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In addition to Spain’s strong presence in Cannes’ competition sections this year, the country has numerous high-profile titles looking to woo buyers at the Marché du Film. Below, we look at some of the most intriguing titles set for this year’s market.

“Away,” Gerard Oms

Produced by Zabriskie Films (Spain) and Revolver Amsterdam (Netherlands), “Away” is a Spanish-Dutch co-production shot entirely in the Netherlands. It employs a naturalistic and neorealist tone to portray the story of a Spanish immigrant adrift in Northern Europe. The film stars Spanish A-lister Mario Casas.

Sales: Latido Films

“Deaf,” Eva Libertad

Berlin’s Panorama Audience Awardwinner “Deaf,” produced by Distinto Films, Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films, addresses motherhood through the lens of the deaf community. It is one of the first Spanish features to fully center the experience of a deaf woman, starring Álvaro Cervantes and Libertad’s sister Miriam Garlo. The...

World premiering at the Malaga Film Festival on March 15, Sara Fantova’s feature debut “Jone, batzuetan” vies for the top prize in official competition.

Penned by Fantova, Nuria Martín and Núria Dunjó, the coming-of-age story set in the Basque Country’s Bilbao draws from the lives of all three.

While Fantova notes that it is not based on real events or a specific episode from her own life, it was inspired by the diaries her father gave her of his own youth.

“Reading those documents was what initially inspired the development of the film. What has ultimately remained from that inspiration are the texts that accompany Jone, narrated in voice-over by her father,” Fantova told Variety.

“Beyond that, and despite choosing to set the film in a real context—the celebrations of Bilbao’s Aste Nagusia—the story is entirely fictional,” she said adding: “The three of us wanted to...

A selection of Spanish titles being sold at the European Film Market.

“My Friend Eva,” Cesc Gay

A romantic comedy about Eva, who, after 20 years of marriage, seeks to rediscover love and passion, directed by “Truman” helmer Gay. “Cesc’s films are always highly anticipated. He’s a director who’s given us so much success in the past,” says the film’s sales agent.

S.A. Filmax

*”The Virgin of the Quarry Lake,” Laura Casabé

Set in 2001 Argentina, this film follows Natalia, who uses dark incantations to win back her love, leading to self-empowerment and a dramatic conclusion. A buzz title at last month’s Sundance market.

S.A. Filmax

*”Fury,” Gemma Blasco

A young actress, Alex, grapples with trauma and isolation after a New Year’s Eve assault. Her brother’s misguided support leads them down dark paths, while Alex finds solace in theatre. Headed to SXSW’s global program this year.

Goteborg Film Festival has unveiled the programme for its 48th edition, with 22 feature world premieres and four feature competition sections.

World premiere titles include Asier Urbieta’s Spanish thriller Pheasant Island in the international competition section. The debut feature from Spanish filmmaker Urbieta sees a young Basque couple’s relationship put to the test when a dead body is found on the mysterious titular island.

Scroll down for the feature competition sections

It is one of 18 films in the international competition, alongside 2024 festival favourites Santosh, To A Land Unknown and All We Imagine As Light.

The nine-strong Nordic competition includes three world premieres.

On Falling, the debut feature from Laura Carreira is among the titles set to feature as part of the Ingmar Bergman Competition at this year’s Göteborg Film Festival.

On Falling follows Aurora, a young Portuguese woman who struggles to make ends meet across one week in her adopted home of Glasgow, Scotland. Long days spent grabbing packages off shelves for an anonymous e-commerce giant barely cover the bills and leave her exhausted and desperate for something more. Per the synopsis: Aurora seeks to resist the loneliness, alienation, and ensuing small talk that begin to threaten her sense of self. Set against a landscape dominated by an algorithm-driven gig economy, designed to keep us apart. The film was produced by Jack Thomas-o’Brien of Sixteen Films alongside the Portuguese-based Bro Cinema. Backers include BBC Film, BFI, and Screen Scotland. Conic will release the pic in UK cinemas in early 2025.

Other titles...

La película se proyectó en el Festival de Cine de San Sebastián y también lo hará en el Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla. © A Contracorriente Films

Ya se ha publicado el primer tráiler de Los últimos románticos, el segundo largometraje de David Pérez Sañudo (Ane), que tuvo su estreno mundial en el Festival Internacional de Cine de San Sebastián y se proyectará en el Festival de Cine Europeo de Sevilla antes de su estreno en salas.

Basada en la novela homónima de Txani Rodríguez, ganadora del Premio Euskadi de Literatura, Los últimos románticos /Azken erromantikoak sigue a Irune, una mujer insegura, solitaria y con tendencias hipocondríacas que trabaja en una fábrica de papel situada en las afueras de un pueblo industrial. Su vida se limita a un reducido círculo de conocidos: sus compañeros de trabajo, una vecina con la que comparte algo parecido a una amistad y un operador...

La película, basada en hechos reales, retrata la historia del primer asesino en serie registrado en España. © Buena Vista Internacional

Comienza el rodaje de Sacamantecas, una película dirigida por David Pérez Sañudo (Los últimos románticos), coescrita junto a Sergio Granda, que se adentra en la leyenda del escalofriante personaje real de Juan Díaz de Garayo, conocido como el Sacamantecas.

Basada en una historia original de Asier Guerricaechebarría y Joanes Urkixo, Sacamantecas se sitúa en Álava a finales del siglo Xix. En plena Tercera Guerra Carlista, varias mujeres aparecen estranguladas en las afueras de Vitoria. Ángela Berrosteguieta (López Arnaiz), hermana de una de las víctimas, llega en busca de justicia, decidida a demostrar que Juan Díaz de Garayo (de la Torre), un campesino analfabeto, es el responsable de los crímenes. Sin embargo, Pío Pinedo (Bengoetxea), jefe de los alguaciles, se enfrenta a la falta de recursos en tiempos de guerra y...

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

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

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

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

San Sebastian — At this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Basque cinema brings arguably its strong slate ever, fruits from its fast growing scene.

Among the throng of titles is Andrea Jaurrieta’s “Nina” offering a contemporary, feminist twist on the classic Western, featuring Patricia López Arnaiz as a woman seeking revenge in her coastal hometown. David Pérez Sañudo’s “The Last Romantics” presents a tale of second chances, starring Miren Gaztañaga as a woman confronting her mortality.

The documentary lineup is equally compelling, with Raúl de la Fuente’s “Los Williams” exploring race and identity through Basque soccer stars Iñaki and Nico Williams, and Carmen Chaplin’s “Charlie Chaplin, A Man of the World” providing an unprecedented look at the legendary filmmaker’s Romani heritage.

Here’s the rundown:

Main Competition

“I’m Nevenka,”

Co-written with Isa Campo, Icíar Bollaín dramatizes the harrowing true story of Nevenka Fernández, the first...

Seasoned international sales agent Oscar Alonso, one of Spain’s best-known – and well-regarded – executives in overseas markets, has joined Madrid-based Lazona as head of distribution at its domestic distribution arm Lazona Pictures.

A prominent player on Spain’s film scene, as a producer Lazona was behind “Spanish Affair,” the highest-grossing national movie in Spanish history grossing €55.2 million ($59.7 million) at cinema theaters in 2014.

Lazona also produced Enrique Urbizu’s “No Rest for the Wicked,” which swept six Spanish Academy awards in 2012, including best picture, as well as auteurist hits such as Manuel Martin Cuenca’s 2017 Toronto winner “El autor” and banner Spanish TV series, led by Movistar Plus+ “Gigantes” (2017-18), also from Urbizu.

A former senior executive at Madrid-based Latido Films, one of the Spanish-speaking world’s top film sales agents, Alonso joined Latido in 2005, serving as its festivals manager – and a sales executive during colleagues’ during colleagues’ absences – before being...

Eleven filmmakers from Argentina, China, France, Georgia, Spain, Thailand, Turkey and the USA will show their first and second films in the San Sebastian Festival’s (Sep 20-28) New Directors section.

Among them are new projects featuring Nick Robinson and Bel Powley, Nicolas Duvauchelle and Denis Lavant, and Roschdy Zem and Bella Kim.

Below is the lineup:

Gülizar / Gulizar is a Turkish-Kosovar co-production about a young victim of sexual assault in the run-up to her wedding. It marks the feature debut from Turkish moviemaker Belkis Bayrak;

Roschdy Zem and Bella Kim star in Hiver à Sokcho / Winter in Sokcho, the first movie from the French-Japanese director Koya Kamura. The French-Korean co-production tells the tale of a young Korean girl whose life is thrown into disarray when a French artist arrives in the Asian country;

Sivaroj Kongsakul made his feature directorial debut with Eternity (2010), screened at festivals including Busan, Rotterdam and Hong Kong.

US director Michael Tyburski’s Turn Me On, starring Bel Powley and Nick Robinson, about a society where human emotion has been eradicated by a daily pill, is one of 10 first and second features selected for the New Directors competition at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The strand will open with Antón Álvarez’s La Guitarra Flamenca De Yerai Cortes, a documentary about the director’s journey recording an album with a renowned flamenco artist.

Among the other titles is Koya Kamura’s debut Winter In Sokcho, a drama set in a seaside village in South Korea and starring Bella Kim and Roschdy Zem.

Spain’s San Sebastian Film Festival has unveiled a 10-title lineup of its New Directors competition, the festival’s biggest sidebar, which takes in “Turn Me On,” the new feature from Michael Tyburski, helmer of Sundance hit “The Sound of Silence.”

Starring Bel Powley and Nick Robinson and sold by Film Constellation, “Turn Me On,” a sci-fi romantic comedy, joins buzz titles in the section, such as “In the Name of Blood,” a Nice-set Georgian mafia movie from Georgia’s Akaki Popkhadze, prized at Clermont Ferrand for his latest short, and “Gulizar,” the first feature from Turkish moviemaker Belkis Bayrak, about a young victim of sexual assault in the run-up to her wedding.

Also selected for New Directors are “Winter in Sokcho,” from French-Japanese director Koya Kamura, starring Roschdy Zem and Bella Kim, and “Regretfully at Dawn,” a drama set in a province near Bangkok directed by Thai helmer Sivaroj Kongsakul.

Projects from Albert Serra and Iciar Bollain are among the 12 Spanish features selected for the 2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff), taking place from September 20-28.

Serra will compete for the first time in San Sebastian’s official section with bullfighting documentary Tardes De Soledad. His previous films include Locarno winner The Story Of My Death and 2022 Cannes premiere Pacifiction.

Competing in the main section for the fifth time is Iciar Bollain with I’m Nevenka, about a town councillor who reports abuse by the major. Mireia Oriol and Urko Olazabal star.

Also selected are Pedro Martín-Calero’s directorial debut The Wailing,...

The San Sebastian Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, has unveiled a packed lineup of Spanish titles that is strong on women auteurs, led by Iciar Bollaín, Pilar Palomero, Paula Ortiz and Alauda Ruiz de Azua, who are now stepping up in scale or industry backing as big SVOD players – Movistar Plus+, Prime Video – move into the production of Spanish movies aimed at theatrical release or back their original series.

Vying in main competition, Bollaín’s “I Am Nevenka” looks like the first film to see the light of day from six auteur event movies co-produced by Movistar Plus+ and directed by leading cinematographic talent such as Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Alberto Fernández.

Also selected are two leading lights of a younger generation of women directors which have galvanised Spanish arthouse but are now looking for broader audiences.

Goya and San Sebastian winner Pilar Palomero competes in main competition with “Glimmers,...

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...

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

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

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

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

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

Ballet Hispánico announces The Quinceañera Gala, honoring Oscar Munoz, Former CEO & Chairman, United Airlines, with the Nuestra Inspiración Award—presented by Marcos Torres, Senior Managing Director at Rbc Capital Markets and Ballet Hispánico Board Member, and Eduardo Vilaro’s 15th season as Artistic Director of Ballet Hispánico, with remarks by Darren Walker, President of the Ford Foundation.

Ballet Hispánico 2024 Gala Performance (6:30pm) and Dinner

The Ballet Hispánico Gala Dinner is a beloved New York event attended by some 500 leaders in the arts and business communities and is truly a spectacular evening filled with performances by the students from its School of Dance and, of course, live music by three-time Grammy Award Winner, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, that entices guests to take to the dance floor. The critical funds raised at the Gala provide dance training scholarships that change the lives of young people, inspiring performances by the professional Company, and...

Top Spanish Titles brought to market at MipTV:

“Dating in Barcelona,” (Filmax)

Produced by Filmax’s Arca, Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat and Prime Video in Spain, a first season of “Dating in Barcelona” bowed last year in Spain to big ratings, both on its first-window debut on 3Cat and on Prime Video, where it became one of the streaming service’s most-watched debuts. A modern take on romance and sex in an online age, “Dating in Barcelona” also reflects a swing in TV towards a lighter, more episodic fare, whether in crime thrillers or other categories. Each episode features two dates which, as Variety has observed, play off each other. Powered in creative terms by Pau Freixas, behind iconic series from “Red Band Society” To “I Know Who You Are” And “Todos Mienten,” All Produced By Filmax, “Dating In Barcelona” features a top-tier cast, this time round in Season...

David Pérez Sañudo (“Ane is Missing”) and Carlos Vila Sexto (“Motivos Personales”) are ready for a different kind of hero in “Detective Touré.”

A six-episode series, backed by Spanish public broadcaster Rtve, Detective Touré Aie, Tornasol Media, DeAPlaneta and Basque state TV Eitb, the series is based on stories by Jon Arretxe.

The series first caught attention when selected as a project at Series Mania’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. Sneak-peaked at Content Americas in January, it was one of the highlights at its Spain Content Goldmine.

Set in Bilbao’s neighborhood San Francisco, it sees an immigrant from Guinea – with acute skills of deduction – who becomes immersed in a complex investigation, with the Nigerian mafia on his trail.

“We are used to having police officers involved in these kinds of shows, but an illegal immigrant? That’s something we have never seen before, at least in Spain,” says Vila Sexto.

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

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

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

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

Atresmedia TV’s “Dreams of Freedom,” Rtve’s “Detective Touré” and Mediterráneo’s “Fentanyl: A Deadly Epidemic,” feature in Spain Content Goldmine: In Demand Like Never Before, a showcase of new and upcoming Spanish series unspooling Jan. 23 on the first day of Content Americas.

The title’s no hype. Since “Money Heist” became Netflix’s first true-blue global non-English blockbuster in 2018, Spain has consistently seen its top shows and movies rank high in global streamer charts, or sell worldwide, such as The Mediapro Studio’s “The Head.”

In 2022, in Europe, most fiction titles commissioned by global streamers were produced in Spain (34) and the U.K. (32), according to the European Audiovisual Observatory.

In 2023, film and TV titles from Spain have ranked No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English Top 10 charts for more weeks – 13 – than those from any other country in the world, apart from South Korea. This month, after dropping on Netflix on Jan.

Bizkaia is seeing a boom in production with freshly implemented tax incentives luring industry leaders from Europe and abroad to the region for ever-more-ambitious audiovisual projects.

The incentives, which kicked off Jan. 1, offer an up-to-70% deduction tax break for national and international co-productions of film and TV projects, with no included cap.

Already enticing studios such as Toboggan and production houses Buendía Studios and Tornasol to set up in Bizlaia and streaming giant Netflix to invest in original productions, the territory is fast capitalizing on the breaks that work in tandem with its illustrious landscapes, savvy creative and support networks.

According to the Bilbao Bizkaia Film Commission, to date the territory has added more than 230 days of filming from the start of the new incentive. Tornasol and DeAPlaneta backed “Detective Touré,” from Spanish Goya-winning filmmaker David Pérez Sañudo, begins filming in June while the previously shot Netflix backed series “El Silencio...

Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” was described by Pedro Almodóvar as “undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years.” Chema García Ibarra’s “The Sacred Spirit” was hailed by Variety as “one of the standouts of the 2021 Locarno Film Festival.” David Pérez Sañudo’s “Ane is Missing” won three Spanish Academy Goya Awards last year.

What these three Spanish movies, all first features, have in common is that they have passed through the Ecam Madrid Film School’s Incubator, a six-month producer mentorship initiative.

As its fifth edition rounds a final bend, Variety analyzes what its projects say about the state of cutting-edge young Spanish cinema and what the talent behind it says about the state of contemporary filmmaking.

Filmmakers With Attitude

On the face of it, the five projects developed this year could not be more different, in genre, tone and issues tackled. Gabriel Azorín’s “Last...

Spanish director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, who swept the board at March’s Málaga Film Festival, has wrapped shooting on her sophomore feature, “Eres Tú,” a Netflix’ romantic comedy produced by Antonio Asensio and Paloma Molina at Zeta Studios ­­– the Madrid-based company behind phenomenon “Elite.” Miriam Rodríguez executive produces.

After distributing Almodovar and signing up J.A. Bayona for real-life disaster drama “Society of the Snow,” Ruiz de Azúa’s attachment to “Eres tú” marks another association with a prestige director by Netflix in Spain.

Netflix Spain already accounts for three of the five most watched non-English Netflix movies ever: “The Platform,” “Below Zero” and “Through My Window.” It is, however, progressively diversifying its slate of series, movies, documentaries and TV shows by incorporating different creators profiles to create potential crowd-pleasers.

“Eres tú” follows Javier who, when 16 and kissing a girl for the first time, discovers that he had a gift of romantic clairvoyance.

Spain’s TV industry will make history at Series Mania Forum 2022, with its biggest panel and sneak peek series presentation presence ever at a major TV market.

The Spanish conference attendance – alongside Finland’s panel spread – also weighs in as the biggest from any single country at the upcoming edition of the most important co-production event for scripted TV series in Europe.

Series Mania Forum runs on-site over March 22-24 in Lille, northern France, under the larger Series Mania Festival umbrella.

Organized by Icex Spain Trade & Investment, the country’s export and inward investment board, the Spanish pavilion at the Lille Grand Palais will host a record-breaking delegation for Spain of around 20 companies and more than 50 executives.

That’s a sign of just how much Series Mania has grown as an industry forum in the last few years, and of Spain’s ambition to ramp up exports of Spanish movies...

Spanish Academy Award-winning filmmaker David Pérez Sañudo (“Ane is Missing”) is shifting his gaze to the small screen, writing the upcoming eight-part drama series “Detective Touré,” which he will co-pen with novelist and TV writer Carlos Vila (“Los misterios de Laura”).

Based on the “Detective Touré Saga” books by Basque author John Arretxe, the series is produced by Oscar-winning studio Tornasol (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) and DeAPlaneta, a prolific sales-distribution outfit now focused on producing literary adaptations (“Ana. All In”).

Just this week, the project was picked as one of 15 finalists selected to pitch at next month’s Series Mania Co-Pro Pitching Sessions, with a €50,000 cash prize on the line.

Set in the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, the series, like the six books on which it is based, follows Touré, an undocumented sub-Saharan African immigrant living in the Basque Country. With no badge and no papers, Touré uses...

Italy’s “The Impossible She,” Spain’s “Detective Touré,” South Africa’s “Paradys” and France’s “Hormones” feature among 15 drama series projects selected for the Series Mania Forum’s 2022 Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

One of Europe’s most prestigious TV competitions, with titles competing for a €50,000 grand prize, this year’s Sessions form part of the Forum, which runs March 22-24.

The lineup is rich in projects backed by top-tier producers and sales forces, while sluiced by large themes, such as racial and gender equality.

The latest from top Italian company Fandango, producer of “Gomorrah” and “My Brilliant Friend,” “The Impossible She” turns on young Neapolitan aristocrat Maria Teresa de Filippis, the first female Formula 1 driver.

Co-produced by Academy Award winner Tornasol (“The Secret in My Eyes”), “Detective Touré” features Touré a sub-Saharan immigrant settled in Bilbao who will become the best detective of the city, despite no badge, nor papers.

French TV festival and industry meeting unveils 2022 selection

Michael Hirst’s Billy The Kid, Channel 4 drama The Birth Of Daniel F Harris and HBO’sThe Baby are among nine dramas selected for the international competition of Series Mania TV festival, running March 18-25 in the northern French city of Lille.

The Birth Of Daniel F Harris is produced by the UK’s Clerkenwell Films, the company behind The End Of The F**king World. Lewis Gribben plays a young man who was locked away as a child by his father following the death of his mother as a child.

Series Mania has unveiled the nine shows from six countries competing for the prestigious International Competition along with revealing the lineup and Guests of Honor for this year’s edition, the first to take place in person for three years.

Scroll down for the full list. Shows competing for the Competition include Michael Hirst’s Billy the Kid, for Epix, MGM and Viaplay, Israel’s Fire Dance, France’s Le Monde De Demain and The UK’s The Birth of Daniel F. Harris, each of which are being handed a world premiere.

The president of the jury announced soon will be joined by German actor Christian Berkel, Franco-Belgian actress Cécile de France, Israeli actress Shira Haas (Unorthodox), Turkish creator and director Berkun Oya (Bir Baskadir) and French singer-songwriter and model Yseult.

The jury will award the Grand Prize for Best Series, the Prize for Best Actress,...

New projects by David Pérez Sañudo, the rising young star of Basque cinema, Manuel Martín Cuenca, whose last four films have all been selected for Toronto, and Leire Apellániz, with one of the most ambitious Basque features in the making, all feature in a high-caliber lineup of projects at Eave on Demand Sevilla, a development workshop.

Madrid Ecam Incubator alum Ainhoa Menéndez and Berlinale Teddy Award winner María Trénor Colomer also have already announced projects at Eave on Demand, which kicks off industry events at Seville on Nov. 8 with a masterclass, Script Development Strategies, by Clare Downs.

Further masterclasses, given by Oliver Damian, on European Co-Production and the Role of the Producer, and Aranka Matits, on Distribution & the International Market, aim to provide the directors with the necessary skills to navigate a highly competitive market, which Martín Cuenca and Apellániz already have experience with titles such as “Cannibal” and “The Sacred Spirit.

For the last 15 years, the Seville European Film Festival has built step by step to become now one of the three or four most important film industry events in Spain.

Growth has been driven by the ecosystem of Andalusia at large, currently one of Spain’s most dynamic regions for film and TV, and that of Seville’s industry events as well.

2021, the first Seff edition with a near full post-pandemic onsite industry attendance, is no exception.

Three years ago, the festival launched European Co-Productions, a bilateral project-based meet with a natural production partner county for Spain. This year Germany weighs in as the guest country.

In 2021, Seville has added the first edition of Merci, its Independent Film Market, a mini–Spanish ShowEast-style convention running Nov. 10-12 which will see 25 movies from 13 independent distributors in Spain, grouped in its Assn. of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine), pitched to exhibitors and small screen buyers.

Tabling straightforward simple stories and experimenting with new narratives, the newest wave of Basque film talents has started to dip their toe into the international scene, landing at movie launchpads such as Venice, Berlin and San Sebastian festivals.

The new generation addresses universal issues telling small, local stories, attaining quality standards thanks in part to studies in Spain and quite often at film schools in Europe and the U.S..

The newest directors are emerging at a moment when SVOD giants and private investors are broadening the range of financing possibilities as co-production options, especially with the rest of Spain, are expanding.

“We come from disparate life experiences and we have very different paths, which greatly enriches the current Basque film scene,” says filmmaker Maider Oleaga.

“This is an ambitious generation in the sense that it face without fear the challenge of being faithful to the creative spirit of their projects,...

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

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

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

Spain brings a robust crop of developing projects and completed titles to this year’s Cannes Film Market.

“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. Sales: MK2 Films

“Ama” (Julia de Paz Solvas)

A Malaga premiere from La Dalia Films about single motherhood and raising a child without a permanent home. Sales: Filmax

“Ane Is Missing”

(David Pérez Sañudo)

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

“Beyond the Summit” (Ibon Cormenzana)

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

Sales: Filmax

“Canto Cósmico. Niño de Elche”

From Señor y Señora and Código Sur, the story of a former child prodigy flamenco singer who pushed the boundaries of the artform.

“Carpoolers” (Martín Cuervo)

A...

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...

Schoolgirls took home four Goyas The directorial debut of Pilar Palomero has won the top prize at Spain's Goya awards - the country's equivalent of the Oscars.

Coming-of-age drama Schoolgirls won four of the nine Goyas for which it was nominated, including best film and best new director, at the hybrid ceremony, which saw the nominees take part from home.

It was also a good night for refugee crisis drama Adú, which also received four awards, including best director for salvador Calvo.

Ane Is Missing, by David Pérez Sañudo, won three Goyas, including best actress for Patricia López Arnaíz - Mario Casas was named best actor for Cross The Line - while witch hunt drama Akelarre won five and Icíar Bollaín’s Rosa’s Wedding won two.

The winners are below:

Best film - Schoolgirls

Best director - Salvador Calvo for Adú

Best new director - Pilar Palomero for Schoolgirls

Best...

The Goyas were presented by Antonio Banderas from the theatre he owns in Malaga.

Pilar Palomero’s directorial debut Schoolgirls won the best film and best new director award at Spain’s Goya awards on Saturday March 6 in a pandemic-era ceremony that celebrated fresh voices and a strong female presence.

The hybrid ceremony - all the nominees were at home - was sober and started with a minute’s silence for the pandemic’s victims. It was also much shorter than usual. The socially-distanced red carpet was only for the celebrities in charge of giving the awards and Antonio Banderas,...

Pilar Palomero’s coming of age drama The Girls has won the 2021 Goya Award for best film, Spain’s top film honor.

Palomero, who is a first-time feature director, was also awarded Goyas for best new director and best screenplay for her drama set in a convent school.

Netflix drama Adú was the frontrunner leading up to the ceremony with 14 nominations, and director Salvador Calvo was awarded the best director trophy. His sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees included Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’...

Pilar Palomero’s coming of age drama The Girls has won the 2021 Goya Award for best film, Spain’s top film honor.

Palomero, who is a first-time feature director, was also awarded Goyas for best new director and best screenplay for her drama set in a convent school.

Netflix drama Adú was the front-runner leading up to the ceremony with 14 nominations, and director Salvador Calvo was awarded the best director trophy. His sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees included Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’...

Pilar Palomero’s coming-of-age story The Girls took home the top prizes, including best picture, at the 35th annual Goya Awards on Saturday. The annual Spain awards show, hosted by Antonio Banderas, also saw Palomero’s drama win the prizes for new director, original screenplay and cinematography.

The 35th Goya Awards adopted a hybrid format due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and featured talent present and receive awards virtually or on-site at an audience-less Teatro del Soho CaixaBank. Among the Hollywood names presenting the event’s various awards were Pedro Almódovar, Penélope Cruz, J.A. Bayona, Alejandro Amenábar and Paz Vega. The ceremony also featured pre-recorded messages from a number of Hollywood names including Robert DeNiro, Al Pacino, Benicio del Toro, Laura Dern and Charlize Theron.

1492: Conquest of Paradise and Broken Embraces actress Angelina Molina took home the ceremony’s Honorary Goya award.

See the full list of winners at...

Atresmedia Cine, one of Spain’s biggest film production companies, has tapped David Pérez Sañudo, writer-director of “Ane,” the country’s biggest first feature breakout of 2020, to write and direct a new movie, an adaptation of Felix García Hernán’s “Cava dos fosas.”

Part of Spain’s Buendía Estudios, a 50/50 joint venture between broadcaster Atresmedia and pay TV/SVOD giant Movistar Plus, Atresmedia Cine has optioned in exclusivity rights to the novel.

News of Pérez Sañudo’s second feature comes on the eve of the Spanish Academy’s 35th Goya Awards where “Ane” is nominated in five categories – best picture, new director, actress, adapted screenplay, supporting actress – a measure of the industry impact that “Ane” has achieved since its world premiere at September’s San Sebastian Film Festival. Pérez Sañudo was selected by Variety in this week’s Berlin coverage as one of Spain’s 2021 10 talents to track.

Felix García...

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,...

Berlinale Talents is in itself one of the biggest, if temporary hubs, for burgeoning creatives in film and TV. Here, Variety spreads the net slightly wider to spotlight 10 on the rise writers-directors.

Miguel Ángel Blanca

Director of two features to date, including sci-fi thriller “I Want the Eternal,” Blanca’s films skew towards tragicomedy, talks about double lives and everyday darkness. To world premiere shortly, his latest movie, “Magaluf Ghost Town,” addresses the downsides of intrusive tourism. “I’m happy genre-bending, twisting film language, working between documentary and fiction, mixing comedy and horror to create a dark image of everyday life,” he says.

Luis López Carrasco

His first feature, “El Futuro,” world premiered at Locarno, receiving excellent reviews. Lightning’s struck twice with his an epic 300-minute doc feature “The Year of Discovery,” an analysis of Spain’s apparently boom decade of the ‘90s which has become the first documentary...

Salvador Calvo’s “Adú” leads the way at Spain’s annual Goya Awards nominations with 14 nods, including for best film and best director.

“Las niñas” and “Akelarre” followed with nine nominations each, while “Rosa’s Wedding” has eight.

In the running for the best film Goya are “Adú,” a Netflix acquisition; “Ane” by David Perez Sanudo; “La boda de Rosa” by Iciar Bollain; “Las niñas” by Pilar Palomero; and “Sentimental” by Cesc Gay.

Competing for the best direction Goya will be Salvador Calvo for “Adú”; Juanma Bajo Ulloa for “Baby”; Iciar Bollain for “La boda de Rosa”; and Isabel Coixet for “Nieva en Benidorm.”

In the running for best European film are Jan Komasa’s “Corpus Christi”; Florian Zeller’s “The Father”; Viggo Mortensen’s “Falling”; and Roman Polanski’s “An Officer and a Spy.”

Mortensen was the big draw at the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival where “Falling” played, and where he received the Donostia Award.

The Netflix drama Adú, directed by Salvador Calvo, is the frontrunner for the 35th Goya Awards, Spain’s top film honors, with 14 nominations, including for best film and best director.

Calvo’s sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa. Two members of its ensemble cast Álvaro Cervantes and Adam Nourou, picked up Goya nominations for best supporting actor and best newcomer actor, respectively.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees include Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding), Pilar Palomero’s The Girls, and The People Upstairs aka Sentimental, from director Cesc Gay. In addition to Calvo ...

The Netflix drama Adú, directed by Salvador Calvo, is the frontrunner for the 35th Goya Awards, Spain’s top film honors, with 14 nominations, including for best film and best director.

Calvo’s sophomore feature follows three interconnected stories all set in Africa. Two members of its ensemble cast Álvaro Cervantes and Adam Nourou, picked up Goya nominations for best supporting actor and best newcomer actor, respectively.

The Goya 2021 best film nominees include Ane Is Missing from David Pérez Sañudo, Icíar Bollaín’s La boda de Rosa (Rosa’s Wedding), Pilar Palomero’s The Girls, and The People Upstairs aka Sentimental, from director Cesc Gay. In addition to Calvo ...

Ibon Cormenzana is directing this immersive, high-octane emotional adventure, rubbing shoulders with the most perilous, harsh and spectacular sides of nature. Alegría, tristeza, miedo, rabia was the original title of the previous film by director-producer Ibon Cormenzana, a Spanish-French production that was eventually released with only the first two elements from that working title (Happy Sad). Once again, these emotions – and many more – will have a starring role in his new movie, La cima (lit. “The Summit”), which is currently being shot and which, once again, is being made as a joint venture between companies in France and Spain. This epic story stars two actors who are very much in demand right now: Patricia López Arnaiz, the favourite among the nominees for various impending awards thanks to her work in Ane Is Missing (the feature debut by David Pérez Sañudo), and Javier Rey,...

An emerging generation of new Basque filmmakers is making its mark in the San Sebastian Festival, building on the foundations of now consolidated creative and industrial infrastructures.

Only time will tell if the Basque Country can follow in the footsteps of Catalonia, another richer region of Spain, and launch a modern day new wave. Expectations however, remain high.

The new generation is widely represented at this year’s San Sebastian.

A prominent member of the group is David Pérez Sañudo, whose highly anticipated feature debut, mother-daughter social drama “Ane,” plays at the festival’s New Directors sidebar. Handled by Latido Films, “Ane” was developed at the Madrid Film School Ecam Incubator, then won three prizes at Málaga’s Wip in April.

Imanol Rayo, winner of the Zinemira Award with “Bi anai” in 2011, presents in New Directors his rural tale “Hil Kanpaiak” (“Death Knell”), produced by Bilbao-based Abra Prod.

Six of the 11 features at Zinemira,...

Spain’s Basque Country has a storied tradition this century of producing feature films which find international success at festivals and awards shows. Now, with a new generation of Spanish series making waves abroad, the region is shifting towards premium TV fiction production, backed by a top class talent pool and local broadcasters looking to get skin in the game.

While regional broadcasters have shown early signs of interest in fiction production, much of the growth in the sector is driven by talent, often coming from cinema.

“For directors who really like working with characters and diving deep into their stories, having six episodes opens new creative possibilities,” says Xabier Berzosa, an award-winning producer at Irusoin, co-producers on true crime series “The Miramar Murders: The State Vs. Pablo Ibar,” screening at this year’s San Sebastian Festival.

A true crime docu-series, “The Miramar Murders” examines a triple murder case in...