News

Celebrating its European premiere March 18 at the Malaga Film Fest, “The Day of the Storm” (“El día de la tormenta”) by Alexander Viola delves into the blending of Christian and African beliefs in the Dominican Republic, particularly in the region of San Juan de la Maguana.

“This region in the deep south is rich in myths, supernatural stories and Santería practices, where the mystical and the everyday coexist,” said Viola and Cristian Mojica, his co-screenwriter and producing partner in their company Mentes Fritas.

“These traditions not only preserve local folklore but also offer a way to make sense of life’s mysteries. In ‘The Day of the Storm,’ we examine how these spiritual beliefs shape the perception of reality in communities living in these historically and mystically charged areas,” they told Variety.

The psychological thriller revolves around Macario, who is certain that his daughter is the witch behind the deaths of several village children.

It follows the decision to call a snap general election in Spain for July 28.

Beatriz Navas, general director of Spain’s national film body, the Icaa, has resigned with immediate effect.

She will be replaced by Ignasi Camós, who presently works at the Ministry of Culture. He is a professor of law and responsible for the development of the so-called ‘Artists’ Statute’, supporting workers in the arts sector.

Navas has held the role since July 2018 when she was appointed by the minister of culture and sport, José Guirao. Her decision follows the surprise announcement of a snap general election to...

Malaga, Spain — It’s not over yet. In March 2021, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the government would plow €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) into a Spain Avs Hub plan designed to turn Spain into one of the foremost film and TV hubs in Europe.

Supported by Spain’s E.U-backed Recuperation, Transformation and Resilience push for post Covid-19 recovery, the Spain Avs Hub plan has been co-financed by part of a €806.9 billion ($866.5 billion) NextGenerationEU stimulus package for the whole of the European Union, which is a temporary instrument.

As that package ends, Spain’s government will look to negotiate funding from alternative sources to ensure that Spain Avs Hub initiatives are more than a flash in the pan, a broad cross-section of governmental authorities told an audience Tuesday at a Malaga Spanish Screening Content conference.

Of the original €1.6 billion Spain Avs Hub budget, €1.2 billion has been assigned, María González Veracruz, Spain’s...

Already part of the biggest national film-tv industry platform in Spain’s history, Malaga Festival’s massive Spanish Screenings Content are set to build yet further in 2023, homing in on potential growth axes in Spain’s film and TV sectors at large.

Part of the Malaga’s Festival’s Mafiz industry area, the Spanish Screenings Content run March 13-16, a week earlier than this year. First details were presented at a panel at Ventana Sur on Dec. 1, which also served to unveil the 22 titles of the 2023 Malaga Festival Fund & Co-Production Event (Maff), a Málaga industry centrepiece.

In one new Spanish Screenings Content growth play, animation will get its own full program, playing out throughout the screenings, said Teresa Martín, head of Spanish export board Icex’s audiovisual department. “We must take advantage of [Spanish] animation’s dynamism. There’s an opportunity in financing and distribution terms,” she added at the Ventana Sur presentation.

About 20 years ago, Adrian Quesada was driving at night in his home base of Austin, Texas, when he heard something that made him turn up the volume: “Esclavo y Amo,” a psychedelic love song recorded in the 1970s by the Peruvian combo Los Pasteles Verdes.

“I had never heard anything like it,” recalls Quesada, the prolific multi-instrumentalist, founder of Black Pumas, and former member of Grupo Fantasma. “It sounded like a sample from a hip-hop song.”

Quesada had just discovered the world of psychedelic baladas that flourished beginning in the late Sixties,...

Throughout the pandemic that has ravaged Central America, the region’s most prominent film event, the Panama International Film Festival (Iff Panama), has forged on virtually in its continued bid to bolster local projects and talent.

To mark its 10th anniversary this year, a smaller hybrid edition kicks off on Dec. 3 with “Plaza Catedral,” Panama’s submission to the Oscars, and wraps Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s “Sundown,” starring Tim Roth, which competed for the Golden Lion at Venice.

“We couldn’t pass up celebrating our 10th anniversary, even if it were on a smaller scale this year,” said festival director Pituka Ortega Heilbron, who cites encouragement from the international and local industry as key reasons to push onward, notwithstanding the setbacks from the pandemic.

“We’re still very much in the mind of the industry, especially Central America,” she asserted, pointing out that two films spawned by the festival’s rough cuts sidebar,...

A jury at Cannes Film Market has selected Cinema From Spain, a Spanish cinema promotion organization backed by support from the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (Icex) and the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and the Audiovisual Arts (Icaa), as the winner of this year’s award for Best Pavilion Design.

In the context of an entirely digital market, participating organizations had to rethink everything when it came to promoting themselves in a democratic, online space where the rules of a physical market no longer apply.

For Tito Rodríguez, marketing policy director at Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and the Audiovisual Arts (Icaa), the key was providing an online experience to match what Cinema From Spain is known for at physical markets.

“It was clear from the beginning we wanted to recreate the physical experience online,” he explained to Variety. “It was not meant to be just a website, so we...

Spain took the spotlight at the Marche du Film on Tuesday afternoon with a Cinema From Spain panel in which sales agents were given a platform to present one of their features currently selling in the market.

Moderated by Tito Rodríguez, marketing policy director at Spain’s Institute of Cinematography and the Audiovisual Arts (Icaa), the presentation was broken up into four blocks with one dedicated to each of the participating companies: Latido Films, Filmax, Moonrise Pictures and Bendita Films.

Latido Films

A particularly current proposition, Latido presented “Tales of the Lockdown,” a new anthology feature which will launch on Amazon Prime Video in Spain next month. Five of Spain’s top filmmakers were enlisted to remotely directed five variations on a theme, life under quarantine. Latido head Antonio Saura was joined by producer Alvaro Longoria of Morena Films, director Fernando Colomo, director-actor Carlos Bardem and actor Sara Sálamo.

Each...