Neuigkeiten

The film depicts a utopia where women rule the country.

Austria-based sales agency Square Eyes has acquired world sales rights to Sultana’s Dream, a Spanish animation feature that will have its world premiere in the official selection at San Sebastian Film Festival in September.

The feature debut of Spanish filmmaker Isabel Herguera, Sultana’s Dream follows a Spanish artist living in India, who stumbles upon a science fiction story about Ladyland, a utopia where women rule the country while men live in seclusion and are responsible for household chores.

The story is based on a 1905 short story of the...

Ventana Sur, which wrapped Friday, was, on many counts, quite extraordinary. With Buenos Aires, the market’s normal location, still under Covid-19 lockdown, Latin America’s biggest movie mart-meet spread out film screenings over five cities in two continents – Madrid, Mexico City, Bogotá, São Paulo and Santiago de Chile – complemented by digital screenings for the rest of the world. Following, five takes on that bold gambit and the market itself, organized by Argentina’s Incaa Film Institute and the Cannes Marché du Film and Festival:

It Was Remarkable – But Did It Work?

Ventana Sur’s five city spread marks a revolution. But did it work? Global attendance held stable at 2,957 participants from 61 countries. 188 online screenings, complimented by 118 theatrical screenings, and the loss of a single on-site event in Buenos Aires, sparked a dramatic increase in non-Argentine attendees with delegates rocketing up to 78% in Europe to 546, 49% in the U.S. to 110 and 185% to 134 in Mexico,...

Paris-based Axxon Films has picked up international rights to Imanol Rayo’s thriller “Death Knell” and Mireia Gabilondo’s comedy “The Hive,” two very different titles set in and produced by Spain’s Basque region.

The production, distribution and sales-company is presenting the Spanish pics, both distributed in Spain by Bilbao’s Barton Films, as part of its Ventana Sur lineup.

Based on Miren Gorrotxategi’s novel “33 campanadas,” and produced by Abra Producciones in association with Eitb, “Death Knell” centers on the discovery of human remains at a family farm. Fermin and Karmen call their son Nestor, who reports the matter to the authorities. When they turn up, however, the bones are gone. In the course of the police investigation, long dormant secrets are dredged up.

The film, which premiered at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival in its prestigious New Directors section, is Rayo’s sophomore feature after 2011’s “Bi anai.

Eight films to feature in the Zinemira section of the 61st San Sebastian FestivalScoll down for full list of titles

A total of eight feature films will make up the San Sebastian Festival’s Zinemira section, dedicated to cinema produced in the Basque Country. Five premieres and three titles produced this year make up the selection.

Four of the premieres will compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award, alongside films with at least 20% of Basque production and others presented as world premieres in any of the Festival sections. The Irizar Award will be decided by a specific jury and includes a $27,000 (€20,000) prize for the producer or producers of the winning film.

The Zinemira Award, granted by the Festival and the Producers Associations Epe/Ava and Ibaia to the career of an outstanding personality from the Basque film world, will go this year to Juan Bautista Berasategi, a cartoonist and producer from Gipuzkoa, and a pioneer...