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Queer representation on the small screen has certainly come a long way over the past two decades, not only in terms of quality but also quantity. Back when I was a baby queer in the early 2000s, “The L Word” was pretty much all I had to see parts of my experience on TV, save for the rare gay subplots of popular teen shows — never forget Marissa’s brief but extremely hot dalliance with Olivia Wilde on “The O.C.” The stereotyped gays of “Sex and the City” and “Will and Grace” were replaced over the years by more fleshed out and nuanced queer characters across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and, finally, we’ve seen some actually well-written trans characters played by trans performers. Its mostly been in the latter half of the 2010s and early 2020s that we’ve really seen a rise in more dynamic and diverse LGBTQ+ storytelling, with...

Netflix today unveiled a slate of new Spanish content, including two fiction series and a pair of feature films.

The streamer renewed its popular Spanish YA drama series Elite for a sixth season, well ahead of the series’ Season 5 premiere. Created and written by Carlos Montero and Darío Madrona, Elite is one of the streamer’s best performing Spanish originals.

Netflix also confirmed three new holiday-themed installments of the short-form spinoff Elite: Short Stories: Phillipe, Caye, & Felipe, premiering Wednesday, Dec. 15, Samuel & Omar, premiering Monday, Dec. 20 and Patrick, premiering Thursday, Dec. 23.

On the film side, Patxi Amezcua is writing and directing Infiesto (working title). Isak Férriz and Iria del Río star in the pic, which is set on the first day of a national emergency involving a virus and follows two detectives who are called to a small mining town in the Asturian mountains where a young woman who had...

Netflix’s Spanish adaptation of its hit original movie “Bird Box” is coming together.

Cast and a handful of early details were announced for the previously announced project from Àlex and David Pastor. Leading the international cast are Mario Casas, one of Spain’s most bankable leading men who this year won a best actor Spanish Academy Goya Award for his performance in “Cross the Line,” and Georgina Campbell, a best leading actress BAFTA winner for her work in “Murdered by My Boyfriend.”

Casas was also the star of horror thriller “The Paramedic,” one of Netflix’s best performing Spanish original films to date.

Other cast includes Diego Calva (“I Promise You Anarchy”), Alejandra Howard (“Ana. all in”), Naila Schuberth (“Unbroken”), Patrick Criado (“Riot Police”) and Celia Freijeiro (“Perfect Life”), with Lola Dueñas (“The Sea Inside”), Gonzalo de Castro (“La torre de Suso”), Michelle Jenner (“Isabel”) and Leonardo Sbaraglia (“Pain and Glory...

Outfest’s holiday fundraiser “’Twas the Night Before Give-Mas” on Monday night featured appearances by prominent Lgbtqia+ leaders and creatives, including Wilson Cruz, Margaret Cho, Charlie Carver, Candis Cayne, Alexandra Billings and “Veneno” star Jedet.

The evening helped raise funds for Outfest initiatives, including OutSet, a joint collaboration with the Los Angeles LGBT Center that empowers queer youth to share stories through film; the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project, which documents Lgbtqia+ history and Outfest Fusion People of Color Festival celebrating queer filmmakers of color. The event was co-sponsored by Variety and hosted by the magazine’s senior culture and events editor Marc Malkin. It was produced by Kyle Shea, who also co-wrote and co-directed with Mav Viola.

The line-up also included remarks and performances by Steve Canals, Ian Harvie, Cheyenne Jackson, Gretchen Wylder, Nikki and Jill Goldstein, Nneka Onuorah, Jeremy Glazer, Ally Pankiw, Shakina Nayfack and Sherry Cola.

“It was...

Directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo were meeting with television executives in their native Spain when they were asked to name someone they’d love to make a biographical series about.

“They probably expected us to say someone like Julio Iglesias, but one of us said, ‘La Veneno,’” Calvo tells Variety during a Zoom interview from the couple’s home in Madrid. “It was like a revelation. One man was looking down at his papers and looked up and was like, ‘What did you say? Who?’ And I was just like, ‘She was a transgender woman. She was famous, but she was a prostitute. And then she went to jail.’ We started to develop this TV show in our heads.”

Cristina “La Veneno” Ortiz was a pop culture superstar in Spain in the 1990s. She was discovered working the streets and became a sensation after her appearance on the late-night...