at Series Mania this week ahead of its bow on the Spanish VOD platform Filmin on April 4.

The Vilapuig sisters spoke to Variety about the dark side of adolescent acting, and their experiences as young women working in showbiz.

“Selftape’s” story is based on their experiences as young stars, documenting their struggles after unforeseen circumstances bring them back together, wading through the trauma created by early fame.

With authentic clips from old audition tapes and a slow-burn plot that escalates as the past unfurls, audiences can expect themes of competition, regret, longing and disillusion to emerge through each of the show’s six episodes.

Bàrbara Farré directs the project, which was produced by Filmax,...

The battle for success on the new drama series scene is the battle for talent, led by screenwriters. Following, portraits of Spanish TV scribes or creators, sometimes writing teams, who’ve made an impact, or look set to do so:

Fran Araujo

2022 was Araujo’s year. He co-wrote Berlin Competition’s “One Night, One Day” and “Rapa,” Movistar+’s biggest 2022 bow. “Offworld,” a collective series he coordinated, was a Variety’s International TV Show of the Year. An iconoclast – “if I do the same thing, I get bored,” he says – who tears up the rule book.

Aina Clotet

Best known for acting, winning at Malaga for “The Wild Ones,” but a driving force as co-creator, director and star behind “This Is Not Sweden” a €1.5 million grant recipient and groundbreaking Spain-Scandinavia-Germany co-pro, turning on a couple who think they’ve found a model lifestyle. But “there are no guarantees,” says Clotet.

“20,000 Species Of Bees”

(Estíbaliz Urresola)

A Berlin competition contender and, like “Alcarràs,” redolently grounded – unspooling in a Basque Country village – and yet a big-issue drama. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) and Basque Country’s Gariza Films (“Nora) produce.

Sales: Luxbox

“Anqa”

(Helin Celik)

Selected for Forum, a doc feature produced by Barcelona’s Kepler Mission Film and Vienna-based Kurd Celik. The harrowing story of three Jordanian women survivors of male violence.

“The Beasts”

(Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

A stylish feminist Western, set in modern deep Galicia, which, breaking out in France and Spain, rates with “Alcarràs” as the standout Spanish film of 2022.

Sales: Latido Films

“The Chauffeur’S Son”

(Isaki Lacuesta)

From “Elite’s” Zeta Studios, chosen for Co-Pro Series and bidding to become the series debut as writer-director of Lacuesta (“Between Two Waters”), a searing portrait of the perverse collusion of politics and media, exemplified by the real life...

Barcelona-based indie studio Filmax is hailing into Content Americas selling the semi-autobiographical series “Selftape,” made by members of a new generation of women TV writers and directors now building in Spain.

Described as fiction with autobiographical overtones, the series revolves around the real-life Spanish actresses and sisters, Joana Vilapuig and Mireia Vilapuig who, in a personal touch, found fame as teen actresses in “The Red Band Society,” one of Filmax’s most successful TV productions ever. A decade on, now 27 and 25, they are now figuring out how to move their careers forward and trying to find their place in the film-tv industry and life in a present which is far from certain. That sums up the malaise of much of their generation.

The sisters co-wrote the series with Ivan Mercadé, Carlos Robisco (“Lucky Strike”) and Clara Esparrach (“Three Days of Christmas”).

Bàrbara Farré directs. Her credits include the award-winning short...

★★★★☆"It's called tragic but don't let's snivel," says a character in director Alix Delaporte's new film The Last Hammer Blow (2014), a refreshing and perfectly restrained coming-of-age tale which enters the running for the Golden Lion at Venice. Romain Paul plays Victor, a young lad living with his mother Nadia (Clotilde Hesme) in a caravan park by the sea near Montpelier. He spends his time playing football - he's talented and his coach encourages him to prepare for some important trials coming up - and tutoring the son of a neighbouring Spanish family in French, which incidentally gives him the opportunity to glimpse the boy's surly older sister, Luna (Mireia Vilapuig), for whom he has a crush.