Notícias

La gran noche del cine español tendrá lugar en el Auditori del Centre de Convencions Internacionals en plena efervescencia del cine catalán. © Getty Images

Imagínense ahora mismo a ese Freddie Mercury a pleno pulmón cantando (y gritando) «¡Barcelooooona!». Porque, tal y como se había anunciado hace ya varios meses, Barcelona será la ciudad anfitriona de la 40ª edición de los Premios Goya. Y hoy, por fin, sabemos cuándo es la cita. La ceremonia se celebrará –¡apunta en tu agenda!– el 28 de febrero de 2026 y el escenario escogido será el Auditori del Centre de Convencions Internacionals de Barcelona, a un suspiro del Mediterráneo (aunque al principio se había barajado el Parc...

The non-competitive section of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) devoted to Spanish productions will showcase four feature world premieres and a selection of films that have already premiered at other international film festivals including Carla Simón’s Romería and Oliver Laxe’s Sirât.

The world premieres include two first features: San Simón by visual artist Miguel Ángel Delgado, about a prisoner camp in Galicia during Franco’s dictatorship in Spain; and Silent Struggle by Sara Sálamo, a documentary about footballer Isco Alarcón. Sálamo has worked as an actress in Asghar Farhadi’s Everybody Knows and Pedro Almodóvar’s short Strange Way Of Life.

El 17 de septiembre se anunciará cuál de estas tres películas será la elegida. © Neon

Hoy se han dado a conocer las tres películas preseleccionadas para representar a España en los Premios Óscar 2026 en la categoría de Mejor Película Internacional. La lectura tuvo lugar esta misma mañana en la sede de la Academia de Cine, a cargo de los reconocidos actores Juan Diego Botto y Emma Suárez. Los títulos elegidos: Sirât, Romería y Sorda.

Te Puede Interesar Tom Cruise recibirá su primer premio Óscar: la Academia le concede el galardón honorífico.

Sirât, de Oliver Laxe, se alzó con el Premio del Jurado en el pasado Festival de Cannes y continuará...

Los lanzamientos más destacados en cines y plataformas de streaming. © Sony Pictures, Apple TV+ & Disney

Septiembre llega y con él la vuelta a la rutina. Adiós al verano y al relax en la playa, pero no a las salas de cine, siempre listas para recibirnos con nuevas y viejas historias. Este mes nos esperan el último capítulo de los Warren, la mirada deslumbrante de Carla Simón en Cannes, Pedro Pascal y Joaquin Phoenix cara a cara, el joven Miguel de Cervantes, y Leonardo DiCaprio en lo nuevo de Paul Thomas Anderson, por mencionar solo algunos ejemplos. Estos son los 10 estrenos que harán que tu vuelta a la rutina se haga...

Exclusive: Cannes competition title Romeria, a semi-autobiographical story directed by Carla Simon, has sold to a slew of territories worldwide.

mk2 Films has agreed deals for Romeria with UK-Ireland (Curzon), Benelux (Cherry Pickers Film Distribution), Italy (I Wonder Pictures), Sweden (Folkets Bio), Denmark (Filmbazar), Norway (Arthaus), Findland (Cinemanse), Switzerland (Cineworx), Greece (Weirdwave), Portugal (Alambique), Baltics (Kino Pavasaris), Poland (New Horizons), Hungary (Vertigo), Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia (McF), Romania (Bad Unicorn) and Bulgaria (Beta).

Further sales include Australia and New Zealand (Palace), Japan (Gnome), South Korea (M&m International), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Indonesia (Falcon) and all...

La cineasta regresa con un nuevo largometraje inspirado en los orígenes de su familia biológica paterna. © Elastica Films

Elastica Films ha compartido el primer tráiler de Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón tras Alcarràs y Estiu 1993.

En Romería, la directora catalana se sumerge en la memoria de su familia biológica paterna. La historia sigue a Marina, una joven adoptada que viaja a Vigo para encontrarse por primera con la familia de su padre biológico. Su llegada trae de vuelta un pasado ya enterrado. Guiada por el diario de su madre y a través de una conexión especial con su nuevo primo, Marina descubrirá las heridas familiares y podrá por fin revivir la memoria fragmentada de unos padres de los que apenas guarda recuerdos.

La protagonista es la debutante Llúcia Garcia Torras, arropada por Mitch (Hit) y Tristán Ulloa (El caso asunta). Completan el reparto Celine Tyll (Jaguar), Miryam Gallego (Águila...

George Clooney’s “Jay Kelly,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” and Park Chan-wook’s “No Other Choice” have been added to the New York Film Festival lineup.

This year’s main slate will showcase 34 films, including Cannes prizewinners, Sundance darlings and Venice premieres.

“​​Anyone who cares about film knows that it is an art in need of defending, like many of our core values today,” said NYFF artistic director Dennis Lim. “Across all sections of the festival, the movies we have selected this year suggest that this safeguarding can take many guises: acts of rejuvenation and refusal, expressions of unease and joy, feats of imagination and commemoration. I am particularly struck by the diversity of approaches and forms among the films in this Main Slate, which affirms that the art of cinema is more than capable of thriving, even in difficult times.”

As previously announced, New York Film Festival will open on Sept.

New York Film Festival, has unveiled the Main Slate of its 63rd edition with prize winners from top fests led by Cannes from Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (Palme d’Or) and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (Grand Prix) to Oliver Laxe’s Sirât and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling (joint Jury Prize winners), Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, and Bi Gan’s Resurrection (Special Award).

From Berlin, Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Silver Bear for best leading performance for Rose Byrne) and Radu Jude’s Kontinental ’25 (Silver Bear for best screenplay). Eleven Main Slate films are set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival including Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Kent Jones’s Late Fame and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice.

NYFF’s 34 Main Slate films from 26 countries feature two world premieres,...

After steadily rolling out some of its gala heavy-hitters, the New York Film Festival has today announced its full main slate lineup, including new films from Claire Denis, Park Chan-wook, Noah Baumbach, Kathryn Bigelow, Kahlil Joseph, Joachim Trier, Ira Sachs, and many more.

This year’s main slate includes films from 26 countries, among them two world premieres (including Bradley Cooper’s “Is This Thing On?” and Ulrich Köhler’s “Gavagai”), plus eight North American and 13 U.S. premieres.

The festival has also programmed a number of hits from other fests, including Cannes prizewinners like Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident,” Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât,” Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling,” Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” and Bi Gan’s “Resurrection.” Berlin and Sundance hits are also on offer, including Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” and Radu Jude’s “Kontinental ’25.

The 63rd New York Film Festival’s Main Slate will include new films from Noah Baumbach, Jafar Panahi, Kathryn Bigelow, Park Chan-wook and more. Film at Lincoln center announced the 34 Main Slate films Tuesday.

The movies come from 26 countries and include two world, eight North American and 13 U.S. premieres. Some titles will first debut at other festivals. Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly,” Bigelow’s “A House of Dynamite,” Park’s “No Other Choice” and Kent Jones’ “Late Fame” are all playing the 82nd Venice Film Festival before crossing the Atlantic to New York City.

Cannes winners in the Main Slate include Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner “It Was Just an Accident”; Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” which took the Grand Prix; Jury Prize winners Oliver Laxe’s “Sirât” and Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling”; Best Director- and Best Actor-winning “The Secret Agent” from Kleber Mendonça Filho; and Bi Gan’s “Resurrection,...

The awards circuit is making a key stop in the Big Apple this year.

On Tuesday, the New York Film Festival announced 34 films for their main slate lineup.

The Main Slate will showcase films from 26 countries, featuring two world premieres, eight North American premieres, and 13 U.S. premieres, including award‑winning titles from Cannes and Berlin. The lineup includes Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival) and Rose Byrne, recipient of the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance at the 2025 Berlinale for Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You.

Also featured is Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler, which is set to premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival before releasing on Netflix.

The festival has also added the world premieres of Nothing Is Lost, Ben Stiller’s documentary about his parents,...

Movistar Plus+ has again moved to calm fears over its future in original films and TV shows, with senior leaders saying the company remains a “magnet for creative talent” in Spain.

Movistar Plus+ CEO Daniel Domenjó last week addressed an audience of more than 400 Spanish industry leaders and pledged to keep the Spanish content giant as the “driving force” of the local creative sector.

This was at least in part a response to the ongoing concerns about Movistar Plus+’s appetite for original content following the shock exit of the much-respected content chief Domingo Corral. Domenjó, the the CEO and co-founder of Spanish producer Satisfaction Iberia, was installed as Movistar Plus+ CEO just weeks before Corral’s exit.

His the tone at the Teatro Real in Madrid was clearly one of reassurance, with the exec saying: “We want to continue being the driving force of the industry, the magnet for creative talent in this country.

Top arthouse and crossover Spanish distributor Elastica Films – buyer of Cannes winners “Sentimental Value,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sound of Falling,” and competition entries “Romería,” which it also produced, as well as “Nouvelle Vague” – has boarded the Spanish pic “Anekumen” by rising Basque talent Irati Gorostidi.

The historical drama shot in 16 mm will be pitched as a work in progress at next week’s Ecam Forum Co-Production Market in Madrid.

Leading Basque player Leire Appellaniz is producing for her outfits Apellaniz y de Sosa (The Sacred Spirit) and Sr. & Sra (“Samsara”) co-run with Ion de Sosa and Aritz Moreno respectively. “Anekumen is exactly the type of cinema I stand for: meaningful, with a high ethical, artistic standpoint, and a female gaze,” said Apellaniz who’s been following the project’s various stages of gestation for the last seven-eight years.

First came a short film-“Contadores”-selected at Cannes Critics’ Week 2023, which...

After last year’s golden blueprint which set the roadmap for coming years, the second Ecam Forum Co-Production Market, unspooling June 10-13 in Madrid, will drive deeper into its international reach and industry talks as part of its mandate to strengthen the ties between the Spanish talents and its blooming industry with the rest of the world.

Lured by upbeat industry buzz from the first edition and Spain’s sustained film-tv golden age, industry players and projects are almost twice as many this year to bid for a spot at the industry platform spearheaded by Madrid’s prestigious Ecam film school.

More than 700 accredited delegates ,compared to 400+ in 2024, are expected to fill the halls of its Matadero and Cineteca Madrid venues; 70 international guests, vs. 50 in 2024, will sample 47 films in development and post-production, as well as shorts and series in development.

Among 15 programming reps from Toronto, Locarno, Rotterdam, Thessaloniki, London to...

Laxe triunfa en el Festival con ‘Sirat’, que comparte el Premio del Jurado. © Getty Images

La 78ª edición del Festival de Cannes ha llegado a su fin y ya conocemos el palmarés completo. En esta edición, la codiciadísima Palma de Oro, el máximo galardón del Festival al que aspira todo cineasta que pasa por la Croisette, ha ido a parar a la película It Was Just An Accident, dirigida por el iraní Jafar Panahi. Este triunfo no solo consagra al cineasta –que completa así la prestigiosa y casi inalcanzable “triple corona” de Festivales y entra en un selectísimo grupo–, sino que también permite a Neon hacer historia: se trata de su sexta Palma consecutiva tras Anora (2024), Anatomía de una caída (2023), El triángulo de la tristeza (2022), Titane (2021) y Parásitos (2019).

El cine español, por su parte, ha tenido un protagonismo especial (y es para celebrarlo). El director gallego Oliver Laxe se ha...

The waves of the Spanish coastal Atlantic are as alternately prone to crashing against the rocks and as calmly breaking as the soul of the protagonist of Carla Simón‘s visually sumptuous new film, “Romería.”

Newcomer Llúcia Garcia, in her first major film role and whom the Spanish director found on the street amid a wide-ranging casting call for actors to play an 18-year-old woman at a pivotal spiritual turn, becomes the surrogate eyes and ears who embody Simón’s real-life story: Simón’s parents died of AIDS when she was a small child, sending her to northern Catalonia with an uncle. She was left, as a hardly formed six-year-old, to contend with little knowledge and fewer memories of her parents.

“Romería” finds the “Alcarràs” and “Summer 1993” filmmaker operating behind her most intensely personal lens yet. Where her family history was previously abstracted in her prior films about families fractured by circumstance,...

Acclaimed director Carla Simón spoke about the importance of gender equity in filmmaking during her Kering Women in Motion Talk at Cannes on Friday, saying: “We are half of the world, we should tell half of the stories.”

The Spanish filmmaker, who premiered her new film “Romería” in competition at Cannes Film Festival this week — one of seven women directors to do so — said female representation behind as well as in front of the camera is “so important.”

“I feel that we are advancing, little by little, not so fast. But at least things are changing,” she told Variety’s Angelique Jackson. “And I think we live in a moment [where] there’s a historical reparation of themes that have always been told by men, and suddenly we take our perspective. And this is so important because we are half of the world, we should tell half of the stories in...

Exclusive: There was an outpouring of emotion and concern when it was revealed that Domingo Corral, Director of Fiction & Entertainment at Spain’s Movistar Plus+, was leaving the Spanish company, but the streamer’s head of cinema has moved to assuage fears.

Addressing the news, which sent shockwaves through the Spanish industry, Movistar Plus+’s Head of Original Films & Spanish Cinema, Guillermo Farré, told Deadline the powerful local player will stay the course when it comes to original film.

“The goal is clear, the direction of what Domingo started works on many different levels,” he said. “It works in terms of the numbers that we have, and it’s a clear model to create movies and series that resonate in a very crowded world.”

After it emerged the long-serving Corral was unexpectedly leaving, an open letter, signed by almost 150 Spanish industry names such as heavyweights Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz,...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival seems to have marked something of a turning point for the beleaguered European film industry.

Going into Cannes, the European industry felt distinctly on the back foot. Trump’s plan to impose tariffs on “foreign” movies was just one part of what felt like a wider assault on the Europe’s cultural ecosystem. For some time now, Europeans execs have worried about cuts to film funding, the dismantling of cultural regulations and the unstoppable rise of the US streamers.

Back in February, Trump had targeted the EU’s Audiovisual Media Services Directive (Avmsd) which...

Cannes film festival

A young woman arrives in a Spanish coastal city to meet the family of her dead father, who are hiding information about his life and death, in Simón’s distinctive drama

Is biology destiny? Spanish film-maker Carla Simón brings to Cannes her very personal and in fact auto-fictional project Romería (meaning “pilgrimage”) – about an 18-year-old girl, arriving in Vigo in Galicia on Spain’s bracing Atlantic coast. She is on a mission to find out more about her biological father who died here of Aids after he split from her mum, who has since died, too, and about her dad’s extended – and very wealthy – family.

Romería returns Simón (and her audiences) to the complex and painful subject of her mother and father, which she first approached in her wonderful autobiographical debut Summer 1993 although for me the more conventionally enclosed fictional transformation of the material there might...

In competition film #16 of the twenty-two offerings, and the first of a three day competition buffet, and the second com title from Spain, Carla Simón‘s fourth feature film is tipped as a neorealist flamenco musical in the neighbourhood of La Mina, Barcelona and completes the trilogy that begun by 2017’s Summer 1993, with 2022’s Alcarràs (read ★★★½ review) being a big winner at the Berlinale landing the Golden Bear. Filming on Romería took place in August with younglings Llúcia Garcia and Mitch Martín toplining. This is about an orphaned young woman Marina travels to Vigo to seek information about her biological father, who died from AIDS.…...

“Romería,” directed by Carla Simón and released in 2025, unfolds along Spain’s storm-lashed Atlantic coast, chiefly in Vigo and the nearby Cíes Islands. Set in the summer of 2004, the film follows 18-year-old Marina (Llúcia Garcia), a Barcelona-raised orphan who travels north to secure a notarized declaration of her paternal lineage for a university scholarship. Rather than a conventional drama about paperwork, the story hinges on Marina’s quest for connection and her confrontation with a family that has kept her at arm’s length.

Simón structures the narrative around Marina’s own camcorder footage—grainy, intimate recordings that punctuate scenes of polite distance and whispered confidences—and the voice-over readings of her late mother’s diary. These two devices serve as parallel registers: one reflects Marina’s present search for identity, the other excavates her parents’ youthful romance and tragic decline. Through sun-dappled exteriors and hushed interior conversations, the film...

Continuing in the low-key register of her Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, Carla Simón returns with Romería, another tale of intergenerational dissonance. A film about the stories families choose to tell and the ones they bury deep inside, it unfurls on Spain’s Atlantic coast, where 18-year-old orphan Marina (Llúcia Garcia) hopes to reunite with her paternal family. It’s also a story about displacement and yearning for lost roots, themes that cut close to the bone for a director whose parents died of AIDS when she was still a child, and who reunited with her father’s family in the town of Vigo, Galicia, where the film is set, at the same age. Simón has always been an autobiographical filmmaker; Romería might be her most personal work yet.

The story takes place over five days in 2004, with a lengthy flashback to 1983 in its second half. Marina, a budding filmmaker, is...

Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón made her debut in the Cannes Film Festival competition on Wednesday afternoon, world premiering her latest work, Romería, to an 11-minute ovation.

Simón, directing from her own screenplay, here tells the story of Marina (Llúcia Garcia), an 18-year-old who was orphaned at a young age, and must travel to Spain’s Atlantic coast to obtain a signature for a scholarship application from the paternal grandparents she has never met. She navigates a sea of new aunts, uncles and cousins, uncertain whether she will be embraced or face resistance.

The experience stirs long-buried emotions as Marina pieces together the fragmented and often contradictory memories of the parents she barely remembers.

This is Simón’s third feature after Summer 1993 (2017) and Alcarràs (2022). The latter won the Golden Bear in Berlin and was selected as Spain’s entry for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. Those films were shot in...

“Romería” is the Spanish word for pilgrimage, ostensibly a clear and apt title for the third feature by writer-director Carla Simón. Based on travels the filmmaker herself undertook as a teenager to meet an extended family she had never known, this is a kind of road movie by sea, journeying in pursuit of some sense of self-completion. Yet as the film wends its way through the narrow streets, harbors and glittering waters of Spain’s salty Galician coastline, immersing itself in chaotic gatherings of family and community, the title’s spiritual aspect takes on a rueful irony. There’s no holy destination or revelation here, and certainly no warm sense of homecoming — though in finding where she doesn’t belong, Simón’s fictional alter ego can at last make sense of her own fragmented childhood memories, and those she’s retrieved from her late biological parents.

After the expansive sociological...

A textbook example of the difficult follow-up album — or feature film, in this instance — Catalan filmmaker Carla Simón’s Romería strains under the weight of her last film Alcarras, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2022, was then invited to 90 more festivals and was as close to a perfect pastorale as any film can claim to be. Drawing on her own Catalan family stories, Alcarras dealt with a family of tenant farmers about to be evicted from the land they have worked for generations. It was a film of sorrow and anger but, above all, a swirl of loving, bickering family life. Along with that film and her 2017 debut, Summer 1993, Romería is grounded in Simón’s personal history. This time, she revisits and transforms a trip she took at the age of 17 to Vigo in Galicia, where her father grew up and her parents met.

The year is 2004. Fresh-faced Marina — the fictionalized Simón,...

For her third feature, Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón is going back to where it all began — both geographically and emotionally. Premiering in competition at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, Romería marks a poignant conclusion to Simón’s loosely connected trilogy of family-centered dramas, each inspired by different chapters of her own life. The new film follows Alcarràs, which won the Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2022, and Summer 1993, her celebrated debut.

In Romería, Simón turns the camera inward once more, this time to explore the aching absence of parents lost too soon. Drawing from her late adolescence, the story centers on 18-year-old Marina, an orphan who, at the age of 6, lost both of her parents to drug addiction and AIDS. Marina travels to Spain’s Atlantic coast to meet her estranged paternal relatives for the first time. What begins as a formal errand — securing a scholarship signature — unfolds into...

Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, the follow-up to her Palme d’Or winner Titane, has landed with poor scores on Screen International’s Cannes jury grid.

With an average of 1.5, it is joint bottom alongside Ari Aster’s Eddington. It collected two zero-stars (bad) from Le Monde’s Mathieu Macharet and The Guardian’ s Peter Bradshaw, as well as four one-stars (poor) and four two-stars (average). Screen’s critic and Positif’s Nt Binh were the outliers, awarding it three-stars (good).

Click on the image above for the most up-to-date version of the grid.

Alpha is about a troubled 13-year-old girl,...

German films and co-productions in Cannes this year are sure to entice festgoers and buyers alike with an eclectic selection heavy on historical drama and animation fare.

Highly anticipated works by Fatih Akin, Mascha Schilinski and Christian Petzold are premiering at the festival along with German co-productions from Wes Anderson, Sergei Loznitsa and Kirill Serebrennikov that explore postwar Germany, lives intertwined through time, loss and grief, international espionage, Stalin’s Great Purge and a war criminal’s escape from justice.

Unspooling in Cannes Premiere, Akin’s “Amrum” is a family drama set in 1945 on the titular North Sea German island and based on the autobiographical novel of screenwriter Hark Bohm, who also penned the script. It centers on 12-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck), who does everything he can to help his mother feed the family during the last days of the war, only to face all new challenges when peace finally arrives.

Four years after Julia Ducournau won the Palme d’Or with her jaw-dropping body horror car sex drama “Titane,” the filmmaker is back on the Cannes Croisette with her “Alpha.”

Ducournau’s third feature which, like “Titane,” will be distributed by Neon, centers on a titular teen whose life is upended after a mysterious decision. The film’s official logline reads: “Alpha (Mélissa Boros) is a troubled 13 year old who lives with her single mom (Golshifteh Farahani). Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.” Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, Finnegan Oldfield, and Louai El Amrousy star.

“Alpha” is premiering in competition at Cannes, with Ducournau being one of seven female directors with new films in the main competition. Kelly Reichardt will also launch “The Mastermind,” while Mascha Schilinski has “Sound of Falling,” Lynne Ramsay has “Die My Love,” along with Hafsia Herzi’s “La Petite Dernière,...

Carla Simón regresa con un nuevo largometraje inspirado en los orígenes de su familia biológica paterna. © Elástica Films

Elástica Films ha compartido el primer teaser tráiler de Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón tras Alcarràs y Estiu 1993, que compite por la Palma de Oro en el Festival de Cannes y se estrena este miércoles en la Croisette.

En Romería, la directora catalana se sumerge en la memoria de su familia biológica paterna. La historia sigue a Marina, una joven adoptada que viaja a Vigo para encontrarse por primera con la familia de su padre biológico. Su llegada trae de vuelta un pasado ya enterrado. Guiada por el diario de su madre y a través de una conexión especial con su nuevo primo, Marina descubrirá las heridas familiares y podrá por fin revivir la memoria fragmentada de unos padres de los que apenas guarda recuerdos.

La película está protagonizada por la debutante Llúcia Garcia Torras,...

After winning prizes at Berlin with “Summer 1993” and “Alcarrás,” Spanish director Carla Simón is now in the main competition at Cannes with “Romería,” a deeply personal story about family and memory set in Galicia.

The film tells the story of 18-year-old Marina, who travels to the northwest of Spain to meet her biological father’s family. The girl’s journey is one of discovery, as she has never met her father, who died of AIDS when she was young.

Variety sat down with Simón to discuss the evolving Spanish film landscape, her latest creative choices and the emotional roots of her storytelling.

Variety: Spanish films have gained recognition abroad in recent years, especially from new voices. What do you think is fueling this movement?

Simón: I believe it’s partly generational. A lot of filmmakers are experimenting, taking risks and embracing different directions. There’s also a notable rise...

Having turned 50 last year, the French film studio and arthouse cinema chain MK2 is far from a midlife crisis. The family-run company, which was founded by Marin Karmitz in 1974 and is now presided over by Nathanael and Elisha Karmitz, has never been more in the game. MK2 Films, whose international sales division is headed by Irish-born executive Fionnuala Jamison, rolled into Cannes with six films in competition and 12 in total across the Official Selection, likely more than any other sales outfits.

The company, which has always championed female auteurs, has been turning the spotlight on a new generation of daring female directors, from Celine Sciamma to Noemie Merlant, Justine Triet and Mati Diop. And at this year’s Cannes, they have three out of the seven competition films directed by female directors, Hafsia Herzi’s drama “La petite dernière,” Carla Simon’s “Romeria” and Mascha Schilinski’s “Sound of Falling” which has been unanimously praised.

La primera de las dos candidatas españolas a la Palma de Oro triunfa en el Festival. © Getty Images

Se estrenaron Sound of Falling, Two Prosecutors y Dossier 137, pero ninguna ha sacudido tanto la Competencia Oficial del Festival de Cannes 2025 como la española Sirat, dirigida por Oliver Laxe. Y no, no es chauvinismo nacional: las reacciones hablan por sí solas.

Jessica Kiang, de Variety, ha destacado su potencia emocional y psicológica, asegurando que golpea «de un modo que no podemos predecir», al tiempo que logra «desatar tu instinto de huida y a la vez mantenerte pegado a la butaca». Desde Deadline, Damon Wise la describe como «mitad road movie existencial, mitad ciencia ficción apocalíptica, es una desconcertante mezcla de Zabriskie Point y Fury Road» y apunta a que «posiblemente estaría mejor situada en la sección de medianoche del Festival», de lo loca que es. Jonathan Romney, de Screen Daily, la...

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...

For the first time in history, two films from Catalan producers, Carla Simón’s “Romería” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirat,” have secured coveted spots in the main competition at Cannes.

This milestone signals the fruition of years of strategic investment, education and international collaboration that has transformed Catalonia into an emerging force of European auteur cinema.

“It’s wonderful that things like this are happening, but it’s not by chance,” says Oriol Maymó, the Catalan producer of “Sirat” at Corte y Confección. “This is the result of an industry that’s been working with passion for many years, from institutions like Icec [Catalan Institute for the Cultural Companies] to audiovisual training centers like Escac and Pompeu Fabra. Year after year, these schools produce highly skilled technicians and artists.”

Indeed, education and institutional support form the backbone of Catalonia’s cinematic surge. Executive producer Sandra Tapia points out, “First, you need talent. Then, you need opportunities for training.

After a puzzlingly muted presence at this year’s Berlinale, Spanish cinema is roaring back with two high-profile selections – Carla Simón’s “Romería” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirat” – in the main competition at Cannes. While it’s too soon to call Berlin’s thin Spanish lineup an anomaly, Spain’s strong showing at Cannes suggests a renewed momentum that Spanish sales agents are eager to capitalize on.

At February’s European Film Market, Spanish companies reported an upbeat atmosphere despite the absence of major competition titles. The underlying optimism stemmed from a combination of factors: a new generation of directors, international-ready genre films, a growing animation sector and, critically, a higher technical and storytelling standard across the board.

“We’ve definitely raised the bar,” says Iván Díaz, head of international sales at Filmax. “The quality in Spanish productions is better now, and you can feel that in every genre: animation,...

For the first time since 1988, Spain has two movies in Cannes main competition, neither of whose directors are Pedro Almodóvar: Carla Simón’s “Romería” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirat.”

That says much about this year’s Cannes Official Selection, packed with emerging talent. The double also marks, however, what might prove a turning point for Spanish film. From 1988, the feeding frenzy died for films by Carlos Saura in particular and at large titles picturing Spain’s dark past from which it had happily just emerged with democracy. Outside Almodóvar, this century, in 15 editions, only one Spanish director had scored a Cannes Competition place since Isabel Coixet in 2009: Albert Serra with “Pacification” in 2022.

Now, however, France – its big festivals, networks, distributors, sale agents, critics and audiences – are embracing Spain with energy, both Spanish film and indeed TV. When it comes to Spain, the change has been long in the making.

Michael Cera is getting behind the camera for his directorial feature debut and has quietly amassed a impressive cast, Variety understands

The actor — best known for roles in “Barbie,” “Superbad,” “Scott Pilgrim vs the World,” and “Arrested Development” — is set to direct “Love Is Not the Answer,” with Pamela Anderson (“The Last Showgirl”), Steve Coogan (“Philomena”), Fred Hechinger (“Gladiator 2”) and Jamie Dornan (“Belfast”) lined up to star. mk2 Films will launching the project in Cannes.

The plot of the film is being kept under wraps, but it’s described as a “precise yet unpredictable, absurdist comedy that moves between hilarity and heartbreak as it explores modern loneliness and the search for connection.”

“Love Is Not the Answer” also teams Cera — who penned the script — with fast-rising hitmakers 2am, led by Christine D’Souza Gelb, David Hinojosa and Kevin Rowe and producers of “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” “Past Lives,” “Babygirl,” Celine Song...

With the 2025 Cannes Film Festival kicking off on Tuesday, one key question is what movies not to miss on the Croisette.

From competition veterans like the Dardenne brothers, Kelly Reichardt and Joachim Trier to newly promoted auteurs like Ari Aster, Oliver Hermanus, Carla Simón and Oliver Laxe, THR’s chief film critic rounds up 10 essential premieres

Die, My Love

Lynne Ramsey first turned heads in Cannes with her stunning 1999 feature debut Ratcatcher, about a 12-year-old boy growing up in poverty in the Glasgow housing projects. The Scottish director returned to the Croisette three years later with Morvern Callar, graduating to the official competition with We Need to Talk About Kevin in 2011 and You Were Never Really Here in 2017. Admirers have had a long wait for Ramsey’s fifth feature, a thriller with a vein of comedy she describes as “dark and fucked-up,” starring Jennifer Lawrence as a new mother walloped by postpartum depression,...

On the eve of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Spanish cinema is riding high with two films in the event’s official competition – “Sirat” and “Romería” – and another selected for Critics’ Week – “Sleepless City.” However, a shadow looms over the celebratory spirit as one of the country’s most important producers and champions of groundbreaking and industry-defining series and latterly cinema, Movistar Plus+ director of fiction and entertainment Domingo Corral, is exiting the company, leaving the future of one of the nation’s largest indie cinema backers in question.

For over a decade, Corral was the driving force behind Movistar Plus+’s push into original storytelling, championing ambitious series that redefined Spain’s place in the international audiovisual landscape. Under his leadership, the platform evolved into one of Europe’s most respected producers of scripted content, rivaling the likes of Netflix and HBO Europe in prestige.

His exit, announced...

Jason Segel is reuniting with his Shrinking director James Ponsoldt on Platinum Dunes’ psychological thriller Sponsor, which mk2 and UTA Independent Film Group are launching for sales in Cannes this week.

Segel will star as Peter, who gets involved in a terrible accident when he drives after partying too hard. Faced with the choice between prison or a recovery programme, he begrudgingly opts for the latter and encounters a charismatic sponsor, Jerry, whose unconventional methods push him into a living hell.

Ponsoldt and Segel co-wrote the screenplay and the producers are out to actors for the role of Jerry.

Segel and Ponsoldt said,...

Jason Segel is reuniting with his Shrinking director James Ponsoldt on Platinum Dunes’ psychological thriller Sponsor, which mk2 and UTA Independent Film Group are launching for sales in Cannes this week.

Segel will star as Peter, who gets involved in a terrible accident when he drives after partying too hard. Faced with the choice between prison or a recovery programme, he begrudgingly opts for the latter and encounters a charismatic sponsor, Jerry, whose unconventional methods push him into a living hell.

Ponsoldt and Segel co-wrote the screenplay and the producers are out to actors for the role of Jerry. Platinum Dunes...

A few days before the start of the Cannes Film Festival, Variety gathered top French producers, distributors and talent, including Dominik Moll, Elodie Bouchez, Justine Triet and Coralie Fargeat at an intimate dinner hosted at the glamorous landmark restaurant Laperouse.

Bouchez, who recently starred in “Beating Hearts,” will be presenting two films at Cannes’ Directors Fortnight, “Enzo,” directed by Robin Campillo and late filmmaker Laurent Cantet, as well as “Classe Moyenne” by Anthony Cordier. The actor was sitting besides Oscar-nominated producer Marie Ange Luciani (“Anatomy of a Fall”) who produced “Enzo” as well as Laura Wandel’s “Adam’s Sake” which will open Critics’ Week; and Alexandra Henochsberg, president of Ad Vitam, which will distribute seven films from the Official Selection in France, including “The Secret Agent” by Kleber Mendonça Filho; “Romeria” by Carla Simón; “La Petite Dernière” by Hafsia Herzi; “Vie Privée,” starring Jodie Foster and directed by Rebecca Zlotowski; and “Enzo,...

Oliver Laxe competirá en la Croisette con su cuarto largometraje. © BTeam Pictures

BTeam Pictures ha desvelado el tráiler y póster de la película Sirat, el cuarto largometraje del cineasta gallego Oliver Laxe con sello de producción de El Deseo (de los hermanos Agustín y Pedro Almodóvar).

Sirat nos trasladará a las montañas del sur de Marruecos, donde un padre (Sergi López) y su hijo (Bruno Núñez) buscan a Mar, hija y hermana desaparecida en una rave. Reparten su foto una y otra vez rodeados de música electrónica y un tipo de libertad que desconocen. Allí deciden seguir a un grupo de raveros en la búsqueda de una última fiesta que se celebrará en el desierto, donde esperan encontrar a la joven desaparecida.

El director vuelve a rodearse de actores no profesionales en su película, en sus palabras, «más abierta/comercial y radical por igual».

Se trata de una de las...

[Editor’s note: This story was originally published on April 10, 2025 when the first lineup announcement for this year’s Cannes Film Festival was released. It has been updated today to include two new additions to the competition section, including Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love.” It was also updated on May 8, 2025 to account for one new addition to the competition slate.]

Updated, April 23, 2025: As promised when the Cannes lineup was first released on April 10, 2025, the festival has now added two more films to its official competition slate, including Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love.” With that addition, this year’s competition lineup now includes seven films directed by women, tying 2023’s then-record-breaking slate of female directed-films. Our original story follows, with an update below in the “2025” section of our official breakdown.

It’s a tradition I long ago grew weary of: waking up early on an April morning to see how few women filmmakers had made it into Cannes’ competition section. For a long time, the festival seemed destined to stall out with just four films directed or co-directed by women in the section. Hell, Cannes didn’t...

Alongside physical infrastructure, improving and augmenting the local workforce is a key pillar of French president Emmanuel Macron’s France 2030 plan, his 30 billion euro ($34 billion) roadmap for investment and innovation.

“Top-tier technicians are the foundation of the entire French ecosystem,” says Arnaud Roland, who oversees the France 2030 project for the national film agency Cnc. “That’s why professional training programs are integrated into every aspect of our modernization efforts. Our competitive edge goes beyond locations; it lies in the combination of diverse landscapes, modern infrastructure, and, most importantly, highly adaptable crews.”

As France 2030 targets doubling the workforce in animation and VFX, public investment covers every stage of the creative process — from scriptwriting and costume design to construction and compositing. A recent beneficiary of this funding, the Paris film school La Fémis, will soon launch a new course teaching designers to blend traditional techniques with the LED-wall technologies required for virtual production.

Sydney Film Festival (June 4-15) has revealed the full programme for its 72nd edition, including a 12-strong competition lineup dominated by features set to premiere at Cannes.

The festival has selected 201 films from 70 countries, which includes 17 world premieres, and has added the iconic Sydney Opera House as a screening venue this year, joining the State Theatre and cinemas across the city.

The opening film has been set as Together, written and directed by Australian filmmaker Michael Shanks and starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco. The domestic drama with a supernatural twist premiered at Sundance, where it proved the commercial hit...

The 72nd Sydney Film Festival has revealed its full program, launching a massive lineup of 201 films from 70 countries, including 17 world premieres, 6 international premieres, and 137 Australian premieres across multiple venues including the iconic Sydney Opera House as a new screening location.

Festival director Nashen Moodley announced the program will feature 15 films direct from Cannes including Jafar Panahi’s “It Was Just an Accident” and Kelly Reichardt’s 1970s-set art heist drama “The Mastermind.”

“The 2025 festival offers a bold and expansive view of cinema today, with films that confront the urgent realities of our world, while also revelling in the power of imagination and storytelling,” said Moodley.

Other key highlights include “The Life of Chuck” starring Tom Hiddleston, debut Australian director Amy Wang’s SXSW-winning satire “Slanted,” Sundance comedy “Twinless,” and “On Swift Horses” featuring Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi.

The festival will open with the Australian premiere of “Together,” written and...

Exclusive: European sales, production and financing company mk2 films and international fund manager Ipr.Vc have confirmed their first investment collaboration on Marie Kreutzer’s upcoming feature Gentle Monster, her follow-up to critically acclaimed historical drama Corsage.

It marks the first joint operation under the partners’ multi-year slate financing deal, which was announced last September.

“Our joint slate was inspired to support daring, authored cinema with global resonance. Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster is the perfect embodiment of that inspiration,” said mk2 films Managing Director Fionnuala Jamison.

Paris-based mk2 Films will also manage international sales on Gentle Monster, in a move that continues the company’s collaboration with Austrian director Kreutzer following its successful sales, festival and awards campaign for Corsage in 2022.

“We are incredibly excited to support Gentle Monster as the first project in our collaboration with mk2 films,” said Andrea Scarso, Partner at Helsinki and London-based Ipr.Vc.

“This...