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Catalonia will cast a large shadow over this year’s Cannes. Here’s a look at its titles in the festival and accompanying Marché du Film.

Cannes Festival

“Magellan,” Lav Díaz

Screening in Cannes Premiere, Gael Garcia Bernal-starrer “Magalhães” is a historical epic about the life and voyages of the Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. The film is a collaboration among multiple production companies, including the Catalan-based Andergraun Films, and showcases Lav Díaz’s distinct, slow-cinema style in tackling historical material.

Sales: Luxbox

“Romería,” Carla Simón (Spain)

Part of Berlin Golden Bear-winner Simón’s autobiographical trilogy, “Romería” follows Marina, a young woman adopted at a young age, who travels to Vigo to meet her biological father’s family for the first time. The film continues the deeply personal storytelling tradition that won Simón international acclaim with “Alcarràs” and “Summer 1993.”

Sales: MK2

“Sirat,” Oliver Laxe

After his Cannes Un Certain...

Rapidly emerging as one of Spain’s foremost hothouses for new producer and creative talent, the Ecam Madrid Film School’s Incubator program has chosen five titles for its 2022 program:

“Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” “Disposable,” “Macrame,” “Festina Lente” and “Ripli.”

Launched to connect early career talent in Spain with Europe’s film industry, the 5th Incubator runs from Feb. 23 through July.

The program will be overseen by writer-director Rafa Alberola, who serves as the new manager of The Screen, Ecam’s industry initiative umbrella.

This year’s lineup announcements comes as one Incubator project, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby,” is set to world premiere in Berlin’s Panorama section later this week.

Chema García Ibarra’s “Sacred Spirit” proved a standout at August’s Locarno Festival, another Incubator debut, Javier Marco’s Javier Marco’s “Josefina” was for many the most notable Spanish feature debut...

A minor technicality prevents David Casademunt’s Netflix’s The Wasteland from being classified as a horror Western; it is set in 19th-century Spain as opposed to the American frontier. However, the Netflix period film fits in both visually and thematically with subgenre staples like Bone Tomahawk, The Burrowers, and The Wind. Here […]

The post Netflix’s ‘The Wasteland’ – Spanish Period Horror Presents a Monstrous Home Invasion [Horrors Elsewhere] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Icelandic-Swedish-Polish drama “Lamb,” starring Noomi Rapace was awarded best film and actress for Rapace at the 54th edition of Sitges’ International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which wrapped Sunday.

The prizes add to an Originality Prize which the film received when competing at July’s Cannes Un Certain Regard.

“Lamb,” a horror-comedy combo, follows protagonist Maria, played by Rapace, a woman living with her husband in the total loneliness of the Icelandic countryside. According to a Variety review, “creepy-funny-weird-sad ‘Lamb’ proves just how far disbelief can be suspended if you’re in the hands of a director — and a cast, and a SFX/puppetry department — who really commit to the bit.” Lamb is produced by Go to Sheep, Black Spark Film & TV and Madants with New Europe Film Sales and A24 attached.

Rapace shared best actress honors with Susanne Jensen in Peter Brunner’s “Luzifer.” Justin Kurzel...

Lucia and her son live far from society in a flat area where there is almost no life. The small family unit formed by mother and son receives hardly any visitors, and their goal is to develop a peaceful existence. At first they succeed, but the appearance of a mysterious and violent creature that begins to haunt her little house will put the relationship that unites them to the test.   David Casademunt's debut feature film, El Páramo (The Beast), will premiere at Sitges at tomorrow. Netflix dropped the teaser for El Páramo a couple days ago, where it is set to bow on the streamer in January, on the 26th.    Having watched this great teaser we really wish we were in Catalonia this...

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Spanish Horror

Two of Spain’s highest-profile upcoming horror titles got release dates and trailers today, David Casademunt’s “El páramo” (formerly “La bestia”) at Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s horror anthology “Historias para no dormir.”

“El páramo” is the highly anticipated feature debut of award-winning short filmmaker Casademunt, and boasts a small yet star-filled cast including Inma Cuesta (“The Bride”), Roberto Álamo (“The Skin I Live In”) and Asier Flores (“Pain and Glory”). The film is set in an isolated cabin where a family of three are visited by a terrible monster which threatens the ties that bind them. It will world premiere on Oct. 11 at the Sitges Film Festival and hit Netflix worldwide on Jan. 26, 2022. Rodar y Rodar produces.

Amazon Prime Video and Spanish broadcaster Rtve’s reboot of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s legendary Spanish horror anthology series “Historias para no dormir” will hit the streaming platform on Nov.

As the Sitges Film Festival draws ever closer more films are being announced for this year's lineup. Today we got word that two more Spanish films have joined the roster.    David Casademunt's feature debut, El páramo, will have its world premiere at the festival and take part in the competition program. David Hebrero's sophomore effort El páramo is heading to Sitges as a special screening.    El páramo, which sounds like a creature in the woods flick, translates as The Moor and Y todos arderán, sounding like a reveange thriller, translates into the very fun, And They All Will Burn.    The announcement follows.    The latest in Spanish Fantastic lands at Sitges 2021   David Casademunt's 'El páramo' and David Hebrero's 'Y todos arderán' have been added to the lineup...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn,” Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life with Ghosts” and Eva Saiz’s “Casa de fieras” feature among a bevy of new Spanish film projects to be offered at the 4th Madrid-based Incubator.

A mentorship program hosted by Madrid’s Ecam Film School, the Incubator has fast consolidated as one of the foremost development labs in Spain targeting producers of first and second features.

The 4th Incubator runs from April through October.

Projects were chosen from a preselection made from over 200 submitted projects led by The Screen program manager Gemma Vidal. All Incubator’s projects receive €10,000 for development. As valuable, however, will be the tutorship led, among directors, by Arantxa Echevarría (“Carmen & Lola”), Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“May God Save Us”), Juan Cavestany (“Spanish Shame”) and director-producer Alberto Marini (“Summer Camp”).

Producer mentors, packing a large experience and multiple hits, take in Simón de Santiago (“While at War...

Netflix and Federation Spain, the Spanish division of Paris and L.A.-based Federation Entertainment, are teaming to produce “Las niñas de cristal,” a psychological drama set against the world of classical ballet that toplines “Money Heist” and “Elite” star Maria Pedraza.

The movie is one highlight in Netflix’s first announcement of a production-distribution slate focused entirely on Spanish original movies. The eight titles it profiles that are moving into production or set for release in 2021 and 2022 are a sign of Netflix ramping up its production of Spanish movies as part of its bet on Spanish scripted TV and movies, with Spain punching above its weight in the number of Netflix originals compared to Spanish subscribers. The Netflix slate highlights:

“Las niñas de cristal”

Alison Parker in “Money Heist” and Guzmán’s fated sister Marina in “Elite,” in “Las niñas de cristal” Pedraza plays Irene, a classical ballet dancer...

Following the success of Spanish projects including Money Heist, Netflix has unveiled a slate of seven upcoming originals from Spain.

The projects range from series to features and short-form works. Scroll down for the full list.

“We are fortunate to work with creators such as Nadia de Santiago, Carlos Montero or Elísabet Benavent and producers such as Cristina López Ferraz, Sandra Hermida or César Benítez,” said Diego Ávalos, Vice President of Original Contents of Netflix Spain. “Collaborating with them, and with many others, has uncovered unique perspectives for us, for which we will continue to invest firmly at a key moment for the industry. Our goal continues to be to move the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain and to contribute to position Spanish fiction as a global reference”.

El tiempo que te doy: This 10×10 minute series is created by Nadia de Santiago, Inés Pintor...

Where can Netflix Spain go after hit show “Money Heist”? On Thursday, it unveiled seven new Spanish originals, including “Feria” from “Elite” creator Carlos Montero, that sketch some kind of answer and roadmap for the U.S. streaming giant in one of its European production powerhouses.

Though Netflix in Spain has seen its biggest global hits in two iconic young adult series, “Money Heist” and “Elite,” now, more than ever before, as it transforms into a general entertainment service, the U.S. streaming giant is mixing it up.

The seven new originals, set for release from 2021, run a gamut from Netflix’s first short format series to its most ambitious doc series ever, “800 Meters,” to two features, a standup special and just one drama series.

“Our vocation is to go on exciting the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain, and contribute to maintaining Spanish...

Barcelona-based Rodar y Rodar, producer of Spanish horror titles such as J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage” and Oriol Paulo’s “The Body, has thrown its weight behind David Casademunt’s “The Beast,” boarding it as its main producer.

“The Beast,” which participated in Filmarket Hub’s 2017 Sitges Pitchbox event as well as Ventana Sur’s 2017 Blood Window, it was then was selected from 216 projects by first or second-time Spanish directors to be put through the 2018 Ecam Madrid Film School Incubator development program, before scoring a place at the Toronto Festival’s Filmmakers Lab. Casademunt had already turned heads with his Austin Fantastic Fest Grand Jury and Special Jury Award winning short, “Sleeping Death.”

Written with his regular co-writers Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas, “The Beast” is in a shack in the middle of nowhere, where a kid and his crazed mother glimpse a chilling presence watching them from the horizon...

Madrid — There are few countries which share the U.S.’ sensibilities for high-end, soulful horror quite like Spain. Mexican genre legend Guillermo del Toro directed out of Spain two of his early films based around the Spanish Civil War: 2001’s “The Devil’s Backbone” and 2006’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” – the latter earning his first film’s Academy Awards, before godfathering Spanish director J.A. Bayona’s debut feature “The Orphanage,” which premiered to a 10-minute standing ovation at Cannes 2007.

Inspired by those films, coupled with a love for American genre from directors such as M. Night Shyamalan, Spanish director David Casademunt teamed with regular co-writers Fran Menchón and Martí Lucas on the screenplay for the headed-towards-production psychological horror-thriller “The Beast.”

As is to be expected from a movie with a Shyamalan-inspired twist, plot details are being kept close to the vest, but the film will take place in a shack in the middle of nowhere,...

Madrid — Multi-prized Spanish actress Emma Suárez, star of Pedro Almodovar’s “Julieta,” is attached to topline “Josefina,” a co-production between Madrid’s White Leaf Producciones and Berlin’s One Two Films, whose recent films include Jennifer Fox’s “The Tale” and Isabel Coixet’s “The Bookshop.”

A romantic drama-comedy to be directed by Spanish short filmmaker Javier Marco, “Josefina” turns on 50-year-old Juan, a prison officer attracted to Berta, the mother of one of the inmates, who passes himself off as another parent visiting the prison in order to see his incarcerated daughter, Josefina.

Josefina’s presence, however fictitious, facilitates a relationship between two people with grave emotional deficiencies, “lending an optimism, and moments of near surrealism and comedy to the film,” screenwriter Belén Sánchez-Arévalo said at the inaugural The Incubator, a development program launched this year by the Ecam Madrid Film School.

Suárez, also the star of Michel Franco’s “April’s Daughter,...