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Netflix in Spain has kicked off production on “Rainbow,” a new feature film from celebrated film and TV multi-hyphenate Paco León. Inspired by “The Wizard of Oz,” the film will heavily feature important aspects of contemporary culture such as dance, fashion, plastic arts and above all, music.

Netflix has teamed with Mediaset España’s Telecinco Cinema, the powerful feature film production arm of Spanish broadcaster Telecinco, to produce the new film, which his currently shooting in Madrid. The film will track the journey of a modern-day Dorothy teenage girl who embarks on a journey of her own.

According to León, he is “dead scared and hugely excited to see how this film, written during quarantine, comes out as I believe it is a step forward in my career as a director.”

“This is also a bigger film than my previous ones, not only budget-wise but also because of the complexity...

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,...

"Nobody wants to see these politicians disappear..." Netflix has revealed the official trailer for a Spanish mystery thriller called The Silence of the Marsh, which is already available to watch on the streaming service this week. The film was developed by Rtve & TV3 in Spain, with Zeta Cinema and Netflix. While researching corruption for his new book, a successful crime novelist blurs the line between fiction & reality, uncovering the corrupt ties between politicians and the local mafia in Valencia, Spain. This stars Pedro Alonso, Nacho Fresneda, Carmina Barrios, José Ángel Egido, Àlex Monner, Raúl Prieto, and Maite Sandoval. The trailer is dubbed in English, though it should be available to watch with subtitles. Looks like an intriguing all-the-way-to-the-top mystery, with some intense Spanish politics thrown in, too. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Marc Vigil's The Silence of the Marsh, direct from YouTube: A successful, cold-blooded crime novelist...

Germany’s Burhan Qurbani wins best director prize for We Are Strong. We Are Young.

Gábor Reisz’s slacker comedy For Some Inexplicable Reason won the Grand Prix winner at the 6th edition of the Voices festival for young European cinema in the Russian provincial town of Vologda on Sunday evening (July 5).

Reisz’s debut had its world premiere in the East of the West competition at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last year and is handled internationally by Alpha Violet.

The award was the film’s ninth trophy after prizes at festivals in Turin and Sofia, among others.

Speaking to ScreenDaily in Vologda, Reisz said that his film’s lead actor - fellow directing student Áron Ferenczik - had been overhelmed by the attention given to him for his acting turn as the slacker Áron, but is now preparing to direct a TV movie.

Reisz, meanwhile, is participating in the Cinéfondation residency in Paris and will...