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by Cláudio Alves

Let's hope Neon gives Panahi's Palme winner a proper release. No LA Chimera nonsense, please.

Neon is on a hot streak. Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident marks the sixth Palme d'Or winner in a row that the distributor will handle for its US release. Then again, they achieved this by leaving nothing to chance, going on a shopping spree of perceived frontrunners. To the point where they have American distribution rights for four of the eight prizewinning films. The other heavy-hitter was Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, which took the Grand Prix, tantamount to second-place honors. But, of course, we shouldn't forget about the films that got no trophy. In between the two big champions, Mario Martone presented Fuori, and Carla Simón moved audiences with her Romería. If Oliver Hermanus' The History of Sound wasn't as acclaimed as one would hope, remember that much...

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,...

“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...

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...

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 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.

Over the last six years, thanks in the main to the SVOD revolution, Spain, once known for select auteurs – Pedro Almodóvar, J.A. Bayona, Fernando Trueba – has stepped fully onto the world stage as a European film and TV power.

Appropriately then, Spain is the Country in Focus 2025 at Berlin Festival’s European Film Market. Its movie strand says much about Spanish cinema, while Berlin, at large, points up Spain’s larger film industry challenges, shared by much of Europe.

The Focus’ biggest takeaway is Spain’s dramatic explosion of new talent, both producers and directors. In a Spain at the Forefront showcase, 10 Spanish producers making up a Producers Program will talk up their companies and current projects. Another 10 producers form part of Visitors Program at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Launched in 1995, Morena Films will unveil “8,” the latest from “Sex and Lucía” helmer Julio Medem. Avalon, producer of Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,...

Country in Focus: Spain at the Forefront, the European Film Market’s 2025 territory highlight, cuts two ways. TV will be spotlighted Feb. 17 in a Berlinale Series Market double-backed session, Spanish Thrillers, showcasing to works-in-progress titles, and Spanish Connection, where five projects are pitched to an industry audience.

For film, a Producers’ Showcase on Feb. 14 has 10 figures presenting their company and current projects at the Producers Hub. Another 10 producers form part of the Visitors Program at the Berlinale Co-Production Market.

For an analysis of what the companies and projects say about the current state of the Spanish film industry, please read the Spanish cinema Spotlight in Friday’s Variety print Daily. In the meantime, here’s a drill down on the 20 companies and key titles featured at Spain in Focus.

Producers Showcase

Alba Sotorra S.L., Alba Sotorra

Barcelona-based and now established as one of Spain’s leading and far-ranging international co-production practitioners,...

Barcelona studio Filmax has boarded “Another Man,” a comedy-laced romantic drama marking the second feature from Spanish writer-director David Moragas who turned heads on the festival circuit with ‘A Stormy Night,’ a black and white New York-set brief encounter story. Filmax will handle the theatrical release in Spain and international sales on “Another Man.”

In it, Marc and Eunald appear to be a stable couple. But Marc pushes back against Eunald’s attempts to consolidate their relationship. New neighbor Carlos, who moves into the apartment opposite, mesmerizes Marc, making him question his life until now.

Moragas’ first feature length film in Catalan, starring Lluís Marquès (“Girlfriends”), Quim Àvila (“Burning Body”) and Bruna Cusí (“Summer 1993”), the film explores the complexities of romantic relationships and the life changing decisions people make in their thirties.

“Another Man” is produced by Oberon Media, founded in 2018 by Antonio Chavarrías, an iconic figure on Barcelona...

In May, the Berlin Film Festival appointed Tanja Meissner as director of Berlinale Pro*, a role that includes leading the European Film Market as well as overseeing Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents, its program for young filmmakers, and the World Cinema Fund.

Meissner, a German-French citizen, has more than 25 years of experience in the film industry, including working at leading sales agencies Celluloid Dreams, from 2000 to 2007, and Memento Films, from 2007 to 2021.

Running the EFM is particularly challenging as its core clients, the sales agents, are under increasing economic pressure. “The sales agents are still a very important link in the value chain for independent films, and if the market narrows down too much, it’s beneficial to no one,” Meissner tells Variety. “So, I’m really mindful of their cost sensitivity. We kept the prices at the same level as last year because we want to respond to the challenges that they are facing.

Javier Marco’s “Face to Face” (“A la cara”), the spin-off from a 2021 Goya winning short, was one of the big winners at this year’s RECLab in Tarragona, Spain which is celebrating its 10th anniversary by doing what it does best: Innovation, which questions many of the often set-in-stone conventions of festivals.

Also among winners at RECLab, part of the Rec – Tarragona Intl. Film Festival, were “Jone Batzuetan,” by Sara Fantova, a director on “This Is Not Sweden,” and “Woman Bites Dog,” from Armand Rovira (“Letters to Paul Morrissey”).

“L’homme Abissal o Phaeophytamón,” by Marina Wagner, an “experimental Gothic tale” as she puts it, won the Málaga Work in Progress Award.

Unveiled at RECLab in true post-production – without color-grading, nor soundwork nor digital effects – the feature “Face to Face” picks up but reworks the basic premise of Marco’s short: Pedro, middle-aged, unshaved, dowdily dressed, opens the door of his house to Lina,...

Some of the highest-profile Spanish films of 2024 – from Málaga Festival winner and now Spain’s Oscar entry “Saturn Return” to San Sebastián laureates “I Am Nevenka” and “Glimmers” – feature in Mass, a Spanish film showcase which will unspool in Buenos Aires over Nov. 28-30 and Montevideo during Dec. 2-4, running parallel with the Uruguayan capital’s Ventana Sur market.

The film season represents the latest collaboration between Spain’s San Sebastián and Málaga Festival, here in partnership of Spain’s Icaa film agency and Argentina’s Orca Films, as Spain’s seeks to capitalize on its predominant presence on global streamers among E.U. film powers to consolidate production and co-financing relations in Uruguay, a building film-tv hub, and with regions of Argentina.

During their stay in Argentina, the San Sebastian and Malaga Festivals will meet representatives of the Buenos Aires, Entre Ríos and Santiago del Estero provinces to work...

Spanish producer Maria Zamora of Elástica Films, who has championed emerging and mostly female filmmakers through most of her 20-year career, received this year’s annual National Cinematography Award at the 72nd San Sebastian Festival on Saturday, Sept. 21.

On hand to introduce her were filmmakers Elías León Siminiani, Paula Ortiz and Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun.

Siminiani, who worked on two documentaries with Zamora in the span of 10 years, said: I’ve seen her career rise like a hot air balloon. After we stopped working together, she promptly snagged a Berlinale Golden Bear for ‘Alcarràs,’ a San Sebastian Golden Shell for ‘O Corno,’ a Goya for ‘Libertad’ and a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight award for ‘Creatura,’” he quipped.

“Indeed, in these uncertain times, we need a stabilizing force like Maria,” said Ortiz, a multi-Goya nominated filmmaker whose film “La Virgen Roja” (previously titled “Hildegart”), Elástica’s co-production with Prime Video, premieres on Sept.

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

Comienza el rodaje en Vigo de Romería, tercer largometraje de Carla Simón tras Alcarràs y Estiu 1993, en el que vuelve a explorar las relaciones familiares, esta vez inspirándose en los orígenes de su familia biológica paterna.

Romería sigue a Marina, que viaja a Vigo para conocer a la familia de su padre biológico, que murió de sida, como su madre, cuando ella era muy pequeña. A través de los encuentros con sus tíos, tías y abuelos, Marina intenta reconstruir un relato coherente de su padre y de la historia de amor que vivió con su madre, pero no lo consigue: todos sienten demasiada vergüenza por los conflictos de la pareja con las drogas, algo que Marina les recuerda con su presencia. Será la historia de amor adolescente que vive con su primo...

The Mediapro Studio’s “El 47,” the rousing true story of “a man, a bus and a neighborhood’s fate,” bows its official international teaser in Variety.

Helmed by multi-Goya award-winner Marcel Barrena (“Mediterraneo”), it follows bus driver Manolo Vital who is frustrated with the Barcelona City Council’s claim that public transport cannot reach the Torre Baró district due to narrow and unsafe roads. He seizes control of the route 47 bus to prove them wrong.

Many Torre Baró residents participated as extras, having witnessed or been related to those who experienced Vital’s 1978 challenge, showcasing the neighborhood’s unity and pride.

Shot in sepia tones, the drama, co-penned by Barrena and Alberto Marini (“The Stranger”), features a stellar cast led by Eduard Fernández, winner of three Goya awards, a San Sebastian Silver Shell and three Malaga Festival Silver Biznagas, along with Clara Segura, a Goya nominee for “Creatura.”

The rest...

Spain’s film & TV giant The Mediapro Studio is joining forces with Catalan pubcaster 3Cat and its online platform to co-produce “El Mal” (“Quiet”), a thriller series based on a true story, on a serial killer prowling the streets of locked-down Barcelona in March-April 2020.

Presented April 8 at MipTV, the eight-part series will topline two Goya Awards-winning actor David Verdaguer and double Goya nominee actress Ángela Cervantes.

The series is set to premiere initially on 3Cat while The Mediapro Studio Distribution owns the worldwide commercial rights.

Created and lead written by Lluís Alcarazo – creator of Oriol Paulo’s crime thriller “Night and Day” and doc feature “Special Case “Quiet” – tells the story of an investigation to uncover the identity of a serial killer who chooses their victims from among the most vulnerable members of the society: the homeless.

The plot unfolds at the end of April 2020, in the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown.

Una lista de 10 películas del 27 Festival de Málaga que no te puedes perder.

Con la 27ª edición del Festival de Málaga finalizada, desde mundoCine te traemos las diez recomendaciones que no te puedes perder a lo largo de los próximos meses. Películas que han cautivado a los asistentes de esta edición, y que se estrenarán en cines en breve. Echémosles un vistazo:

10. Radical (Christopher Zalla)

¿Por qué deberías verla? La película galardonada con la Biznaga de Oro a Mejor Película Iberoamericana nos narra la historia real de un grupo de chavales de instituto que son inspirados por su nuevo maestro (interpretado de forma magistral por el gran Eugenio Derbez) y que tratan de sacar todo su potencial para huir de un pueblo en la frontera con Estados Unidos lleno de abandono, corrupción y violencia.

Una cinta plagada de sentidas y emotivas actuaciones por parte de su elenco más joven, que...

Over the last seven years, Catalonia has built a thriving film industry which has been the envy of other regions across Europe, boasting a thriving co-production scene, a burgeoning animation industry, a 2022 Berlin Golden Bear with Clara Simon’s “Alcarrás,” and a bevy of prizes at 2023’s Berlinale, thanks to “20,000 Species of Bees.”

Catalonia even brought down the flag with Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a 2017 Berlin Best First Feature Film winner, on what could be hailed as a first film movement in Spain in decades: Fiction films grounded in a large sense upon a specific place, but talking about big social or gender issues.

Now Catalonia is attempting to achieve the same impact with its TV industry. Its early results led by “This Is Not Sweden,” will play out at Content Americas and most especially Sweden Göteborg Festival’s TV strand, TV Drama Vision.

Bowing November in Spain on...

Film Factory Ent. – a sales agent on “Wild Tales,” “The Clan,” “Close Your Eyes” and “The Kings of the World” – has boarded “Jokes & Cigarettes” (“Saben Aquell”), the latest movie from Spain’s David Trueba which is fast-emerging as one of Spain’s late year Goya Award contenders after a San Sebastian sneak-peek and the bow of a trailer.

“Jokes & Cigarettes” joins a Film Factory sales lineup which has included, of titles at this week’s Mia Spanish Screenings on Tour, Javier Macipe’s breakout “The Blue Star,” a hit at San Sebastian where it won the TCM Youth Award and Spanish Co-operation Award.

Trueba, also a novelist, journalist and documentarian, has directed four fiction films and four documentaries since “Living is Easy With Eyes Closed,” which swept seven Goyas in 2014 including picture, director, original screenplay, actor (Fernando Cámara and actress (Natalia de Molina).

Released in Spain on Nov.

Barcelona-born director Carla Simón, whose sophomore film “Alcarràs” clinched the 72nd Berlinale Golden Bear last year, received the 2023 National Cinematography Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by Spain’s Ministry of Culture.

On hand to present the award in a ceremony held at the San Sebastian Film Festival was Miguel Iceta, Spain’s Minister of Culture and Sports, who first addressed Simón in Catalan before switching to Spanish: “With only two feature films, you have left your mark on the recent history of cinema in our country: a short but undisputed trajectory in terms of its strength and personality, recognized both nationally and internationally. A career that is nothing but the promise of a much longer and fruitful one.”

“This award, if you’ll allow me the audacity, is also for all the women who accompany you, for all your professional colleagues and peers, for all those women who,...

Spain has found a place on the global film industry’s radar as an attractive market for co-producing projects, boosted by its bigger-than-ever-public-sector funding.

The trend comes in a moment of maturity for its audiovisual industry, with competitive tax incentives and the emergence of fresh talent, often female, whether directors or producers. Unlike U.S. indie producers, hard hit by streamers pulling back, European counterparts still have public sector financing.

But to make movies of any artistic ambition, which might justify that funding and break out to foreign sales and a theatrical release, producers are looking overseas more and to other parts of Spain for production partners.

Co-production is booming. Only last year, Spain co-produced 70 films, beating its average production for the period 2018-2022 of 256 titles, according to Spanish film agency Icaa.

Icaa’s selective aid for movie production reached €20 million (21.48 million). Of that, a minimum 5 went to support minority co-productions.

Spanish thesp Luis Tosar has joined the cast of sci-fi comedy “Golem,” produced by Spain’s top indie house Aquí y Allí Films.

Directed by Juan González and Fernando Martínez (a.k.a. Burnin’ Percebes), the project toplines Brays Efe, star of Netflix hit series “Paquita Salas,” Goya Award winner Bruna Cusí (“Summer 1993”) and Javier Botet.

Aquí y Allí Films’ Pedro Hernández and Elamedia’s Roberto Butragueño produce the film, scheduled to roll in Madrid from August.

Elamedia will distribute in Spain.

Aquí y Allí is one of the five Spanish companies selected by Spain’s trade promotion board Icex and the Icaa film institute to pitch their production slates at Cannes’ Producers Network.

Burnin’ Percebes earned a reputation as a cult indie film pair with previous features “Searching for Meritxell,” “Ikea 2” and “The Lizard Queen.”

“Golem” narrates the story of two friends, Juan and David, who after an...

“El agua,” (Elena López Riera)

A Directors’ Fortnight title, the feature debut of Locarno winning López Riera (“Los Que Desean”), a fantasy-laced village-set critique of gender violence. S.A. Elle Driver

“Alcarràs,” (Carla Simón)

The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, Simón’s follow-up to “Summer 1993” and the flagship title for Catalonia and Spain’s newest filmmaking generation. S.A. MK2 Films

“Amazing Elisa,” (Sádrac González-Perellón)

The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González-Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, plans revenge after her mother’s tragic death. S.A. Filmax

“The Beasts,” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, playing Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte. S.A. Latido Films

“The Communion Girl,” (Víctor García)

A revenge thriller involving an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress. S.

From Berlin Golden Bear winner ‘Alcarrás’ to Cannes Competition title ‘Pacifiction,’ these projects will represent Catalonia at Cannes.

Alcarràs

Director: Carla Simón

The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, a family farm drama marking the flagship title for Catalonia’s newest generation of cineastes.

Sales: MK2 Films

Amazing Elisa

Director: Sadrac González-Perellón

The next from 2017 BiFan Grand Jury Prize winner González- Perellón (“Black Hollow Cage”), once more mixing fantasy and family dynamics as Elisa, 12, seeks revenge after her mother’s tragic death. La Charito Films produces.

Sales: Filmax

The Beasts

Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen

One of 2022’s most awaited Spanish titles, selected for Cannes Premiere, a Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”), produced by Arcadia, Caballo Films and Le Pacte.

Sales: Latido Films

The Communion Girl

Director: Víctor García

Film Factory’s genre play for Cannes: A revenge thriller drawing on an urban legend about a girl in a communion dress.

Sales: Film...

Filmax has swooped in on one of Spain’s most awaited fiction feature debuts of 2022, Alex Lora’s “Unicorns” (“Unicornios”). Pic is produced by Inicia Films’ Valerie Delpierre, producer of director Carla Simon’s debut, “Summer 1993.”

Due to be completed by the fall, “Unicorns” is made with Valencia’s Jaibo, the shingle behind Chema García’s Locarno hit “The Sacred Spirit.” Filmax will screen a first promo at this week’s Cannes Film Market.

New York-based, and an alum of the City College of New York, where he was mentored by Chantal Akerman, Lora has carved out an exceptional documentary career, finding humanity in the most unlikely of subjects, often supposed outsiders or outcasts, and of places, such as a Brooklyn recycling center in 2017’s doc feature “The Fourth Kingdom, The Kingdom of Plastics.”

In “Unicorns,” by contrast, Isa, the protagonist, has it all. She is intelligent, beautiful, young and spontaneous.

Global streaming service Mubi has snapped up Carla Simón’s Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs” for the U.S., U.K. and a raft of other markets.

Spanish director Simón’s “Alcarràs” premiered in Competition at the 2022 Berlinale, where it won the Golden Bear for best film. It was one of the last Competition titles to unspool at the festival — which took place in person after two years — but emerged as a hot favorite following its premiere, with unanimous critical adoration for Simón’s film, which features an ensemble of entirely non-professional actors.

Mubi — which is also a distributor and production company in its own right — has bought the film for North America, U.K., Ireland, Latin America, Turkey, South Asia (including India) and Southeast Asia (including Malaysia). The streamer will release the film theatrically this fall in the U.S. and U.K.

Following her breakthrough film “Summer 1993,...

You can practically smell the midsummer fatigue that wafts through “Alcarràs” on the faintest and most occasional of breezes: a mixture of sweat, baked earth and ripe, plump peaches, inviting in the moment but suggestive of future spoiling. All simple seasonal pleasures are on borrowed time in Carla Simón’s lovely, bittersweet agricultural drama, and not just because winter is inevitably coming. For the large, garrulous Solé clan, who have spent every summer of their lives picking fruit from their familial orchard, this looks to be the last in that tradition, as they face imminent eviction from their patch of land in Catalonia. Yet as they squabble over their uncertain future — and plenty else besides — the sun shines and peaches droop voluptuously from endangered branches. There’s nothing for it but to complete the final harvest.

In her second feature, Catalan writer-director Carla Simón returns to the rural region that...

Carla Simón’s first feature “Summer 1993” was a knockout; a Generation Kplus and Best First Feature award winner at the 2017 Berlinale and Spain’s 2018 Oscars submission, winning three Spanish Academy Goya Awards. The director has since become a reference within a new wave of Catalan women filmmakers that have broken out to considerable box office and festival success.

Now, Simón competes in Berlin’s main competition with her sophomore effort “Alcarràs,” exploring her own roots through her adoptive mother’s family.

Set in the so-called Catalan Far West, in a small village near Lleida, the film is shot entirely using non-professional actors. “Alcarràs” tells the story of a family who make their living harvesting peaches and are forced to abandon the lands they have been taking care of for sixty years under a perpetual verbal agreement with the landowner. After the landowner’s death, his heirs no longer recognize...

Spain has two films in this year’s main competition at the Berlinale, and a record haul of films participating across all sections. Similarly, the country boasts an impressive list of productions looking for buyers at the festival’s EFM. Below, a list of standouts from Spain looking to make moves on the global market.

“Prison 77” (Alberto Rodríguez)

A potential jewel in Spanish cinema’s 2022 crown, “Modelo 77” is produced by Spanish pay TV-vod giant Movistar Plus and Madrid-based Atípica Films, Rodríguez’s career-long producer. S.A. Film Factory

“Alcarràs” (Carla Simón)

In Berlin’s main competition, the much anticipated follow up to Simón’s “Summer 1993,” “Alcarrás” tracks the final harvest at a multi-generational family farm. Co-produced with Italy. S.A. MK2 Films

“The Beast” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)

A Galicia-set thriller from Oscar-nominee Sorogoyen (“Mother”) and his regular co-scribe Esther Peña.

“Beyond the Summit” (Ibon Cormenzana)

Javier Rey and Patricia Lopez...

Post-covid, Spanish sales companies look poised for a comeback to the global scene. Although, as Berlin’s EFM has gone virtual once again, their long-awaited physical reunion with the international industry will have to wait until Cannes… hopefully.

An argument for optimism: Spanish-language films continue gaining ground on the global market, especially as platforms boom. Standout examples include Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s “The Platform” and Lluís Quílez’s “Below Zero,” which both breach the top 10 most watched non-English language Netflix films of all time, per Variety’s estimations. Other Spanish films such as “The Paramedic,” “Sky High” and “Xtreme” have also performed well for the streamer.

Measuring with another analytic – Spain’s presence at landmark film events – the year kicked-off with good news from Berlin.

For the first time in the last quarter-century, two Spanish titles: “Alcarrás,” from “Summer 1993” director Carla Simon, and “One Year, One Night,” by two-time San...

Paris-based Elle Driver has acquired world sales rights outside Spain and France to “La Maternal,” the second film from Pilar Palomero whose 2019’s “Schoolgirls” (“Las niñas”) made her only the fifth first feature director to win a Spanish Academy Best Picture Goya.

BTeam Pictures is handling distribution in Spain.

“Schoolgirls” also won Goyas for director, original screenplay and cinematography (Daniela Cajías), establishing Palomero as a leading light of Catalonia’s newest – and often female – generation of cineastes, making movies which are grounded in authentic local realities, but alert to broader social trends.

Produced like “Schoolgirls” by Spain’s Inicia Films, whose credits also include Carla Simon’s “Summer 1993,” and BTeam Productions, “La Maternal” sees Palomero once more explore the borders between child and adulthood.

“What does it mean to be mother, what does it mean to be a child ? At 14 years old, Carla is both…” runs the film’s logline.

One of the hottest titles from Spain at this year’s European Film Market, is Catalan director Carla Simón’s sophomore feature “Alcarrás,” the hotly anticipated follow up to her 2017 debut “Summer 1993.” There, Paris-based MK2 Films will be talking to interested buyers of the recently-finished arthouse entry. To mark the occasion, the sales company has given Variety access to an early clip.

A smash hit with critics and festivals alike, Simón’s autobiographical debut “Summer 1993” won the Best First Feature Award and the Generation Kplus Grand Prix jury prize at Berlin in 2017. The feature was Spain’s 2018 Oscars submission, nominated for the Efa Discovery Award and won three Spanish Academy Goya awards including best new director. Carla Simón also received the Women in Motion Emerging Talent Award at Cannes 2018.

Less autobiographical, although still deeply rooted in Simón’s own background, “Alcarràs” turns on a multi-generational family of peach...

Each year the Guadalajara Film Festival (Ficg) invites a crop of the most exciting projects from around Latin America to participate in its Co-Production Meetings. This year, organizers are excited to welcome back in-person visitors for its rescheduled 17th edition of the event, where teams representing 24 feature film projects will meet with potential partners, financing organizations, sales agents and more.

Below, a look at this year’s participating projects.

“Animals,”

From Waissbluth, whose enterprising 2016 “A Horse Called Elephant” marked a rare Southern American movie play for family ads. Billed as a near-future dark dramedy, his latest pictures a world where animal rights begin to be widespread and upheld by law.

“The Bad Mother,”

Victoria, a successful journalist, decides to have a baby, regrets it later, which plunges her into depression.She writes a book, “The Bad Mother,” which creates a movement. A horror drama marking the director’s first feature.

The speakers are producer María Zamora, Maialen Beloki from San Sebastián film festival and Protagonist Pictures’ Marielle Membreno.

The next episode in our ScreenDaily Talks webinar series will take place September 9 at 10:00 BST / 11:00 Cest and will discuss how the international industry can work with the dynamic Spanish film sector.

Click here to register

The international demand for Spanish films and talent is making stars out of a new generation of directors and actors and ensuring Spain’s thriving indie producers are sought-after creative partners.

Last month Screen launched our inaugural Spain Stars of Tomorrow, in partnership with Filmin,...

Few phenomena in Spanish film have proved so striking in recent years as the emergence last decade of a new generation of Catalan filmmakers, very often women, making resonant movies grounded in highly specific local realities.

Think Clara Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a Berlin First Feature Award winner, or Pilar Palomero’s “Schoolgirls,” which walked off with best picture at this year’s Spanish Academy Goyas.

For years, prominent Catalan auteurs – José Luis Guerín, Marc Recha, Isaki Lacuesta – have made movies straddling documentary and fiction.

Sold by Beta Cinema, “The Off-Job Men,” directed by Pompeu Fabra U. alum Neus Ballús, drinks deep from both traditions.

Its stars, Mohamed Mellali, Valero Escolar and Pep Sarrá, are real life plumbers who, in a fiction-set up created by Ballús, play employees at Instalaciones Losilla, a small handyman firm on the outskirts of Barcelona. Over six days, Moha, a Moroccan new recruit on a one-week trial,...

Madrid-based Avalon is transforming from a prestige producer-distributor into an industrial force.

Founded by CEO Stefan Schmitz in 1996, Avalon has carved a reputation most recently for co-producing and releasing in Spain Carla Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a Berlin 2017 First Feature Award winner. It co-produced Clara Roquet’s Cannes Critics’ Week entry “Libertad.”

The shingle, set to distribute “Benedetta” and “Bergman Island” in Spain, now has an 11-title production slate, both features and drama series, taking in new titles from leading lights in a new generation of female Catalan cineastes.

Simón herself has rural family drama “Alcarrás” in shooting and is developing her third feature, “Romería,” “a kind of continuation of ‘Summer 93,’” Schmitz said. “Alcarrás“ – “a highly cinematographic, and bigger budgeted Spanish independent film,” said Schmitz – is being sold by MK2.

“Libertad” director Clara Roquet is co-writing “Creatura,” set up at San Sebastian project lab Ikusmira Berriak, from Malaga best director...

Leading Italian sales agent and production company The Open Reel is at the Cannes Marché du Film selling its newly-acquired Spanish feature “Mía and Moi” (“Mia y Moi”) from director Borja de la Vega. There, the company has already closed sales on the feature to Dramarama in the U.S., Cinemien in Benelux and German-speaking territories and OUTtv in Israel, Spain and Scandinavia.

The Open Reel has also dealt Marius Gabriel Stancu’s “It’s Just in My Head” to Dramarama and Alberto Fuguet’s documentary “Everything at Once” to Tla for North America. Both also sold to popular Spanish streaming platform Filmin. Lithuanian feature “People We Know Are Confused” from Tomas Smulkis was picked up by Spi International.

“MÍa and Moi” stars Spanish Academy Goya Award winners Bruna Cusí (Best Actress “Summer 1993”) and Eneko Sagardoy (“Giant”) and Goya-nominee Ricardo Gómez (“1898: Our Last Men in the Philippines”). It...

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...

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,...

Jan Naszewski’s Warsaw-based New Europe Film Sales has picked up international sales rights to “Matria,” the awaited feature debut of Spain’s Alvaro Gago, a Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance in 2018 for his same-titled short.

Produced by Galicia’s Matriuska and Madrid’s Avalon, in co-production with Catalonia’s Ringo Media, “Matria” has been selected for the official lineup at next week’s Berlinale Co-Production Market.

Expanding on the short, the feature further develops its central character, Ramona, who in the short hardly exchanges a word with her husband, but manages her household and her job – a punishing daily routine – and yet still manages to have a life . afforded by her relationship with her daughter and grandchild which endow her with some emotional dignity.

Just how the character is developed in the feature remains to be seen.

“At its core ’Matria’ has a strong and nuanced female lead...

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

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

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

Few figures in the Spanish film industry dress as formerly, or as well, as Malaga Intl. Film Festival director Juan Antonio Vigar. But then he takes his job very seriously indeed. While many other Spanish festival directors have more or less maintained the formats of their events, Vigar has innovated constantly since taking over in 2013. The result is a bouquet of industry initiatives which only San Sebastian can equal in Spain, and which channel the key pivots in Spanish-language production at large: The gathering sense of one common production market in Spain and Latin America; the two-way street with drama series production; the primacy of talent.

Variety talked to Vigar in the run-up to its 2020 Spanish Screenings:

The key direction in which you’ve taken Malaga is “apertura,” an opening up, whether in its geographical ambit or types of titles….

Cultural initiatives must be reset from time to time, to allow them to breathe,...

Valérie Delpierre and Pilar Palomero, producer and director of “Las Niñas,” one of the banner titles of a new – and often women-driven – Catalan cinema, are re-teaming with Madrid-based BTeam Pictures to produce Palomero’s second feature, “La Maternal.”

Delpierre, who serves as a member of this year’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos, will produce once more out of Inicia Films, her Barcelona-based label which backed Carla Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a 2017 Berlin’s Generation Kplus winner.

BTeam Pictures, the company behind Isaki Lacuesta’s San Sebastian Golden Shell winnier “Between Two Waters,” will distribute “La Maternal” in Spain.

Written by Palomero, “La Maternal” follows 12-year Carla, a wild and rebellious girl who lives in humble circumstances on the outskirts of a village and has a very difficult —near toxic– relationship with her mother. Taken to a foster home by the local social services, Carla gives birth and has to face a...

Backed by the Spanish Ministry of Culture and the Spanish Institute of Cinematography and the Audiovisual Arts (Icaa), 10 promising Spanish projects participated in a marathon day of speed meetings through the day on Thursday at Cannes’ Marché du Film.

Below, summaries of the hopeful projects:

“A Thousand Lives,” (Marina Seresesky)

Meridional Producciones and Wandermoon Finance partner on Goya-nominated filmmaker Marina Seresesky’s latest psychological drama “A Thousand Lives.” Four years after her son disappeared, Sofia sees a news report about a four-year-old boy halfway around the world who claims to remember a past life. The distressed mother travels to Latin America to find the child, sure that this child is her own son reincarnated. There, she earns the boy’s trust and his family’s misgivings. Colombian-Spanish actress Juana Acosta is attached.

“The Daughter of the Volcano,” (Jenifer de la Rosa)

A co-production involving Spain’s Mayeutica Producciones, Icónica Producciones...

Three or so years ago, a new generation of directors, many women, were beginning to break out in Catalonia. That was no flash in the pan.

Following on Nely Reguera’s “María (and Everybody Else)” and Carla Simón’s Berlinale Generation Kplus pic “Summer 1993,” first features by Diana Toucedo (“Thirty Souls”), Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”), Neus Ballús (“The Plague”) and Celia Rico (“Journey to a Mother’s Room”) have set the film festival circuit alight, garnering bullish reviews and a slew of prizes. Many of these women are now on to their second or third features: Simón with “Alcarrás,” Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”), Colell, Rico (“The Little Loves”), Pilar Palomero (“La maternal”) and Reguera (“The Grandson”), among others.

Now, women producers are taking center stage: Belén Sánchez at Un Capricho Producciones (Lucía Alemeny’s “The Innocence”), Patricia Franquesa at Gadea Films (Laura Herrero’s “La Mami”) are succeeding. Many...

In 2001, when Dieter Kosslick took over the Berlinale, it already had a thriving children’s section called the Kinderfilmfest. Recognizing a good thing when he saw it, Kosslick helped grow the sidebar by introducing the 14-plus program and shepherding it into what is now known as Generation.

“We had problems with big companies that didn’t want to give us films,” he says, “because they thought: ‘We don’t want these to be children’s films.’” Instead, “they wanted them to be family entertainment, which [is what] they were.”

Kosslick is being honored with Variety‘s Achievement in International Film Award at Berlin.

But it was also important to show that the Berlinale took kids seriously. Because kids live in a world, “especially in Berlin,” he points out, “where you have all the problems, from crime to immigration.”

So in 2004, Kosslick and the section’s curator, Maryanne Redpath, added “14plus” as part of the existing program.

At the halfway point of the year, it’s downright strange that the only 2018 release with a real chance of landing a Best Picture nomination at next year’s Oscars also happens to be the top-grossing film of the year.

But that’s only one of the reasons that “Black Panther” is such a phenomenon. A blockbuster hit that also feels like a landmark in ways that could conceivably register with Oscars voters next year, the Marvel release is potentially the first film since “American Sniper” in 2014 to land a Best Picture nod and also wind up in the top five of the yearly box-office chart. (And “American Sniper” made nearly all its money the following year.)

But “Black Panther” is by no means a sure thing, and its fate at the Oscars will depend on a myriad of factors between now and the end of the year. That’s...

Giant (Handia) received 13 Goya nominations Basque language film Giant (Handia) leads the charge for the 32nd edition of the Goya Awards - the Spanish equivalent of the Oscars - with 13 nominations.

The film, directed by Aitor Arregi and Jon Garaño, who previously enjoyed international successs with Loreak, tells the real-life story of a son of a farmer who became a sensation after suffering from gigantism.

It is followed in the nominations list by Isabel Coixet's The Bookshop - starring Bill Nighy and Emily Mortimer - which has 12 nominations and Manuel Martin Cuenca's The Motive (El Autor), with nine, including a best actor nod for Javier Gutiérrez, who plays a man so obsessed with writing a book that he begins to manipulate his neighbours. The above all join the shortlist for best film, alongside Carla Simón's Summer 1993 (Estiu 1993) and Carlos Algara and Alejandro Martinez-Beltran's Verónica

The films vying for best European film.

Michael Haneke’s Happy End also among titles in non-competitive strand.

The Sarajevo International Film Festival (August 11-18) has unveiled the line-up for its Kinoscope programme, with 17 titles competing.

The non-competitive strand, which first launched in 2012, selects titles from around the globe and excludes territories featured in the main competition.

Among this year’s cohort are major titles to have competed at Cannes including the Palme d’Or-winner The Square, Michael Haneke’s latest feature Happy End and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s well-received Loveless.

Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa’s Gabriel And The Mountain, Léonor Serraille’s Montparnasse Bienvenüe, Chloé Zhao’s The Rider and Valeska Grisebach’s Western are also included.

The 2017 Kinoscope Line-up

Ava

France, 2017, 105 min.

Director: Léa Mysius

Gabriel And The Mountain / Gabriel E A Montanha

Brazil, France, 2017, 127 min.

Director: Fellipe Gamarano Barbosa

A Ghost Story

USA, 2017, 93 min.

Director: David Lowery

Godspeed / Yi Lu Shun Feng

Taiwan, 2016, 111 min.

Director: Mong-Hong Chung

Happy End

France, Austria, Germany...

Distributor plots theatrical release for autumn. Separately, FilmRise acquires Marjorie Prime, Gravitas Ventures takes California Typewriter, Oscilloscope picks up Polina and Summer 1993, and Paladin and Electric Entertainment acquire The Drowning.

The Orchard has acquired all Us distribution rights to Oscar-nominee Raoul Peck’sThe Young Karl Marx.

Peck’s latest film premiered at the Berlinale in February on the heels of his Oscar nomination for the documentary I Am Not Your Negro.

Directed, produced and co-written by Peck with Pascal Bonitzer, The Young Karl Marx explores the origins of the international socialist movement, the emergence of the Communist League and its founding document,The Communist Manifesto written by Marx and Friedrich Engels.

The film paints a portrait of the two young men who, with the support of Marx’s wife Jenny, passionately believed in the vision of a humane society and the revolutionary power of the abused and oppressed. The film stars August Diehl, Stefan Konarske and [link...