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Screen can reveal the first trailer for Paz Vega’s feature directing debut Rita, ahead of its world premiere at Locarno Film Festival’s Piazza Grande on August 16.

Spanish actress Vega’s credits include Sex And Lucia, Talk To Her, and international titles Spanglish and Ridley Scott-produced series Netflix Kaleidoscope.

The Spain-set drama follows a seven-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother as the whole country goes crazy as Spain reach the quarter finals of the 1984 European football championships.

Vega stars alongside Roberto Álamo (a Goyas best actor winner for Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s May God Save Us), and child actors Sofia Allepuz,...

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,...

Una carta de amor a la valentía de la inocencia. © Filmax

La película “Rita”, ópera prima de Paz Vega, ha sido seleccionada para participar en el 77º Festival de Cine de Locarno, donde tendrá su estreno mundial.

“Rita” está ambientada en Sevilla, en junio de 1984. Rita y Lolo son dos hermanos de 7 y 5 años, hijos de una sencilla familia obrera. Comienzan las vacaciones de verano y el país entero está revolucionado con la Eurocopa de fútbol, donde España ha pasado a los cuartos de final. El calor aprieta y Rita sueña con ir a la playa, pero la vida en el barrio le tiene reservadas otras sorpresas…

La película está protagonizada por un elenco de actores en su mayoría andaluces, entre los que se encuentran los niños Sofía Allepuz, Alejandro Escamilla y Daniel Navarro, acompañados de Paz Vega (“Lucía y el Sexo”), Roberto Álamo (“Que Dios nos Perdone”), Paz de Alarcón...

Protagonizan Marian Álvarez, Greta Fernández, Asier Etxeandía, Roberto Álamo y Nur Olabarría.

Comienza el rodaje de “Luna”, un largometraje español de ciencia ficción intimista.

En “Luna”, cuando una expedición privada, liderada por la comandante Diana Miranda (Marian Álvarez), viaja a la Luna para fotografiar un cometa, un fragmento de éste impacta contra la Tierra, cortando todas las comunicaciones. Completamente solos, la tripulación lucha desesperadamente por sobrevivir en el vacío lunar, enfrentándose al desafío de redescubrir el significado de su existencia.

La película, que se rodará en localizaciones de Canarias y Madrid durante seis semanas, está dirigida por el director madrileño Alfonso Cortés-Cavanillas (“El Molino”) y protagonizada por Marian Álvarez (“La Unidad”), Greta Fernández (“La Hija de un Ladrón”), Asier Etxeandía (“Dolor y Gloria”), Roberto Álamo (“Que Dios nos Perdone”) y Nur Olabarría (“Cardo”). Completan el reparto Asier Flores (“Dolor y Gloria”), Jaime Martín (“Sordo”) y Marta Larralde (“León y Olvido...

Ibon Cormenzana dirige esta inspiradora historia basada en hechos reales. © AContracorriente

Ya se ha publicado el primer tráiler de la película “El Bus de la Vida”. Una película que promete conmover al público con una trama cargada de emotividad y esperanza.

“El Bus de la Vida” sigue a Andrés, un profesor de música que trabaja en Madrid y que tiene que trasladarse a un pueblo vasco para cubrir una vacante en un instituto. Con 40 años recién cumplidos y sin haber superado nunca el miedo escénico, siente que su nueva vida le aleja de su sueño de ser músico. Cuando llega allí, en su primer día de clase se desmaya a causa de un fuerte zumbido en el oído: es cáncer. Para recibir tratamiento, tiene que viajar al hospital de Bilbao en el Bus de la Vida, un viejo autocar que transporta gratuitamente a todos los enfermos de la zona. Gracias a las risas,...

Una comedia gamberra dirigida por Fer García-Ruiz. © Filmax

Se ha publicado el tráiler oficial de “Mala Persona”, una nueva comedia española, dirigida por Fer García-Ruiz (“Descarrilados”).

“Mala Persona” sigue a Pepe (Valls), querido por todos sin excepción. Es el ángel del barrio. Ese ser humano al que te llevarías a casa. Pero un día recibe la terrible noticia, esa que nadie quiere recibir: le quedan pocos meses de vida. Pepe, “fenomenalmente” aconsejado por su mejor amigo, decide pasarse al lado oscuro de la conducta humana. Una historia gamberra que narra cómo Pepe decide convertirse en un ser deleznable para que su familia y amigos no lo echen de menos cuando ya no esté.

La comedia está protagonizada por Arturo Valls, Malena Alterio (“Que Nadie Duerma”), Julián Villagrán (“Operación Camarón”) y cuenta también con la colaboración especial de José Corbacho. Completan el reparto Víctor Benjumea (“El Ministerio del Tiempo”), Teresa Lozano...

Descubre todos los detalles de la película. © Disney

Comienza el rodaje de “El Cautivo”, la nueva película de Alejandro Amenábar (“Los Otros”) que narra las vivencias y aventuras del joven Miguel de Cervantes durante su cautiverio en Argel.

La película se sitúa en el año 1575 cuando el joven Miguel de Cervantes, herido en combate naval, es capturado en alta mar por corsarios argelinos a su regreso a España. Consciente de que le espera una muerte cruel en Argel si no paga pronto su rescate, Miguel descubre un refugio inesperado en su pasión por contar historias. Sus fascinantes relatos devuelven la esperanza a sus compañeros de prisión y acaban atrayendo la atención de Hassan, el misterioso y temido Bajá de Argel, con quien empieza a desarrollar una extraña afinidad. A medida que crece el conflicto entre sus compañeros de prisión, Miguel, impulsado por su inquebrantable optimismo, comienza a idear un audaz plan de fuga.

La película promete ser una mirada honesta, conmovedora y esperanzadora sobre la lucha contra el cáncer. © AContracorriente

Ya se ha publicado el primer avance de la película “El Bus de la Vida”. Una película que promete conmover al público con una trama cargada de emotividad y esperanza.

“El Bus de la Vida” sigue a Andrés, un profesor de música que trabaja en Madrid y que tiene que trasladarse a un pueblo vasco para cubrir una vacante en un instituto. Con 40 años recién cumplidos y sin haber superado nunca el miedo escénico, siente que su nueva vida le aleja de su sueño de ser músico. Cuando llega allí, en su primer día de clase se desmaya a causa de un fuerte zumbido en el oído: es cáncer. Para recibir tratamiento, tiene que viajar al hospital de Bilbao en el Bus de la Vida, un viejo autocar que transporta gratuitamente a todos los enfermos de la zona.

Cannes’ Critics Week has rounded out the jury for its 63rd edition running running May 15-23.

The previously announced Spanish writer-director-producer Rodrigo Sorogoyen will preside over the festival’s parallel selection dedicated to first and second features alongside Rwandan actress Eliane Umuhire, French producer Sylvie Pialat, Belgian director of photography Virginie Surdej, and Canadian journalist and film critic Ben Croll.

Sorogoyen is known for psychological thriller The Beasts which premiered in the Cannes Premiere strand in 2022 and won nine Goya awards, plus 2019 drama Mother, 2018 Spanish-French thriller The Realm, 2016 crime thriller May God Save Us, 2013 romantic drama Stockholm, and 2008’s 8 Dates co-directed with Peris Romano.

Descúbrelo todo sobre el nuevo thriller español de Disney Plus+. © Disney+

Ya está disponible el tráiler oficial de la serie original de Disney+ “Las Largas Sombras”, un poderoso thriller femenino de 6 episodios que reflexiona sobre el peso de la culpa y cómo evoluciona la amistad de un grupo de amigas con el paso de los años. La serie, que cuenta con un equipo íntegramente femenino delante y detrás de las cámaras, es la historia de un grupo de mujeres cuyas estables vidas de éxito se ven repentinamente sacudidas por la aparición de los restos mortales de una de sus compañeras de instituto, desaparecida durante el viaje de fin de curso a Mallorca veinticinco años antes. Y es que, de primeras la serie nos recuerda algo a “Big Little Lies”, una serie muy aclamada y que ha sido una de las claras referencias de la cineasta a la hora de crear este intrigante thriller.

Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, best known for his 2023 feature The Beasts, has been announced as jury president for this year’s edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

The parallel Cannes section devoted to emerging talents and first and second features will unfold from May 15 to 23 this year.

“It is a big responsibility, which I look forward to,” Sorogoyen said in a video statement on X, formerly Twitter, announcing his presidency.

“La Semaine de la Critique supports and rewards first and second feature films as well as short films, thus providing vital support to cinema, new voices, and new ways to tell stories. Without these new voices, there would be no new cinema. They’re the ones who make it live and make it work.”

Rodrigo Sorogoyen sera le Président du Jury de la 63e Semaine de la Critique ! À cette occasion, le réalisateur de "Que Dios nos perdone", "El Reino" ou...

Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Stockholm, The Realm, Madre, The Beasts), who was nominated for the best international film honor at Italy’s David Di Donatello Awards, has been named jury president of this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week, the festival sidebar run by the French film critics union that focuses on first and second features from up-and-coming directors.

In a social media clip shared Friday, Sorogoyen called the jury duty “a great responsibility.”

Rodrigo Sorogoyen sera le Président du Jury de la 63e Semaine de la Critique ! À cette occasion, le réalisateur de "Que Dios nos perdone", "El Reino" ou encore "As Bestas" a un message pour vous.

#sdlc2024 #rodrigosorogoyen #Cannes2024 @semainecannes pic.twitter.com/XOBeKDGmhp

— AlloCiné (@allocine) April 5, 2024

Originally set up by an association of French film critics in 1962, Critics’ Week is the oldest nonofficial Cannes sidebar. The section is credited with discovering some of the biggest names in independent and art house cinema,...

The Critics’ Week section of the Cannes film festival has set Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen as the president of the jury for its 63rd edition.

Sorogoyen is known for films including “Stockholm” in 2013, “The Candidate” in 2018, and “The Beasts” from 2022. The Beasts last year earned him the best foreign film prize at France’s Cesars awards. Sorogoyen also wrote and executive produced TV series “Antidisturbios.”

“It is a big responsibility, one that I look forward to very much,” said Sorogoyen in a Spanish-language video message posted to social media. “The Critics Week supports and rewards directors’ first and second feature films as well as short films, thus providing vital support to cinema, new voices and new ways to tell stories. Without these new voices there would be no new cinema. They’re the ones who make it live and make it work.”

Rodrigo Sorogoyen sera le Président du Jury de...

Spanish writer-director-producer Rodrigo Sorogoyen has been named President of the Jury of the 63rd edition of Cannes’ Critics’ Week, the festival’s parallel selection dedicated to first and second features running May 15-23.

Watch Sorogoyen announce the news below.

Sorogoyen praised Critics’ Week for providing “vital support to cinema, new voices, and new ways to tell stories” and that without such voices, “there would be no new cinema. They’re the ones that make it live and make it work.”

He said his role as jury president is “a big responsibility which I look forward to.”

The multiple Goya award-winning...

In a coup for the Madrid-based sales agency, Latido Films has cliched a two picture deal with David Pérez Sañudo whose debut feature, “Ane,” repped by Latido, swept three Spanish Academy Goya Awards in 2021.

Latido will take world sales rights on both titles. The move comes as Spanish sales companies battle to retain top-flight talent, increasingly in the crosshairs of international counterparts.

With Pérez Sañudo, Latido gets one of Spain’s most exciting young directors, particularly for a skill now held at high value in and outside the U.S.: His ability to channel genre and sub-genre, often in individual scenes, injecting them with a larger sense of narrative.

Latido handled world sales rights on movies on another director with that sensitivity to sub-genre, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, from May God Save Us” (2016) to “The Realm” (2018) and “The Beasts” (2022) which trounced multiple Cannes winners to win best foreign film at France’s Cesars last year.

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...

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...

Zdf Studios has signed a deal to distribute the second season of the remake of the iconic Spanish horror series “Stories to Stay Awake” (“Historias Para No Dormir”).

The series is a reboot of the classic series created by Spain’s Chicho Ibáñez Serrador in the 1960s which proved a milestone in Spanish horror, introducing Spain to classic tales from Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe,

The deal sees Zdf Studios taking distribution rights to “Stories” in all territories outside Spain, Portugal, Italy and Latin America, which will be handled by Paramount Global Content Distribution. Zdf operated in the same capacity for the first season.

The second season is produced by Paramount in association with Zdf Studios, along with Prointel and Isla Audiovisual. The first season of the series premiered on Prime Video and public broadcaster Rtve in Spain.

In Season 2, directors Salvador Calvo (“Adu), Nacho Vigalondo (“Colossal”), Alice Waddington (“Scarlet...

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,...

Stars: Macarena Gómez, Sofía García, Ana Milán, Germán Torres | Written by David Hebrero, Javier Kiran | Directed by David Hebrero

Everyone Will Burn (Y todos arderán) begins with a text crawl that informs us that in 1980 the residents of Razas del Monte sacrificed a baby in the hopes it would prevent the apocalypse they believed was imminent. They’ve managed to keep it covered up, until now.

That’s replaced by a view of the countryside accompanied by the sound of tortured breathing. We see the immaculately dressed María José climb up to the edge of a bridge, ready to kill herself. As she does Lucia (Sofía García) a strange-looking little girl, dirty and dishevelled, walks up behind her and asks “Mama”? Since her suicide attempt is linked to the death of her son and those responsible, including the mayor’s son, managing to escape being prosecuted this has a strong effect on her.

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,...

In February, Carla Simon’s “Alcarràs” walked off with Spain’s first Berlin Golden Bear in nearly 40 years as Spain notched up its biggest main competition presence at the Berlinale since 1997.

This May, Spain has four movies selected for Cannes – Albert Serra’s Competition entry “Pacifiction”; Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” in Premiere; Elena López Riera’s Directors’ Fortnight bow “The Water”; and José Luis López Linares’ “Goya, Carrière and the Ghost of Buñuel,” a Cannes Classics doc feature. That reps a Cannes presence roughly on par with recent standout years such as 2018 and 2019.

With Netflix launching “Through My Window” in February, three of the streaming giant’s five most-watched non-English language movies are from Spain.

The big money is now in TV. Meanwhile Spanish cinema, a darling of arthouse crowds during Spain’s 1975-1982 transition to democracy, is once more back on the international radar, though faced by huge...

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...

The new additions bring the total number of films in Official Selection to 68.

The Cannes Film Festival has added two new titles to the Official Selection of its 75th edition running May 17 to 28.

Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Spanish-French rural thriller The Beasts (As Bestas) has joined the Cannes Première section and the documentary Salam will debut as a Special Screening.

The new additions bring the total number of films in Official Selection to 68.

Denis Ménochet and Marina Foïs star as a French couple who move to a village in the northern Spanish region of Galicia in a bid to be closer to nature,...

Seville’s Ferdydurke Films, the label of San Sebastian and Goya-winning director Fernando Franco, will join forces with San Sebastian’s Kowalski Films and Madrid’s Lazona Films to produce “The Rite of Spring” (“La consacración de la primavera”), Franco’s awaited third feature as a director.

Delayed by Covid-19 – the project was originally presented at Paris forum Small is Beautiful in 2019 – “The Rite of Spring” is scheduled to shoot in the first quarter of 2022.

Also written by Franco, “The Rite of Spring” is backed by Spain’s Icaa film agency, the regional government of Andalusia and Madrid and Andalusian public broadcaster Canal Sur. It turns on Laura, 18, who arrives in Madrid to begin university and, alone, strikes up a friendship with the slightly older David. The film is a coming of age story: While Stravinsky’s work portrayed a sacrificial rite, Franco’s film will look more at the...

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,...

Jaione Camborda’s “The Rye Horn,” Enrique Buleo’s “Still Life with Ghosts” and Eva Saiz’s “Casa de fieras” feature among a bevy of new Spanish film projects to be offered at the 4th Madrid-based Incubator.

A mentorship program hosted by Madrid’s Ecam Film School, the Incubator has fast consolidated as one of the foremost development labs in Spain targeting producers of first and second features.

The 4th Incubator runs from April through October.

Projects were chosen from a preselection made from over 200 submitted projects led by The Screen program manager Gemma Vidal. All Incubator’s projects receive €10,000 for development. As valuable, however, will be the tutorship led, among directors, by Arantxa Echevarría (“Carmen & Lola”), Rodrigo Sorogoyen (“May God Save Us”), Juan Cavestany (“Spanish Shame”) and director-producer Alberto Marini (“Summer Camp”).

Producer mentors, packing a large experience and multiple hits, take in Simón de Santiago (“While at War...

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,...

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,...

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.

One of the most anticipated of Spanish TV fiction titles for 2021, Movistar Plus’ Original Series “Antidisturbios” (“Riot Police”), the first full TV series created by filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen, was the subject of an international presentation on Tuesday at Conecta Fiction Reboot.

Part of the 4th Latin America-Europe TV co-production meeting, running June 15-18 in Pamplona, Spain, the event has been forced online due to the Covid-19 pandemic. An on-site edition is scheduled to return to Pamplona’s Baluarte Congress Center over Sept. 2-3.

Suggesting a strategic aim of strengthening its position not only as a global producer but also as a distributor of at least its key original TV dramas, Telefonica’s Movistar Plus is for the moment directly handling international sales on Sorogoyen’s “Riot Police,” the action thriller mini-series produced for Movistar by Sorogoyen’s Caballo Films and The Lab.

Previous Movistar Plus Original Series have been handled...

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...

The notion that government is one big con directing money into already well-lined pockets is confirmed and then some in “The Realm.” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “Michael Clayton”-like thriller has struck a chord in Spain, where the persistence of corruption in the post-Franco era is a popular topic bordering on obsession. But are examples of corruption just a matter of a few bad apples or the tip of a vast conspiratorial iceberg?

Sorogoyen (“Stockholm”) and co-writer Isabel Pena (also his collaborator on “May God Save Us”) definitely favor the second scenario, and that bleak verdict has resonated in Spain — “The Realm” is dominating this year’s Goya race, with 13 nominations. It’s unlikely the film will resonate as well offshore, as some viewers may be confused by a narrative that assumes familiarity with Spanish political and economic systems; moreover, the movie is not the “ripped from headlines” true story it often feels like.

The opening scene of “El Reino” (The Realm), which world premieres in Toronto’s World Contemporary Cinema, is a declaration of intentions: a 1 minutes 40 seconds tracking shot to building electronic pulse music on the soundtrack as Manuel López Vidal, party vice secretary, tipped to become the next president of his region, finishes up a cell phone conversation on a beach, strides down an alley-way. He bursts into the kitchen of a beachside restaurant, picks up a tray of red shrimps, brings it to a table to serve his fellow senior politicians. From then on, as a corruption scandal erupts in the region and Lopez Vidal takes the rap, he hardly stops in this – for Spain – pioneering, kinetic political thriller, pacing the corridors of power, desperately trying to negotiate his survival. “The Realm” is Sorogoyen’s follow-up to serial killer procedural “May God Save Us,” which marked out him out as...

Madrid — New movies from recent San Sebastian Golden Shell winners – Carlos Vermut’s “Quién te cantará” and Isaki Lacuesta’s “Entre dos aguas” – will screen in main competition this year along with Iciar Bollaín’s “Yuli” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Realm.”

Announcing the complete line-up of Spanish films at San Sebastian in Madrid on Friday, San Sebastian director José Luis Rebordinos also confirmed that Enrique Urbizu’s “Giants,” one of the most-awaited of upcoming Movistar + original series, will world premiere out of competition at the Spanish festival, the highest-profile in the Spanish-speaking world.

An explosive mix of downbeat social realism, notable style, darker psychological portraits and edgy and varying genre beats has turned Carlos Vermut (“Magical Girl”) into one of Spain’s most courted young filmmakers. A female-centric melodrama, produced by Enrique Lopez-Lavigne’s Apache Films and sold by Film Factory Entertainment, “Quién te cantará” stars Najwa Nimri (“Sex and Lucia...

For the first time in festival history, Spanish productions — Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” Terry Gilliam’s “The Man Who Killed Don Quixote” — will both open and close Cannes. In all, five Spanish titles made the festival cut, a recent record.

Such films speak of foreign auteurs’ fascination with Spain and its culture. They remain, however, “a minority” in Spain, says Juan Gordon at Morena Films, whose Alvaro Longoria produced “Everybody Knows.”

Spain’s industry “is driven by broadcasters investing in commercial films,” Gordon adds, acknowledging “a vitality in the industry” due to “the number of drama series getting made.”

“Two key factors are at work: Netflix, and the contraction of cinema-going arthouse audiences,” says Vicente Canales at Film Factory Ent., which represents Luis Ortega’s “El Angel,” in Un Certain Regard, and Jaime Rosales’ “Petra,” a Directors’ Fortnight player.

“Many Spanish films have sold to Netflix, some have functioned very well,...

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,...

Director Rodrigo Sorogoyen will soon be making an appearance at the San Sebastian Film Festival with his upcoming May God Save Us (Que Dios Nos Perdone) set to premiere in competition. A television veteran with literally hundreds of episodes worth of work to his credit, Sorogoyen is a relatively recent newcomer to the world of features with May God Save Us standing as just his second feature effort but with its high profile cast and glossy production values it would appear he's navigating the transition just fine. Madrid, summer 2011. Economic crisis. 15-m movement and 1.5 million pilgrims waiting for the Pope’s arrival live side by side in a Madrid that’s hotter and more chaotic than ever. In this context, detectives Velarde and Alfaro must...

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Three Spanish titles will compete for this year’s Golden Shell.Scroll down for full line-up

This 64th San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 16-24) has revealed the line-up of Spanish titles that will play across its sections.

There will be a total of 15 Spanish-produced films on show, including four shorts.

Competing for the Golden Shell – the festival’s top prize – will be Alberto Rodríguez’s El Hombre De Las Mil Caras (Smoke And Mirrors), Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Que Dios Nos Perdone (May God Save Us) and Jonás Trueba’s La Reconquista (The Reconquest), all of which are world premieres.

Goya Award-winning director Alberto Rodríguez is nominated for his third Golden Shell following 2014’s Marshland and 2005’s 7 Virgins. El Hombre De Las Mil Caras (Smoke And Mirrors) [pictured top] tells the story of spy Fransisco Paesa.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen presents his third feature Que Dios Nos Perdone (May God Save Us) – following 2013’s Goya-nominated Stockholm – which tells the story of a detective...

Three Spanish titles will compete for this year’s Golden Shell.Scroll down for full line-up

This 64th San Sebastian Film Festival (Sept 16-24) has revealed the line-up of Spanish titles that will play across its sections.

There will be a total of 15 Spanish-produced films on show, including four shorts.

Competing for the Golden Shell – the festival’s top prize – will be Alberto Rodríguez’s El Hombre De Las Mil Caras (Smoke And Mirrors), Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Que Dios Nos Perdone (May God Save Us) and Jonás Trueba’s La Reconquista (The Reconquest), all of which are world premieres.

Goya Award-winning director Alberto Rodríguez is nominated for his third Golden Shell following 2014’s Marshland and 2005’s 7 Virgins. El Hombre De Las Mil Caras (Smoke And Mirrors) [pictured top] tells the story of spy Fransisco Paesa.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen presents his third feature Que Dios Nos Perdone (May God Save Us) – following 2013’s Goya-nominated Stockholm – which tells the story of a detective...