News

Argentina’s Guillermo Francella and writer-directors Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat, star and creators of Disney+/Star+ smash hit “El Encargado” (Hulu’s “The Boss”), are re-teaming on “Homo Argentum,” an around 10-episode movie anthology, skewering the frustrations, paranoia and bloodymindedness seething below the surface of modern-day life.

Arguably Argentina’s biggest star alongside Ricardo Darín, Francella demonstrated his acting chops in a bravado turn in Juan José Campanella’s Oscar winning “The Secret of Their Eyes” before starring in Pablo Trapero’s “The Clan,” one of Argentina’s biggest movie exports in the last decade, grossing $20.4 million worldwide.

Cohn and Duprat has consolidated as one of Argentina’s foremost filmmaking forces, with an ever larger international reach, directing Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in “Official Competition” and Robert De Niro in Argentine TV series “Nada.”

“Homo Argentum” is set up at Buenos Aires-based powerhouse Pampa Films, behind “Chinese Takeaway...

Rio De Janeiro — Latin America’s largest creativity event, Rio2C, will gather over June 4-9 at the Cidade das Artes complex, in Rio de Janeiro, about 50,000 participants, up from 44,000 last year, including some 1,600 speakers and representatives of about 1,100 companies.

Modelled after SXSW, the fifth in-person edition of Rio2C will feature over 500 panels designed to promote the convergence of film/TV, music, innovation, tech, games, publishing, science, fashion, sustainability and sports.

Rio2C 2024, which has “The Age of Awareness” as the central theme, opens Tuesday, June 4 with five summits, followed by three days of conferences and the market. The event wraps on the June 8-9 weekend with Festivalia, majorly attended by music and tech fans.

Virtually all big international film and TV groups established in Brazil will be at Rio2C. Some of them will present sessions highlighting aspects of their operations and new projects, such as Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery/Max,...

Expanding its lineup for Cannes this year, top Spanish indie studio Filmax has snagged international rights to feature “The Virgin of the Quarry Lake” by Laura Casabé, a notable figure in genre filmmaking who won the best director prize at Sitges in 2019 for “Los que vuelven” (aka “The Returned”).

The film has just been announced as one of highest-profile of five titles at a Ventana Sur Goes to Cannes showcase at this year’s Marché du Film.

It’s penned by Benjamin Naishtat, a major Argentine writer-director in his own right, and draws inspiration from two gripping short stories by genre writer Mariana Enríquez (“El Carrito” and “La Virgen De La Tosquera”).

Combining folklore, coming-of-age and social horror elements, the plot centers on Natalia, a recent high school graduate who finds herself deeply infatuated with Diego, a close childhood friend. However, their bond is tested when Silvia, older and worldlier,...

Habanero Film Sales has snapped up documentary “I Trust You” (“En vos confio”) from Juan Pablo Gugliotta and Nathalia Videla Peña’s Magma Cine in one of the more significant of multiple deals struck at a hectic Ventana Sur (Vs) in Buenos Aires.

Directed by Agustin Toscano, whose “The Owners” and “The Snatch Thief” participated in Cannes’ Critics Week and Directors’ Fortnight sidebars in 2013 and 2017, respectively, “I Trust You” follows former nuns Susana and Nélida who have been incarcerated at the Tucumán Women’s Prison since 2006, accused of a crime they insist they did not commit. They received a 20-year sentence for allegedly causing the disappearance of a teacher friend, whose body remains undiscovered. Susana and Nélida pray fervently every day for the body to appear and for the mystery to be resolved. Over the past 16 years behind bars, their lives have undergone profound changes.

“This is a film that...

Buenos Aires — In one of the first deals to close at this week’s Ventana Sur market, Spain’s Latido Films has boarded “Lo Que Quisimos Ser,” written-directed by Alejandro Agresti, produced by Fernando Sokolowicz at Aleph Media, and Gastón Duprat, who have teamed as producer and co-writer-director on “The Distinguished Citizen,” “The Man Next Door,” and “The Artist.”

“Lo Que Quisimos Ser” marks the latest film from Agresti, one of Argentina’s most international talents best known for a Hollywood sojourn which saw him directing Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves in “The Lake House” and writing Argentina-set, English-language “No somos animales,” with John Cusack.

Of his Argentine film, “Valentín” weighs in as a big-hearted coming of age tale of a cross-eyed and very lonely young kid. “Lo Que Quisimos Ser” also looks to wear its heart on its sleeve with a story of two characters who like in many...

Disney+ has picked up Latin American rights to Diego Yaker’s Argentine-Spanish revenge thriller “Una jirafa en el balcón” and is planning a theatrical release in Argentina and Uruguay.

Barcelona-based indie studio Filmax is handling Spanish distribution and international sales rights on the film.

Hitting the final straits of its shoot, “Una jirafa en el balcón” is filming in Barcelona over Nov. 14-17, after previously lensing in Argentina’s La Rioja region and Buenos Aires.

The film toplines Argentine actress Andrea Frigerio and Spain’s Diana Gómez, Artur Busquets and “Mudar la piel’s” Mingo Rafols.

Frigerio plays Lidia Muñoz (64), a retired woman living in Barcelona since 1978 who was forced into exile from Argentina after the military dictatorship ruling the country those years tried to kidnap her and make her disappear. Pregnant with her only daughter Valeria (Gómez), who is now 36, she managed to flee to Spain.

40 years later, at her home in Barcelona,...

Chile’s Storyboard Media is making its first foray into series production by joining forces with Chilean actor-producer Pablo Díaz del Rio of Río Estudios and Argentina’s Juan Pablo Gugliotta of MagmaCine to co-produce a historical fiction series, “Habitación 205” (“Box 205”).

The deal with MagmaCine was closed during the Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria on Oct. 3.

Created by Díaz del Rio and written by Mateo Iribarren, the four-episode series is inspired by the 20-year-long judicial investigation into the death of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who died in an allegedly botched medical procedure. It will also be adapted into a 120-minute feature film.

“We are elated that our maiden venture into series-making begins with “Habitacion 205” and judging from the responses we received at the San Sebastian Festival and now Iberseries, it looks like it would appeal to both our local and international audiences,” said Gabriela Sandoval who co-founded and...

Few European arthouse-crossover film sales agents have better weathered the ebb and flow of international market dynamics than Madrid’s Latido Films, which turns 20 in 2023.

Proof of that came at April’s Platino Awards, where Latido scored six statuettes, split between an acting double for Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” and four for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” which has already swept Spain’s Goya Awards and scored a French Cesar for foreign film.

Scoring €6.8 million ($7.5 million) in Spain, and 327,000 admissions in France, “The Beasts” also rates as one of the top-performing recent Spanish-language movies.

If Latido has survived for so long, insists director general Antonio Saura, it’s because of a core strategy of “working with talent, our search for talent.” Beyond that, other keys have been “collaboration with production companies that understand long-term relationships, and well-established relationships with clients.”

Companies with which Latido has held or holds...

Festival names 16 projects from Spain and Latin America.

Sónia Méndez’s As Neves (The Snows), Laura Ferrés’ The Permanent Picture and Agustín Toscano’s I Trust You are among 16 projects selected for the sixth edition of Malaga Work In Progress,

Spain’s Aquí y Allí Films, the company behind the winner of 2012 Critics’ Week with emigration drama Aquí y Allá, by Antonio Méndez Esparza, is producing the Sonia Méndez’s feature debut As Neves, a psychological drama with thriller touches set in Galicia.

Scroll down for full list of projects

After her 2017 Cannes Critics’ Week short film winner The Disinherited,...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Netflix is about to remove a alrge selection of movies and TV shows from its service.

Every month, without fanfare, numerous titles are removed from the streamer.

This means that, should something be on your watchlist, it will vanish until it’s added again.

Netflix doesn’t publicise the titles it will remove – and users will only be alerted to something’s imminent removal if they happen to select the title in question.

But, with help from the team at What’s on Netflix, we’ve compiled the full list – and you can find the compilation of everything being added this month here.

What’s leaving Netflix UK in September 2022?

1 September

Aakhri Adaalat

Alive

All at Sea

Anaconda

Angels & Demons

Armored

Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable

The Bang Bang Club

Blow

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Carbon

Cemetary Junction

Chadi Jawani Budhe Nu

Chicago Fire season one to four

Chicago Med...

Oscar nominees Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas transform into film industry caricatures for the latest comedy from Argentinian directing duo Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn, “Official Competition.” Check out the outrageous trailer for the film below.

“Official Competition” stars Cruz as a renowned filmmaker hired by a billionaire entrepreneur (José Luis Goméz) to create the movie of the century. Banderas is the Hollywood heartthrob set to star in the fictional feature, along with a radical theater actor played by Oscar Martinez. The legendary nemeses sling jabs at one another over who is a bigger sellout for money, all while Cruz is trying to teach them both how to really act. The stars undergo a series of increasingly eccentric tasks that force them to confront not only each other but their own Hollywood legacies. The film hits theaters June 17.

“Official Competition” premiered at the 2021 Venice Film Festival, five years after Duprat...

Exclusive: Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat, the Argentinian filmmakers behind Official Competition, My Masterpiece and other acclaimed festival titles, have signed with CAA.

Cohn and Duprat wrote and directed their third feature, Official Competition, which premiered in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The comedy starring Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas watches as a wealthy businessman hires a famous filmmaker to help him make a hit film. IFC acquired U.S. distribution rights in October and plans to release the film in 2022. CAA Media Finance brokered the deal.

The duo’s credits also include My Masterpiece (Mi Obra Maestra), which Duprat directed with Cohn producing, and The Distinguished Citizen, which they helmed together. The latter title was selected to compete at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, where its star, Oscar Martínez, won the Best Actor award. It was also selected as Argentina’s Academy Awards entry that year and...

In the run-up to its roll-out in cinema theaters around the world, Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas starrer “Official Competition” has a official trailer.

Variety has had exclusive access to its international subtitled version. Buena Vista International will release “Official Competition” in Spanish cinemas on Feb. 25.

Spanish producer The Mediapro Studio and London-based international sales agent Protagonist Pictures already dropped a 48-second teaser trailer in late July, just before the film’s announced selection – appositely – for Official Competition at September’s Venice Film Festival, where it world premiered in September and was pretty much liked by everyone.

The now dropped official trailer is a minute longer and hits the movie’s main plot points: “Official Competition” begins with a billionaire businessman deciding to make a movie that leaves his mark on history. So he hires Cannes Palme d’Or winning filmmaker Lola Cuevas (Cruz), whose oeuvre includes “The Inverted Rain,...

In a bid to up their game in the Spanish and international arena, Barcelona-based companies Mediacrest and A Contracorriente Films have forged a strategic alliance that will have the latter distribute Mediacrest films and series as well as co-produce a selection of titles with the fast-growing producer.

Said Adolfo Blanco, CEO of A Contracorriente Films: “For A Contracorriente, the deal is an opportunity to collaborate with a first-rate team and to be able to offer its clients and partners a number of films and series designed to reach the general public.”

“By participating in the genesis of the projects, we will be better able to tailor the right model for each of them,” he added.

First out the gate is the adaptation of the 1945 Premio Nadal award-winning novel “Nada” by Carmen Laforet. The literary sensation is narrated by a young orphaned woman who leaves her small town to attend university in post-civil war Barcelona.

Disney has renewed for a second season Argentine psychological drama “Limbo – Hasta Que Lo Decida,” one of the companies earliest Star Plus Originals in Latin America.

The new order was announced this Saturday Oct. 9 by Leonardo Aranguibel, VP of production at the Walt Disney Company LatAm, in Cannes just after the world premiere of “Limbo” at Canneseries, where the 10-part series was the first to bow in main competition.

The decision to order Season 2 was made given the results of the first 10 episodes, now in post-production, and selection for Canneseries, Aranguibel explained.

Produced by Star Original Productions in partnership with Pablo Bossi’s Pampa Films and Gloriamundi Producciones, the series is developed by Argentina’s Mariano Cohen and Gastón Duprat, writer-directors of the Venice feature “Official Competition,” starring Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas, and “The Distinguished Citizen.” “Limbo” is directed by Agustina Macri (“Soledad”) and Fabiana Tiscornia (“La reina del...

A week after taking the Volpi Cup best actress award at the Venice Film Festival, Penelope Cruz and her “Official Competition” co-stars Antonio Banderas and Oscar Martínez were in San Sebastian on Friday evening for the film’s Spanish premiere, where the trio hosted a press conference joined on stage by producer Jaume Roures, CEO at Mediapro, and via a video stream by the film’s writing-directing duo Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn.

While discussing her admiration for Duprat and Cohn’s ability to make the difficult task of shooting a comedy seem easy, Cruz teased that she would be teaming up again with the Argentine duo in the future.

“Sometimes when audiences leave the theatre after a comedy, they think that those films are easier to make than dramas, but that’s not the case. I admire so much the work of Mariano and Gastón… which they do with such charm and intelligence.

Exclusive: Following a tussle for rights in the territory, Protagonist Pictures has closed a French all-rights deal with Wild Bunch for well-received comedy Official Competition, starring Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Oscar Martínez.

The Spanish-language film, produced by MediaPro Studio, recently had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

In Official Competition, Cruz plays renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas, who is recruited by a billionaire entrepreneur who impulsively decides to create an iconic movie. Banderas will star as Hollywood heartthrob Félix Rivero, and joining them is Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, who plays radical theatre actor Iván Torres.

Pic is directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat from a script they wrote with Andrés Duprat.

The film has also booked a Special Presentations berth at the Toronto International Film Festival and will open this year’s Perlak Section at the upcoming San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Argentina’s Aleph Cine, led by Fernando Sokolowicz, one of the country’s most established film producers, has taken an undisclosed co-production stake in Romina Paula’s project “Gente de noche” (“People by Night”), produced by New Argentine Cinema icon Diego Dubcovsky at Varsovia Films.

Selected for San Sebastian Festival’s 9th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, “Gente” marks Paula’s return to the Spanish festival after winning the 2019 Horizontes Award with her feature debut “Again Once Again” and co-directing 2020 Official Section omnibus player “Unlimited Edition.”

Toplining Agustina Muñoz (“Viola”) and Margarita Molfino (“Wild Tales”), the project follows Agustina, a woman who travels with her newborn baby to Selva Misionera to meet her wife’s family.

Selva Misionera owes its name to the Jesuit missions that began in the 17th Century in Guaraní territory -comprising current northeastern Argentina plus Uruguay, Paraguay, Bolivia and Brazil- by the Society of Jesus to evangelize the region.

The new film from Argentine duo Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn effectively asserted its destiny with its title: How could the Venice festival programmers resist putting a film called “Official Competition” in their official competition? Some things just make sense, and by premiering in this way, Duprat and Cohn’s droll, dippy insider comedy neatly completes the last of its many, many in-jokes: Whatever life the film has beyond the festival circuit, it will never again play to so perfectly targeted an audience.

How amused viewers outside the film’s satirical crosshairs will be by “Official Competition” remains to be seen. As it traces the fractious pre-production process of an art-house film being made for cynical commercial purposes, the film will certainly mine dark laughs of recognition from industry folk. Perhaps civilians will appreciate its puncturing of the egos and pretensions of the privileged artist class, after being drawn in by big,...

Five years ago, Gaston Duprat and Mariano Cohn’s “The Distinguished Citizen” premiered at the Venice Film Festival. It was one of the sharpest and funniest comedy-dramas of the year, and its star, Oscar Martinez, won the Festival’s acting prize, the Cuppa Volpi. But it didn’t get much of a release in English-speaking countries. The follow-up from the Argentinian directing team, “Official Competition” is more likely to be seen by audiences around the world. Martinez has one of the lead roles again, but this time he is acting opposite two of Spain’s — and the world’s — most glamorous superstars, Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas.

Astoundingly, despite being Almodóvar regulars, Cruz and Banderas have never done any substantial acting together. They had a brief joint scene in Almodóvar’s “I’m So Excited,” and in “Pain and Glory,” Cruz played the mother of Banderas’ character in his boyhood flashbacks.

Exclusive: Ahead of its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, Protagonist Pictures has closed a UK all rights deal with Curzon for Spanish-language pic Official Competition starring Antonio Banderas, Penelope Cruz and Oscar Martínez.

In Official Competition, Oscar winner Cruz plays renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas, who is recruited by a billionaire entrepreneur who impulsively decides to create an iconic movie. Banderas will star as Hollywood heartthrob Félix Rivero, and joining them is Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez (The Distinguished Citizen), who plays radical theatre actor Iván Torres.

The Spanish-language comedy, directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat from a script they wrote with Andrés Duprat, will also screen in the Special Presentations section of the Toronto International Film Festival and will open this year’s Perlak Section at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The deal for the film that debuts as part of the competition line up at Venice, was...

Venice this year has the goods and the glitz with a star-studded lineup packed with hotly anticipated titles such as Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune,” Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” and Ridley Scott’s “The Last Duel,” alongside more esoteric titles. It’s likely to make the Lido a place to reignite theatrical and bolster its standing as an awards season kingmaker.

The U.S. studios and indies will be out in force. European cinema is well-represented, especially Italy. Latin America has a significant presence, as does the Middle East. The only notable absence is China, which, due to Covid restrictions, makes travel to and from the country extremely difficult for filmmakers.

“Up until recently all Americans were in lockdown, which was much more rigid than what European productions had to contend with,” says Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera. “Americans shuttered for a year, films were not released,...

The Venice Film Festival has unveiled a star-studded lineup full of hotly anticipated new works from Jane Campion, Ana Lily Amirpour, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis Villeneuve, Ridley Scott, Paolo Sorrentino and Edgar Wright — to name a few standouts — who are likely to bolster the Lido’s standing as an awards season kingmaker.

Amirpour’s “Mona Lisa And The Blood Moon,” in competition, starring Kate Hudson as girl with unusual powers who escapes from a mental asylum, will bring the Iranian-American director back to Venice after her post-apocalyptic cannibal love story “The Bad Batch,” scored the Special Jury Prize in 2016.

Campion, as anticipated by Variety, is competing with “The Power of the Dog,” a drama about feuding brothers set in 1920s Montana starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons. “Dog” is one of two Netflix Original films in the Venice competition, the other one being Paolo Sorrentino’s personal drama “The Hand of God,...

Penelope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are Spain’s biggest Hollywood names, and Pedro Almodovar’s most frequent stars, but – extraordinary as it may seem – to date, they’ve had just two minutes on screen together, in the opening scene of 2013’s “I’m So Excited.”

In comedy “Official Competition,” a frontrunner for Venice selection next Monday, they get to share the screen for the whole of the film. If a teaser trailer, released Thursday, is anything to go by, however, for their characters at least it doesn’t look like a comfortable experience at all.

Produced by The Mediapro Studio, with Rtve, TV3 and Orange España, and brought onto the market by sales agent Protagonist Pictures at this year’s Berlin, “Official Competition” begins with a billionaire businessman deciding to make a movie that leaves his mark on history.

To do so, he hires famed filmmaker Lola Cuevas (Cruz), Hollywood hearthrob...

Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed and Oulaya Amamra lead the cast of the French adaptation of The Distinguished Citizen, produced by Axel Films. Having kicked off on 5 March in Morocco, filming on Citoyen d'honneur, the 5th feature film by Mohamed Hamidi (discovered in 2013 via Homeland and nominated for the 2016 European Film Award for Best Comedy thanks to One Man and His Cow) is set to wrap in the Paris region tomorrow. Shining bright in the cast are Kad Merad, Fatsah Bouyahmed (who led the cast of One Man and His Cow), Oulaya Amamra (who bagged the Best New Hope César and...

Following the presentation of exclusive footage at the European Film Market last week, highly anticipated title “Official Competition” – reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz – has seized sales to major distributors for sales agency Protagonist Pictures and producer The Mediapro Studio.

Banderas, Cannes best actor winner and Academy Award nominee for “Pain and Glory,” and Cruz, Academy Award winner for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” star alongside Argentinian actor Oscar Martínez, Venice best actor winner for “The Distinguished Citizen,” in the comedy about the fierce rivalry between two actors with massive talent but even bigger egos.

Lucky Red has acquired the film for Italy, Studiocanal for Germany/Austria, Scanbox for Scandinavia, Pathe Films Ag for Switzerland, MK2 Mile End for Canada, Madman for Australia/New Zealand, Golden Scene for Hong Kong/Macau, and Sahamongkol Film for Thailand, with further deals closed previously at EFM 2020 for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Lusomundo), Cee...

This convention-defying horror has Guillermo del Toro’s vision and David Lynch’s dreamlike logic. But what does it all mean?

Internal affairs takes on new meaning in this distinctively involuted Argentine thriller about a spate of gruesome decapitations in an Andes backwater. Police officer Cruz (Victor Lopez) is already on the case when his lover Francisca (Tania Casciani) becomes the next to have her head apparently chewed off, a mysterious green goo smeared on the stump. Her hollow-eyed husband David (Esteban Bigliardi) is suspect numero uno: he is found naked in the vicinity of the victims and, after later being carted off to an asylum, testifies to a strange voice in his head that whispers: “Murder me, monster.”

Related: My streaming gem: why you should watch The Distinguished Citizen...

The latest in our series of writers highlighting under-seen films to stream sees a recommendation for a satirical small-town Argentinian comedy drama

If you’ve ever spent an extended amount of time in a small town, The Distinguished Citizen will prove to be not only an entertaining watch but a relatable one. Even those who’ve never ventured out of the city will appreciate its immersive take on provincial culture, a way to calm your travel bug during this interminable lockdown.

Related: My streaming gem: why you should watch Nobody's Watching...

Despite dramatic times, there is room for some encouragement in recent moves by the Spanish film industry. Basque global hit “The Platform” proved the most-watched movie on Netflix in the U.S. The Mediapro Studio is upping film production with high-profile projects such as the Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas drama “Official Competition.” Meanwhile, Mr. Fields and Friends, headed by Bambú founders Ramón Campos and Teresa Fernández-Valdés, debuted with “Malasaña 32,” as well as plans to produce three to five movies every two years. Powerhouse Morena Films is in production with “Historias lamentables,” a drama from the team behind Spanish box office smash “Champions.”

Six days before producers will be allowed to restart production shoots in Spain, Pedro Sánchez’s Psoe socialist government has powered up the tax breaks cap for Hollywood and other foreign shoots as part of a relief package for Spain’s cultural industries.

Plowed through a...

Local authorities implement safety precautions amid outbreak.

Spain’s The Mediapro Studio has announced it is temporarily halting the shoot on Competencia Oficial (Official Competition) directed by Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat and starring Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas.

Production started in Madrid a few weeks ago and stopped on Wednesday (11) after the spread of coronavirus in the region forced local authorities to implement safety measures including the closure of schools and universities and a ban on gatherings of more than 1,000 people.

The decision to halt production will allow, according to The Mediapro Studio’s note to the press,...

Madrid — Filming has begun in Spain on “Competencia Oficial” (“Official Competition”) starring Penelope Cruz, Antonio Banderas’ and Oscar Martínez, and one of the biggest Spanish-language features to go into production this year.

Argentina’s Martínez, though less well known abroad, is one of the grand talents of Latin American cinema and theater, winning a best actor Coppa Volpi Award at Venice in 2016 for “The Distinguished Citizen.”

Sold by Protagonist Pictures, and part of a new push by The Mediapro Studio into movie production, “Official Competition” also suggests one approach to movie production at a time when the independent sector is increasingly challenged by dwindling returns in theatrical: Scale up, playing off revenues from high-end drama series production and take on board homegrown Hollywood talent to become part of a privileged top-echelon of titles which can sell, and strongly, in theatrical or cut a choice moneyed deal with a platform.

Written...

Exclusive: Amid a flurry of buzz titles heading into Berlin’s European Film Market, this could be one of the most in-demand – I can reveal that Protagonist Pictures will launch sales on Official Competition, a comedy reuniting Spanish stars Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz.

The Spanish-language movie has Argentinian directing duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat at the helm; their credits include the 2016 Venice Competition title The Distinguished Citizen.

Prestige pair Banderas and Cruz are teaming again after appearing together recently in Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory, which was nominated for two Oscars this month including Best Actor for Banderas.

Cruz is a three-time Oscar nominee and a winner in 2009 for Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She was also on stage at the latest Academy Awards presenting Bong Joon Ho with his statue for Best International Feature Film.

In Official Competition, Cruz will play renowned filmmaker Lola Cuevas, who is recruited...

The two stars will be the protagonists of the Spanish flick Competencia oficial, directed by Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, who were festooned with awards for The Distinguished Citizen. Even though in Pain & Glory, Madrilenian actress Penélope Cruz plays the mother of the child who goes on to be film director Salvador Mallo, played by Malaga-born thesp Antonio Banderas, these two world-famous stars did not actually meet on set or on the big screen at the time, given that the older version of the mother is played by Julieta Serrano, who won a Goya for this very role. But curiously enough, it was in the amusing prologue to I’m So Excited, another film by Pedro Almodóvar, where Banderas and Cruz did rub shoulders years before, playing a couple who worked in the airport that served as the departure point for the plane in which most of the action in.

Madrid — Spain’s two most recognizable cinematic faces, Antonio Banderas and Penélope Cruz, will co-star in a new film from Madrid’s The Mediapro Studio, titled “Competencia Oficial” (Official Competition), directed by Argentine filmmakers Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

The pair recently both starred in Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory,” although they never appeared together on screen. Banderas went on to win best actor at the Cannes Festival, a Spanish Academy Goya Award, and is now nominated for best actor at the Oscars.

Although the two have seen plenty of each other over the past year, promoting “Pain and Glory,” the last time they shared a scene was in 2013’s “I’m So Excited.”

Cohn and Duprat have recruited one of their most popular Argentine mature leading men to join the endeavor as well in Oscar Martínez, a Venice best actor winner for his work in “The Distinguished Citizen...

The Mediapro Studio production to start shoot in Spain at end of February.

Spanish superstars Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas are to take the relatively unusual step of starring together in a film and have signed on to Competencia Oficial (Official Competition) from Argentinian duo Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat.

While both actors have collaborated with Pedro Almodóvar for many years and starred (without sharing the screen) in Almodóvar’s fresh Goya winner Pain & Glory, the pair have rarely been seen together at the same time on screen, The last time this happened was, briefly, in Almodóvar’s 2013 film I’m So Excited.

Sales to commence in Berlin next month.

Us-based Apl Film has picked up sales rights to gay drama and Bolivian Oscar submission Tu Me Manques starring Oscar Martinez and Pedro Almodóvar regular Rossy de Palma and will kick off sales in Berlin next month.

Rodrigo Bellott directed the story of a man (Martinez) who travels to New York to confront his late dead son’s lover. Fernando Barbosa plays the boyfriend. Bellott’s 2003 local smash Sexual Dependency also represented Bolivia in the Oscar race.

Martinez is the Venice 2016 Coppa Volpi winner for The Distinguished Citizen and recently starred for Juan José Campanella...

One of the strangest and most vexing things about reviewing movies for a trade paper like Variety — which involves covering films at festivals and markets, as opposed to those consumer newspaper critics who follow the theatrical release schedule — is the fact that so many of the films we cover don’t have U.S. distribution at the moment we write about them. That’s the whole reason Variety is there: to give buyers, agents, and festival programmers an idea of where the quality lies. But it can be surreal to read (or write!) a rave review a movie that may never reach a movie theater near you.

Sometimes an enthusiastic critic can nudge a company into taking the risk on a foreign gem, but more often than not, the marketplace is too tough for a review to make a difference in a tiny film’s fate. And so the films...

The Creepshow TV series wrapped up its first season this past Halloween on Shudder, but the anthology series lives on courtesy of Fright-Rags! New, officially licensed apparel including T-shirts and enamel pins for the show are now available. Also in today's Horror Highlights: a trailer and poster Automation trailer and poster and Rojo and Midday Demons release details.

Fright-Rags' Creepshow TV Series Apparel Release Details: "Officially Licensed Creepshow - The Series T-Shirt! Artwork by Justin Osbourn.

Printed on our super soft 4.5oz 100% pre-shrunk ringspun cotton shirts.

Ships in 1-2 business days.

Us customers: Please allow 3-5 days for delivery.

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For more information, visit Fright-Rags' website.

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Automation Trailer and Release Details: "A workplace robot, Auto, transforms into a killing machine when he discovers he will be replaced by a more efficient model.

Garo Setian directed, produced, and edited Automation, and co-wrote alongside...

The Bolivian Filmmakers Association has chosen Rodrigo Bellot's Tu Me Manques as the country's submission for the 2020 Oscars best international feature category.

In the film, an adaptation of Bellot's own play, Oscar Martinez (The Distinguished Citizen) plays Jorge, a man who must deal with the suicide of his son Gabriel and travels from conservative Bolivia to New York City to confront Gabriel's boyfriend Sebastian.

The film premiered in L.A.'s Outfest in 2018, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for best screenplay.

Tu Me Manques (French for 'I miss you') is Bellot'...

The Bolivian Filmmakers Association has chosen Rodrigo Bellot's Tu Me Manques as the country's submission for the 2020 Oscars best international feature category.

In the film, an adaptation of Bellot's own play, Oscar Martinez (The Distinguished Citizen) plays Jorge, a man who must deal with the suicide of his son Gabriel and travels from conservative Bolivia to New York City to confront Gabriel's boyfriend Sebastian.

The film premiered in L.A.'s Outfest in 2018, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for best screenplay.

Tu Me Manques (French for 'I miss you') is Bellot'...

Bolivia’s selection committee has opted to submit Rodrigo Bellott’s polemical “Tu Me Manques” to vie for the International Feature Film Academy Award.

The gay drama beat 11 other local films in contention. “By supporting my film despite the controversy, Bolivia has proven that it is a progressive country, and that in the end, art and cinema will prevail,” said Bellott, who has seen his fourth film greeted by both glowing reviews and homophobic slurs since it bowed in August.

This is the second time Bellott represents Bolivia at the Oscars. His breakout film, “Sexual Dependency,” which snagged the Fipresci Award in Locarno and screened at more than 65 international film fests, also became the country’s second official entry to the Academy Awards in 2003, after an eight-year absence following Juan Carlos Valdivia’s “Jonas and the Pink Whale.”

The fact that there were 11 other films under consideration is also testament...

Bolivia’s Rodrigo Bellott, after some years dedicated to casting and producing for other directors, has marked his return to filmmaking with the adaptation of his groundbreaking stage play, “Tu Me Manques.” On Sunday Aug. 28, his eponymous bi-lingual film snagged the Grand Jury Prize for Best Screenplay at L.A.’s Outfest where it had its world premiere. Drama will have a special screening at Chile’s Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic), which runs Aug. 18-25.

When the play broke out in 2015, what was originally meant to stage for one night went on for an unprecedented four months due to popular acclaim. More importantly, the story based on Bellott’s gay boyfriend, who killed himself for fear of coming out, had such a momentous impact on Bolivian society that it led to the inclusion of the Lgbtq community in Bolivia’s anti-discrimination law. Its Supreme Court declared May 17 as...

It has also secured deals for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Goya-winning political thriller The Realm.

Antonio Saura’s Latido Flms has sold Juan José Campanella’s The Weasel’s Tale to France (Eurozoom), Portugal (Outsider Films), Italy (Movies Inspired), Greece (Seven Films) and Hong Kong (Edko Films) after market screenings in Cannes.

An Argentina-Spain co-production, The Weasel’s Tale is a black comedy starring Óscar Martínez (The Distinguished Citizen), Graciela Borges (The Quietude) and Clara Lago (Spanish Affair) star. Campanella won the best foreign language Oscar in 2010 for The Secret In Their Eyes.

Latido has also secured deals for Rodrigo Sorogoyen...

Chile’s ’No Filter’, Argentina’s ’A Boyfriend For My Wife’, Thailand’s ’Bad Genius’ among big draws

Remake rights have been doing a roaring trade in Cannes. South Korea’s Company L has acquired Chilean hit No Filter while the Philippines’ Glimmer Entertainment has bought the Argentinian rom-com A Boyfriend For My Wife.

Both deals were done by Guido Rud’s Buenos Aires-based FilmSharks, one of the world’s most active purveyors of remake rights. Spain’s Latido Films has assembled an inaugural remakes sales slate where titles include the Argentinian thriller 4x4, a hit at Ventana Sur last December,...

Madrid-based Latido Films is officially launching Latido Remakes, having closed a flurry of early sales, and capitalizing on the ever-building success of redos of box office movie hits outside their country of origin.

In first deals, Latido has sold remake options on Javier Fesser’s “Champions” to China’s Funhigh, India’s 200NotOut and Sausalito for the Middle East.

Remake options are about to be closed for France and Brazil, said Latido Films CEO Antonio Saura.

France’s Axel Films has optioned “The Distinguished Citizen” while Kinovista has snapped up “My Masterpiece.”

Other titles in Latido Films remake sales slate are “4×4” and “May God Save Us,”

Going forward, Latido will focus primarily on acquiring titles titles with potential from Spain and Latin America, looking for “highly original, high-concept box office hits in their local markets, especially comedies and thrillers,” Saura said.

Spain’s 2018 Oscars submission, “Champions,” fits that bill perfectly...