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In the Spanish comedy drama series “Zorras,” based on the Noemí Casquet best selling novel of the same name, Andrea Ros, Mirela Balic, and Tai Fei play Alicia, Emily, and Diana, three women from very different backgrounds. They find a commonality, however, in a desire for friendship and exploration of themselves through sexual experimentation and novelty.

“Zorras” might translate as “sluts” or “tramps.” The show flips such terms and acts such as bondage on their head.

“I really think it’s about empowering ourselves through those words that have been pejorative to us throughout our existence simply by living and doing with our lives what we want to do with our lives,” Casquet told Variety.

“The term ‘sluts’ has always been very derogatory regardless of how many times we slept with someone. What this series wants to do is to turn the term around. To stop hurting us and to...

J.A. Bayona’s adaptation of Patrick Ness’ novel wins nine awards at the Spanish Goyas but Raúl Arévalo’s debut as a director takes best film.

A Monster Calls went into the Goya Awards on Saturday night (Feb 4) with 12 nominations and ended up taking home nine prizes from the Spanish Film Academy, including best director for Juan Antonio Bayona.

Scroll down for full list of winners

The director, just weeks away from starting shoot on a Jurassic World sequel, was visibly moved with the film’s performance, not only when he took to the stage to collect his Goya for best director, but also when his collaborators on the film did so for the film’s other eight wins of the night, including best cinematography, special effects, sound and production design.

With a box office of $28.6m (€26.5m), A Monster Calls was the biggest film in Spain last year.

The Fury Of A Patient Man director [link=nm...

Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's Gordos (Fat People) is a great film, but not because it resists the easy joke or gross-out gag. It embraces them, and turns what could have been a simple comedy drama - why do people end up overweight? What might they do about it? - into something far deeper and more affecting in the process. It's still an obvious commercial film, with some predictable plot beats. It's too long, and it can't keep the quality up all the way through the ending. Still, it's a laudably adult production, earthy, smutty and raw yet witty, intelligent and deeply, deeply moving with it.While there's a framing device that bookends each act, the story properly gets started when a group of overweight people visit a...

Acclaimed short film director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's third feature film is currently in post production. After DarkBlueAlmostBlack and last year's Gordos, Arévalo commented that this will be his most personal project to date and it will mark a clear departure from his previous works since it will be his first full comedy and will be including a lot of his personal experiences. “Primos” is based on a previous short film shot by the director and will count once again with Quim Gutiérrez and Raúl Arévalo in the cast, both of whom had important roles in Sánchez Arévalo´s previous works. Antonio de la Torre toplines the tale about three cousins who travel to the village where they spent summer vacations as kids.

Spain Film Scene: Local Alex de la Iglesia's ("The Oxford Murders", "Day of the Beast") latest film "Balada Triste de Trompeta" finished principal photography this month (see pic of director above). This co-production with France's production company La fabrique 2, tells the story of two heavily scarred clowns, Javier and Sergio, that bloodily compete for the love of Natalia, the trapezist. Set in 1973, during the last days of the dictatorship of Franco, the director himself describes the film as a "grotesque tragedy of comedic horror." The film stars T.V comedian Carlos Areces, fresh from the success of its first film "Spanish Movie" and Antonio de la Torre, the critically acclaimed actor of Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's "Gordos", also starring are Sancho Gracia, Santiago Segura and Terele Pávez, all veterans from de la Iglesia's previous films. The film is set to be released at the end of 2010. After his hit debut "1 franco,...

Chicago – We have now reached the fourth and final week of the 13th Annual European Union Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center, and what a fantastic festival it has been. From international sensations to critically acclaimed gems rarely available in the Us, the EU annual line-up is consistently one of the finest offered by any festival in the Windy City.

The first three weeks were loaded with highlights that just seemed to get better as the days progressed. Some of the selections, such as Austria’s diabolical delight “The Bone Man” and the Netherlands’ beguiling documentary “Rembrandt’s J’Accuse,” were more entertaining than the majority of mainstream Hollywood releases. Both France and Italy had several exceptional entries this year, including Amos Gitai’s spellbinding “Disengagement” and Luca Guadagnino’s ravishing “I Am Love.” Read more here, here and here.

The final week is somewhat of a letdown in comparison,...

Jose here.

- Cast and crew of Celda 211 -

If you think Oscar announcers make too many unnecessary remarks and mention damn useless trivia -the winner loved yellow minivans growing up- but still couldn't live without them, you would have fallen in love with the announcer for the Goya Awards.

The Spanish Academy presented its awards for the best of 2009 in a lavish, commercial free, ceremony last night where prison drama Celda 211 swept with eight Goyas including Best Picture, Director, Actor and Supporting Actress followed closely by Alejandro Amenábar's Agora which won most of the techs.

But if you were judging from what the announcer had to say you wouldn't have had an inkling of what was going on as the winners took the stage.

Like a gossipy insider he told us everything that would've otherwise been delivered only through whispers.

When Raúl Arévalo won Best Supporting...

Madrid -- Daniel Monzon's prison drama "Cell 211" walked away the grand winner at the 24th Goya Awards ceremony with eight statues, including the top categories, Sunday night after a close head-to-head battle with Alejandro Amenabar's epic film "Agora."

"Cell" not only took best film, director and adapted script, but also actor for Luis Tosar's intense portrayal of a prison inmate.

Penelope Cruz got passed over for the best actress award for her part in Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces" to see Lola Duenas take home the honor for her touching role in "Me Too."

And though tongues started wagging early in the evening that Cruz and beau Javier Bardem finally made a public appearance together by sitting side-by-side at the ceremony, the big event of the evening was undoubtedly Pedro Almodovar's surprise appearance to award the best film award -- marking a new peace with the Spanish...

Madrid -- Daniel Monzon's prison drama "Cell 211" and Alejandro Amenabar's Ancient Egypt epic "Agora" led the pack with 16 and 13 nominations, respectively, including all the main categories, for the 24th Goya Awards, announced Saturday.

 

The two films will vie for the top categories of best film and director against Fernando Trueba's "The Dancer and the Thief," with nine nominations, and Juan Jose Campanella's "The Secret in Their Eyes," with eight.

 

Gone are the days when one strong contender snagged 18 or 19 nominations as the only powerhouse in the Spanish industry. The nominations for 2010 divvy up the biggest nods among a half-dozen titles, like Daniel Sanchez Arevalo's "Gordos," with eight nominations; Sigfrid Monleon's "The Consul of Sodoma," with six; and Pedro Almodovar's "Broken Embraces," with five.

 

Penelope Cruz will run a tight race in the actress category for her role in Almodovar's "Embraces" against Maribel Verdu for her...

Madrid -- Fernando Trueba's "The Dancer and the Thief" will represent Spain in the race for the foreign-language film Oscar, the Spanish Film Academy said Tuesday.

Trueba, who won an Oscar in 1993 for "Belle Epoque" with a young Penelope Cruz in the cast, beat out Isabel Coixet's "Map of the Sounds of Tokyo" and Daniel Sanchez-Arevalo's "Gordos" to be Spain's bid for the award. The film academy had shortlisted all three films two weeks ago.

"Dancer," which stars Ricardo Darin, is set in newly democratic Chile and is produced by Fernando Trueba P.C., with 6 Sales handling international rights.

The film had its world premiere out of competition in the official section last week at the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

• Right before the big announcement of films competing for the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival announced the Venice Days sidebar selections which is flooded with mostly Euro titles from Spain, Italy and France. The section, the equivalent to Cannes Director's Fortnight, will feature eleven films including nine world premieres and the international preem for Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water (who we interviewed for his Sundance premiere). Among the list of films that we should look out for in the long term which includes the added six world premieres in the Special Events category, we have Sherry Horman's directorial debut Desert Flower which is not necessarily a rags to riches narrative, but more of a look "where I came from" drama, there is a prison pic from Spanish helmer Daniel Monzon (Celda 211) and legend Claude Miller co-directs with his son Nathan Miller on Je Suis Heureux Che Ma Mere Soit Vivante,

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