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“@love” Belle Films

Produced by Annabelle Mullen and Leah Aldarondo, this romcom turns on a Caribbean film producer navigating dating apps and self-discovery in Spain. “At its core, it’s a woman’s journey away from home to find not only romance but clarity,” say its creators.

“Alone in the Night” Feel Sales

Produced by Summer Films and La Claqueta (“The Endless Trench”), this political drama starring Pablo Gómez-Pando follows labor lawyers hiding during Spain’s 1981 coup, blending humor with the drama.

“The 39” Secuoya Studios

Presented at Iberseries, this series looks at the power struggles and ultimate fate of the 39 men Christopher Columbus left on Española — the present-day Dominican Republic — in 1492. The high-end, six-part historical thriller is created by David Martínez and Roberto Serrano.

“El 47” The Mediapro Studio Distribution

The highest-grossing Catalan-language movie in the last 15 years, this feel-good social issue hit inspired by true events stars Eduard Fernández as Manolo Vital,...

Narra la historia real de Enric Marco, un hombre que fingió haber sido prisionero en un campo de concentración nazi. © BTeamPictures

Se ha publicado un nuevo tráiler de Marco, la película de Aitor Arregi y Jon Garaño, que tuvo su estreno mundial en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia, pasó por el Festival de San Sebastián y estuvo entre las tres películas preseleccionadas para representar a España en los Oscars 2025.

Basada en una historia real, Marco sigue a Enric Marco, un deportado que nunca existió. Un hombre que durante años fue capaz de mantener, ante la opinión pública y su propia familia, una mentira difícil de imaginar: que había sido prisionero en un campo de concentración nazi. Carismático y convincente, Marco ascendió a la presidencia de la Asociación Española de Víctimas del Holocausto, donde se convirtió en una figura destacada y admirada por su supuesta valentía y sufrimiento. Hasta...

San Sebastian – Basque production outfit Amania Films and Andalusia’s La Claqueta have launched a new strategic partnership to increase both companies’ presence in the Spanish audiovisual marketplace and further abroad.

According to the companies, their partnership “marks a milestone in the collaboration between Basque and Andalusian cinema and reinforces a commitment to the diversification and mutual growth of both companies.”

The first project under their new arrangement is the big-budget serial killer drama-thriller “Sacamantecas,” directed by Amania founder and award-winning filmmaker David Pérez Sañudo. The companies are also poised to team on a new fiction series, “Maddi y las fronteras,” based on writer Edurne Portela’s fictionalized biography of María Josefa Sansberro, who backed French resistance during WWII and died in a Nazi concentration camp.

Under the terms of their deal, La Claqueta will acquire a portion of Amania and, in return, help the company take on larger projects.

It’s been a good week for Basque directors Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, who, along with Jose Mari Goenaga, world premiered “Marco” at Venice and landed a spot on the shortlist for Spain’s Oscar entry.

Sold by Film Factory Entertainment, with market screenings in Toronto and upcoming stops at San Sebastian, London and Vancouver, “Marco” is generating significant buzz. Based on real events, it centers on Enric Marco, an imposter who gained sympathy, fame, and respect by falsely claiming to be a concentration camp survivor while serving as chairman of the leading Spanish association for deportees. His story was a lie.

The filmmakers initially aimed to capture Marco’s downfall as a documentary, but like everything he touched, truth slipped away. He told them he was going to Germany to get papers from a prison he’d stayed in. The filmmakers wanted to accompany and capture key footage.

Narra la historia real de Enric Marco, un hombre que fingió haber sido prisionero en un campo de concentración nazi. © BTeamPictures

“Marco”, la película de Aitor Arregi y Jon Garaño, tendrá su estreno mundial en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Venecia, donde competirá en la sección Orizzonti.

Basada en una historia real, “Marco” sigue a Enric Marco, un deportado que nunca existió. Un hombre que durante años fue capaz de mantener, ante la opinión pública y su propia familia, una mentira difícil de imaginar: que había sido prisionero en un campo de concentración nazi. Carismático y convincente, Marco ascendió a la presidencia de la Asociación Española de Víctimas del Holocausto, donde se convirtió en una figura destacada y admirada por su supuesta valentía y sufrimiento. Hasta que un día un historiador descubre que su relato es completamente falso.

La película está protagonizada por Eduard Fernández como Enric Marco. Completan...

In what remains the Spanish film industry’s biggest event of 2024, last January, pay TV Movistar Plus+, behind premium series like “A Perfect Life” and “The Plague,” summoned local press to unveil its biggest strategic move for the last few years.

Accompanying Movistar Plus execs Domingo Corral and Guillermo Farré were five of the coolest, most successful and relatively young filmmakers in Spain today: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alberto Rodríguez, Iciar Bolláin, Oliver Laxe and Ana Rujas. Together they outlined plans to make event auteur movies backed for commercial release in Spanish theaters by the promotional muscle of Movistar Plus+.

Six months later, Rodríguez, director of Goya Award winner “Marshland” and 1580s Seville thriller series “The Plague,” is caught on set by Variety on Spain’s southern seaboard, on a boat just off Huelva, home to huge smoke-belching refineries and stunning natural parks.

That setting provides “Los Tigres” a bigger canvas. However,...

Leading Barcelona-based production outfit Oberon Media has confirmed co-financiers on “The Turtles” (“Los Tortuga”), the anticipated sophomore feature by the multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”).

Besides sales agent Film Factory Entertainment and Spanish distributor A Contracorriente Films who came on board at an early stage, the round of co-financiers includes public broadcasters Rtve for Spain, Tvc (Televisió de Catalunya) for Catalonia and Andalusia’s Canal Sur, as well as Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator Movistar Plus+.

In post-production, the Spanish drama is supported by Spain’s national film agency Icaa and the Catalan government’s Icec, as well as the Junta de Andalucía, Diputación de Jaén and Ibermedia and Media. It is produced by Oberon Media’s Antonio Chavarrías with Olmo Figueredo Gonzàlez-Quevedo of Seville-based La Claqueta (“The Endless Trench”), in co-production with Chile’s Quijote Cine.

The pic will be pitched at the Last Push...

Spain’s Latido Films has clinched world sales rights to serial killer drama-thriller “Sacamantecas,” the third feature by writer-director David Pérez Sañudo, whose Latido-repped debut feature, “Ane,” swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021.

Latido is already handling Pérez Sañudo’s second feature, “Los últimos románticos,” which it announced at the Berlin Film Festival as the first title in a two-picture deal with Sañudo. The deals come as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.

”Sacamantecas,” on which Latido Films has just clinched a pre-sale deal for Italy with Movies Inspired, marks the second title in that deal. Distribution in Spain will close shortly, said Latido Films’ Oscar Alonso.

Produced by Olmo Figueredo, who’s also backing “Los últimos románticos,” “Sacamantecas” turns on Spain’s first recorded serial killer, Juan Díaz de Garayo.

In two killing sprees over 1872-79, the ageing and...

Based out of Chile and Los Angeles, Quijote Films, behind Cannes 2023 Un Certain Regard Fipresci Prize winner “The Settlers,” and France’s Les Valseurs, behind Oscar-nominated “,” have tied down a powerful alliance of international partners on “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” the first feature of 2018 Cannes Cinéfondation top winner Diego Céspedes.

Quijote Films’ biggest budgeted title to date, said its head Giancarlo Nasi, “The Mysterious Gaze” goes into production on May 20.

An LGBTQ-themed drama, “The Mysterious Gaze” is set in a mining town where a strange illness is said to be transmitted between men who fall in love with each other.

Produced by Quijote Films and France’s Les Valseurs, “The Mysterious Gaze” has now added new partners in Germany’s Weydemann Bros Film and Wrong Men in Belgium. Further partners, Arte France Cinema and Irusoin, have already been announced.

Weydemann Bros has secured French-German mini traité funding to co-produce the film.

Descúbrelo todo sobre el nuevo thriller español de Disney Plus+. © Disney+

Ya está disponible el tráiler oficial de la serie original de Disney+ “Las Largas Sombras”, un poderoso thriller femenino de 6 episodios que reflexiona sobre el peso de la culpa y cómo evoluciona la amistad de un grupo de amigas con el paso de los años. La serie, que cuenta con un equipo íntegramente femenino delante y detrás de las cámaras, es la historia de un grupo de mujeres cuyas estables vidas de éxito se ven repentinamente sacudidas por la aparición de los restos mortales de una de sus compañeras de instituto, desaparecida durante el viaje de fin de curso a Mallorca veinticinco años antes. Y es que, de primeras la serie nos recuerda algo a “Big Little Lies”, una serie muy aclamada y que ha sido una de las claras referencias de la cineasta a la hora de crear este intrigante thriller.

The incontrovertible and immediate effect of muscular tax credits, entering in force in 2023, have powered to a new level the shoot scene in Bilbao and Bizkaia – the Basque city and surrounding province in Northern Spain.

Introduced on Jan. 1, 2023, the new incentives offer an up-to-60% tax deduction for national and international co-productions of film and TV projects.

Enticing studios such as Toboggan and production houses Buendía Estudios and Tornasol to set up in Bizkaia and streaming giant Netflix to invest in original productions, the territory is fast capitalizing on its breaks.

Over 2023, 151 shoots filmed in Bilbao-Bizkaia, 76 from the Basque Country, 47 from Spain and 28 from abroad, according to the Bilbao-Bizkaia 2023 Year Book.

Total shoot spend in 2023 came in at €58.5 million ($63.7 million), 324% up on 2019’s figure of €13.8 million, six times up on €23.5 million ($25.6 million) in 2021. In all, productions shot 1,026 days in Bilbao or in the rest of Bizkaia, 74% more than 2022. The fact that...

Filmax has acquired international rights to Spanish thriller “Nina,” the new feature written and directed by Andrea Jaurrieta (“Ana by Day”) that bows at this week’s Málaga Film Festival as one of its higher profile titles in main competition.

Loosely based on the play of the same name by José Ramón Fernández, which borrows elements of Anton Chekhov’s “The Seagull,” “Nina” tells the story of a woman, an actress, who returns to her home town on Spain’s rugged northern coast seeking to take revenge on a celebrated writer. As she encounters past acquaintances, including a once close childhood friend, and faces dark memories, she begins to question whether vengeance is the only way forward.

“Nina” stars Goya-winning actress Patricia López Arnaiz (“Ane is Missing”) as the titular character and San Sebastián Silver Shell winner Darío Grandinetti, famed for his performance in Pedro Almodovar’s “Talk to Her,...

In a coup for the Madrid-based sales agency, Latido Films has cliched a two picture deal with David Pérez Sañudo whose debut feature, “Ane,” repped by Latido, swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021.

Latido will take world sales rights on both titles. The move comes as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.

With Pérez Sañudo, Latido gets one of Spain’s most exciting young directors, particularly for a skill now held at high value in and outside the U.S.: His ability to channel genre and sub-genre, often in individual scenes, injecting them with a larger sense of narrative.

Latido handled world sales rights on movies on another director with that sensitivity to sub-genre, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, from May God Save Us” (2016) to “The Realm” (2018) and “The Beasts” (2022) which trounced multiple Cannes winners to win best foreign film at France’s Cesars last year.

Going into Berlin’s European Film Market, Spain’s biggest sales agents are under no illusion just how tough international markets have become.

“Paradoxically, in one of the best moments for Spanish productions, we are finding that some of our top dramas are getting hard to sell unless selected in Cannes, Venice or Berlin,” says Latido Films CEO Antonio Saura.

Also, “If American productions dominate at least 80% of markets, and local productions claim about half what remains. You’re left with just 10% of markets for many wonderful films to try to find audience opportunities. Competition is fiercer than ever,” he says.

“Many newer platforms are insisting on revenue shares. This rarely works for us,” observes Feel Sales’ Yennifer Fasciani.

Yet companies are fighting back. “Either a film works very well or not at all. Our strategy is increasingly focusing on major titles, leaving no middle ground,” states Film Factory Entertainment’s Vicente Canales,...

Disney+ has shared the official trailer for ‘Cristóbal Balenciaga,’ the original drama series that recreates the life and legacy of the Guetaria-born Spanish creator, one of the most iconic fashion designers of all time.

In the series, created by Lourdes Iglesias and 12-time Goya award winners Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño, and Jose Mari Goenaga (“The Endless Trench”), actor Alberto San Juan plays Cristóbal Balenciaga, an enigmatic and extraordinarily talented man who defied the social conventions of the time and revolutionized the world of fashion.

The original series begins as the designer presents his first Parisian haute couture collection in 1937. He has left behind a successful career in his ateliers in Madrid and San Sebastian dressing the Spanish elite and aristocracy. However, the designs that had set the trend in Spain don’t quite work in the sophisticated fashion empire that Paris has become, where Chanel, Dior and Givenchy are the benchmark of haute couture.

Exclusive: Hollywood management and production company The Gotham Group has launched a new international division and appointed long-time manager and producer Justin Littman as its head.

The appointment see Littman join The Gotham Group partners roster alongside Peter McHugh, Julie Kane-Ritsch, Lindsay Williams, Jeremy Bell, Eric Robinson, Lee Stollman, Rich Green, and Matt Shichtman.

“We’re thrilled to have Justin leading The Gotham’s Group’s surging international client roster,” said The Gotham Group Founder and CEO Ellen Goldsmith-Vein.

“This initiative underscores our ability and intention to expand the boundaries of our business, to tap into the creative minds of artists around the globe to create entertainment for audiences everywhere,” said Goldsmith-Vein.

Littman said the time was ripe for such a move.

“International voices are driving a huge part of the conversation in film and TV,” he said. “The Gotham Group is excited to launch a dedicated department to focus on these artists,...

Film Factory Entertainment has swooped on international sales rights to “Marco,” the next film from Basque filmmaking trio Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga.

Their latest follows a high caliber run consisting of 2014 San Sebastian competition player “Flowers,” 2017’s San Sebastian Special Jury Prize winner “Giant,” and lockdown hit “The Endless Trench” which secured their second Oscar entry for Spain. Shooting is scheduled to begin in October.

“‘Marco’ will be a beautiful film and it perfectly suits our slate of quality films with commercial potential,” Film Factory’s Vicente Canales told Variety.

The film, based on real events, turns on imposter Enric Marco. Marco gained sympathy, fame, and respect for being an eloquent concentration camp survivor. He was a distinguished voice for the Spanish deportees as head of the Amical de Mauthausen. Marco was charismatic. In giving speeches, he packed them with tragic details of life at the camp.

Spain’s Festival de Málaga, through its industry arm Mafiz (Málaga Festival Industry Zone), heads to the Cannes Marché du Film with five works-in-progress from burgeoning Andalusian talent.

“The Malaga Festival wants to support the completion of these works and make their international distribution viable,” commented Malaga head of industry, Annabelle Aramburu.

This year, as Cannes more broadly celebrates Spain, the event curates two titles that tackle its tumultuous history and one which takes audiences on an unconventional road trip questioning the biological clock alongside narratives that dissect the minutiae of new forms of co-existing and the baffling concept of destiny.

The second edition of Málaga Goes to Cannes takes place on Monday May 22.

“Alone In The Night,” (Guillermo Rojas)

A wry take on the eve of Feb. 23, 1981 when an attempted coup in Spain threatened its young democracy, profoundly changing the lives of the protagonists, an ensemble cast that includes...

Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks has nabbed worldwide rights to Spanish filmmaker Chiqui Carabante’s black-comedy whodunnit “The Fortress” (“La Fortaleza”) and is debuting its trailer ahead of the Cannes Film Market.

The film centers on the death of Arturo Viaplana and its aftermath as his offspring, hoping to inherit a great fortune, discover that instead of leaving them the estate, their father has devised a macabre, posthumous game in which his children must first locate his body and bury it themselves in a specified location. Working together to carry out their father’s instructions and pass a series of tests, the siblings are forced to come to terms with a deeply hidden family secret.

“The Fortress” is “the story of an inheritance” about a “game orchestrated by the deceased. The last one he performs with his children,” added Carabante, whose credits include “12+1, una comedia metafísica.”

“This film has the best of two worlds,...

Benito Zambrano’s “Jumping the Fence” joins Roya Sadat’s “Sima’s Song,” and Pau Calpe’s “Werewolf” in the lineup of Spanish Screenings Goes to Cannes, a selection of five pix in post which underscores the ever broadening compass – in genre, setting, protagonists, production bases and models – of film production in Spain.

“Sima’s Song,” for example, is set in 1979 Kabul, “Jumping the Fence” on the Morocco-Spain border in Africa.

Many titles, though still in post production, come laden with prizes as projects, prestige deals or rich talent. “Sima’s Song,” from Afghan director Roya Sadat, whose “A Letter to the President” was shortlisted for an Oscar, won the Taicca Award at Busan’s Asian Project Market and the Ifi-Pas Award at Mumbai’s Film Bazaar. Its producer, Alba Sotorra, was nominated for an International Emmy as a director for “The Return: Life After Isis.”

The second feature from Orr,...

Running March 10-19, and now hosting the Spanish Screenings, the Malaga Film Festival is now firmly established as Spain’s biggest movie event in the early part of the year. Strategically positioned fairly sharp on the heels of the Berlinale, the Spanish event offers top Spanish titles at the German festival the chance to consolidate their reputations while often producing new discoveries, especially from first-time directors.

Many titles, from a Spanish film industry whose younger directors are highly social conscience and favor art-house, are issue driven.

“There’s a search for identity, whether a young trans girl’s exploration of gender identity or young leads to understand the world they live in, or the search for love and a sense pf strangeness, of being a stranger to oneself,” Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Film Festival director said of this year’s main Competition. Following, a brief breakdown of its titles.

“20,000 Species of Bees,...

Prolific Andalusian production company La Claqueta has tapped award-winning screenwriter-producer Alberto Marini to direct rural thriller “Últimos días de caza” (“Last Days of Hunting.”)

Penned by José Cabeza, co-scribe on 2016’s “7 Years,” Netflix first Spanish original movie, “Last Days of Hunting” has a completed screenplay and has initiated financing.

The aim is to close the financing phase during this year and begin shooting second quarter 2024, probably in northern Spain.

“Last Days of Hunting” leads a growth-period for Seville-based La Claqueta, which is raising the ante in terms of film production ambitions.

“This is a noir that revolves around torpid masculinity; it is the story of volcanoes that don’t know how to release lava when they should and that explode inwards,” said Marini, who debuted as a helmer with 2015 horror feature “Summer Camp.”

“The story takes place in a very localized universe and is grounded in the territory but...

Spain boasts a bullish presence at the Berlinale. Following, short profiles of its features that have made the festival cut and a selection of top titles being moved at the European Film Market:

20,000 Species Of Bees

Director: Estíbaliz Urresola

Spain’s Berlin competition player is from Urresola, director of Cannes Critics’ Week short “Chords.” Film takes place in a Basque Country village and is a celebration of female sexual diversity. Catalonia’s Inicia Films (“La Maternal”) produces with Gariza Films (“Nora”).

Sales: Luxbox

21 PARAÍSO

Director: Nestor Ruiz Medina

A couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Set in an Andalusian idyll, a rich portrait of the challenges of love. Screened at Seville and Tallinn.

Sales: Begin Again Films.

Anqa

Director: Helin Celik

A Forum doc feature from Vienna-based Kurd Celik, the films tells the harrowing story of three Jordanian women, survivors of male near-fatal violence.

Lionsgate+, formerly known as Starzplay, has set March 3 as the premiere date of its darkly comic original series ‘Nacho’ across all Latin America.

The news comes as Atresplayer Premium in Spain has announced that “Nacho” will bow on its service on March 5 as an Atresplayer Premium Original, in other words an exclusive in Spain on the adventurous service whose recent Originals include “Cardo,” produced by Los Javis.

Bowing its international trailer exclusively on Variety, the eight-episode series stars Martiño Rivas (“Cable Girls”) who plays the legendary Nacho Vidal whose notable physique makes him a star in Spain’s incipient porn industry in the ‘90s.

“Proving his talents reach far beyond his most infamous 25 cm [9.8 inches], Nacho changed the rules of the game in the 1990s when he became an international superstar,” the synopsis goes.

Shot in Spain, “Nacho” tells the story of the people behind the country’s porn industry, which...

Agustí Villaronga, one of the most versatile of higher-profile Spanish auteurs, is attached to direct “Purgatory,” a project which will be presented at Locarno’s Match Me! Event by Nati Escobar at Spain’s Galápagos Media.

“Purgatory” turns on Father Tomás, a scholar of ancient history and biblical theology sent to a remote sanatorium as a penance for his sins. There, the priest discovers that the small community seems to be entranced by the teachings of a patient.

A title to track at Match Me!, a large networking event, “Purgatory” promises a study of the frontiers between faith and superstition, conviction and manipulation.

The project will be produced by director-producer Pau Calpe and Nati Escobar at Spain’s Galápagos Media and co-produced by Xavier Crespo at Dacsa Produccions. Calpe has just directed “Tros,” a Film Factory-sold drama thriller.. Galápagos has been recently involved in the co-production of Icíar Bollaín’s “Yuli.

Film Factory Entertainment has taken international rights to “Loli Tormenta,” the next film by one of Spain’s foremost auteurs, Agustí Villaronga. Shooting is scheduled for the first week of July in Barcelona.

Enrique González Kuhn’s Caramel Films distributes “Loli Tormenta” in Spain. It is co-produced by the Basque Country’s Irusoin, which is behind Spanish Oscar entry “The Endless Trench,” and Barcelona’s Vilaüt Films, which backed Carla Simón’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs.”

A bittersweet dramedy, “Loli Tormenta” focuses on the close relationship between Lola, a modern, sporty grandma, with her grandsons. They’ve been living together since the kids’ mother died, while their respective fathers show no interest in them. The humble life of this unexpected family on the outskirts of Barcelona goes on without major surprises until she is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

“We are delighted to work again with Agustí after the success of ‘Uncertain Glory.

Emily Mortimer and writer-director Jim Cummings boarded Miguel Faus’ feature debut “Calladita,” whose financing is expected to be raised entirely through NFTs and Web3 systems.

It would mark the first time ever that a European film is backed by NTFs (non-fungible tokens) and decentralized web software handled by the crypto community Web3.

Based on the eponymous short film which played at the Palm Springs Short and London Short Film festivals, “Calladita” will offer a character study of its protagonist and, through her eyes, a portrait of the Catalan high bourgeoisie with a mix of realism and satire.

“I’m involved because I’m a big fan of Miguel, who’s short ‘Calladita’ I really loved,” Mortimer said in a statement.

Joining Mortimer, cast members include Spanish Academy Goya Award-winner Antonio de la Torre (“The Endless Trench”) Susana Abaitua (“Patria”) and Paula Grimaldo, who played the lead in the original short.

The success of Spain’s regional talent peppers the country’s record-setting Berlinale presence. Both movies in Competition – Isaki Lacuesta’s “One Year, One Night” and Carla Simón’s “Alcarrás” – are made by Catalan directors and are Catalan co-productions. From the Panorama section, “Lullaby” is a Basque and Lois Patiño, whose short “El sembrador de estrellas” competes in official competition, is from Galicia and has one of the most buzzed Spanish projects up for grabs at this year’s EFM in “Samsara.”

Other Catalan Berlin participants include Forum player “Afterwater,” an international co-production including Catalonia’s Andergraun Films; shorts “Agrilogistics” and The Sower of Stars,” “Lullaby” in Panorama and several standout projects at this year’s EFM.

The rise of filmmakers from different areas from Spain says a lot about new film financing structures consolidating in the country. Productions, Spanish or international, that receive Spanish nationality have access to tax...

Shazad Latif will play Captain Nemo in UK original series ’Nautilus’.

Disney+ has confirmed Balenciaga (working title) as its first scripted original title from Spain.

The six-part drama is created by Lourdes Iglesias with Jose Mari Goenaga, Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi. The trio most recently directed The Endless Trench, which was nominated for 15 Goyas in 2019.

The new series will tell the true story of the son of a seamstress and fisherman who became one of the world’s most prominent fashion designers. The producers are Moriarti Produkzioak and Irusoin, which both also produced The Endless Trench and Arregi and Garaño’s Giant,...

Seville-based La Claqueta and Basque label Irusion, co-producers of last year’s Spanish Best International Feature Film Oscar submission “The Endless Trench,” have acquired the rights to adapt Txani Rodríguez’s hit Basque novel “Los últimos románticos” and, sweetening the deal even further, have recruited one of Spain’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers to direct in David Pérez Sañudo.

Pérez Sañudo is also reteaming with his “Ane Is Missing” co-screenwriter Marina Parés Pulido, with whom he won a Spanish Academy Goya Award for best adapted screenplay, on the new project. Development is well underway and shooting is planned for late 2022.

“With ‘Ane is Missing,’ David and Marina demonstrated their ability to combine genres without any difficulty and with fantastic results. They were also able to create a hypnotic protagonist full of cracks and nuance, and that is exactly what we were looking for in our adaptation of ‘Los últimos románticos,...

Celebrated Andalusian production house La Claqueta, headed by producer Olmo Figueredo, will produce “Bella,” the debut animated feature from Spanish director Manuel H. Martín – with whom the company previously produced the award-winning documentary “30 Years of Darkness” and “El viaje mas largo,” and celebrated VFX supervisor Amparo Martínez Barco.

Martín also co-wrote the screenplay for “Bella,” working with award-winning filmmaker Carmen Jiménez, co-writer of 2019’s Spanish Academy Goya Award-nominated “Adiós,” starring Mario Casas.

“Bella” is inspired by the true story of Seville’s Ana Bella Estévez, an Ashoka España entrepreneur and a survivor of gender violence who founded the Ana Bella Foundation, a global network of more than 30,000 women survivors who work to create social change in 82 countries worldwide. Importantly, the film’s team chose animation as the medium to tell her story so that audiences of all ages can hear the important message Ana has dedicated her life to sharing.

Universal Pictures Int’l Spain has snatched theatrical distribution rights to the Spanish remake of romcom “A Boyfriend for my Wife” (“Un Novio para mi Mujer”), now shooting in Barcelona.

The 2008 Argentine original by Juan Taratuto, starring Adrian Suar, lured up to 1.5 million admissions in Argentina and has been remade in a slew of territories, including Mexico, Brazil, Italy, China, France, Chile, Vietnam and, most successfully, in South Korea where it sold five million admissions.

Its story revolves around a man who finds a rather unorthodox way of getting rid of his lovely but insufferable wife: Finding her a boyfriend so that she dumps him instead. He picks a well-known Lothario to seduce her but the scheme backfires on him.

Directed by Laura Mañá from a screenplay penned with Pol Cortecans (“Bienvenidos a la familia”), the Spanish remake is produced by Arcadia Motion Pictures and Athos Pictures along with the...

Spain Stars of Tomorrow will launch at this summer’s Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest.

Spanish actor Antonio de la Torre will be the mentor for the first Spain Stars of Tomorrow, the newest edition of Screen International’s long-running talent spotting series which will launch at this summer’s Atlantida Mallorca Film Fest.

De la Torre holds the record for the most actor nominations (14) at the Spanish Film Academy awards, the Goyas, since his breakthrough in Daniel Sánchez Arevalo’s Dark Blue Almost Black in 2006 which won him the best supporting actor award. His second win, for best actor, came...

This number will increase as Cannes, Venice and other summer festival titles are added to the mix alongside studio releases.

French cinemas reopen this Wednesday (May 19) after lying dark for six months due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the country’s 100-plus distributors rushing to set theatrical dates for an estimated backlog of 400 stalled films.

As a result, French cinemagoers will have access to the richest and most diverse offering of films in the world over the coming months, spanning festival titles, local mainstream comedies and dramas, world cinema and studio blockbuster fare, as the summer advances.

As of May...

“Words for an End of the World,” the third feature by Spain’s Manuel Menchón, continues his exploration of the towering figure of Miguel de Unamuno, also the subject of his prior fiction film, “The Island of Wind.” The documentary, however, covers new ground, embarks on a far more ambitious revisiting of Spain’s still not so distant past with a deep dive into a muddled history that for years has had just one interpretation that has simply been accepted as canon.

Unamuno, the great Spanish intellectual and analyst of Spain’s atavistic woes, was for decades regarded as the man who sided and funded the fascist coup led by Francisco Franco. With historical echoes that reverberate down to today’s political landscape, Unamuno’s final days have been increasingly revisited, most notably in Alejandro Amenabar 2019 “While at War.” Menchón’s documentary uses Unamuno, his position as head of Salamanca...

Leading Spanish sales company Latido Films has snapped up international sales rights to Violeta Salama’s directorial debut, “Alegria.” Argentina’s Leonardo Sbaraglia joins a stellar European-Latino cast that includes Mexico’s Cecilia Suárez (“La Casa de las Flores”), Spanish actresses Laia Manzanares (“Merlí”) and Mara Guill (“Caronte”) as well as French-born Sarah Perles.

“’Alegria’ is one of the opportunities a sales agency just cannot let pass,” Latido’s Antonio Saura declared. “It’s a funny, sad, charming and totally enjoyable story that dwells on the personal past of the film director, which is told with the ingenuity and charm of someone that cherishes memories and has accepted the multicultural richness of the little-known Spanish city of Melilla, where the story unfolds,” he added.

Seville-based La Claqueta, producer of Spain’s submission to the International Oscars race, “The Endless Trench,” co-produces the comedy with Clara Nieto’s newly-founded Powehi Films.

Olmo Figueredo’s Seville-based La Claqueta, producer of Spain’s Oscar submission “The Endless Trench,” has boarded “The Turtles,” the second feature from Belén Funes, one of the leading lights of Barcelona’s fast-growing – and often women-led – newest wave of filmmakers.

Funes’ second feature, following on San Sebastian’s 2019 New Director winner “A Thief’s Daughter,” “The Turtles” has been selected for next week’s Berlinale Co-Production Market.

A lynchpin on Spain’s burgeoning regional co-production scene, having linked to top Basque production house Irusoin to produce Spain’s International Feature Film Oscar submission “The Endless Trench,” La Claqueta joins “The Turtles” lead producer, Barcelona-based Oberon Media, which backed “The Thief’s Daughter.” “The Turtles’” producer, Alba Bosch, forms part of the festival’s Berlinale Talents, a platform for young cineastes.

Funes also reunites on “The Turtles” with “Thief’s” co-writer Marçal Cebrian.

Taking its title from a Spanish word for...

San Sebastian’s Tabakalera, a former tobacco factory repurposed as a hub of cultural activity for the Basque region with close ties to the city’s film festival, has launched the 2deo Serieak, an ambitious, international program developed to tutor, guide and support projects from TV series creators, producers and scriptwriters. The new initiative is backed by 2deo, Tabakalera’s audiovisual laboratory, and promoted by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa in collaboration with the San Sebastian Festival.

For the Tabakalera, the program represents a further step forward in the promotion and dissemination of Spanish, and more specifically Basque culture and talent, perhaps best exemplified by the recent global success of HBO Europe’s “Patria,” the company’s first Spanish-language original which can now be seen HBO Max.

The fact that the program welcomes international projects is another step in the creation of a cosmopolitan cultural industry hub in San Sebastian based around the Tabakalera,...

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the shortlists for nine categories for the upcoming Oscars. The categories and number of films include documentary feature (15), documentary short subject (10), international feature (15), makeup and hairstyling (10), original score (15), original song (15), animated short film (10), live action short film (10) and visual effects (10).

The shortlist voting concluded on Feb. 5, and the remaining will move on to the official phase one voting, which will take place on March 5-9. The Oscar nominations will be announced on March 15, with the show scheduled to take place on April 25.

The full lists are below with snubs and surprises:

Documentary Feature

Fifteen films will advance in the documentary feature category out of 238 films eligible films. Members of the documentary branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

“76 Days” (MTV Documentary Films) – directed by Weixi Chen, Hao Wu, Anonymous “All In: The Fight for Democracy” (Amazon Studios) – directed by Lisa Cortes,...

The last time the Oscars let its general voters determine the entire shortlist in the Best International Feature Film category, it was 2007 and so many quality films were snubbed that the Academy changed the rules in what was then called Best Foreign Language Film.

But this year, with the shortlist expanded to 15 entries and entrusted to the general body of voters for the first time since then, the usual suspects all made it to the shortlist and the outcry over what didn’t make the cut is likely to be muted though not entirely absent.

Denmark’s “Another Round,” Romania’s “Collective,” Mexico’s “I’m No Longer Here,” the Ivory Coast’s “Night of the Kings” and Taiwan’s “A Sun” were among the critical favorites from the record 93 films that qualified in the category, along with crowd-pleasing films like Chile’s “The Mole Agent,” the Czech Republic’s “Charlatan...

Monday is the start of five days of voting to determine shortlists in the nine Oscar categories that narrow down the field before the start of nomination balloting. In the Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film categories, 238 and 93 films, respectively, will be reduced to 15 semifinalists.

In each of those categories, voters must see a minimum number of entries, drawn from a “required viewing” list sent to each member, in order to vote. Documentary voters must see more than 30 films, international voters must see 12. Shortlists in all categories will be announced on Feb. 9.

Here are our thoughts on these contests; on Tuesday, we’ll look at the below-the-line categories that also use shortlists.

‘Time’ / Amazon Studios

Best Documentary Feature

Ever since the Documentary Branch rules were changed to do away with the small committees that previously viewed films in the preliminary round of voting, the documentary shortlists have invariably...

The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman spoke to Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, directors of Spanish drama The Endless Trench (La Trinchera Infinita) in a THR Presents Q&a powered by Vision Media.

During the conversation, the three filmmakers discussed how key themes in their historical drama had — entirely coincidentally — strong parallels with the experiences of many in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starting in the mid-1930s amid the rise of dictator Francisco Franco, The Endless Trench follows Higinio (Antonio de la Torre), a Republican who, to avoid reprisals from the brutal Nationalist regime that overthrew the Second Republic ...

The Hollywood Reporter’s Alex Ritman spoke to Jon Garaño, Aitor Arregi and Jose Mari Goenaga, directors of Spanish drama The Endless Trench (La Trinchera Infinita) in a THR Presents Q&a powered by Vision Media.

During the conversation, the three filmmakers discussed how key themes in their historical drama had — entirely coincidentally — strong parallels with the experiences of many in lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Starting in the mid-1930s amid the rise of dictator Francisco Franco, The Endless Trench follows Higinio (Antonio de la Torre), a Republican who, to avoid reprisals from the brutal Nationalist regime that overthrew the Second Republic ...

Shortlists to be announced on February 9.

The Academy on Thursday (January 28) published a list of 93 films eligible for international feature film Oscar category.

Algeria’s Heliopolis, about the brutal suppression by French colonial authorities of an uprising in 1945, is omitted from the list. Screen understands the national selection committee withdrew the submission.

There were also a record number of documentary submissions – 238 compared to the previous high of 170 – in light of amended eligibility rules this season due to the pandemic, and a reduced field of 27 animation contenders.

The shortlists will be announced on February 9. The 93rd annual Academy Awards are scheduled...

“The Endless Trench,” Spain’s submission to the Best International Feature category of the 2021 Academy Awards, features standout performances from its two leads who spend nearly all of the film’s 148-minute runtime on screen together.

A story of confinement and fear, “The Endless Trench” follows Spanish Academy Goya Award-winner Antonio de la Torre’s Higino as he escapes from Francoist soldiers at the onset of the Spanish Civil War. After spending hours hiding in a well with fresh floating corpses, Higinio makes his way home under the cover of darkness, unaware that he will spend the next three decades of its life hiding under floorboards and inside walls for fear of political repercussions due to his politics.

Higinio’s wife Rosa – played by Belen Cuesta whose performance earned her a Goya Award for Best Actress – must suffer through the decades along with her husband while living a double life...

“The Endless Trench,” Spain’s entry for the international feature at this year’s Oscars, unspools entirely in a small Andalusian village across the 1930s-60s, yet has struck a chord with audiences and critics alike from around the world since its November arrival on Netflix.

It’s the second film selected for the honor from the Basque trio of Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga, and kicks off during the Spanish Civil War when newlyweds Higinio and Rosa are forced to make a temporary subterranean living space beneath the floor of their living room where Higinio, an outspoken opponent of Francisco Franco’s right-wing army and Republican village councillor, can hide from the general’s soldiers.

Fear of execution forces Higinio to hide for what ends up being 33 years, supported all the while by Rosa. The story is fiction, but after amnesty was granted in the late ‘60s,...

The music branch has been notorious for high-profile disqualifications and ineligibilities in the last few years. Last week, the BAFTA Awards website released a draft of what films are eligible for the upcoming show, set to take place on April 11, with nominations being announced on March 9. The list notes a film’s eligibility during the newly revamped round one voting period, which began on Jan. 12 and will conclude on Jan. 26.

The British Academy provided a roadmap of the musical scores that are not eligible for the Academy Awards and should not be expected for the shortlist announcement of 15, scheduled for Feb. 9.

The biggest contender that will be missing is “One Night in Miami” by composer Terence Blanchard. Distributed by Amazon Studios and directed by Academy Award winner Regina King, the film was seen as a major hopeful for the veteran musician, who received his first nomination for 2018’s “BlacKkKlansman.” To be eligible for the BAFTAs,...

Aitor Arregi, Jon Garaño, and Jose Mari Goenaga are the three filmmakers behind the Spanish historical drama “The Endless Trench,” and the film marks the first time all three have a co-directed a film together. So how exactly did all three filmmakers manage the workflow?

“We’ve been working together almost for 20 years now which is quite some time and actually we’ve been directing until now like co-directing with two directors and this is the first time that we are directing, the three of us,” Garaño told TheWrap’s Steve Pond as part of the International Film Screening Series. “This is possible because we share the same vision, and this is important for us to have obviously the same vision, and if we don’t have this vision we construct it.”

“So it is very important for us to to work in preproduction before the shooting, make everything clear that each of us,...

Listen up Oscar fans and international cinema aficioniados. We'd been holding off on this three part deep dive into the list of titles vying for Best International Feature Film until the Academy's announcement. Sadly we hear through the grapevine that they're not actually making this list "official" until very late in January. In other words, less than two weeks after they announce the 90 plus titles, they'll be cutting most of them when the finalist list of ten is announced on February 9th. This is no way to treat the movies, giving them such a tiny window of "official" attention. So we're sharing the list of 93 titles (a record) now and doing our deep dive now... with the caveat that one or two titles might change in late January when the Academy makes this official. If things do change we'll republish the list and the articles then. If they don't, we can just link back.

Andalusia’s La Claqueta and the Basque Country’s Irusoin, producers of Spanish Oscar entry “The Endless Trench,” have re-teamed to buy big screen adaptation rights to Txani Rodríguez’s novel “Los últimos románticos.”

The deal builds on one of the most fruitful regional production alliances in Spain, whose co-productions to date take in not only “The Endless Trench,” a big winner at the 2019 San Sebastian Film Festival, but also true-crime series “The Miramar Murders: The State vs. Pablo Ibar.” The latter was acquired by HBO Europe for HBO España and HBO Portugal in one of the banner deals at 2020’s San Sebastian.

Struck with Planeta Foreign & Audiovisual Rights, the feature film project also underscores the ever greater interest in established IPs. Recent Planeta book rights sales take in Benito Zambrano’s “Pan de limón con semillas de amapola,” one of the most-awaited of Spanish art films; gambling business-set ”Ana.