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Valladolid’s Seminci International Film Festival will host its 69th edition from October 18-26 and, along with it, the second edition of its new industry sidebar.

Below, we highlight three key events hosted under this year’s Valladolid Industry banner.

Merci Valladolid

Among the myriad of activities aimed at filmmakers, producers, buyers and sellers, this year’s industry strand will host the Merci Valladolid (Mercado de Cine Independiente Valladolid).

For three days, Oct. 23-25, Merci will serve as a meeting point for 140 screen industry business professionals, including programmers, exhibitors and distributors. Valladolid will invite the accredited professionals to screenings of 22 of the most highly anticipated releases scheduled to hit cinemas through the end of 2024 and all of 2025.

According to organizers, the screenings will help “maximize the titles’ circulation and promote a better exploitation in the run-up to their release.”

In addition to the screenings, Merci will hold a series of...

Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event, the Baltic region’s leading industry confab and sidebar to the Black Nights Film Festival, has unveiled the list of 17 films from 15 countries selected for its three Works in Progress sessions: the International Works in Progress, Baltic Event Works in Progress (from the Baltics and Finland) and Just Film Works in Progress (for kids and youth).

The projects – which are in production or post-production and are looking for sales, extra coin and festival platforms – will be pitched to more than 500 industry delegates from at least 45 countries on Nov. 21-22.

Buyers and programmers who first discovered in Tallinn little gems like Berlin winner “20,000 Species of Bees” from Spain, can look forward to this year’s WiP program. “It is exciting, strong, and so diverse!”, said Marge Liiske, head of Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event. “From the Baltics, we have slightly fewer projects this year, as many international...

Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) will honour Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake and Taiwanese director Fu Tien-yu with the Kurosawa Akira Award at its upcoming 37th edition (October 28 to November 6).

The award is presented to filmmakers who have “made waves in cinema and are expected to help guide the industry’s future”. A ceremony to present the awards will be held at the Imperial Hotel Tokyo on November 5.

Miyake, whose 2012 directorial debut Playback played in competition at the Locarno Film Festival, won praise from the selection committee for his recent humanist films Small, Slow But Steady and All The Long Nights,...

Tokyo International Film Festival has announced that Japanese filmmaker Sho Miyake and Taiwanese filmmaker Fu Tien-yu will be the joint recipients of the 2024 Kurosawa Akira Award.

The award honors the legacy and ongoing influence of the selected directors. Last year, China’s Gu Xiaogang and Indonesia’s Mouly Surya received the award. The selection committee for this year’s award included Yoji Yamada, Yoko Narahashi, Saburo Kawamoto and TIFF programming director Shozo Ichiyama.

Sho’s credits include Playback (2012), which was selected for Locarno competition and won the Rising Director Grand Prix award at the Takasaki Film Festival; And Your Bird Can Sing (2018); Small, Slow But Steady (2022) and All The Long Nights (2024), with the latter two films screening at Berlin.

Fu is a novelist turned filmmaker who made her directorial debut with Somewhere I Have Never Travelled, followed by My Egg Boy in 2016. In 2023, she directed her third feature film, Day Off,...

Exclusive: The Thessaloniki International Film Festival’s industry-focused Agora section has selected 15 projects from 17 countries for this year’s Crossroads Co-production Forum. Scroll down for the full list of projects.

Hailing from across southeastern Europe and the Mediterranean region, the projects are in various stages of development. The selection features debut and sophomore feature films alongside more experienced directors.

Among the notable projects is the latest feature film by prolific Romanian director Adrian Sitaru. There are also sophomore film projects from Yorgos Goussis, Kaltrina Krasniqi, Diego Llorente, Nikola Mijović, Ahu Ozturk, Sonia Liza Kenterman, and Ahmad Ghossein. Debut feature filmmakers are Neritan Zinxhiria and Thelyia Petraki.

The selected projects hail from countries including the Czech Republic, Slovakia, France, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Jordan, Kosovo*, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Serbia, North Macedonia, Palestine, Romania, Spain, and Turkey. This year’s selection was co-curated by an advisory committee featuring industry consultant Thibaut Bracq...

La cineasta de ‘Las Niñas’ y ‘La Maternal’ presenta su nuevo largometraje protagonizado por Patricia López Arnaiz y Antonio De la Torre. © Caramel Films

Tras el anuncio de que competirá por la Concha de Oro en la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián, se han hecho públicos el primer tráiler y póster de “Los Destellos”, el tercer largometraje de la cineasta aragonesa Pilar Palomero basado en el relato “Un Corazón Demasiado Grande”, de Eider Rodríguez.

En “Los Destellos”, la vida de Isabel da un inesperado giro el día que su hija Madalen le pide que visite regularmente a Ramón, que está enfermo. Tras quince años alejada de su exmarido, un hombre al que ve como un extraño pese a que fueron familia durante años, Isabel comienza a reavivar resentimientos que creía haber superado. Sin embargo, al acompañar a Ramón en su momento más vulnerable, Isabel podrá ver con otros ojos...

The Secret Life of Bees: Solaguren’s Warm Debut Explores the Communal Dictation of Gender Identity

Our relationship to our gender and sexual identities is so overwhelmingly dictated in our formative years by the binary certitudes of family and culture it’s difficult to vocalize opposition to these assignations, especially for children. Patriarchal dogma often blinds us through its conditioning to how formidably invasive communal attitudes aggressively squelch any challenges to these systems, and such is the thrust of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s narrative debut, 20,000 Species of Bees.

An eight-year-old child is experiencing gender dysphoria amidst a tumultuous summer in which their parents, naturally, are consumed by their own multitudinous troubles.…...

Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural Ecam Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up.

Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious Ecam.

Founded in 1994, the school, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to more than 300 students a year, is Spain’s leading breeding ground for some of the country’s biggest names in film, television and advertising such as filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen and regular writing partner Isabel Peña or cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.

The reasons for Ecam being so industry-facing comes down to the school’s status and founding principles, as explained by Rafa Alberola, head of Ecam Industria (formerly known as ‘The Screen’), the umbrella regrouping the school’s...

Played by Sofía Otero, the child at the center of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species of Bees knows something that many children do, and that adults work hard to suppress: that it takes very little to slide from one gender to another. Merely having long hair, for instance, and not correcting someone (mis-)taking a supposed boy for a girl can suffice.

Armed with this intuitive knowledge, the film’s protagonist is plunged into the pleasures and terrors of being seen as a girl during her summer vacation in the Basque Country with her family. This is a child who takes on many names, depending on who strangers take the child for and how safe she feels in her surroundings. Is a child not an ocean of multiplicities looking to play? As the title of Urresola Solaguren’s film suggests, and one of the local girls tells Coco: There are 20,000 species of bees,...

20,000 Species of Bees Image: Film Movement It’s heartening that we have now reached a point where transgender issues have risen to the level of awareness that a film like 20,000 Species of Bees can find an audience. In focus here is the process of self-discovery that many trans kids undergo,...

20,000 Species of BeesImage: Film Movement

It’s heartening that we have now reached a point where transgender issues have risen to the level of awareness that a film like 20,000 Species of Bees can find an audience. In focus here is the process of self-discovery that many trans kids undergo,...

In this instalment of Screen’s Cannes Close-Up interview series, Spanish producer Valérie Delpierre - whose credits with Inicia Films include 20,000 Species Of Bees - reveals the countries she’s keen to work with and her best tip for newcomers.

Delpierre is here with the festival’s Producers Network and Spain’s Icex. “It’s a way to be in Cannes and not be lost in the middle of so many people, so many contacts and, in a way, it drives us to meet each other and network,” she says of the network.

The producer also recommends coming with...

Barcelona-based sales company Film Factory has picked up global rights to Alberto Gastesi’s sci-fi thriller “Singular,” a former Sitges Pitchbox winner that will begin shooting this month.

“Singular” is the story of Diana, a university professor who works with artificial intelligence linguistic models. When Martín, Diana’s ex and the father of her late son Martín, invites her to spend a day at the lake, she’s shocked to meet a young man named Andrea, who undeniably resembles her deceased child. Given Martín’s expertise in robotics, Diana begins to suspect that the man has created an android version of their child. While every part of her wants to deny Andrea, she feels compelled to help free the boy from the prison-like grasp that Martín holds over him.

Spanish Academy Goya Award winners Patricia López Arnaiz (“20 000 Species of Bees”) and Javier Rey (“Twin Murders: The Silence of the White City...

J.A. Bayona’s Netflix epic Society of the Snow swept Saturday night’s Platino Awards, picking up a total of six trophies including the top award of the night for best Ibero-American fiction film.

Bayona’s film follows the tragic events that take place after Uruguayan Air Force flight 571, chartered to fly a rugby team to Chile, crashes on a glacier in the heart of the Andes in 1972. Only 16 of the 45 passengers ultimately made it out alive as a handful of others perished on the mountain during the 72 days from the time of the crash until rescuers arrived.

Bayona also made his way to the stage to accept a trophy for best director, and his film’s haul also included best male performance for star Enzo Vogrincic, best editing for Jaume Marti and Andres Gil, best cinematography for Pedro Luque, and best sound for Oriol Tarragó, Marc Orts and Jorge Adrados.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, dominated the top honors at the eleventh Platino Awards Saturday evening.

The Mexican award show took place this year at the El Gran Tlachco theater in Xcaret Park, Riviera Maya. Bayona took best director on the night for Society Of The Snow. The film also won Best Feature while 20,000 Species Of Bees nabbed Best Screenplay and Best First Feature.

20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at the Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.

Bayona’s Society Of The Snow closed last year’s Venice Film Festival.

In a triumphant night for Spain, J.A. Bayona’s Oscar-nominated “Society of the Snow” swept the top prizes at Platino Xcaret, named after the venue of the annual Platino Awards this year, which took place at the Xcaret Park, Riviera Maya, Mexico.

Argentina cinema’s plight, exacerbated by far-right president Javier Milei’s closure of its film institute, Incaa, was also on many people’s minds.

Citing veteran Argentine filmmaker Adolfo Aristarain as one of his inspirations, Bayona said upon receiving his best director award: “Argentina, we are here standing by your side, you’re not alone.”

Bayona’s harrowing account of the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crash, from which only 16 people survived after 72 days stranded in the Andes, became Netflix’s second most-viewed non-English film of all time. “I wouldn’t be here without the book that Pablo Vierci wrote,” said Bayona, who also thanked his cast and crew,...

German director Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge has won the 2024 Lux European Audience Film Award.

The Teachers’ Lounge was one of five films shortlisted for the award alongside Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees, Finnish director Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, French director Nicolas Philibert’s On The Adamant and Estonian director Anna Hints’ Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

Organised by the European Parliament and the European Film Academy in partnership with the European Commission and Europa Cinema since 2020, the Lux Audience Award combines the ratings of the European public with the ratings of MEPs, each accounting for 50% of the final result.

Paris-based Luxbox, a sales company on a multiple standout Spanish-language debuts bowed at big festivals – from “1976” to “20,000 Species of Bees,” “Clara Sola,” “Song Without a Name” and “The Heiresses” – has swooped on international sales rights to “Simon of the Mountain” (“Simon de la Montaña”), in the run-up to the Cannes Film Festival.

The anticipated first feature of Argentina’s Federico Luis, “Simon of the Mountain” was announced Monday as one of seven movies confirmed for main competition at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week.

Co-written by Federico Luis, the film’s editor Tomás Murphy and Agustín Toscano, helmer of Directors’ Fortnight title “The Snatch Thief” who also figures in the film’s key cast, “Simon of the Mountain” stars Lorenzo “Toto” Ferro, one of Argentina’s most rated young actors after his breakout performances as Argentina’s most notorious serial killer in Cannes 2018 Un Certain Regard player “El Angel...

Acompaña a Nina en su búsqueda de justicia en este impactante thriller contemporáneo. © BTeamPictures

Ya se ha publicado el tráiler de “Nina”, un thriller y western femenino contemporáneo donde pasado y presente se funden en una historia de venganza.

La película, que ganó el Premio de la Crítica en el festival de Málaga, sigue a Nina (Patricia López Arnaiz), que decide volver al pueblo costero donde creció, con una escopeta en el bolso y un objetivo: vengarse de Pedro, un famoso escritor al que ahora el pueblo rinde homenaje. El reencuentro con su lugar de origen, con sus recuerdos del pasado y con Blas, un amigo de la infancia, le harán replantearse si la venganza es su única opción.

El reparto lo encabeza Patricia López Arnaiz, que estuvo nominada en la pasada edición de los Goya a Mejor actriz por su interpretación en “20.000 Especies de Abejas”.

La película está...

Ecam, the Madrid film school behind one of the most prestigious talent development labs in Spain, has set up a production forum to widen the reach of its projects and encourage co-productions with Spain.

The first edition of Ecam Forum will run from June 10-13 and is open to features and series with international potential by rising Spanish producers, directors and writers.

The Films To Come feature programme will showcase 14 projects: five in development through Ecam’s lab (La Incubadora), four international projects from the Forum’s partnership with Focus Copro’ (Cannes Sfc), Bogota Audiovisual Market, Maff (Málaga Film Festival) and Ikusmira in San Sebastian,...

Descubre las películas que estarán en el 27 Festival de Málaga: una lista de las películas en competición y fuera de concurso.

Todos los años se celebra en Málaga, el Festival de Cine de Málaga. Un festival que se centra principalmente en producciones españolas y tiene como objetivo promover y celebrar la industria cinematográfica en España, así como proporcionar una plataforma para el reconocimiento y la difusión del cine español. Un festival en el que han tenido su estreno mundial muchas películas que después han sido nominadas a los premios Goya, como es el caso de “20.000 Especies de Abejas” en esta pasada edición de los premios más grandes del cine español.

Este año, el 27 Festival de Málaga se celebra del 1 al 10 de marzo y cuenta con un total de 19 películas (11 españolas y 8 latinoamericanas), que concursarán en la Sección Oficial y 18 películas (15 españolas y 3 latinas) en sección Oficial no competitiva. Una...

A new film industry superclass is emerging in Spain: movies powered or co-backed by its streaming giants.

Perhaps the biggest example, Netflix Spain’s Andes flight disaster “Society of the Snow,” scored two Academy Award nominations last month.

Now, in the run-up to Berlin, London-based Film Constellation has acquired most world sales rights to “The Captive,” from Oscar winner Alejandro Amenábar (“The Sea Inside”) and Mod Producciones, a $15 million period adventure epic on the literary makings of “Quixote”author Miguel de Cervantes, held to ransom in a Moorish corsair jail.

Film Factory Ent. will take to market Iciar Bollain’s “I Am Nevenka,” about a feminist pioneer in Spain, and an untitled project from “Prison 77’s” Alberto Rodriguez, two fruit of the first movie slate from Movistar Plus+, the biggest Spanish pay TV/SVOD player, announced in January.

Spanish movies overperform on Netflix and Movistar Plus+. As of Feb.

As the EFM gets underway Film Movement has snapped up North American rights from The Match Factory to the period dramedy Sisi & I starring current Oscar nominee Sandra Huller.

The Match Factory has also licensed rights in Australia & New Zealand (Palace Entertainment), France (Kinovista), South Korea (Andamiro), Italy (Movies Inspired), Benelux (September Films), Israel (Lev Cinemas), former Yugoslavia (McF Megacom), and Ukraine (Traffic Films).

Frauke Finsterwalder’s feature premiered at the Berlinale last year and sees Huller play Countess Irma Grafin, the lady-in-waiting to Empress Elisabeth of Austria played by Susanne Wolff.

Film Movement is planning a theatrical release...

Over the last seven years or so, the ever more capitalized Catalan industry, much based in capital Barcelona, has driven into domestic co-production with other parts of Spain. One result: an exciting new generation of young directors and producers, often women, which have scored a Berlin Golden Bear (Carla Simon’s “Alcarràs”) and best lead performance.

The Catalan film-tv industry is now, however, in the throes of a gathering industry makeover which is showing its first fruits. One driver, as so often in Europe, is public sector funding.

In 2019, total allocated Catalan government audiovisual funding stood at €12.6 million ($13.7 million). It rose to €40.8 million ($44.5 million) in 2022 and will rise again to an estimated €50 million ($54.5 million) in 2024, if the Catalan Parliament approves the budget, says Edgar Garcia, director of the governmental culture industry unit Icec.

In response to ramped-up funding, Catalonia industry has grown vibrantly. 130 execs and talent, representing 80 companies, attend 2024’s Berlin Film Market.

Society Of The Snow Ja Bayona’s Society Of The Snow won an avalanche of awards as Spain's Oscar equivalent Goya awards in Valladolid yesterday. The film, which is available to watch on Netflix, recounts the true story of a rugby team who survived a plane crash in the Andes took home 12 prizes, including best film and director.

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren's debut 20,000 Species Of Bees won a trio of prizes for best new director and original screenplay and best supporting actress for Ane Gabarain.

Justine Triet continued her successful awards run as Anatomy Of A Fall, was named best European film, while Maite Alberdi took home the Ibero-American gong for The Eternal Memory. Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won best adapted screenplay and feature animation.

The international Goya for lifetime achievement went to Sigourney Weaver, who has worked with Bayona, on A Monster Calls, and fellow Spaniard Rodrigo Cortés on [film id=21091]Red.

“La sociedad de la nieve” cubre de blanco la gala con 12 premios.

Ayer tuvo lugar la ceremonia de entrega de premios de los Goya. Una 38ª edición en la que “La sociedad de la nieve” se ha llevado 12 de los 13 premios a los que optaba. A la película de Bayona le sigue “20.000 especies de abejas” con 3 premios y “Robot Dreams” con 2 premios, incluido el de Mejor Guion Adaptado (probablemente la sorpresa de la noche).

Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los ganadores de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

La sociedad de la nieve

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Mejor Guion Adaptado

Robot Dreams

Mejor Guion Original

20.000 especies de abejas

Mejor Actriz Protagonista

Malena Alterio, Que Nadie Duerma

Mejor Actor Protagonista

David Verdaguer, Saben Aquell

Mejor Actriz De Reparto

Ane Gabarain, 20.000 Especies de Abejas

Mejor Actor De Reparto

Jose Coronado,...

Ja Bayona’s Society Of The Snow was the big winner at Spain’s Goya awards on Saturday night (February 10), scooping 12 prizes including best film and director to become the third-most garlanded film in Goya history.

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, was named best European film, and Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won the prizes for best adapted screenplay and feature animation.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the feature debut of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, received three Goyas for best new director and original screenplay for Solaguren, and best supporting actress for Ane Gabarain. The 15 nominations for Bees were the...

Netflix Original “The Society of the Snow” won best picture and director for J.A. Bayona at Saturday night’s 38th Spanish Academy Goya Awards.

Those plaudits were two of a total 12 prizes, the third-highest kudos count for any title in the Goyas’ near 40-year history.

The lineup of best picture nominees was, however, a reminder in itself of the high quality and diversity of Spain’s current film production output. These took in Estibaliz’s Urresola Berlin triple winner “20,000 Species of Bees,” David Trueba’s real-life tender love story “Jokes & Cigarettes,” Isabel Coixet’s probing “Un Amor” and Victor Erice’s “Close Your Eyes,” an “aching ode to film, time and memory,” Variety wrote in its review.

Even after Bayona took best director there was still genuine suspense whether he would also win best picture, after best adapted screenplay went to “Robot Dreams” and “Jokes & Cigarettes” took best actor for David Verdaguer.

Over the last seven years, Catalonia has built a thriving film industry which has been the envy of other regions across Europe, boasting a thriving co-production scene, a burgeoning animation industry, a 2022 Berlin Golden Bear with Clara Simon’s “Alcarrás,” and a bevy of prizes at 2023’s Berlinale, thanks to “20,000 Species of Bees.”

Catalonia even brought down the flag with Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a 2017 Berlin Best First Feature Film winner, on what could be hailed as a first film movement in Spain in decades: Fiction films grounded in a large sense upon a specific place, but talking about big social or gender issues.

Now Catalonia is attempting to achieve the same impact with its TV industry. Its early results led by “This Is Not Sweden,” will play out at Content Americas and most especially Sweden Göteborg Festival’s TV strand, TV Drama Vision.

Bowing November in Spain on...

The Berlin Film Festival, which runs Feb. 15-25, has revealed the lineup of its Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Producers of 34 film projects from 27 countries will be pitching to potential financing and co-production partners at the 21st Berlinale Co-Production Market, which runs Feb. 17-21. Seventeen projects are directed by women. There were 318 submissions, a slight increase from last year.

Eighteen of the projects are already partly financed with budgets ranging between Euros 600,000 and Euros 5 million ($5.47 million). Among the directors whose new works are likely to spark interest are Ukrainian filmmakers Kateryna Gornostai, who won a Crystal Bear for “Stop-Zemlia” in 2021, and Antonio Lukich, the director of “Luxembourg, Luxembourg,” which played in Venice in 2022, Italy’s Andrea Pallaoro, Serbian director and actor Mirjana Karanović, and the Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka.

The Berlinale Directors section features three brand-new projects by directors who have had films at the Berlinale in the past: “Alma” from Sally Potter,...

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the 34 projects, hailing from 27 countries and selected from 318 submissions, that will be showcased at its Berlinale Co-Production Market, running from February 17 to 21. (scroll down for full list)

The 18 projects in the official selection include upcoming works from Ukrainian directors Kateryna Gornostai (Stop-Zemila) and Antonio Lukich as well as Italian filmmaker Andrea Pallaoro (Monica), Turkey’s Burak Çevik (Hesitation Wound), Serb director and actor Mirjana Karanović (A Good Wife) and Chinese-Japanese directing duo Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka (Stonewalling).

The Official Selection projects are already partly financed and have budgets between 600,000 and five million euros.

The Berlinale Directors section showcasing new projects from festival habitués in the early funding stages includes Sally Potter’s upcoming production Alma about a family on an expedition to scatter the ashes of an archaeologist.

Two projects by Andreas Fontana and Fradique have also been selected as part of the Rotterdam-Berlinale Express initiative,...

The 36th European Film Awards took place in Berlin on Saturday, honoring the best cinema to emerge from Europe in 2023. The nominations, which were selected by the European Film Academy, were heavy on arthouse hits that emerged from the Cannes Film Festival including Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” The results played out similarly to those from Cannes, with Triet’s Palme d’Or-winner taking the top prize of Best European Film.

“Anatomy of a Fall” additionally won the European Director award for Triet, who also shared the European Screenwriter award with Arthur Harari. Sandra Hüller was nominated twice in the European Actress category for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” ultimately winning for the former.

The results mirrored those of the 2022 European Film Awards, when “Triangle of Sadness” followed...

French director Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy Of A Fall swept the awards at 36th European Film Awards in Berlin this evening, winning Best European Film, Director, Screenplay (with Arthur Harari) and actress for Sandra Hüller.

There was a strong selection this year with other films and directors leading the nominations including Aki Kaurismäki with Fallen Leaves, Agnieszka Holland with Green Border, Matteo Garrone with Me Captain, Jonathan Glazer with The Zone Of Interest.

The European Films Awards haul for Anatomy Of A Fall will likely ramp up growing Academy Awards buzz around the film and its star Sandra Hüller.

“I can’t say whether it will happen or not but yes… now we are in the race and we will continue the campaign in the U.S. and we’re totally involved, let’s see,” Triet said in an press conference after the ceremony.

The nominees for the 2023 European Film Awards (EFAs) are among the very best movies of the year, in Europe or anywhere. The five best picture nominees include Justine Triet’s legal thriller Anatomy of a Fall; Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust film The Zone of Interest; the refugee dramas Io Capitano, from Italian director Matteo Garrone; Green Border from Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland; and dour romantic comedy Fallen Leaves, by Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki. Award winners all — Anatomy, Zone and Fallen Leaves picked up top honors in Cannes, while Green Border and Io Capitano won plaudits at this year’s Venice Film Festival — this lineup of critical hits could hold its own at any awards ceremony.

The quality at the EFAs goes deep, including first-time filmmakers like Britain’s Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex), France’s Stéphan Castang (Vincent Must Die) and Spanish filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (20,000 Species of Bees...

“20.000 especies de abejas”, “La sociedad de la nieve”, “Saben Aquell” y “Cerrar los Ojos” encabezan las nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024.

El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

20.000 especies de abejas

Cerrar los ojos

La sociedad de la nieve

Saben aquell

Un amor

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos

Elena Martín, Creatura

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

David Trueba, Saben aquell

Isabel Coixet, Un amor

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Aftersun (Reino Unido)

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Las ocho montañas (Italia)

Safe Place (Croacia)

Sala de profesores...

The Society Of The Snow has garnered 13 nominations, followed by Close Your Eyes and Jokes & Cigarettes with 11.

Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s 20,000 Species Of Bees leads the nominations for Spain’s prestigious Goya awards, which will be presented on February 10, 2024.

20,000 Species Of Bees premiered in competition at Berlin, going on to win the Silver Bear for best performance for Sofía Otero, playing an eight-year-old girl who spends a summer working in the Basque Country’s beehives while exploring her identity.

The film scored 15 nominations, including best film, best director and four nods in the acting categories.

Ja Bayona’s...

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, and Society Of The Snow, J. A. Bayona’s survival drama for Netflix, have dominated the nominations at this year’s Goya Film Awards.

The nominations for Spain’s premiere film awards event were released this morning. 20,000 species of bees clocked 15 noms, including best film, screenplay, and best new director. Bayona’s Society Of The Snow clocked 13 noms, also landing in best film. Veteran Spanish filmmaker Víctor Erice trails behind with 11 nominations for his comeback feature Close Your Eyes, starring Ana Torrent.

20,000 Species Of Bees debuted at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, where lead actor Sofía Otero took the silver bear for best leading performance. The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.

Bayona...

Spanish director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s debut feature, 20,000 Species of Bees, a touching and tender drama about an 8-year-old transgender child who begins to transition, is the front-runner for the 2024 Goya Awards, the Spanish film academy’s equivalent to the Oscars.

The film, which won its young star Sofía Otero the Silver Bear for best performance in Berlin in February, picked up 15 nominations for the 2024 Goyas, including for best film and best director. Otero was oddly snubbed in the acting categories, though co-stars Ane Gabarain and Itziar Lazkano were nominated in the best supporting actress category, Martxelo Rubio received a best supporting actor nom, and Patricia López Arnaiz a Goya nomination for best actress.

In its review of the film, The Hollywood Reporter called 20,000 Species of Bees a “moving chronicle of an 8-year-old’s gradual transitioning, and the effect it has on a family over their summer vacation...

Five European films dominate the nominations.

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on December 9.

The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of Europe this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.

Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...

Five European films dominate the nominations for this year’s Awards

The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on November 9.

The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of European this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.

Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d...

Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFAs), picking up five nominations, including for best film and best director, in nominations announced via video on Tuesday.

Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.

Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.

Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...

Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves” led the European Film Awards race after nominations for the major categories were revealed Tuesday.

The films were nominated in all five major categories – European film, director, screenwriter, actor and actress.

Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” was close behind with four nominations – film, director, screenwriter and actress.

All three films were prizewinners at Cannes: “The Zone of Interest” took the festival’s Grand Prize, “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize, and “Anatomy of a Fall” was the Palme d’Or winner.

Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” the Special Jury Prize winner at Venice, took three nominations – film, director and screenwriter.

“Me Captain,” Venice’s best director winner, and “The Teachers’ Lounge” each nabbed two nominations.

“Afire,” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” “How to Have Sex,” “La Chimera” and “The Promised Land” took one nomination each in major categories.

Valladolid International Film Week’s Independent Film Market saw Spanish distributors showcase acquired films to local streamers, TV networks and exhibitors.

Merci, Valladolid International Film Week’s Independent Film Market, enjoyed a 20% rise in the number of professionals attending this year.

Merci, which ran from October 25-27, provides an opportunity for Spanish independent distributors to meet with platforms, TV networks and distributors, and to show them selection of their recent acquisitions.

Among the 24 titles being screened by distributors at Merci Valladolid this year were Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot Au Feu, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Aki Kaurismäki...

Audience prize is won by Ukrainian filmmaker Alla Savytska’s graduation film ‘Tutti’, while

Belgian writer-director Emmanuelle Nicot’s debut feature Love According To Dalva was awarded the Grand Prix in the International Competition at this year’s edition of the Molodist Kyiv Film Festival.

Despite the ongoing war with Russia, the Ukrainian festival was held this year at the Zhovten and Krakiv cinemas in Kyiv between 21-29 October.

Nicot’s incest drama, which premiered at the Critics’ Week in Cannes last year and is being handled internationally by mk2, received a large Scythian Deer statuette and a $5,000 cash prize...

An eight-year-old struggles with her gender identity one long, hot summer in Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s beguiling debut feature

There’s something transformative about the summer holidays. Those long, relaxed weeks released from the constraints and expectations of school offer the promise of reinvention, of hitherto undreamed of freedoms. The blank slate of vacation friendships, forged in the moment, with no historical baggage to drag along, gives a chance to start again. It’s no coincidence that so many coming-of-age films unfold against the languid backdrop of an endless childhood summer. But for some kids, that sense of release brings with it its own particular stresses and anxieties. 20,000 Species of Bees, the assured feature debut from Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren joins pictures such as Céline Sciamma’s Tomboy and Carla Simón’s Summer 1993 in using summer as the foundation for a story of a child struggling...

Studiocanal launches short story adaptation ‘Cat Person’.

Thriller Five Nights At Freddy’s heads the new titles at this weekend’s UK-Ireland box office, as one of a selection of genre choices available to audiences on the pre-Halloween weekend.

Opening in 609 cinemas through Universal, Five Nights At Freddy’s is adapted from Scott Cawthon’s videogame franchise of the same name. The film stars Hunger Games actor Josh Hutcherson as a security guard at an abandoned entertainment venue, who discovers that its animatronic mascots move and kill anyone still there after midnight.

Directed by Emma Tammi, the film is produced by horror...

Feature will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum on December 8.

Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph-dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.

Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review

The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms after president Michael Rosenberg negotiated the deal with Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud.

Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance technology to monitor...

Feature will open theatrically at New York’s Film Forum on December 8.

Film Movement has acquired all North American rights to Total Trust, Zhang Jialing’s Cph:dox, Hot Docs and Sheffield selection about the Chinese surveillance state.

Total Trust’: Cph:dox Review

The distributor has set a December 8 theatrical release at New York’s Film Forum followed by home entertainment and digital platforms. Film Movement president Michael Rosenberg and Cinephil MD Olivier Tournaud announced the deal on Friday.

Total Trust follows three women fighting for civil liberties and social justice in a country which uses high tech security and surveillance...

The 2023 Hamptons International Film Festival has unveiled the jury and audience awards for this year’s festival.

The lineup included opening night’s “Nyad” and Alex Gibney’s documentary “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon.” Todd Haynes, who received the Achievement in Directing Award, was in attendance for a Spotlight screening of “May December.”

The official Hiff Award for Best Narrative Feature was given to Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s “20,000 Species of Bees,” per the jury’s selection. The feature follows an eight-year-old girl and her grandmother over the course of a summer spent in a village known for beekeeping.

Joanna Arnow’s “The Feeling That the Time For Doing Something Has Passed” was also recognized in the Best Narrative Feature category with a special mention.

Meanwhile, the Hiff Audience Award for Best Narrative Feature went to “Fresh Kills,” directed by Jennifer Esposito. The film, which premiered at 2023 Tribeca,...

There were no clear Oscar signals coming out of the 31st Hamptons International Film Festival. Still, there were some admirable stats for the eastern Long Island event that’s a favorite with filmmakers and locals. This year Hiff screened a lineup of films that were 49% female-directed and represented 42 countries from around the world. The festival had a record number of submissions this year and screened 72 features and 46 shorts with eight world premieres, three North American premieres, 12 US premieres, 13 East Coast premieres, and seven New York premieres.

SEEJennifer Esposito (‘Fresh Kills’): First-time director brings feminist mob movie to 31st Hamptons Film Festival

Best Narrative Film went to “20,000 Species Of Bees,” directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (watch the trailer above). “Tell Them You Love Me,” directed by Nick August-Perna, nabbed the Award for Best Documentary Feature. Hiff audiences selected narrative feature “Fresh Kills,” by first time director Jennifer Esposito, and documentary feature “Angel Applicant,...