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The quiet, ominous dread that permeates The Wailing, Pedro Martn-Calero’s Spanish-language debut, is the kind of horror film that ingests you. The film, co-written with Isabel Peña, is a triptych of interwoven stories about three women hounded by a supernatural entity visible only through screens or cameras.

On the surface, it’s a psychological horror story with strong feminist implications. Still, it’s also a melancholy meditation on trauma—its endurance, invisibility, and how it reverberates across generations.

The notion portrays violence against women as a literal and symbolic curse that refuses to be forgotten by time or distance. Andrea, a young student in Madrid, establishes a connection with Camila, a film student in 1990s Argentina, and Marie, a French vagrant, via shared misery. Horror becomes a tool here, not just to scare but to interrogate and uncover.

The film’s broken structure reflects the characters’ bewilderment. Yet, at moments,...

Spanish director Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude has won the Golden Shell for best film at the closing ceremony of the 72nd edition of the Spanish festival tonight (Saturday September 28).

The special jury prize was awarded to Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl which stars Pamela Anderson as a Vegas showgirl facing the end of her career.

’Afternoons Of Solitude’ review

The official competition jury, presided over by Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda – who was last year’s Golden Shell winner for The Rye Horn, also awarded top prizes to new filmmakers. The Silver Shell for best director...

Spain has a long and fruitful tradition of producing horror films that elevate the genre and become enduring classics domestically and abroad – think Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza’s “[Rec],” J.A. Bayona’s “El Orphanage” or Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar nominee “Pan’s Labyrinth.” This year’s San Sebastian Film Festival is debuting a new candidate to join that prestigious list of modern classics, Pedro Martín-Calero’s “The Wailing.”

In the film, three young women separated by decades and thousands of miles are terrorized by the same ethereal threat that nobody, not even they, can properly see. The entity manifests more like a trick of lighting than anything corporeal. In each case, when the women attempt to confront the presence, they hear the same horrific wailing.

During a mid-morning press conference ahead of the film’s Wednesday night world premiere in San Sebastian main competition, debut feature director Martín-Calero and his co-writer Isabel Peña,...

San Sebastian — Javier Bardem, at San Sebastián to pick up his 2023 Donostia Award for career achievement, announced he will star in “El Ser Querido,” the next film from Rodrigo Sorogoyen. The director’s “The Beasts” won a best foreign film Cesar Award in 2023, beating out four Cannes Festival winners.

Bardem will play opposite Vicky Luengo, star of Sorogoyen’s hugely popular TV series “Riot Police” in a story written by Sorogoyen and his longtime co-scribe Isabel Peña, which Bardem described at a Donostia Award press conference as a “father-daughter drama” who re-meet after many years.”

According to the film’s synopsis, “El Ser Querido” turns on an acclaimed film director and his daughter, an unsuccessful actress, who shoot a film together after years of estrangement and a difficult past that none of them want to talk about.

“El Ser Querido” is one from a first slate of six auteur event...

Javier Bardem announced this morning during a presser at the San Sebastian Film Festival that he has signed on to star in the next film from Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen (The Beasts).

The film is titled El ser querido and will be directed by Sorogoyen from a screenplay he penned with Isabel Peña. Also starring is Victoria Luengo (The Room Next Door).

The official synopsis reads: In ‘El ser querido’, an acclaimed film director and his daughter, an unsuccessful actress, shoot a film together after years of estrangement and a difficult past that none of them want to talk about.

The project is a Movistar Plus+ original film in co-production with Caballo Films, El Ser Querido Aie, and Le Pacte (France), financed by Icaa with the support of the Creative Europe Media Program. The film will be released in cinemas, distributed by A Contracorriente Films, and will later be available...

¿Te atreves a escuchar el llanto? © Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures ha publicado el tráiler oficial de “El Llanto”, una película hispano-franco-argentina, que tendrá su estreno mundial en el Festival de Cine Internacional de San Sebastián, donde competirá por la Concha de Oro. La película es el retrato de tres mujeres que, en momentos distintos del tiempo y conectadas sin saberlo, se enfrentan a una amenaza que las trasciende.

En “El Llanto”, algo acecha a Andrea, pero nadie, ni siquiera ella misma, puede verlo a simple vista. Hace veinte años, a diez mil kilómetros, la misma presencia aterrorizaba a Marie. Camila fue la única persona que pudo entender lo que le ocurría, pero nadie las creyó. Al enfrentarse a esa amenaza opresiva, las tres escuchan el mismo sonido sobrecogedor. Un llanto.

“El Llanto” está protagonizada por Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier y Malena Villa. Completan el reparto Àlex Monner, Sonia Almarcha y Tomás Del Estal.

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,...

Cuatro películas españolas en la competición.

Hoy se han dado a conocer las películas españolas que formarán parte de la programación de la 72ª edición del Festival de Cine de San Sebastián, que se celebrará del 20 al 28 de septiembre.

Cuatro películas españolas formarán parte de la competición por la Concha de Oro del Festival: “Soy Nevenka”, “El Llanto”, “Los Destellos” y “Tardes de Soledad”.

© 72Ssiff

Icíar Bollaín, conocida por su película “Maixabel”, presentará “Soy Nevenka”, que será su quinta participación en la Sección Oficial. Protagonizada por Mireia Oriol y Urko Olazabal, se basa en la historia real de Nevenka Fernández, una concejala que pagó un alto precio por atreverse a denunciar el acoso del alcalde de Ponferrada. Una historia que convirtió a su protagonista en una pionera del movimiento #metoo al llevar por primera vez a un político influyente ante los tribunales por acoso sexual y laboral.

© 72Ssiff

En su ópera prima,...

The San Sebastian Film Festival, the biggest film event in the Spanish-speaking world, has unveiled a packed lineup of Spanish titles that is strong on women auteurs, led by Iciar Bollaín, Pilar Palomero, Paula Ortiz and Alauda Ruiz de Azua, who are now stepping up in scale or industry backing as big SVOD players – Movistar Plus+, Prime Video – move into the production of Spanish movies aimed at theatrical release or back their original series.

Vying in main competition, Bollaín’s “I Am Nevenka” looks like the first film to see the light of day from six auteur event movies co-produced by Movistar Plus+ and directed by leading cinematographic talent such as Rodrigo Sorogoyen and Alberto Fernández.

Also selected are two leading lights of a younger generation of women directors which have galvanised Spanish arthouse but are now looking for broader audiences.

Goya and San Sebastian winner Pilar Palomero competes in main competition with “Glimmers,...

Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural Ecam Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up.

Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious Ecam.

Founded in 1994, the school, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to more than 300 students a year, is Spain’s leading breeding ground for some of the country’s biggest names in film, television and advertising such as filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen and regular writing partner Isabel Peña or cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.

The reasons for Ecam being so industry-facing comes down to the school’s status and founding principles, as explained by Rafa Alberola, head of Ecam Industria (formerly known as ‘The Screen’), the umbrella regrouping the school’s...

¿Te atreves a escuchar el llanto? © Universal Pictures

Universal Pictures ha publicado el primer teaser tráiler y póster oficial de “El Llanto”, una película hispano-franco-argentina. Rodada en Madrid, Buenos Aires y La Plata, la película es el retrato de tres mujeres que, en momentos distintos del tiempo y conectadas sin saberlo, se enfrentan a una amenaza que las trasciende.

En “El Llanto”, algo acecha a Andrea, pero nadie, ni siquiera ella misma, puede verlo a simple vista. Hace veinte años, a diez mil kilómetros, la misma presencia aterrorizaba a Marie. Camila fue la única persona que pudo entender lo que le ocurría, pero nadie las creyó. Al enfrentarse a esa amenaza opresiva, las tres escuchan el mismo sonido sobrecogedor. Un llanto.

“El Llanto” está protagonizada por Ester Expósito, Mathilde Ollivier y Malena Villa. Completan el reparto Àlex Monner, Sonia Almarcha y Tomás Del Estal.

La película marca la ópera prima de Pedro Martín-Calero,...

A4’s supernatural horror Talk To Me opens the debut film by Australian brothers and popular YouTubers Danny and Michael Philippou on 2,300 screens. Strong reviews (see Deadline’s here), A24 large built-in fan base and its elevated horror cred saw a Thursday gross of $1.25 million, looking to top a $4-5M weekend.

The Sundance-premiering pic follows a group of friends who discover how to conjure spirits using an embalmed hand and become hooked on the new thrill, until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces. Michael Philippou gleefully freaked out a Comic-Con event last week with a stunt that saw him possessed by an embalmed hand before meeting what appeared to be a bloody end. Stars Sophie Wilde, Joe Bird, Alexandra Jensen, Otis Dhanji and Joe Bird. Written by Bill Hinzman and Danny Philippou.

Limited openings: Music Box Pictures presents The Unknown Country by Morissa Maltz...

Fighting with your neighbors is awful because, well, they can literally hit you where you live. Antoine and Olga, a middle-class French couple trying to get by on their remote Galician farm, learn that the hard way in The Beasts, the fifth feature from Rodrigo Sorogoyen. At a yawning 137 minutes this is no thriller, but it is an engaging, timeless examination of human tribalism, the nature of nature, and cinema itself.

The film opens on a slow, powerful sequence in which two young men wrestle a horse to the ground, then snaps to a game of dominoes at the local watering hole. Xan (Luis Zahera) is holding court over the games table, brashly shit-talking a fellow villager and browbeating his companions into agreement. One man, who Xan calls “Frenchy,” leaves to return to his farm. The Beasts then follows this man, who is actually named Antoine (Denis Ménochet), as he and his wife,...

It’s hard to think of a less suspenseful set-up than the one writer-director Rodrigo Sorogoyen took on for his nail-biting new feature, The Beasts (As Bestas), which swept last year’s Goya awards in Spain.

In a tiny village lost in the hills of Galicia, a French couple has decided to restart their lives as organic farmers, selling produce at the town market while fixing up abandoned old houses in their downtime. The wife, Olga (Marina Foïs), and husband, Antoine (Denis Ménochet), are a gentle and thoughtful middle-aged pair, concerned by environmental issues and adept enough in Spanish to do business with the locals.

And yet, from its very first minute, this searing drama of rural strife, xenophobia and cultural hostility is filled with almost unbearable tension — a tension that boils over as Olga and Antoine clash with a pair of native-born brothers, Xan (Luis Zahera) and Lorenzo (Diego Anido...

After a mesmerizing slow-motion sequence of men struggling to pin down a wild horse, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts dives into the bad blood between its characters, already on the verge of boiling over. The first scene with characters and dialogue takes place in a bar serving as the social heart of the unnamed Galician mountain village where the story is set. Men drink and play dominos around a table, but the mood is anything but relaxed, due in part to the film’s natural lighting, so thin it looks almost fragile. One of the men, Xan Anta (Luis Zahera), propped up at every turn by his younger brother, Lorenzo (Diago Anido), dominates the conversation with venomous gossip. We sense that this is a daily ritual.

From the outset, it’s clear that The Beasts is no cozy small-town drama, but something more akin to a rural noir, peopled with petty,...

High-flying Madrid-based Caballo Films, behind Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” and “Riot Police” and Borja Soler’s “The Route,” has put into development a fiction series adaptation of Mabel Lozano’s prized same-titled non-fiction work.

Shaping up as a deep drill-down into the growth of prostitution in Spain into large-scale organized crime, “El Proxeneta” packs a powerful talent package of creator-writers Isabel Peña, co-writer of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “As Bestas” and “Riot Police,” and Eduardo Villanueva, a co-scribe on “Riot Police” and producer on “Stockholm.”

Pilar Palomero, a Spanish Academy Goya best picture winner for “Schoolgirls,” will direct the series, her first TV work beyond one episode of “Venga Juan.”

“Pilar was always on our minds for this project, given her talent, and we wanted a female gaze behind all the key points of creative responsibility,” said Villanueva.

“El Proxeneta” is co-produced by Lozano’s label Mafalda Entertainment.

“My commitment...

Stars: Denis Ménochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera, Diego Anido, Marie Colomb, Luisa Merelas, José Manuel Fernández y Blanco, Federico Pérez Rey, Javier Varela, David Menéndez, Xavier Estévez, Gonzalo García, Pepo Suevos, Machi Salgado, Emile Duthu | Written by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Pena | Directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

Denis Menochet stars in this terrific Spanish thriller from director Rodrigo Sorogoyen that plays like an arthouse version of Straw Dogs. Shot through with tension in every frame, it exerts an intense, powerful grip and the result is one of the very best films of the year.

Co-written by Sorogoyen and Isabel Pena and loosely based on a true story from 2014, The Beasts stars Denis Menochet and Marina Fois as Antoine and Olga, an educated French couple who moved to a small Spanish village in Galicia in order to grow and sell organic vegetables. When the story begins, Antoine and Olga have already been in...

Ester Expósito, one of the stars of Netflix global hit “Elite,” is attached to star “The Wailing” (“El Llanto”), co-written by Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s regular co-scribe Isabel Peña (“The Beasts”) and directed by talent-to-track Pedro Martín-Calero (“Secrets”). It’s one of the most powerful Spanish-language packages being brought onto Berlin’s European Film Market.

The auteur genre movie has gone into production, shooting in Madrid, Buenos Aires and La Plata.

Film Factory Entertainment has acquired international rights. “The Wailing” is lead produced by on-the-rise Madrid production house Caballo Films, behind Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s films, including “The Beasts,” a best picture Goya on Feb. 11.

The feature debut of Spain’s Pedro Martín-Calero, “The Wailing” turns on a seemingly invisible evil. “No one can see it with the naked eye, but its presence has always been there. 20 years ago he stalked Camila and Marie. Now, 10,000 kilometers away, Andrea has begun to hear the wailing,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Sorogoyen’s take on a western wins nine prizes, but none for Carla Simon’s Berlinale winner

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts scored big at the 37th edition of the Spanish Film Academy Goya awards held on Saturday in Seville, scooping major prizes including best film and best director.

The ceremony celebrated a year hailed as one of the strongest for Spanish cinema in recent memory. However, one of Spain’s most high-profile films on the international stage, Carla Simon’s Berlinale Golden Bear winner Alcarras, left the Goyas empty-handed despite 11 nominations.

The Beasts, which debuted in Cannes in the Premieres section,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s latest pic, The Beasts (As bestas), dominated the main prizes, taking home nine gongs, including best film and director at the 37th edition of Spain’s Goya awards Saturday evening.

The pic debuted at Cannes last year and led the Goya award nominations with 17 nods. The film’s story follows a middle-aged French couple who move to a small village, seeking closeness with nature. However, their presence inflames two locals to the point of outright hostility and shocking violence.

The Beasts also picked up wins for best screenplay, leading actor, and supporting actor.

Movistar+’s Modelo77 from Alberto Rodriguez, which trailed The Beasts with 15 nods, picked up five wins, all of them in technical categories. Carla Simón’s Golden Bear winner Alcarràs had 11 nominations but left empty-handed.

In other major wins, Alauda Ruiz de Azúa...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s modern-day feminist Western, “The Beasts,” already a box office breakout in France and Spain, swept nine prizes including film, director, and original screenplay on Saturday at a celebratory 37th Goya Awards, given Spain’s big fest prizes and rally at its home box office.

The upbeat mood was tempered inevitably by the death of Carlos Saura, one of Spanish cinema’s greats and this year’s Goya of Honor, on Friday.

In a rare departure, a foreign actor, France’s Denis Ménochet (“Inglorious Basterds”) took best actor, winning for his marvellous turn in the conflict-negotiation themed “The Beasts,” as a French settler in modern-day deep Galicia who finally refuses to back down when taunted by locals. His attitude contrasts pointedly with his wife’s.

Produced by Movistar+ and Atípica Films, “Prison 77,” the movie of clearest big production ambitions – the sort of film which will probably now only be made by platform,...

CBS Studios has expanded its international co-production slate to include projects in Australia, Spain and France. These productions include “Gold Diggers” from Australia, and “Electric Years” from Spain and France.

“Gold Diggers” is produced by CBS Studios with The Alliance (a Stampede Ventures and Kojo Studios joint venture) for The ABC in Australia. It is set in 1850s Gold Rush, Australia. Thousands of men from around the world flock to the country to hit the jackpot, and so do two women in search of their own jackpot: newly rich idiots. Gert, a heavy-drinking sociopath, and Marigold, her virginal, dummy sister, are willing to do anything to get their fortune; but first they must suffer the lads, lice and lechery of outback Australia. Jack Yabsley serves as writer.

While hiding near the French/Spanish border, Campano, a mysterious wanderer and fugitive on the run, turns a group of artists into sophisticated art thieves.

CBS Studios has teamed with Damon Wayans Jr to create a Baltimore-set version of its African drama MTV Shuga for streaming sister company Paramount+ and is co-producing shows in Australia and on the France-Spain border.

Shuga: Baltimore will follow the lives of six people seeking to find beauty in their futures while surviving in the rapidly tech-gentrifying Maryland city. Billed as a “hyper-surrealist tale,” the show is now in development, with Greg ‘Mellow’ Brown’ writing.

Wayans Jr. and Kameron Tarlow are co-producing through their Two Shakes Entertainment banner, with Paramount Global and MTV Staying Alive Foundation’s Georgia Arnold, Sara Piot and Richard Warburton sitting alongside them as executive producers. Mellow is a co-executive producer.

CBS Studios acquired rights to Shuga from the MTV Staying Alive Foundation, which is a Paramount initiative aimed at using the power of entertainment to change the attitudes and behavior of young people.

MTV Shuga:...

Buoyed by the success of last year’s one-to-one networking sessions, Madrid’s 2nd Iberseries & Platino Industria market is launching a new TV forum aimed at fostering co-production and financing pacts between selected producers and potential partners or investors.

“We are functioning as an accelerator in a way as the selected projects have at least 40 of their financing in place and just need that final push to see the light,” said Iberseries director Samuel Castro, who adds that these series have budgets ranging from €5 million-€30 million ( million-30 million) .

The 10 companies, selected out of some 25 submissions, include some heavy hitters led by Spain’s Zebra Prods (Grupo Izen), Gato Grande-MGM, Argentina’s Storylab and El Estudio, founded by former Canana producing partner Pablo Cruz, producer Enrique López Lavigne and former Sony Pictures Intl. Prods. head, Diego Suárez Chialvo.

Projects include animated features, thrillers, romantic comedies and dramas.

Forum coordinator Rodrigo Ros has been playing matchmaker,...

Upping the ante on its inaugural edition, the 2nd Iberseries & Platino Industria will unveil about 50 drama series, whether via first episodes, or showreels or trailers (Upcoming…).

Following a breakdown of titles, and showreel highlights in showreels, featuring some of the most anticipated titles from Spain and Latin America, as well as recent hits:

Capitulo Uno

“El Encargado,” (Star Original Productions/The Walt Disney Company Latin America)

Anybody who caught neighbors’ standoff dark comedy “The Man Next Door,” a 2010 Sundance winner from “Official Competition” directors Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat could imagine they will tear with relish into dramedy of a concierge who uses his access to clients intimacy to control their lives. Iberseries marks the first market screening of the half hour which headlines Argentine star Guillermo Francella as a concierge from hell battling plans to be sacked. Star+ bows “El Encargado” on Oct. 26.

“Limbo,” (Star Original Productions/The Walt Disney Company Latin America,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen, director of “As Bestas,” “Riot Police” and the Oscar-nominated “Madre,” is bringing onto the international market “La Guerra,” a six-part drama delivering a new vision of the Spanish Civil War which looks like one of the biggest Spanish series ever made.

Sorogoyen will direct all six episodes. Isabel Peña, Sorogoyen, and Eduardo Villanueva, “Riot Police’s”writing team, have fairly definitive version of three episodes with the rest at an initial phase.

“La Guerra” was originally set up at Movistar Plus+. In an amicable settlement – Sorogoyen has gone on to direct and promote an episode of Movistar+ original “Offworld” at last week’s San Sebastián – after Movistar Plus+ pulled out of the series, Sorogoyen and Villanueva’s Madrid-based label Caballo Films have recovered the rights.

The series is believed to be sparking large interest with potential partners in Spain. Unveiling “La Guerra” at Iberseries & Platino Industria’s Financing Forum,...

The Spanish director reflects on a change of pace following the thrillers and crime dramas for which he has become known.

The Cannes Premiere screening of Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts throws an international spotlight on the acclaimed Spanish director for the first time.

The film stars Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs as a French couple who settle in a remote Galician village to run an organic farm. However their arrival does not go down well witih all of the villagers, some of whom regard them as a threat to their way of life.

It is Sorogoyen’s Cannes debut,...

From the 100-second tracking shot to building pulse music that opens “The Realm” to the slug-fest finale of “May God Save Us,” Oscar-nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“Mother”) has filmed some of the most exhilarating shots in recent Spanish cinema.

His status as a filmmaker consolidated by a series, Movistar Plus’ “Riot Police,” “The Beasts” (“As Bestas”), which plays in Cannes Premiere, rates as one of, if not the most awaited Spanish movie of 2022.

From a brief synopsis, it might look like a return to one of Sorogoyen’s central obsessions: Violence. But that is most likely a half truth. Based on real-life events, “The Beasts,” written by Sorogoyen and co-scribe Isabel Peña, follows a married couple, Vincent and Olga, (Denis Menochet and Marina Fois) who have settled in a small village in Galicia, in Spain’s verdant North-West. They grow vegetables and rehabilitate abandoned cottages.

Disrupting established village power structures, however,...

World premiering in Cannes’ Premiere section, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s thriller “The Beasts”(“As Bestas”) has shared with Variety its poster, crafted by James Verdesoto at New York’s Indika Entertainment Advertising, who as creative director at Miramax was responsible for the original award-winning film poster of “Pulp Fiction,” as well as those for “The Piano” and “The Crying Game,” among 200 posters.

In advance of its Cannes bow, “The Beasts’” sales agent Latido Films has granted Variety an exclusive first look at its key art campaign, which may well drive to the heart of the film.

The poster depicts three men entangled, close up. Two men grasp a third whose mouth opens in agony, consumed by a raw, animalistic rage, in a vertical tangle. The characters are nearly unrecognizable, anguish on their faces, the hostility of the attack quite palpable. One demonstrates subjugation to the struggle, the attackers’ clothes speckled with...

As Bestas

Spanish helmer Rodrigo Sorogoyen has been shooting up the charts with multiple projects for just over the past decade. Best known to international audiences for Mother – a project that began as a nominated short film for the Academy Awards and would then be elongated into the feature (Madre) which would be selected for Venice’s Orizzonti section in 2019. With filming having just concluded during the holidays, As Bestas is based on a true story co-written alongside frequent collab person Isabel Peña and which stars Denis Menochet, Marina Foïs, Luis Zahera and Diego Anido. Filmed in Galicia, Spain in two parts (to depict a timeline in two seasons), the Funny Games sounding thriller brings out the beast in people and that the filmmaker will shoot as a Western.…...

Movistar Plus, the streaming and broadcast arm of Spanish telco giant Telefonica, has confirmed a breathtaking roster of talent which will helm its upcoming five-part anthology series “Apagón,” produced by Buendía Estudios.

Inspired by the popular “El gran apagón” podcast, the series features five stand-alone stories, connected only in that they take place after a solar flair causes a worldwide blackout – “apagón” in Spanish – and deals with the consequences that such a catastrophe might impose.

The series’ impressive lineup of writing talent was first announced in June of this year, and Movistar has today confirmed that award-winning directors Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alberto Rodríguez, Raúl Arévalo, Isa Campo, and Isaki Lacuesta will helm the five stories. For the first two filmmakers, the series is a return to Movistar Plus. The three new recruits further establishes the broadcaster as one of the Spanish industry’s premier platforms for upscale Spanish talent to express...

Oscar-nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen is set to direct rural thriller “As Bestas,” backed by a powerful alliance of of European companies.

Introduced to buyers at this week’s Cannes Marché du Film by its sales agent, Latido Films, “As Bestas” is produced by Jean Labadie’s Le Pacte in France, and in Spain Ibon Cormenzana’s Arcadia Motion Pictures and Caballo Films, Sorogoyen’s own label with Eduardo Villanueva.

Adolfo Blanco’s A Contracorriente Films handles distribution in Spain, with Le Pacte handling the release in France. “As Bestas” rolls in Galicia and León for nine weeks starting in September. It will be ready for delivery in May 2022.

Penned with Sorogoyen’s regular co-scribe Isabel Peña, “As Bestas” is set in Galicia, Spain, where a middle-aged French couple, Antoine and Olga, arrive to live in a local village, seeking greater closeness to nature. Their presence, however, inflames two locals, brothers Xan and Lorenzo,...

Spain’s Movistar Plus and Buendía Estudios are teaming to create groundbreaking series “El Apagón,” Movistar Plus’ first original to explore global dystopia and Buendía Estudios’ first full production for the Telefonica Spanish pay TV operator.

Scheduled to shoot in fall 2021, and inspired by the Spanish podcast “El gran apagón,” the series will bring together a top-of-their-class Spanish team of creatives, led by Fran Araujo as co-creator and executive producer on this show.

Araujo’s illustrious writers’ room includes Isabel Peña, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s longtime co-scribe (“Riot Police”) and Isa Campo, co-writer of Isaki Lacuesta’s two San Sebastian Golden Shell winners “Between Two Waters” and “The Double Steps.”

Further writers are Rafael Cobos, scribe of “The Plague,” one of Movistar Plus’ biggest series swings to date; and Alberto Marini, a preeminent writer-director of Spanish genre movies who also co-penned Movistar Plus’ 2020 espionage action thriller “The Unit.”

“As Movistar Plus’ first incursion into dystopia,...

Spanish director and screenwriter Rodrigo Sorogoyen, fresh off large acclaim, prizes and recording-breaking viewership on Movistar Plus for “Riot Police,” is preparing a follow-up series for the Telefonica Spanish pay TV/SVOD service in Spain, which will deliver Sorogoyen’s personal take on the Spanish Civil War.

The untitled series will be co-written by Isabel Peña and Eduardo Villanueva, Sorogoyen’s regular co-scribes. It will go into production in 2022.

The move is a natural one. In his breakout movie, “May God Save Us,” a grueling, grimy melancholic serial killer thriller about men who cannot control their actions, as well as “Riot Police” – the chronicle of a Police Intervention Unit bungling an eviction in a Senagalese community in Madrid, its results and cause – Sorogoyen has shown a fascination with toxic authoritarianism and violence.

There have been few more violent conflicts or chamber of military horrors than the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War,...

ViacomCBS International Studios (Vis) has unveiled a new slate of projects tapping talents as diverse as “Guilt” writer-creator Neil Forsyth, “The Great” writer Vanessa Alexander, “Wild District” originator Cristian Conti and “High School Musical” writer Peter Barsocchini.

Underscoring Vis’ ambitions to play in the big league of international local content producer-distributors, both in production volume and breadth of content, Vis also confirmed its drive into documentary production, of both doc features and series, and unveiled its first four titles.

This year will, moreover, see Vis bow development and production of its first made-for-streaming movies and first content for Vis Kids, created last year.

Launched in 2018, Vis has proved one of the fastest-growing production powers on the Latin American and Latinx scene, signing first-look deals with Argentina’s Juan José Campanella, writer-director of the Oscar winning “The Secret in Their Eyes,” and Ariel Winograd, director of remake phenomenon “Ten Days Without Mom.

It is fitting in many ways that Movistar Plus’ “Riot Police” (“Antidisturbios”) saw its world premiere in a theater at one of Europe’s biggest film festivals: September’s San Sebastian in Spain.

Feted by the domestic press — “the best Spanish series of the year,” trumpeted newspaper El Mundo — the Movistar Plus original series has closed sales to France and Latin America with “partners of the highest caliber,” “Riot Police” producer Domingo Corral, Movistar head of original programming, said at San Sebastián.

Co-written — with regular writing partner Isabel Peña and Eduardo Villanueva — and directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, “Riot Police” marks just the latest entry in the seemingly unending diaspora of renowned Spanish cineastes into drama series creation. Director of the 2019 Academy Award-nominated short “Madre” and a short-lived TV director, Sorogoyen broke out as a film director with his first solo feature, 2016’s “May God Save Us,” a San Sebastian screenplay winner,...

Rodrigo Sorogoyen and his usual gang of collaborators have crafted a vibrant six-episode series that unnerves, surprises and entertains in equal measure, incorporating the best of his previous films. If it didn’t last a total of 304 minutes and it weren’t a series divided into half a dozen episodes – each one named after one of its characters – Riot Police, helmed with nerves of steel and some serious guts by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, would not only be able to compete for the Golden Shell at the 68th San Sebastián International Film Festival, where it is presently being presented, but it would also be in with a very good chance of winning a prize. That’s because, and let’s make this clear from the outset, it knocks you out. Cold. Built on a hard-as-nails screenplay penned by the director and his regular partner at the keyboard Isabel Peña, and with the addition.

Oscar-nominated Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“Mother”) cut his teeth in TV a decade ago before migrating to cinema, co-directing 2013’s “Stockholm” and his own breakout solo feature “May God Save Us,” which marked him as one of Spain’s foremost young crossover talents.

Now, he and long-time writing partner Isabel Peña have returned to the small screen with their upcoming Movistar Plus original series “Riot Police” (“Antidisturbios”). Set to world-premiere at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, where high-end series have increasingly been a part of the event’s most exciting offerings, it is also where Sorogoyen’s own recent history has borne fruit. In 2016, “May God Save Us” took the jury prize for screenplay.

“Riot Police” explores the lives of six members of Furgón 93, part of Spain’s Police Intervention Unit of its National Police Corps, who execute a complicated eviction in the heart of a Senegalese community in Madrid.

Colombia’s Fidelio, one of the fastest growing companies in Latin America, has made its third big unveil at Spain’s Conecta Fiction, revealing this time round a multi-title co-development alliance for Spain and Latin America with Barcelona-based Amor y Lujo, headed by Andrea H. Catalá, Javi Ferreiro y Almudena Monzú.

First title up is “Picadero” a neo noir series created by Spanish scriptwriter and story editor Almudena Monzú, co-founder of the Barcelona-based Amor y Lujo, which she launched in 2016 with Venezuelan producer-director Andrea H. Catalá. Over the last few years. it has been providing production services, while building up its own project portfolio.

“Picadero” is a detective thriller that draws inspiration from Spanish film director Iciar Bollaín’s “Mataharis” and great detective classics.

It follows the cases of Llanos, a female detective who sets up in Barcelona to escape a dark family past and makes a living off secrets...

Madrid — Scheduled to bow in 2021, Movistar Plus’ Original Series “Antidisturbios,” from Spain’s Academy Award-nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen, is shaping up as one of the flagship titles on the slate of Telefonica-owned Movistar Plus, Spain’s biggest pay TV player, as well as proving indicative of deeper industry and artistic trends.

Co-written by Sorogoyen, Eduardo Villanueva and Isabel Peña – co-scribe of all Sorogoyen’s features and arguably one of the most overlooked female talents in Spain – and unveiled via a Madrid press set-visit last week, “Antidisturbios” begins focusing squarely on six members of Furgón 93, part of Spain’s Police Intervention Unit, its National Police Corps riot police. The squad is drafted in to carry out an eviction in the heart of a Senegalese community in Madrid. Captured in Ep. 1, their operation, however, goes drastically awry.

Making his solo feature debut with 2013’s “Stockholm,” few directors have consolidated so fast as the...

Other nominees include ‘Intemperie’, ’The Endless Trench’ and ’Fire Will Come’.

Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War leads the nominations for Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards but will face-off against Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain And Glory at the ceremony on January 25 in Malaga.

Scroll down for full list of nominations

Amenábar’s Spanish Civil War drama has secured 17 nominations while Almodóvar’s semi-autobiographical film has 16 nods.

While At War has proved a box office hit following its debut at Toronto, ranking as Spain’s third highest-grossing domestic film of 2019 and taking more than $11.3m to date.

Pain and Glory...

Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory” will go head-to-head with two other big Spanish films – Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and “The Endless Trench,” from Aitor Aguirre, Jon Garaño and José Mari Goenaga – at Spain’s 34th Goya Academy Awards, to be held Jan. 25 in Malaga.

“Pain and Glory” garnered 16 nominations,” “While at War” 17 and “The Endless Trench” 15.

Though most pundits would put “Pain and Glory” as the frontrunner, the outcome is difficult to predict. World-premiering in Spain before competing in Cannes, where Antonio Banderas won the best actor prize, “Pain and Glory” was reckoned by Spanish critics to be Almodóvar’s best film in a decade.

But ever since the screenplay for Luis Buñuel’s “Viridiana,” which went on to win the Palme d’Or, was written off in Spain as nonsense, the Spanish industry has steadfastly refused to kowtow to internationally acclaimed directors or indeed talent.

Screening at Ventana Sur,...

There are two kinds of “what if” story. One plunges viewers into an immediate, all-too-imaginable situation, and invites them to consider how they might act and react; the other casts us into realms of uncanny uncertainty, inviting us to consider the world as we don’t quite know it. Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Oscar-nominated 2017 short “Madre” was an expert example of the former, placing us inside the head of a single mother freaking out over a phone call from her young son, who’s abandoned and imperiled on an unidentified beach neither she nor he can pinpoint. A parent’s worst nightmare of the most tightly wound order, it seemed an obvious candidate for feature treatment very much in the other “what if” camp — what was a palpitating mystery gives way to a kind of metaphysical love story, eliding the roles of parent, child and lover.

Only select distributors and audiences...

“Mother,” Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s anticipated feature follow-up to the 2017 Oscar-nominated short of the same name, premieres in Venice Film Festival’s Horizons sidebar on Friday.

While the feature shares the short’s title and main character, played with great intensity by Marta Nieto once again, the narrative will catch Sorogoyen and regular co-writer Isabel Peña’s fans a bit off guard. Best known for their work on thrilling fare “The Realm,” which received seven Goya nominations from the Spanish Academy, or their 2013 breakout feature “Stockholm,” the two have forgone the predictable thriller follow-up in favor of a more personal drama about a woman’s recovery from unthinkable trauma.

“Mother,” the feature, starts with the 19-minute short acting as a prologue: Elena receives a call from her son, six-years-old Ivan, saying that he is lost on a beach in France and can’t find his father. The film picks up,...

Champions, a basketball-themed comedy, and The Realm, a political thriller, emerged as the top winners in Spain’s 33rd annual Goya Awards.

Roma, which was also taking the top prize across the Atlantic at Saturday night’s DGA Awards, won a Goya for Best Iboamerican Film.

The Realm took home seven trophies, for directing, acting, supporting acting, screenwriting, sound, editing and music. Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen will also be at this month’s Oscars, as a nominee for Best Live-Action Short Film for Mother.

Champions, which was Spain’s official submission for the Best Foreign Language category at the Oscars, won for Best Film. It depicts the efforts of a pro basketball coach who is sentenced to coach a team of intellectually challenged players. Director Javier Fesser cast non-professional actors with actual disabilities to play many of the players.

Here is the full list of winners:

Best Film

Champions

Best Direction...

Political thriller The Realm awarded seven prizes including best director for Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Political thriller The Realm and local box office comedy hit Champions shared the big prizes at Spain’s Goya Awards, held in Sevilla last night (2 Feb).

The Spanish Film Academy awarded seven prizes to The Realm, who led the race with 13 nominations, including best director for Rodrigo Sorogoyen; and crowned Javier Fesser’s Champions as best film.

Fesser’s comedy was the most successful Spanish film by far at the local box office in 2018 with a gross of $22m. Produced by Películas Pendelton, Rey de Babia A.

Madrid — Javier Fesser’s “Champions” won best picture at the 33rd Spanish Academy Goya Awards, having seemed to have been locked out of major awards.

“Champions” entered the ceremony as most probably the favorite in one of the most open fields in recent years, given the diversity of best picture contenders in artistic and industry terms.

But, produced by Morena Films, Películas Oendelton and Movistar +, “Champions” had already been selected by the Academy as Spain’s Oscar entry and had proven a blockbuster hit on home turf for Upi Spain, earning €18.5 million ($21.1 million). Selling near worldwide, the comedy turns on an off-the-rails Spanish coach sentenced to train a basketball team of special-needs players.

Before director Javier Fesser climbed onto the stage on Saturday night to take best picture, however, the film had won just two of 10 nominations, for breakthrough actor (Jesús Vidal) and song (Coque Malla’s “Este es...

Cannes opener Everybody Knows scores eight nominations.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s political thriller The Realm led the Goya nominations from the Spanish Film Academy with 13 nods including for best film director, actor and original screenplay. It was closely followed by Javier Fesser’s hit comedy Champions with 11 nominations.

Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes opener Everybody Knows garnered eight nominations, including for best film, best actress for Penélope Cruz and best actor for Javier Bardem.

Fesser’s comedy is the most successful Spanish film by far at the local box office this year with a gross of $22m. Produced by Peliculas Pendleton, Movistar+ and Morena Films,...

I Am Not Madame Bovary

Feng Xiaogang's I Am Not Madame Bovary won the Golden Seashell at the San Sebastian Film Festival. The film about a woman who takes on the Chinese legal system also saw star Fan Bingbing named best actress.

It was a good night for Asian directors, as Korean filmmaker Hang Sang-soo took home the Silver Shell for Best Director for his romantic comedy about a jealous painter Yourself And Yours.

There were also prizes for homegrown talent, as Isabel Peña and Rodrigo Sorogoyen won the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay for tense Spanish thriller May God Save Us (Que Dios Nos Perdone) and veteran Spanish star Eduard Fernández was named best actor for Smoke And Mirrors (El Hombre De Las Mil Caras).

Pepe San Martin's Lgbt family drama Rara won the Horizontes Award, while the New Directors prize went to Sofia Exarchou for Park about teenagers,...