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 […]

Catalan Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s best film win at Toronto’s Platform for “They Will Be Dust” points to a larger trend. Backed by generous government support, experienced producers and sales and distribution companies with impeccable track records domestically and abroad, there is a generation of Catalan filmmakers that is hitting its stride with some of the most […]

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 […]

Catalan films have impressed at festivals and awards ceremonies around the world for years now as the region continues to punch far above its weight in the screen industries. As the fall festival season transitions into awards season, we wanted to take a look at the buzziest Catalan titles set to make their debut sometime […]

French-speaking Belgium hit a high-water mark at the Cannes Film Festival in May, with 11 Belgian co-productions claiming accolades and acclaim across the Croisette. Alongside Critics’ Week opener “Ghost Trail” and the Cannes jury and best actress prize-winner “Emilia Pérez,” eight of those co-productions received support from Belgium’s Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles, while just as many shared […]

With six Luxembourgish projects on display, this year’s Venice Film Festival served as a victory lap for a modest state with an outsized impact. Boasting 1,200 professionals, a vibrant animation sector, and an output of 25-30 titles per year, the Grand Duchy’s co-production driven ecosystem is all the more remarkable for its relative youth and […]

After operating relatively quietly in Chinese language content since 2016, global streamer Netflix is now making a noise about its presence in the sector and in Taiwan in particular. Among the highlights is “Born for the Spotlight,” a 12-part series about the unravelling of a friendship between two top actresses, and an upcoming youngster who […]

Viktória Sovák, the new head of post-production house NFI Filmlab in Hungary, whose credits include Venice competition titles “The Brutalist” and “Maria” and upcoming films by Ildiko Enyedi, the director of Oscar nominee “On Body and Soul,” and Laszlo Nemes, the director of Oscar winner “Son of Saul,” has spoken to Variety about its work, […]

Andres Veiel’s documentary “Riefenstahl,” which challenges the carefully crafted public persona of one of Germany’s most controversial directors, is one of 17 German films playing in the various sections of the Venice Film Festival. A deep dive into Leni Riefenstahl’s previously inaccessible archive, the 160-minute film lifts the lid on secrets the director of the […]