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La 40ª edición tendrá lugar en el Parc del Fòrum, en plena efervescencia del cine catalán. © Getty Images

Barcelona será la ciudad anfitriona de la 40ª edición de los Premios Goya, según ha anunciado hoy martes Fernando Méndez-Leite, presidente de la Academia de las Artes y las Ciencias Cinematográficas de España, en un acto celebrado en la sede de la institución en Madrid. La ceremonia tendrá lugar –¡toma nota!– el 7 de febrero de 2026 en el Parc del Fórum, un cuarto de siglo después de la histórica edición del año 2000 –la primerísima vez que los Goya salieron de Madrid–, cuando Pedro Almodóvar arrasó con su Todo sobre mi madre.

La gala regresa a la ciudad condal en un momento de especial efervescencia para el cine catalán. Basta recordar el Oso de Oro en la Berlinale de 2022 para Alcarràs, de Carla Simón, quien este año regresa, además, con Romería, su nueva película...

© Paramount Pictures, Disney & Vértigo Films Misión imposible: Sentencia final © Paramount Pictures

¿Es este el adiós de Ethan Hunt? Puede que sí o puede que no. Lo que sí sabemos es que Tom Cruise volverá a dejarse la piel (y colgarse de cualquier estructura posible) en el cierre de una de las sagas de acción y espionaje más espectaculares y más queridas. En nuestra crítica, apuntamos que es una entrega con «luces y sombras».

Lilo y Stitch © Disney

Disney sigue con su cruzada de adaptaciones en carne y hueso, y ahora le toca el turno a Lilo y Stitch, la película de 2002 sobre una niña hawaiana y un peculiar “perro” que llega para recomponer su desestructurada familia. Se adapta a la acción real con la debutante Maia Kealoha como Lilo y la voz original de Stitch (Chris Sanders). ¿Funcionará el remake? Tras el fiasco de Blancanieves, hay mucho en juego, y...

Triple Palme d’Or nominated French filmmaker Bertrand Bonello whose latest daring work “The Beast” was one of the hottest titles in the 2023 Venice competition, will be the guest of honor at the second Ecam Forum co-production platform, which will unspool over June 10-13 in Madrid.

On the heels of U.S. indie producer Ted Hope who kicked off Ecam Forum’s masterclass sessions with standout industry voices in 2024, Bonello will discuss his visionary work on June 12 at the Cineteca Madrid. Concurrently, the screening of three of his defining works –Cannes official entries “Tiresia” (2003), “House of Tolerance” (2011) and Directors’ Fortnight’s “Zombi Child” (2019) – will serve as entry points to his cinematic journey.

The Bonello tribute is organized by Ecam Forum – the new industry event spearheaded by Madrid’s prestigious film school Ecam – together with Cineteca Madrid and Filmadrid Festival, in conjunction with collection agent Dama and the Institut Français in Spain.

Following its audience award won in Berlin, Eva Libertad’s Deaf added four more prizes at the 2025 Malaga Film Festival (March 14-23) including best Spanish film and the audience award.

Libertad’s debut follows the relationship between a deaf woman and her hearing boyfriend, which is put under strain by a new baby, and stars the director’s sister, Miriam Garlo, and Álvaro Cervantes. They both won Malaga’s acting prizes ex aequo alongside Ángela Cervantes for Fury and Mario Casas for Away, respectively.

Latido Films is handling international sales for Deaf, which has already sold to the UK, Ireland,...

Dos ex aequos marcan un palmarés que refleja el alto nivel de esta edición.

© Festival de Málaga

El Festival de Málaga 2025 cierra una edición ambiciosa y de alto nivel con un palmarés que perfila a Sorda, de Eva Libertad, como una de las grandes contendientes de la temporada de premios española (y quien sabe si acabará representando a España en los próximos Óscar). La cinta, que ya recibió en la Berlinale el premio del Público, se alza con la Biznaga de Oro y también se llevan Biznagas de Plata Miriam Garlo y Álvaro Cervantes en las categorías interpretativas, además del Premio del Público, el Premio Asecan, el Premio Feroz y el Premio Gignis.

La otra gran triunfadora de una edición marcada por una fuerte presencia femenina ha sido Los tortuga, de Belén Funes, que se ha llevado el Premio Especial del Jurado, Mejor Dirección y Mejor Guion. Y La furia,...

The Málaga Film Festival unveiled winners from its various lineups this afternoon, where Eva Libertad’s “Deaf” walked away with a fest-best four prizes, including best actress (Miriam Garlo), actor (Álvaro Cervantes), the audience award and best picture.

Libertad’s debut feature is an expansion of the eponymous Goya-nominated short she co-directed with Nuria Muñoz, starring her sister Garlo, an acclaimed deaf actress. The film tells the story of Angela (Garlo), a pregnant deaf woman, and Hector (Cervantes), her hearing partner. Pregnancy brings to the surface her fears about motherhood and how she will be able to communicate with her daughter. The arrival of the girl generates a crisis in the couple and leads Angela to face the upbringing of her daughter in a world that is not made for her.

Acclaimed “A Thief’s Daughter” filmmaker Belén Funes’ latest, “The Exiles,” won Málaga’s special jury prize, best...

The world premiere of Spanish social drama La Deuda, thethird feature from actor-director Daniel Guzmán, will open the Malaga International Film Festival (Miff) on March 14.

Guzmán stars as a man living with an elderly woman, plaayed by Itziar Ituño, in a city apartment, while she struggles with her health and he has to confront a precarious job situation. The film is produced by Spain’s Acqu y Alli Films.La Deudatranslates as ‘The Debt’ but no English-language title has been confirmed.

Scroll down for the full line up

Miff showcases Spanish and Ibero-American films to the local and international industry...

Una Sección Oficial de mayor presencia femenina. © Festival Málaga | mundoCine

El 28 Festival de Málaga, que se celebra del 14 al 23 de marzo, ha anunciado las primeras películas que competirán por la ansiada Biznaga de Oro. Y recordemos que el año pasado, el galardón recayó en Segundo premio, de Isaki Lacuesta y Pol Rodríguez, y este fue solo el primero de los muchos reconocimientos –a la espera de ver qué se lleva en los Goya– de la película elegida (pero no nominada) para representar a España en los Óscar 2025.

En esta edición, la Sección Oficial se distingue por una mayor presencia femenina, con cinco películas españolas por ahora anunciadas a concurso firmadas por directoras: La furia, de Gemma Blasco, Los Tortuga, de Belén Funes, Sorda, de Eva Libertad, La buena suerte, de Gracia Querejeta, y La buena letra, de Celia Rico.

© Festival Málaga

Empezando por la primera de ellas, Gemma Blasco se...

Happy Holidays, the latest feature from Palestinian Filmmaker Scandar Copti, has taken the top prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Copti’s film won the Best Feature Film Award, which comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize. Awarding the prize, the jury, headed by Sara Driver, praised the film for “intricately weaving different narratives and perspectives that fully expose the complexity of national, gender and class dynamics that can divide societies and for seeing the future in the face of a young woman the Golden Alexander goes to Happy Holidays by Scandar Copti.”

Happy Holidays debuted at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The story open after a minor accident sets off a chain of events, unraveling lies and unspoken truths that sow division within a multifaceted patriarchal society.

The festival’s Best Director Award, which comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize, was picked up Leonardo Van Dijl for Julie Keeps Quiet.

Palestinian filmmaker Scandar Copti’s Israel-set family drama “Happy Holidays” won the top prize Sunday at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, taking home the Golden Alexander for best feature film.

Copti’s sophomore feature, his first film since his Oscar-nominated 2009 debut “Ajami,” premiered in the Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar, winning the best screenplay prize. Variety’s Siddhant Adlakha described it as “a piercing, realistic family drama, the inflection points of which reveal deep cultural and political dimensions surrounding gender and ethnicity.”

“Happy Holidays” follows four interconnected characters who share their unique realities, highlighting the complexities between genders, generations and cultures. The ensemble cast — comprised of Arab and Jewish characters alike — creates a multifaceted portrait of life in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.

The Thessaloniki jury, which included filmmaker and producer Sara Driver (“Boom for Real”), filmmaker Denis Côté (“Vic + Flo Saw a Bear”) and producer Konstantinos Kontovrakis (“How to Have Sex...

Exclusive: Twelve new works including a feature-length pic from Palestinian filmmaker Laila Abbas will screen as part of the Meet The Neighbors+ competition sidebar at this year’s Thessaloniki Film Festival.

The jury for this year’s Meet The Neighbors+ comp will feature Ukrainian filmmaker Maryna Er Gorbach, actress Manal Awad, and distributor Vassilis Sourrapas.

The top prize in the Meet The Neighbors+ comp is the Golden Alexander “Michel Demopoulos” for Best Full-length Feature Film. The award comes with a 10,000-euro cash prize, which is shared equally between the producer and film director. The Silver Alexander – Best Director Award comes with a 5,000-euro cash prize.

Abbas’ Thank You for Banking With Us is a Palestine-Germany-Saudi Arabia-Qatar-Egypt co-production. The film will arrive in Greece after screening at the London Film Festival. Abbas, a filmmaker and academic, first gained international attention in 2013 with the doc feature Ice & Dust. The Thank You for...

San Sebastian — Among the diverse projects emerging from the Madrid Film School Ecam incubator, “Flowers For An Absent Mother” (“Flores para una madre ausente”), the feature debut of writer-director Ana Puentes Margarito, is poised to stand out for its intimate yet universally resonant story of family conflict and emotional recovery. Workshopped and refined through labs like LabGuion, FinLab and Ecam’s prestigious Incubator, the project has undergone a transformative journey.

Puentes Margarito credits director Bélen Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”) as a key mentor in shaping the film’s final script. “For me, it was like shifting our minds: someone from the outside comes and tells us things we haven’t seen,” Puentes Margarito told Variety. “The version we have now is much closer to the story I will tell.” The project is now nearing a key moment as it awaits news from the Icaa selective funding, a critical step toward production next year.

Signaling new growth plans afoot, leading Chilean company Quijote Films (“The Settlers”) has tapped former Fabula strategy and development exec Sergio Karmy to lead the company’s new business drive.

“Since the start, Quijote has been characterized by its production of auteur works with international reach, awarded and premiered around the world. Thanks to the success of the established model and the good financial health of the company, we have been able to invest in opening a new strategy department within the company where we are developing our own projects in-house,” said Quijote Films founder Giancarlo Nasi, who opened an office in Los Angeles office a few years ago, adding that Quijote, operating out of Chile’s capital of Santiago and Los Angeles, aims to “generate new business models.”

“The idea is to use our proven capacity to raise public funds, private equity investment, and partnerships with streaming platforms and...

La directora de ‘La Hija de un Ladrón’ presenta su nuevo trabajo en la sección Centrepiece. © TIFF

El segundo largometraje de la cineasta española Belén Funes, ganadora del Goya a la Mejor Dirección Novel con La hija de un ladrón, Los Tortuga, se estrenará mundialmente en el Festival Internacional de Cine de Toronto, en la sección Centrepiece.

Los Tortuga se centra en una relación madre-hija complicada por un duelo no superado y los problemas económicos que afectan a sus vidas.

La película está protagonizada por la actriz chilena Antonia Zegers y Elvira Lara, y escrita por Funes y Marçal Cebrian, quienes ya colaboraron anteriormente en La hija de un ladrón.

Los Tortuga se estrena en cines el 15 de noviembre de la mano de A Contracorriente Films.

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The post ‘Los Tortuga’, la segunda película de Belén Funes, tendrá su estreno mundial en el Festival de Toronto.

Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has unveiled the 43 features selection for the Centrepiece programme including world premieres for Algerian director Merzak Allouache’s feuding matriarchs comedy Front Row and Laura Piani’s romantic comedy Jane Austen Wrecked My Life.

Taking their place in the global cinema showcase alongside the latest work from 41 countries are features that have already impressed at festivals, such as Mohammad Rasoulof’s Cannes award winner The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Steven Soderbergh’s Sundance selection Presence.

The 18 world premieres include Iranian filmmaker Ali Samadi Ahadi’s human rights drama Seven Days written by Rasoulof,...

A drama about an Iranian human rights activist and a documentary about the hacking of queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara are among the films that have been added to the lineup of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which unveiled its Centrepiece section on Tuesday to kick off a second week of programming announcements.

The 43 films come from filmmakers representing 41 countries, with 18 of the titles receiving their world premieres at TIFF. Those premieres include “Seven Days,” a film about an imprisoned Iranian activist directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker who was himself sentenced to flogging and prison by Iranian authorities; “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a romantic comedy from French writer-director Laura Piani; “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” a debut from the Nigerian filmmaking group known as the Agbajowo Collective; and Erin Lee Carr’s “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,...

Programmers from Sundance, Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight, Toronto, and Rotterdam, sales agents such as Goodfellas and Coproduction Office and U.S. distributor Magnify Pictures are among 50 top international guests expected at the inaugural Ecam Forum co-production market in Madrid, which is due to unspool June 10-14.

More than 300 delegates have signed up for the co-pro event where a curated slate of 37 Spanish, Latin American and international films and series will compete for the best project, including the next Lois Patiño (“Samsara”), Pablo Hernando (“Berserker”), Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”) and Sergi Perez (“The Long Way Home”).

Other highlights include masterclasses from U.S. indie mogul Ted Hope, and France’s illustrious cinematographer Hélène Louvart, a regular Alice Rohrwacher and Karim Aïnouz collaborator, and Silver Bear winner 2023 for “Disco Boy.”

In this exclusive interview, Ecam Forum’s coordinator Alberto Valverde maps out the full program of the latest industry initiative of Madrid’s Ecam film school,...

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...

Catalan films routinely punch above their weight at high-profile international festivals: Think 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs.” That trend looks primed to continue in 2024.

Catalan auteur Albert Serra will debut “Afternoons of Solitude,” co-produced by Catalan companies Andergraun Films and Lacima, with Ideale Audience and Tardes de Soledad.

A fall fest bet, “They Will Be Dust,” from Carlos Marqués- Marcet, is produced by Catalonia’s Lastor Media alongside Chile’s Alina Film and Kino Produzioni in Italy.

Few regions boast a lineup of female filmmakers as impressive as Catalonia. This year, new films from Goya Award winners Pilar Palomero (“Glimmers”) and Belén Funes (“The Turtles”) are strong contenders for festival recognition.

With the backing of Catalonia’s Minority Co-Production Fund, four international co-prods are poised to make a significant impact on this year’s festival circuit. Keep an eye out for Javier Rebollo’s “Close to the Sultan”, Calia Atan...

Tagged as the new co-production showcase “like all those European markets but hotter,” Ecam Forum, launched by Madrid Film School Ecam, has unveiled the first 10 projects in development and eight in post-production, to be pitched to international decision-makers between June 10-13, in the Spanish capital.

Famed for its standout talent development program Ecam Incubator, the Madrid Film School has set a high bar for its inaugural Forum, which aims to broaden the reach of Spanish productions and co-productions and build bridges between Spain and the global industry.

First case in point: the heavyweight industry names in the selection committees, which reflect the ambitions of coordinator Alberto Valverde and his team, to frame Ecam Forum as a must-attend industry event.

The 10-plus Films to Come or features in development were picked by producers Inés Massa (Materia Cinema) and Agustina Chiarino (Bocacha Films), Eurimages project manager Sergio García de Leániz, and Marina Maesso,...

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.

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...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Cannes — An Atresplayer Premium Original, “The Route,” begins as the lead characters’ time together ends, in 1993.

A star DJ on Valencia’s Ruta de Bakalao, Marc’s heart isn’t in it anymore. He visits his family home and sits in his bedroom, still plastered with teenage memorabilia, trying to connect with a younger self who felt music with passion. For Sento, clubbing is now a business. Toni wonders if it’s time to go home.

“The Route” (“La Ruta”) then goes back in time, one episode at a time to end to when the friends first met, in 1981, and enjoyed some kind of innocence. Even a flashback to 1981 in the first episode feature a sequence which is narrated backwards, though many viewers may not cotton on.

As around all the world, global streamers demand for original series from Spain may in many cases now be slowing down. The creativity...

Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales has taken international sales rights to Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing, drama “La voluntaria” (“The Volunteer”), toplining “Broken Embraces,” “Perfect Life” and Piggy” star Carmen Machi, one of the biggest marquee draws in Spain.

World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.

Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).

A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films.

Madrid — Flushed by Netflix success with “Below Zero,” Spain brings an extraordinary gamut of movie titles to Berlin. Some highlights:

“All the Moons,” (Igor Legarreta)

A France-Spain co-production, “All the Moons” tracks two vampires in the northern Spain during the last Carlist war. S.A. Filmax

“Ane is Missing,” (David Pérez Sañudo)

A 2021 best picture Goya nominee, Patricia López Arnáiz dominates as a mother looking for her teenage daughter. S.A. Latido

“Alcarrás,” (Carla Simon)

Much anticipated after Simon’s “Summer 1993,” “Alcarrás” tracks the final harvest at a multi-generational family farm. Co-produced with Italy. S.A. MK2 Films

“Baby,” (Juanma Bajo Ulloa)

This dialogue-free thriller follows an upper-class drug addict trying to track down her baby after selling it to a child trafficker.S.A. Latido

“Beyond the Summit,” (Ibon Cormenzana)

Javier Rey (“Fariña”) & Patricia Lopez Arnaiz (“Ane”) star in this mountain climbing metaphor for self-realization.

S.A. Filmax

“Brothers-In-Law,...

The Icaa is presenting, online, the forthcoming works by brilliant filmmakers of the likes of Belén Funes, Álvaro Gago and Guillermo García López, selected for the Berlinale. The date has been set for Monday 1 March, between 1 pm and 2 pm: using Vimeo (click here), visitors will be able to meet the teams behind three Spanish features that are sure to set tongues wagging and that are bound to have a great run on the festival circuit in the years to come. Promoted by the Icaa (Spanish Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute), this event moderated by Mercedes Martínez Abarca, a programmer and industry expert from International Film Festival Rotterdam, will unpick three projects selected for the European Film Market at the 2021 Berlinale, helmed by talented directors of the calibre of Belén Funes, Álvaro Gago (similarly lauded...

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...

Catalan auteur Carla Simón, a 2017 Berlinale Generation Kplus winner with “Summer 1993,” is preparing her third feature, “Romería,” which has been selected among 17 new feature projects to be offered at Rotterdam Film Festival’s CineMart co-production market, to be held Feb. 1-5.

“Romería” (the Spanish name for a popular pilgrimage) will be produced by María Zamora at Avalon, the producer of Simón’s “Summer 1993” and “Alcarràs.” Based in Madrid and founded by Stefan Schmitz, production-distribution outfit Avalon includes Zamora and Enrique Costa as partners.

Having previously participated at the TorinoFilmLab Next program, “Romería” follows Frida, a teenager whose parents died when she was only a child. Adopted by her maternal uncle, the girl loses contact with her father’s side of the family. Wanting to understand the reasons behind the absence of half her family, and more specifically in order to learn about her own past, Frida decides to...

The Berlin International Film Festival’s European Film Market (EFM) has confirmed details for how its online incarnation will work March 1-5.

As Deadline revealed, Dennis Ruh took the reins at the EFM in September 2020 and faces an unconventional first edition.

“International sales agents have filled their lineups for the start of the year and have an attractive variety of films on offer. Many films are also currently in production and ready for pre-sales. We want the digital EFM in 2021 to be an impulse for a new beginning in the international film industry,” said Ruh today. “Since the EFM is an integral part of an international convention calendar, and therefore part of an economic system that includes events such as the Marché du Film in Cannes and the American Film Market in Los Angeles, a later date is not an option.”

The Efm will condense the industry sessions from its...

Like many of its counterparts worldwide, the Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (Ficg), Mexico’s largest film festival, faced the quandary of whether to go online, reschedule or cancel altogether because of the pandemic.

It opted for a rescheduled hybrid 35th edition which would serve those either unable or afraid to travel and those without an internet connection in Mexico.

“We struck a deal with Canal 44 to have them air some of our films,” said festival director Estrella Araiza, who is adamant that despite the challenges and complications, the film community will prevail in the end. “We have to believe in cinema,” she declared. Outdoor screenings and restricted indoor cinema screenings are on the schedule while most of the master classes and conferences are online.

Ficg was pushed from its traditional March dates to the fall, where it’s now been running over Nov. 20-27.

Its inauguration on Friday Nov.

Twenty projects by the likes of Pilar Palomero, Gabriel Azorín and Ion de Sosa will benefit from the wisdom and experience of directors including Isabel Coixet, Juan Cavestany and Manuel Martín Cuenca. Following the success of last year’s inaugural edition (read more here), the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — led by Mariano Barroso — launched the second edition of its Residences programme on Monday, 5 October. The initiative, coordinated by Inés Enciso, is designed to offer intensive coaching to a talented cohort of creative filmmakers. Due to the current public health situation, this year’s edition will adopt a hybrid format, with some aspects moved online. The programme will continue until July 2021, during which time the selected participants will work on their projects with support and guidance from some of Spain’s most illustrious directors, including Isabel Coixet, Juan Cavestany, Belén Funes, Manuel Martín Cuenca, Víctor García...

One of the major figures at this year’s Venice Film Festival, Academy Award-nominated “Call Me By Your Name” director Luca Guadagnino will serve as president of the main competition official jury at Spain’s 68th San Sebastian Festival.

The announcement comes as Guadagnino world premieres two films at Venice: the doc feature “Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams,” about extraordinary Italian luxury shoe designer-entrepreneur Salvatore Ferragamo, and a more personal 122-minute short “Fiori, Fiori, Fiori,” in which Guadagnino looks up childhood friends to see how they’re faring during Covid-19.

At San Sebastian, Guadagnino will also be on double duty as he will also present out of the competition the world premiere of his series “We Are What We Are,” an HBO/Sky Italia production sold by Fremantle.

Acclaimed for his often glamorous movies directed with a high-style, and set in glorious locations and featuring marvelous houses – Guadagnino nevertheless maintains he has no style,...

During this period, Spanish filmmakers such as Lois Patiño and Belén Funes accepted the Oviedo Film Week’s invitation to each make a short film, all of which are available on the festival’s website. The camera roams around a flat, before exiting through a door and ascending a staircase only to glimpse, off in the distance, the beautiful light and sweeping landscape of the freedom we all dream of: in the meantime, we’ve been listening to a monologue from Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker. The action unfolds in Vigo, and the auteur behind it is none other than Galician artist Lois Patiño: his short is entitled El deseo más recóndito (lit. “The Most Remote Desire”), and together with those of another eight filmmakers – such as Belén Funes, who directed hers from her abode in Barcelona – it is an integral part of the so-called Postales filmadas (lit. “Filmed Postcards”), nine short.

Madrid — Producer of Academy Award nominated “7.35 in the Morning” and “One Two Many” and then signature features by Nacho Vigalondo, Borja Cobeaga and Koldo Serra, Basque cinema driving force Sayaka Producciones has boarded Alauda Ruíz de Azúa’s “Five Little Wolves” as a producer.

Etb, the Basque Country’s public broadcaster, is also backing the project, pre-buying rights in March 2020.

Sayaka joins Madrid-based Encanta Films, producer of “The Wound,” a San Sebastian Special Jury Prize and best actress winner, on one of the most awaited of Spanish feature debuts, and also one of five projects selected from more than 200 submissions for the Ecam Madrid Film School’s second edition in 2019 of its Screen Incubator.

A leading Spanish development initiative, the Incubator is supported by Netflix, Movistar Plus, Tve and Atresmedia which all sent representatives to talk to the producers and directors.

“Five Little Wolves” also won the first prize for...

Sales for the Argentinian box-office hit spice up a busy Efm for the Madrid-based sales outfit .

Madrid-based sales outfit Latido Films has scored several key territory deals on Argentinian box office hit The Heist Of The Century (El robo del siglo) after market screenings at this year’s Efm.

The based on a true story comedy about a botched bank robbery has gone to France (Eurozoom), Spain (Syldavia), Greece (Rosebud), Switzerland (Trigon) and Australia (Palace). There are also offers on the table from Russia, Italy and China.

Released in Argentina this January, The Heist Of The Century is directed by...

Pedro Almodóvar calls for “protection” of independent cinema in Spain.

Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain & Glory was the big winner at the Spanish Film Academy Awards in Málaga on Saturday night (25) with seven Goyas including best film, best director and best actor for Antonio Banderas.

With 17 and 16 nominations respectively, Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War and Almodóvar’s Pain & Glory started the night as the two favourites and the race looked close until almost the end, when Antonio Banderas went onstage to collect the Goya for best actor.

A moved Banderas – who had already seen his work recognised with...

Pedro Almodóvar calls for “protection” of independent cinema in Spain.

Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain & Glory was the big winner at the Spanish Film Academy Awards in Málaga on Saturday night (25) with seven Goyas including best film, best director and best actor for Antonio Banderas.

With 17 and 16 nominations respectively, Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War and Almodóvar’s Pain & Glory started the night as the two favourites and the race looked close until almost the end, when Antonio Banderas went onstage to collect the Goya for best actor.

A moved Banderas – who had already seen his work recognised with...

Madrid — Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” took home Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Antonio Banderas) and Best Original Screenplay at the 34th Spanish Academy Goya Awards, as well as Best Editing, Original Music and Supporting Actress (Julieta Serrano).

Almodóvar’s night did have one blemish, however. On the red carpet ahead of the ceremony he accidentally let slip that actress Penelope Cruz will be handing out this year’s Academy Award for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, as she and Banderas did last time Almodóvar won, with 2000’s “All About my Mother.”

Saturday night’s ceremony ran like a marathon, with Almodóvar and Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” exchanging the lead back and forth over the 3.5 hour ceremony before “Pain and Glory” took the ceremony’s final three prizes, ending with seven awards while Amenábar’s Spanish Civil War epic notched five.

In his first on-stage appearance of the night,...

Other nominees include ‘Intemperie’, ’The Endless Trench’ and ’Fire Will Come’.

Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War leads the nominations for Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards but will face-off against Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory at the ceremony on January 25 in Malaga.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Amenábar’s Spanish Civil War drama has secured 17 nominations while Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical film has 16 nods.

While At War has proved a box office hit following its debut at Toronto, ranking as Spain’s third highest-grossing domestic film of 2019 and taking more than $11.3m to date.

Pain and Glory...

Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” will go head-to-head with two other big Spanish films – Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and “The Endless Trench,” from Aitor Aguirre, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga – at Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards, to be held Jan. 25 in Malaga.

“Pain and Glory” garnered 16 nominations,” “While at War” 17 and “The Endless Trench” 15.

Though most pundits would put “Pain and Glory” as the frontrunner, the outcome is difficult to predict. World-premiering in Spain before competing in Cannes, where Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize, “Pain and Glory” was reckoned by Spanish critics to be Almodóvar’s best film in a decade.

But ever since the screenplay for Luis Buñuel’s “Viridiana,” which went on to win the Palme d’Or, was written off in Spain as nonsense, the Spanish industry has steadfastly refused to kowtow to internationally acclaimed directors or indeed talent.

Screening at Ventana Sur,...

New sounds stages were the talk of the festival.

Oliver Laxe’s Fire Will Come picked up two top prizes at the 60th Thessaloniki Film Festival (Oct 31-Nov 10) on Sunday, winning the Golden Alexander worth €15,000 for best film and a best actor award for Amador Arias.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The Spanish film, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes, centres on a convicted arsonist (Arias) who returns to his family home in rural Galicia. Pyramide International handles world sales.

Maya Da-Rin’s The Fever won the Silver Alexander special jury award, worth €8,000. The drama,...

Oliver Laxe’s “Fire Will Come” won the top prize, the Golden Alexander, at the 60th Thessaloniki Intl. Film Festival on Sunday, as well as the best actor award for Amador Arias, playing an arsonist who returns to his family home in the mountains.

The film, described in its Variety review as “a rustically beautiful rural parable,” played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard sidebar — where it won the runner-up Jury Prize.

The Special Jury Award, the Silver Alexander, went to Maya Da-Rin’s “The Fever,” which world premiered at Locarno Film Festival. The film explores the complex and tense relationship between indigenous communities in Brazil and Western civilization.

The special jury award for best director, the Bronze Alexander, went to Melina Leon for “Song Without a Name,” which dramatizes a true-life case of Peruvian baby trafficking. The film played in Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes.

Greta Fernandez took the best actress...

The programme for the 11th edition of the Les Arcs Film Festival - running 14-21 December - has been unveiled. An unmissable event for all European auteur cinema professionals, Les Arcs Film Festival will offer an opulent, high-class menu for its 11th edition (running 14 – 21 December), welcoming the actresses Isabelle Huppert (as the ambassador of Talent Village) and Barbara Sukowa as guests of honour.The winning feature film from among the 10 titles in the running for the Crystal Arrow 2019 will be decided upon by a jury presided over by French filmmaker Guillaume Nicloux, who will be shored up in his work by Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi, German star Nina Hoss, French-Afghan filmmaker Atiq Rahimi and Argentine screenwriter and director Santiago Amigorena.The competition concocted by artistic director Frédéric Boyer includes nine French premieres, amongst which A Thief’s Daughter by the Spaniard Belén Funes (who scooped the Best Female...

‘The Endless Trench’ picked up four prizes.

Brazilian production Pacified (Pacificado) by Us director Paxton Winters won the top award at the San Sebastián International Film Festival, at the ceremony held on Saturday, September 28.

With Darren Aronofsky as a producer, the film is set in a favela in Rio de Janeiro.

The jury, led by Irish filmmaker Neil Jordan, also awarded Pacified the Silver Shell for best actor to Bukassa Kabengele and the Jury prize for best cinematography to Laura Merians.

Paxton Winters, a reporter and filmmaker, got to know life in the favelas he portrays living there before he tackled Pacified.

San Sebastian — Blessed by sun, a steady sustenance of Donostia winning stars and a stream of production announcements, the San Sebastian Film Festival rounded its final bend on Friday after a robust 67th edition. San Sebastian’s status as the highest-profile movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remains unquestioned. The maelstrom of change – imminent global platforms. markets, Latin American politics -could not but play out over events, forging a festival of sharp contrasts and little granularity about how major pivots in the global business could impact the Spanish-language arthouse business and new directors, its stock in trade. Following seven takeaways from this edition:

1. The Winners: Spanish Svod Platforms

You could hear a proverbial pin drop as HBO España unveiled first footage from its first announced series in Spain: “Patria,” a multi-time-period set chronicle on the human impact of the Basque conflict. It left San Sebastian with the status of a must-see show.

San Sebastian — The slums of Rio (“City of God”) and Casablanca (“Horses of God”), and now low-income youth, juggling love, broken families and bills in the proudly modern city of Barcelona: For many middle-class spectators, Spain’s “A Thief’s Daughter” will present as bracing an only-half-known reality – as the earlier-mentioned films.

At its get-go, a group of young women don headscarfs to clean a dusty basement. They look for a moment like Maghrebi immigrants in Spain. But then Spain’s youth, after recession, are like a new native immigrant class. And the delight and pain of “A Thief’s Daughter” are in the details and the cumulative portrait of a heroine for whom there are no easy fixes. Variety talked to the film’s director, Belén Funes, on the eve of this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, where her debut, sold by Latido Films, world premiered in main competition Wednesday,...

San Sebastian — Fasten Films will produce “El Nieto” (‘The Grandson’), Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing. Greece’s Homemade Films and Spain’s producer-distributor Bteam will co-produce.

A Barcelona-based company founded by Adrián Monés, formerly a producer at Filmax), Fasten Films is the company that has co-produced Emmy winner Justin Webster’s non-fiction series “The Prosecutor, the President and the Spy,” which had its world premiere on Monday, playing San Sebastian’s Zabaltegi showcase.

Reguera is currently co-directing— alongside Inés de León— Netflix original TV series “Valeria.”

Premiered at San Sebastian film festival in 2016, Reguera’s dramedy debut “Maria (And The Others)” garnered plaudits from reviewers and audiences. The feature snagged best film at Miami’s HBO Ibero-American Competition among other international prizes.

Alongside further female directors like Carla Simón (“Summer 1993”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Celia Rico (“Journey Around a Mother’s Room”), Laura Ferrés (“The Desinherited...

San Sebastian — Paris-based MK2 has boarded “Alcarràs,” the second feature film of Catalan auteur Carla Simón (“Summer 1993”), a leading member of a bright new generation of lauded and laurelled Catalan women directors including Neus Ballús, Belén Funes, Meritxell Colell, among others.

Currently in development, “Alcarràs” will be produced by Madrid-based production-distribution outfit Avalon– the Spanish distributors of Ruben Östlund’s “The Square,” Robin Campillo’s “120 Beats Per Minute,” and producers of “Summer 1993″ and Carlos Marques-Marcet’s “The Days to Come,” at this year’s San Sebastian Festival in its Made in Spain showcase.

Simón’s autobiographical debut “Summer 1993” snagged the Best First Film Award and the Generation Kplus Grand Prix at Berlin in 2017. The feature was Spain’s 2018 Oscars race entry, nominated for the Efa Discovery Award and won three Goyas including best new director. Carla Simón also received the Women in Motion Emerging Talent Award in Cannes in 2018.

Inspired by her own adoptive family,...