News

Latido Films, the sales company on Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” and “The Platform,” has unveiled a slew of over 30 sales deals on a wide-ranging slate of titles, led by a U.S. pick-up on “All the Names of God,” a bouquet of transactions on “Aire,” the Dominican Republic’s Oscar entry, and an HBO regional licensing deal on “Saturn Return,” Spain’s Academy Award submission.

The deals are announced as Latido hits the American Film Market with Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s “Re-Creation,” one of its hottest tickets, and Toronto Platform winner “They Will Be Dust,” which has clinched an early sale with Taiwan’s Sky Digi, with others in the offing.

“We have great hopes for ‘Re-Creation,’ Jim Sheridan’s trial film. He has been incredibly committed to tell this story, who I think is probably one of his more personal since ‘In the Name of the Father,...

Una inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria en su misión más importante antes de jubilarse. © Movistar Plus+

Movistar Plus+ ha anunciado cuándo llegará Celeste, su nueva serie original que se proyectó en la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián.

Celeste sigue a Sara Santano (Carmen Machi), inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria, que se enfrenta a su caso más importante cuando está a punto de jubilarse: demostrar que Celeste, la gran estrella latina, reside en España y tiene que pagar aquí sus impuestos. Una misión de la que dependen veinte millones de euros para las arcas españolas. Para ello, Sara tendrá que aparcar su vida para recorrer la de Celeste y demostrar que pasó aquí 184 días. La mitad del año más uno.

La serie de ficción de seis episodios, protagonizada por Carmen Machi, está escrita y creada por Diego San José (Superlópez) y dirigida por Elena Trapé (Els Encantats). Acompañan a Carmen...

A museum curator faces all facets of mourning in Spanish director Sergi Pérez’s upcoming feature “Memorial,” selected to participate at Madrid’s 7th Annual Ecam Incubator, among Spain’s most prestigious international co-production forums.

Written by Pérez and Anna Cammany, the project is produced by Eave and Berlinale Talents Alum Carla Sospedra Salvadó and her production outfit Edna Cinema (“Mamífera”). Other producers include Jofre Ferré and Ander Sagardoy at Barcelona’s Sumendi Filmak (“Betiko Gaua”), Alex Lafuente at Madrid’s B Team Pictures (“Reinas”) and Jerome Vidal at Paris-based Noodles Production (“Robot Dreams”).

Having contributed to the pre-production of Carla Simon’s Golden Bear-winning Berlinale title “Alcarràs,” Sospedra has also produced Isabel Coixet and Laura Ferrés’ 2022 San Sebastian stunner “El techo amarillo,” Bélen Funes’ “Sara a la Fuga” and Simon’s 2020 short “Correspondencias,” co-directed with Dominga Sotomayor. She’s also worked with Elena Trapé, Liliana Torres (“Mamífera”) and Alba Cros...

Madrid-based Latido Films has boarded Andalusian Sandra Romero’s “As Silence Passes By,” taking international sales rights to one of the most awaited Spanish debuts of 2024.

Written by Romero, her first feature was announced last week as one of a first 10 titles confirmed for San Sebastian’s New Directors competition, its most impactful sidebar.

Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” “straddles the border between fact and fiction, enlisting real people to play poetically embellished versions of themselves in order to reach a deeper truth,” said a Variety review.

“As Silence Passes By” takes a similar route, reaping large dividends in an unyielding psychological authenticity and social knowingness.

It begins with Antonio, 32, who has carved out a life for himself in Madrid, returning to his deep Andalusia small town during the region’s Holy Week. He returns because it’s clear that his twin brother Javier is either no longer capable or unwilling...

Una inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria en su misión más importante antes de jubilarse. © Movistar Plus+

Movistar Plus+ ha publicado el primer tráiler de “Celeste”, su nueva serie original que se proyectará en la 72 edición del Festival de San Sebastián.

“Celeste” sigue a Sara Santano (Carmen Machi), inspectora de la Agencia Tributaria, que se enfrenta a su caso más importante cuando está a punto de jubilarse: demostrar que Celeste, la gran estrella latina, reside en España y tiene que pagar aquí sus impuestos. Una misión de la que dependen veinte millones de euros para las arcas españolas. Para ello, Sara tendrá que aparcar su vida para recorrer la de Celeste y demostrar que pasó aquí 184 días. La mitad del año más uno.

La serie de ficción de seis episodios, protagonizada por Carmen Machi, está escrita y creada por Diego San José (“Superlópez”) y dirigida por Elena Trapé (“Els Encantats”). Acompañan...

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

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

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

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

Kicking off on May 15-17 with the LA Independents, with a heavyweight Spanish-language presence, the LA Screenings then host Hollywood studio presentations. To help cut through the slates, – especially at the LA Independents but including some big studio plays – here’s Variety’s pick of 20 top titles:

“The Americas,” (NBCU, BBC Studios)

Narrated by Tom Hanks, his first unscripted narrator gig, and billed as an epic natural history series from “Planet Earth” producer BBC Studios Natural History Unit in association with Universal Television Alternative Studio. Scored by two-time Oscar winner Hans Zimmer and using groundbreaking technology to reveal the continent’s natural wonders. Previewed at MipTV, in a presentation which was one of the biggest events of the whole market.

“Amia,” (Dori Media Group)

Unfolding against the background of the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy in Buenos Aires and in 1994 against Amia, the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, the...

Madrid-based Latido Films has unveiled a slew of sales during the summer, led by standout deals reached on Daniel Calparsoro’s thriller “All the Names of God” and Gerardo Herrero’s comedy “Under Therapy.”

The announcement comes as the 20 year-old company Latido disclosed early sales deals to Javier Fesser’s “Championext,” the sequel to his comedy blockbuster “Champions”- which has become Spain’s biggest box office hit of 2023, scoring €7.52 million ($8.08 million) and 1.2 million tickets sold through Sept. 3, three weekends after its Aug. 18 release.

Latido deal details add some much needed granularity to the state of the non-English language sales scene as major festivals take place at Venice and now Toronto.

A Bullish Summer

“It has been a good summer for Latido. And we hope for an even better fall,” explained Latido CEO Antonio Saura.

“The way the post-covid market works is not only linked to the market events themselves.

Five of the 19 films selected are world premieres.

Films from Álvaro Longoria, Itsaso Arana and Gerardo Herrero are among the 19 features selected for the Made In Spain strand of San Sebastian International Film Festival, the non-competitive showcase of Spanish talent.

Longoria will close the strand with the world premiere of La Vida De Brianeitor about a teenager with a physical disability who becomes an elite gamer.

Also world premiering is Mercedes Moncada Rodríguez’s documentary Perplexed Ants exploring workers trying to prevent the collapse of their industry.

The other world premieres include Juanma Betancort’s documentary Seed Of Son about...

Netflix’s “Elite” is officially getting an eighth season.

The streamer announced on Wednesday morning that production on Season 8 will commence in August. Episodes for the upcoming season will be directed by Daniel Barone, Ginesta Guindal, Jota Linares and Elena Trapé. New characters will include Ane Rot (“Killer Book Club”) and Nuno Gallego (“Upa Next”). Mina el Hammani will also return to the series to reprise her role of Nadia.

“Elite,” created by Carlos Montero and Jaime Vaca, is Netflix Spain’s longest-running fictional series. Set at Las Encinas, an elite high school, the series follows a group of working class students at the school and their relationships with their wealthier classmates.

Premiering on Netflix in 2018, the series was met with critical acclaim. At the time, Variety‘s Caroline Framke hailed the series as “tantalizing and whipsmart,” writing: “’Élite’ does indeed include countless teen show clichés, but it also relishes...

“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola)

One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and now racking up healthy sales, the story of a family off for a village summer holiday which builds to a moving ode to women’s freedoms. Sales: Luxbox

“21 Paraíso,” (Nestor Ruiz Medina)

Living in an idyllic Andalusia, a couple in love grapples with the realities of making a living through OnlyFans. Screened at Seville and Tallinn. Sales: Begin Again Films.

“All the Names of God,” (Daniel Calparsoro)

One of the big Spanish action-thrillers hitting this Cannes market, from a specialist (“Sky High”). Pre-sold to France (Kinovista), Germany and Italy (Koch Media) with Tripictures releasing in Spain. Sales: Latido

“Un amor,” (Isabel Coixet)

The multi-prized Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”).

directs Goya winner Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) in a village-set study of an isolated woman’s succumbing to devouring passion. Sales: Film Constellation.

“Ashes in the Sky,...

Five Catalan movies made Cannes Festival’s cut, six were selected for Marché du Film sections. Details and other top Catalan movies on the Croisette:

“20,000 Species of Bees,” (Estibaliz Urresola)

One of the big winners at Berlin, taking Leading Performance, and two other key prizes, and now healthy racking up healthy sales, including a Film Movement U.S. pickup, “Bees” builds from a naturalistic base – a family off for a village summer holiday – to become a moving an ode to women’s freedom. Produced out of Barcelona by Valérie Delpierre’s Inicia Films. Sales: Luxbox

“Blondi,” (Dolores Fonzi)

From La Unión de los Ríos, behind “Argentina, 1985”), the awaited directorial debut of Fonzi, star of Santiago Mitre’s Cannes winner “Paulina,” a double mother-son coming of age dramedy. Sales: Film Factory

“A Bright Sun,” (Monica Cambra, Ariadna Fortuny)

Facing the end of the world, Mila, 11, tries to keep her family together by celebrating a party.

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...

26th edition wrapped on Sunday.

Estíbaliz Urresola’s 20,000 Species Of Bees and Kattia G. Zúñiga’s Sister & Sister won top awards at 2023 Málaga Film Festival, taking best Spanish film and best Latin American film, respectively, as the Andalusian event closed on Sunday.

In other key awards at the festival’s 26th edition, Gerardo Herrero’s Under Therapy earned a special jury prize director and Matías Bize claimed the best director prize for The Punishment.

20,000 Species Of Bees won the Berlin Silver Bear for best leading performance for young Sofía Otero last month and added the Golden Biznaga for...

Estíbaliz Urresola Solaguren’s celebrated Spanish feature “20,000 Species of Bees” and Kattia G. Zúñiga’s Panamanian drama “Sister & Sister” took the top prizes at the Malaga Film Festival, garnering the Golden Biznagas for Spanish and Latin American pictures respectively.

“20,000 Species of Bees” also won best supporting actress for Patricia López Arnaiz and picked up the Spanish Cinematographic Informers Association’s Feroz Puerta Oscura award. The film’s success follows two awards in Berlin, including a Silver Bear for Sofía Otero for her portrayal of a young girl going through a gender crisis.

For Zúñiga, the Golden Biznaga is sure to help further propel “Sister & Sister,” an autobiographical story about two teenage sisters who travel from Costa Rica to Panama in search of their absent father. Pic drew upbeat reviews in Malaga following on its SXSW world premiere.

Also making waves at the Malaga Festival, which runs...

Running March 10-19, and now hosting the Spanish Screenings, the Malaga Film Festival is now firmly established as Spain’s biggest movie event in the early part of the year. Strategically positioned fairly sharp on the heels of the Berlinale, the Spanish event offers top Spanish titles at the German festival the chance to consolidate their reputations while often producing new discoveries, especially from first-time directors.

Many titles, from a Spanish film industry whose younger directors are highly social conscience and favor art-house, are issue driven.

“There’s a search for identity, whether a young trans girl’s exploration of gender identity or young leads to understand the world they live in, or the search for love and a sense pf strangeness, of being a stranger to oneself,” Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Film Festival director said of this year’s main Competition. Following, a brief breakdown of its titles.

“20,000 Species of Bees,...

The festival is an important stopping point for directors including Carla Simon and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa.

Malaga film festival director Juan Antonio Vigar is ready for the curtain to rise on his 10th edition in charge of the Andalucian event.

The world premiere of Someone To Look After Me (Alguien Que Cuide De Mí ), novelist Elvira Lindo’s debut as a film director, will open the festival tonight, screening out of competition. It will close on March 19 with the world premiere of Paz Jiménez’s Como Dios Manda, also playing out of competition.

Vigar has programmed a competition line-up...

The festival opens on March 10 and will include super-sized industry progrramme Mafiz.

The 26th edition of the Malaga Film Festival kicks off today, giving the Spanish and international industry the chance to discover the latest films and talent emerging from the local and Latin America landscapes.

Twenty films will screen in the main competition. They include new films from returning Malaga filmmaker Elena Trapé, who won the best film and best director award in 2018 for The Distances. She’s in competition with a drama called The Enchanced, starring Laia Costa, about a young mother who has recently separated and is missing her young daughter.

Two titles from leading lights of the New Catalan Cinema, Elena Trapé’s “The Enchanted,” starring Goya winning actress Laila Costa, and Lucia Alemany’s “Co-Husbands,” with “House of Flowers’” Paco León, figure as Market Premiers at the Málaga Film Festivals Spanning Screenings Content, a massive 195 Spanish title spread continuing Spain’s muscular outreach to overseas buyers and markets.

84 features will screen in Málaga, as well as 10 works in progress and 81 library titles. Part of Mafiz, the industry area of the Málaga Film Festival, the Spanish Screenings Content unspool March 13-16 in the Andalusian coastal city.

The Market Premieres also feature “The Good Manners,” by the Barcelona-based Marta Díaz de Lope Díaz. Key sections – such as Perspectives and Spanish Screamings – largely pick up on titles introduced at Ventana Sur. The Spanish CoProForum features four projects selected in October 2022 for a Málaga Festival development program.

First details of productions at the...

Buenos Aires — Online in 2020, and sporting a boutique on-site edition in 2021, Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-tv market, is roaring back, attendance levels, especially from delegates outside Argentina, looking set to break all time records.

“With all the sales companies, distributors and platforms coming back, it’s really great to find the same dynamism as in 2019,” Jérôme Paillard, Ventana Sur co-director, commented a week out from this year’s 13th edition, running Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.

In some ways, in fact, there may be more. 10 takes on this year’s event, backed by the Cannes Festival, Market and Argentina’s Incaa film-tv agency:

Ventana Sur Xxl

Three stats nail this year’s Ventana Sur. Delegates from outside Argentina had near doubled by Sunday, say organisers. Led by Primer Corte & Copia Final, Proyecta, Animation!, Blood Window, Punto Genero, Maquinitas and the Spanish Screenings, projects and pix-in-post pitched has sky-rocketed to a...

Elena Trapé, whose character-driven ensemble pieces “Blog” and “The Distances” marked her out as a talent to watch, is attached to direct “Gwendolyne, Diary of a Fan,”, one of two series being brought onto the market at Ventana Sur’s Spanish Screenings by Barcelona-based Coming Soon Films.

Screenplay for “Gewndlyne” is by Marta Buisán and Jordi Casado and Miguel Ibánez Monroy.

Led by Marta Ramírez, post-production coordinator on J.A. Bayona’s “The Orphanage,” Coming Soon, which already produced Trapé’s “The Distances,” is also introducing in Buenos Aires “The Summer of Dead Toys,” (“El verano de los juguetes muertos”), a procedural adapting Catalan Tony Hill’s acclaimed debut crime novel of the same title, produced with Barcelona’s Corte y Confección de Películas.

“Gwendolyne’s” titular protagonist, now 30, had one of the times of her life – one of the only times of her life – when 15, she was chasing the Sexy Gods,...

“Alcarràs,” from Catalonia’s Carla Simón, won Berlin’s top Golden Bear in February. “One Year, One Night,” from Catalan Isaki Lacuesta, also played in main competition. This May “Pacifiction,” from Albert Serra, another Catalan, has scored a competition berth at Cannes.

Thanks to these three titles, Catalonia has more directors this year in the key section at Europe’s two biggest festivals than Italy (2), Germany (1) or the U.K. (none at all). Other Catalan productions to play at Cannes: Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” in Premiere and Anna Fernández’s “I Didn’t Make It to Love Her,” a Critics’ Week short.

If big fest selection is any measure, with just 7.6 million inhabitants and Barcelona as its capital, Catalonia is building as an upscale European movie powerhouse.

The build, however, is far broader based. In the pipeline, all from Barcelona-based Nostromo Pictures, are major Netflix titles such as David...

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,...

Madrid — A co-producer on Dutch comedy-thriller “El azul bajo sus pies” (“Beyond the Blue Bridge”), Spain’s Tourmalet Films is preparing its biggest feature yet, “Siete Picos,” as it introduces “Killing Crabs” at Locarno’s Match Me! co-production forum.

Launched in 2011, the Madrid and Tenerife-based independent film house Tourmalet broke through two years later co-producing of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s noteworthy feature debut “Stockholm.”

Managed by Mayi Gutiérrez Cobo, Omar Razzak, Manuel Arango and Daniel Remón, Tourmalet has produced eight feature films and nine shorts, which have played in festivals such as Montreal, Málaga, Cartagena de Indias and Visions du Reel.

The company’s production model is evolving towards increasingly larger budget titles. It started producing short-films, then documentaries -the first, Razzak’s 2013 debut “Paradiso,” about the last porn cinema in Madrid, was an hybrid docu-fiction; followed by Samuel Alarcón’s “Oscuro y lucientes,” a docu feature about research into Francisco de Goya’s skull.

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euforia, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.

New roll of comedies includes Valerio Attansio’s directorial debut ‘The Handyman’.

A little over two years after launching, True Colours has grown into one of the most important Italian sales companies.

This year, the company headed by former Rai Com exec Catia Rossi brings a strong line-up to the Cannes market, headlined by Valeria Golino’s second directorial outing Euphoria, which is playing in Un Certain Regard. The film stars Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea as two brothers at odds who are forced to live together in Rome for a few months.

True Colours is also kickstarting sales on a pair of new comedies.