“I went to bed in one of the [hotel room] and he lay down beside me,” Nevenka Fernández, a former member of Ponferrada Municipal Council, recounts how she was raped in 2000 by her boss, Ismael Álvarez, then the all-powerful major of the city. “Why didn’t you leave?” asks Álvarez’s defence attorney in the trial […]

No company has a more powerful spread of productions at this year’s San Sebastian Festival than Telefónica’s domestic platform and super-producer Movistar Plus+. The group brings a festival competition movie, “I’m Nevenka,” a premium drama series, “Querer,” a broad audience thriller series, “Celeste” and “Mugaritz,” a documentary feature about Spain’s most cerebral restaurant. The diverse […]

SAN SEBASTIAN — Barcelona-based Filmax has acquired international sales rights to “Time of Silence and Destruction,” a bio-doc feature about Luis Martín-Santos who, along with great friend Juan Benet, revolutionized the Spanish novel, as James Joyce and William Faulkner had achieved decades before outside Spain. Martin-Santos’ “Tiempo de Silencio” (1962) and Benet’s “Volverás a Región” (1967) not […]

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 […]

SAN SEBASTIAN — Is this the San Sebastián Catalan Film Festival?  Always boasting a sterling presence at San Sebastián, Catalonia has a massive 27 titles this year, counting five projects in doc forum Lau Haizetara and including four of the five Spanish movies in main Competition and 10 in Made in Spain. Following a break-down of major […]

SAN SEBASTIAN —  Beta Fiction Spain, the distributor of the opening and closing films at this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” and John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” has tapped Arantxa Echevarría to direct its banner Spanish feature, “Dolores.”  Echeverría has already helmed for Beta Fiction “La Infiltrada,” about a police infiltrator in Basque […]

In terms of stars — Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tilda Swinton, Pamela Anderson — and auteur power — Pedro Almodóvar, Sean Baker, Costa Gavras, Edward Berger, Mike Leigh, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Joshua Oppenheimer, François Ozon, Lupita Nyong’o, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Maite Alberdi — this year’s San Sebastián Festival promises one of its biggest […]

La Termita Films, the production label of double San Sebastian Golden Shell winners Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo, has struck a production alliance with Accidental Films, the newly formed label founded by Sara Gonzalo, managing director over 2011-24 of production powerhouse Bambu Producciones.  The alliance catches Lacuesta and Campo at new career highs, Lacuesta having […]

Latido Films has acquired rights from A Contracorriente Films to represent international sales on “La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés,” the first feature as a director of Antón Álvarez, better known as C. Tangana, his stage name as a singer-songwriter.   A Contracorriente Films, which has bought world rights to the doc feature, will release “La […]

CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland, Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval and Recorded Picture Company’s Jeremy Thomas look set to attend the San Sebastian Festival’s 2024 Creative Investors’ Conference, co-organised for the third year running in collaboration with CAA Media Finance. The Conference will run Sept. 24-25 at San Sebastian’s Tabakalera center.  Other high-profile execs who look set […]

The surface glamor and beauty of Nice is peeled away from the off in Akaki Popkhadze’s debut feature “In The Name Of Blood” (“Brûle le sang”)  which premieres in San Sebastian’s New Director section.  “Nice is a city where the rich and the poor live side by side.” the director tells Variety. “The poor neighborhoods are […]

Madrid-based Moira Pictures has picked up international sales rights to Spanish-Argentine experimental comedy series “Cómo Grinch y La Sra. Claus ensangrentaron la Navidad” (“How Grinchi and Mrs. Claus Bloodied Xtmas.”) Inspired by a true story, “How Grinch…” is one of the projects selected at Iberseries & Platino Industria’s 2024 Co-Production and Financing Forum. In development, […]

Argentine helmer Natalia Smirnoff, director of “Puzzle,” a 2010 Berlin main Competition contender, and “Lock Charmer,” selected for the 2014 Sundance Festival, is attached to direct international co-production project “Mamá (Im)perfecta” (“(Im)perfect Mom.”)  The project teams Colombian production outfits Laberinto Producciones and Ganas Producciones with Argentina’s Tarea Fina and Canada’s Fait Divers Media. In development […]

Chicago-based Watermelon Pictures has acquired North American distribution rights to Danish-Palestinian writer-director Mahdi Fleifel’s “To a Land Unknown,” which world premiered to extensive acclaim at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.  Sold by Salaud Morisset, “To a Land Unknown” saw a P&I screening on Friday at Toronto where it has its North American premiere in Toronto’s Centrepiece showcase, […]

With a co-production forum and sold-out Spotlight on Incentives seminar complementing its pavilion and robust industry delegation, Spain is giving Toronto industry attendees a taste of what will unfold on a much larger scale in September 2026 when the festival launches its official content market.  On Sept. 6, the third iteration of the Do It […]

It’s been a good week for Basque directors Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, who, along with Jose Mari Goenaga, world premiered “Marco” at Venice and landed a spot on the shortlist for Spain’s Oscar entry.  Sold by Film Factory Entertainment, with market screenings in Toronto and upcoming stops at San Sebastian, London and Vancouver, “Marco” is […]

TrustNordisk has added more key territory sales for “The Quiet Ones,” a heist action drama from Denmark’s Zentropa and director Frederik Louis Hviid premiering in TIFF. Starring Gustav Giese, Amanda Collin and Reda Kateb, “The Quiet Ones” has closed Spain (Flins & Piniculas), Poland (MediaSquad), former Yugoslavia (Cinemania Group) and the Baltic states (Europos Kinas). Further […]

São Paulo production shingle Gullane, which is behind upcoming Netflix series “Senna,” has moved into development on a sequel to the animated feature “Noah’s Ark.” Produced by Gullane and Walter Salles’ Videofilmes, “Noah’s Ark” has been sold to 45 countries by Edward Noeltner’s CMG Management. It has grossed $4.25 million in territories in which it’s been […]

The Toronto International Film Festival will be placing an ever larger emphasis on the international in its name.  Outlined to Variety by Toronto chief programming officer Anita Lee, the move comes in response to the emergence of younger audiences driving the post-pandemic box office rebound, reshaping audience tastes in both U.S. independent cinemagoing and at film festivals.  […]