The success of Spain’s regional talent peppers the country’s record-setting Berlinale presence. Both movies in Competition – Isaki Lacuesta’s “One Year, One Night” and Carla Simón’s “Alcarrás” – are made by Catalan directors and are Catalan co-productions. From the Panorama section, “Lullaby” is a Basque and Lois Patiño, whose short “El sembrador de estrellas” competes in official competition, is from Galicia and has one of the most buzzed Spanish projects up for grabs at this year’s EFM in “Samsara.”
Other Catalan Berlin participants include Forum player “Afterwater,” an international co-production including Catalonia’s Andergraun Films; shorts “Agrilogistics” and The Sower of Stars,” “Lullaby” in Panorama and several standout projects at this year’s EFM.
The rise of filmmakers from different areas from Spain says a lot about new film financing structures consolidating in the country. Productions, Spanish or international, that receive Spanish nationality have access to tax...
Other Catalan Berlin participants include Forum player “Afterwater,” an international co-production including Catalonia’s Andergraun Films; shorts “Agrilogistics” and The Sower of Stars,” “Lullaby” in Panorama and several standout projects at this year’s EFM.
The rise of filmmakers from different areas from Spain says a lot about new film financing structures consolidating in the country. Productions, Spanish or international, that receive Spanish nationality have access to tax...
- 2/11/2022
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Last month, Catalan auteur Agustí Villaronga swept pretty much every prize out at Spain’s Malaga Film Festival with “The Belly of the Sea.”
The plaudits prized Villaronga’s large artistic ambition in re-creating arguably the most ghastly shipwreck in history — the 1816 sinking of French frigate Meduse off the coast of modern Mauritania — in a film shot in an abandoned wine cellar. It mixes historical re-creation, contemporary photo and doc footage and sea sculptures of the barnacled bodies of the drowned.
Next up for Villaronga, however, is what he describes as a tender comedy, “3,000 Obstacles,” about a former elite athlete now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Director of resonant features that are elliptical (“Pau and His Brother”) or pointedly meandering (“August Days”), Marc Recha is now developing a quirky comedy thriller about a blind man helping a friend to find some religious relics hidden by two Slovenian monks.
Ibon Cormenzana...
The plaudits prized Villaronga’s large artistic ambition in re-creating arguably the most ghastly shipwreck in history — the 1816 sinking of French frigate Meduse off the coast of modern Mauritania — in a film shot in an abandoned wine cellar. It mixes historical re-creation, contemporary photo and doc footage and sea sculptures of the barnacled bodies of the drowned.
Next up for Villaronga, however, is what he describes as a tender comedy, “3,000 Obstacles,” about a former elite athlete now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.
Director of resonant features that are elliptical (“Pau and His Brother”) or pointedly meandering (“August Days”), Marc Recha is now developing a quirky comedy thriller about a blind man helping a friend to find some religious relics hidden by two Slovenian monks.
Ibon Cormenzana...
- 7/7/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Carolina Astudillo’s “Song to a Lady in the Shadow,” Fabrizio Ferraro’s “The Luminous View,” Jo Sol’s “Armugan,” and Miguel Angel Blanca’s “Magaluf Ghost Town” feature among a 31-title lineup hosted by promotion board Catalan Films at an European Film Market virtual screening room.
Produced by Cornelius Films, “Song” marks the third feature outing of director Carolina Astudillo. A doc-fiction hybrid, it turns on a family whose father is exiled in France after fighting for the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. Echoing Homer’s Penelope, his wife stays behind with their children in a Catalan village suffering hunger, deprivation, economic crisis and unemployment.
Another awaited documentary, “Magaluf,” is produced by Boogaloo Films in co-production with France’s Les Films d’Ici. Director Blanca depicts the consequences of unbridled tourism in a popular destination in the Balearic Islands, with a touch of comedy.
Selected at this year’s Forum showcase,...
Produced by Cornelius Films, “Song” marks the third feature outing of director Carolina Astudillo. A doc-fiction hybrid, it turns on a family whose father is exiled in France after fighting for the Republican government during the Spanish Civil War. Echoing Homer’s Penelope, his wife stays behind with their children in a Catalan village suffering hunger, deprivation, economic crisis and unemployment.
Another awaited documentary, “Magaluf,” is produced by Boogaloo Films in co-production with France’s Les Films d’Ici. Director Blanca depicts the consequences of unbridled tourism in a popular destination in the Balearic Islands, with a touch of comedy.
Selected at this year’s Forum showcase,...
- 2/26/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
Three or so years ago, a new generation of directors, many women, were beginning to break out in Catalonia. That was no flash in the pan.
Following on Nely Reguera’s “María (and Everybody Else)” and Carla Simón’s Berlinale Generation Kplus pic “Summer 1993,” first features by Diana Toucedo (“Thirty Souls”), Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”), Neus Ballús (“The Plague”) and Celia Rico (“Journey to a Mother’s Room”) have set the film festival circuit alight, garnering bullish reviews and a slew of prizes. Many of these women are now on to their second or third features: Simón with “Alcarrás,” Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”), Colell, Rico (“The Little Loves”), Pilar Palomero (“La maternal”) and Reguera (“The Grandson”), among others.
Now, women producers are taking center stage: Belén Sánchez at Un Capricho Producciones (Lucía Alemeny’s “The Innocence”), Patricia Franquesa at Gadea Films (Laura Herrero’s “La Mami”) are succeeding. Many...
Following on Nely Reguera’s “María (and Everybody Else)” and Carla Simón’s Berlinale Generation Kplus pic “Summer 1993,” first features by Diana Toucedo (“Thirty Souls”), Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”), Neus Ballús (“The Plague”) and Celia Rico (“Journey to a Mother’s Room”) have set the film festival circuit alight, garnering bullish reviews and a slew of prizes. Many of these women are now on to their second or third features: Simón with “Alcarrás,” Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”), Colell, Rico (“The Little Loves”), Pilar Palomero (“La maternal”) and Reguera (“The Grandson”), among others.
Now, women producers are taking center stage: Belén Sánchez at Un Capricho Producciones (Lucía Alemeny’s “The Innocence”), Patricia Franquesa at Gadea Films (Laura Herrero’s “La Mami”) are succeeding. Many...
- 6/22/2020
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
San Sebastian — Paris-based sales agent Loco Films has acquired world sales rights outside Spain and France to “Journey to a Mother’s Room,” a flagship first feature from the Barcelona-based writer-director Celia Rico, part of a young generation of often women directors who are lending new energies and focus to Catalan cinema.
Alfa Pictures will distribute the film in Spain. “Journey to a Mother’s Room” will world premiere in competition at San Sebastian’s main sidebar, its New Directors section, a launchpad for other notable women talents such as, reaching back to just last year, Switzerland’s Lisa Brühlmann (“Blue My Mind”), Colombia’s Laura Mora (“Killing Jesús”) and France’s Marine Francen (“The Sower), its eventual winner.
Loco Films will introduce the film to buyers at the San Sebastian Festival, which starts Friday. After that, “Journey to a Mother’s Room” will segue to the BFI London Festival.
Alfa Pictures will distribute the film in Spain. “Journey to a Mother’s Room” will world premiere in competition at San Sebastian’s main sidebar, its New Directors section, a launchpad for other notable women talents such as, reaching back to just last year, Switzerland’s Lisa Brühlmann (“Blue My Mind”), Colombia’s Laura Mora (“Killing Jesús”) and France’s Marine Francen (“The Sower), its eventual winner.
Loco Films will introduce the film to buyers at the San Sebastian Festival, which starts Friday. After that, “Journey to a Mother’s Room” will segue to the BFI London Festival.
- 9/20/2018
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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