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 […]

Films Boutique has picked up international rights to Albert Serra’s documentary “Afternoons of Solitude” (Tardes de Soledad) ahead of its world premiere in the competition section of the San Sebastian Film Festival. The film marks the third collaboration between Serra and Berlin-based Films Boutique after “Liberté,” winner of the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’ Un […]

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 […]

Opening up this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” marks an unexpected follow-up to her Golden Lion winner “Happening” – at least on paper, anyway. If anything, the filmmaker followed a similar line, using a literary adaptation to emphasize sensorial experience, in this case the evasive quest for physical pleasure. “The project was […]

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 […]

Ahead of its European bow in San Sebastian as part of the fest’s New Directors Competition, Turkish writer-director Belkis Bayrak reveals the first look trailer for her riveting debut feature, “Gülizar,” shared exclusively with Variety. “It is, of course, an honor to be in competition at San Sebastian with my debut feature,” Bayrak relayed. “I can’t […]

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 […]

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 […]

New York-based indie sales outfit Visit Films has acquired international distribution rights to Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato’s pensive second feature “Surfacing” (“La Llegada Del Hijo”) ahead of its global debut on Sunday as part of the San Sebastián Film Festival’s prestigious New Director’s Competition. “We have had the privilege of helping launch films in San […]

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 […]

Culinary Zinema, the San Sebastian Film Festival’s hugely popular food-themed sidebar, opens Sept. 23 with “Mugaritz. No Bread no Dessert,” (“Mugaritz. Sin pan ni postre”) which draws back the curtains to reveal the inner workings of the two-Michelin Star Basque restaurant, Mugaritz. Produced by Movistar Plus+ and Fonte Films, the documentary is directed by Paco […]

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 […]

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 […]

This year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival will feature the most eye-catching list of international superstars it has ever hosted, including A-list actors such as Cate Blanchett and Javier Bardem – who will both receive Donostia career achievement awards, Andrew Garfield, Pamela Anderson, Tilda Swinton and Lupita Nyong’o and filmmakers like local legend Pedro Almodovar […]