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European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo.

Sánchez Arévalo, one of Spain’s foremost crossover filmmakers, is coming back with “Rondallas” to a movie project oriented to classic cinema theater exhibition and distribution, after creating and directing a feature film and a TV series for Netflix.

Studiocanal will handle worldwide sales on “Rondallas,” scheduled to roll from March in Galicia, Northern Spain, with a still undisclosed cast.

“Rondallas” is produced by Campos, creator and executive producer of flagship Spanish TV dramas such as “Gran Hotel,” “Velvet,” “Cable Girls” and “Fariña,” all set up at his Madrid-based Bambú, one of the most game-changing of TV production companies in Spain, and partially owned by Studiocanal.

With dedicated film production house Mr Fields and Friends, Campos has produced titles such...

Seven titles are in the running for the Golden Violet at the 24th Cinespaña Festival, which unspools from 4-13 October with actor Javier Gutiérrez, among others, basking in the limelight. Today, there will be a double opening screening (out of competition) for the 24th edition of Cinespaña, with 7 Reasons to Run Away (from Society) by trio of directors Gerard Quinto, Esteve Soler and David Torras, and Hamada by Eloy Domínguez Serén. From 4-13 October in Toulouse, the gathering will offer an extensive overview of the very best of recent Spanish film output, and will give pride of place to actor Javier Gutiérrez.Seven fiction features are set to lock horns for the 2019 Golden Violet (which will be handed out by a jury chaired by French filmmaker Dominique Cabrera): Seventeen by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (screened out of competition at San Sebastián and set...

San Sebastian — Netflix has had, since arriving in Spain, a close relationship with the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Last year, Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” loomed large, featuring on the fest’s largest billboard. And this year, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo’s “Seventeen” occupied four adjacent billboards along the festival’s most highly trafficked walkway.

Premiering to industry and press on Thursday, the film’s first public screenings kicked off this morning at 9am. So far, the buzz has been good.

Two days before turning 18, Héctor escapes the juvenile detention center he’s lived in for two years after a dog he had been rehabilitating – although who was rehabilitating who is a matter for debate – is adopted and no longer able to visit the center.

After making good his escape, Héctor (Montoro) half-bakes a multi-part plan to A: Recruit his older brother Ismael (Nacho Sánchez) to his cause, B: Get his terminally...

The Spanish film festival opens today (Sept 20) with Roger Michell’s ‘Blackbird’.

José Luis Rebordinos, director of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, talks to Screen about the key role the Spanish event plays in both the European and Latin American industries, industry innovations for this year and the art of programming a festival at one of the busiest times of the year.

The festival opens today (September 20) with the European premiere of Roger Michell’s Blackbird and runs until September 28.

You are proud of how open the festival is to new talents. How does this work in practice?

It involves different strategies.

Further titles include Belén Funes’ debut ’A Thief’s Daughter’.

Alejandro Amenábar’s While At War is one of 15 Spanish films selected for the various strands of the 2019 San Sebastian International Film Festival (Ssiff) which will run from September 20 -28 this year.

The historical drama is about writer Miguel de Unamuno’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War and stars Karra Elejalde. Amenabar was last at San Sebastian with Regression which opened the festival out of competition in 2015.

It has not been announced if the film is having its world premiere at Ssiff, suggesting an earlier debut at either Venice...

Madrid — Disney’s “Jungle Cruise,” starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, has added Spanish actor Quim Gutiérrez, one of Spain’s most prominent thirty-something actors who broke out last decade.

Directed by Jaume Collet Serra, “Jungle Cruise” will see Gutiérrez play one of the movie’s villains.

Born in Barcelona, Gutiérrez’s big break came in Daniel Sánchez Arévalo’s debut “DarkBlueAlmostBlack,” a rights-of-passage tragicomedy which won star Gutiérrez a Spanish Academy best new actor Goya for his performance as a young janitor attracted to his brother’s prison inmate girlfriend.

Arévalo’s other credits include spy operative comedy thriller “Spy Time,” released in 2015, and Mediaset España’s 2016 mini-series “Cain’s Father,” about the dirty war against Eta terrorism, where he played a by-the-book Civil Guard lieutenant.

Consecration in Spain came in 2016 when Gutiérrez was chosen to model the new Emidio Tucci male fashion line of El Corte Inglés, Spain’s biggest department store chain.

Witching And Bitching The London Spanish Film Festival returns for its 10th birthday with a diverse programme running from September 25 to October 5.

Crowd-pleasers inlcude the latest films by Álex de la Iglesia and Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, along with the surprise Spanish box office hit from the end of last year, Three Many Weddings (Javier Ruiz Caldera, 2013). But the returning Basque and Catalan sidebars also offer the chance to discover films - representing a range of genres - that might otherwise slip under the radar given the paucity of Spanish titles that make it to these shores.

The retrospective of the often-controversial Vicente Aranda includes several UK premieres, most notably Freedom Fighters (1996), which boasts a cast including Ariadna Gil, Victoria Abril, Ana Bélen, and Loles Léon. Abril will be interviewed before the screening of Lovers (Vicente Aranda, 1992) on Saturday October 4 - Abril is always...

Winners have been announced! See below.

The First Edition of the Platinum Awards, a gala presentation in Panama April 5th, sponsored by Egeda and Fipca was an idea born two years ago in Panama at the Festival'sl Forum with Iberoamerican filmmakers and the Iberoamerican Producers Association (Fipca). Panama's Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce offered to pay for the first edition which is being held now. Jose Pacheco, the Deputy Minister and also the President of the Panama Film Commission, along with Arianne Marie Benedetti, then had to convince their government that the investment in the awards, along with the investment in cinema would further the country's extraordinary influx of capital and would help establish the Premios Platinos as the most important global event promoting and supporting the Iberoamerican film industry. Everyone here for the 4th Annual Panama Film Festival was quite excited and it was an extraordinary affair. Twenty-two Spanish speaking countries in the Americas as well as Brazil, Portugal and Spain gathered along with world press (John Hopewell of Variety and I myself of SydneysBuzz/ LatinoBuzz and Indiewire were the only gringo press around) and producers, directors, actors, cinematographers and writers to pay homage to the great talent arising out of the Iberoamerican countries whose potential audience exceeds that of the United States.

This was pointed out with great enthusiasm by Javier Camára, the actor nominated for Best Male Actor for his role in David Trueba's Living is Easy with Eyes Closed (Vivir es fácil con los ojos cerrados). He plays a high-school English/ Latin teacher in 1966 Spain who drives to Almeria in hopes of meeting his hero, John Lennon. Along the way, he picks up two runaways. The movie title, Living is Easy With Eyes Closed, comes from a line in Lennon's song Strawberry Fields Forever which he wrote while filming How I Won the War in Almeria. (Camára is also a fan of Real Madrid.)

In this first edition 701 films have participated. Of these, each of the countries made a pre-selection of their candidates through their representatives Fipca and national film academies. Subsequently, a jury of prominent industry professionals has selected the winners just announced at the gala on April 5 in Panama. The Directors of the event are Adrian Solar Lozier for Fipca and one of Chili's most recognized producers and Enrique Cerezo Torres, one of the founders of Egeda twenty-five years ago, its chief executive for the past seventeen years, President of the Madrid Film Commission and President of the Madrid School of Cinema. (He is also the President of the Athletic Football Club of Madrid.)

Mexican singer and actress, Alessandra Rosaldo, and Colombian journalist Juan Carlos Arciniegas whose TV show on film is featured on CNN Latino, co-hosted the televised event. Canal Plus of Spain and others representing television across the Americas were present.

The winners in each of the eight categories were named to a huge audience of the most important Latin American cinema talent who sat on pins and needles waiting to hear the winners.

Accepting the Platinum Award of Honor, Sonia Braga, known to U.S. audiences from the 1976 breakout Brazilian film, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands, and again in 1985 and 1988 with Kiss of the Spider Woman and The Milagro Beanfield War respectively, was elegant and eloquent in her acceptance.

The most nominated films were The German Doctor: Wakolda, Gloria and Living is Easy with Eyes Closed. The surprise was that Living is Easy did not win a single award. Already the winner of 11 Awards and nominated for 5 other awards, David Trueba definitely can not hide behind the loser category. The Spanish film Living is Easy with Eyes Closed won six Goya Awards including Best Director.

And The Winners are:

Best Iberoamerican Fiction Film: Gloria (Chile). Nominated were The German Doctor: Wakolda (Argentina), Heli (Mexico), Witching and Bitching (Spain), La jaula de oro (The Golden Cage) (Mexico), Roa (Colombia) and Living is Easy with Eyes Closed Spain) compete for the title of Best Latin American Film of the Year.

Best Female Performance: Paulina García (Gloria). Nominated were Karen Martínez (The Golden Cage), Laura De la Uz (Ana's Film), Marian Álvarez (Wounded), Nashla Bogaert (Who's the Boss?), Natalia Oreiro (Wakolda). You can read Gloria's review and interview with Sebastian Lelio and Paulna Garcia here: Review by Carlos Aguilar and Interview with Sebastian Lelio and Paulina Garcia by Sydney Levine. You can soon read more about upcoming Dominican Republic's Nashla Bogaert whom I met and interviewed in Panama. She is my choice of the one to keep an eye on.

Best Male Performance: Eugenio Derbez (Instructions Not Included). The equivalent of the Platinos, our own Academy Award usually steers clear of comedy in the best actor category, as if comedy were not as difficult as drama. But this was well deserved in terms of popularity as this film's huge success in both U.S. and Mexico shows. U.S.$44 million in U.S. and U.S.$ 41 million in Mexico are not to be ignored. This major hit hit a major nerve in U.S. and Mexico. Also nominated were Antonio de la Torre (Cannibal), , Javier Cámara (Living is Easy with Eyes Closed), Ricardo Darín (Thesis on a Homicide) and Víctor Prada (The Cleaner).

Platinum Award For Best Director: Amat Escalante (Heli). Nominated were Sebastian Lelio (Gloria), David Trueba (Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed), Lucia Puenzo (The German Doctor: Wakolda). You can read Heli's Review by Carlos Aguilar and the Interview with Amat Escalante by Carlos Aguilar.

Platinum Best Screenplay Award: Sebastian Lelio, Gonzalo Maza (Gloria). Also nominated were Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (Great Spanish Family), David Trueba (Living Is Easy With Eyes Closed), Lucia Puenzo (The German Doctor-Wakolda)

Platinum Award For Best Original Score: Emilio Kauderer for Foosball (Football). Also nominated were Karin Zielinski for El Limpiador (The Cleaner) -- you can read its Review by Carlos Aguilar , Joan Valent (Zugarramurdi Witches)

Platinum Award For Best Animated Film: Foosball (Football). Nominated were Anina -- you can read Anina's Review by Carlos Aguilar , The Secret Of Jade Medallion, Justin And The Sword Of Value, Uma History Of Love And Fury

Platinum Award For Best Documentary: Con la Pata Quebrada (With a Broken Leg). Nominated were: Cuates de Australia (Friends from Australia), Eternal Night Of The Twelve Moons, The Day That Lasted 21 Years from Brazil about the U.S. instigated coup d’etat in 1964, Still Being.

Camilo Vives (recently deceased, head of production for Icaic) Platinum Award for Best Iberoamerican co-production, in memory of his Presidency of Fipca for over 10 years and co-chair of the Forum Egeda / Fipca was The German Doctor Wakolda which beat out Anina, Esclavo de Dios and La jaula de oro. Read more on The German Doctor Wakolda here: Review by Carlos Aguilar and Case Study by Sydney Levine.

See more on the Platinum Award website: www.premiosplatino.com.

Alessandra Rosaldo stated: "These Awards will be the most valuable Iberoamerican Film Excellence Awards, something this industry needs and demands to reward the creativity and talent of our film industry.

Juan Carlos Arciniegas said: "The Platinum Awards are pioneers, transcend borders and put our countries in a fair competition that will highlight the diversity of the region cinematically. These awards will write the history of the participating films."

Eugenio Derbez, Blanca Guerra, Victoria Abril and Patricia Velasquez were some of the presenters.

Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's Gordos (Fat People) is a great film, but not because it resists the easy joke or gross-out gag. It embraces them, and turns what could have been a simple comedy drama - why do people end up overweight? What might they do about it? - into something far deeper and more affecting in the process. It's still an obvious commercial film, with some predictable plot beats. It's too long, and it can't keep the quality up all the way through the ending. Still, it's a laudably adult production, earthy, smutty and raw yet witty, intelligent and deeply, deeply moving with it.While there's a framing device that bookends each act, the story properly gets started when a group of overweight people visit a...

Acclaimed short film director Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's third feature film is currently in post production. After DarkBlueAlmostBlack and last year's Gordos, Arévalo commented that this will be his most personal project to date and it will mark a clear departure from his previous works since it will be his first full comedy and will be including a lot of his personal experiences. “Primos” is based on a previous short film shot by the director and will count once again with Quim Gutiérrez and Raúl Arévalo in the cast, both of whom had important roles in Sánchez Arévalo´s previous works. Antonio de la Torre toplines the tale about three cousins who travel to the village where they spent summer vacations as kids.

Spain Film Scene: Local Alex de la Iglesia's ("The Oxford Murders", "Day of the Beast") latest film "Balada Triste de Trompeta" finished principal photography this month (see pic of director above). This co-production with France's production company La fabrique 2, tells the story of two heavily scarred clowns, Javier and Sergio, that bloodily compete for the love of Natalia, the trapezist. Set in 1973, during the last days of the dictatorship of Franco, the director himself describes the film as a "grotesque tragedy of comedic horror." The film stars T.V comedian Carlos Areces, fresh from the success of its first film "Spanish Movie" and Antonio de la Torre, the critically acclaimed actor of Daniel Sánchez Arévalo's "Gordos", also starring are Sancho Gracia, Santiago Segura and Terele Pávez, all veterans from de la Iglesia's previous films. The film is set to be released at the end of 2010. After his hit debut "1 franco,...

Chicago – We have now reached the fourth and final week of the 13th Annual European Union Film Festival at the Siskel Film Center, and what a fantastic festival it has been. From international sensations to critically acclaimed gems rarely available in the Us, the EU annual line-up is consistently one of the finest offered by any festival in the Windy City.

The first three weeks were loaded with highlights that just seemed to get better as the days progressed. Some of the selections, such as Austria’s diabolical delight “The Bone Man” and the Netherlands’ beguiling documentary “Rembrandt’s J’Accuse,” were more entertaining than the majority of mainstream Hollywood releases. Both France and Italy had several exceptional entries this year, including Amos Gitai’s spellbinding “Disengagement” and Luca Guadagnino’s ravishing “I Am Love.” Read more here, here and here.

The final week is somewhat of a letdown in comparison,...

In roughly one month's time Oscar's sharpest double edged sword falls. That would be the announcement of the official submission list for the Best Foreign Language Film competition. Why the double edge? On the one hand it's always a mouthwatering list of sixty-plus film titles from newbie directors and masters alike, starring actors from all over the globe and covering virtually every film genre. They're not all masterpieces but there's true gold in there. On the other hand, the majority of these possibly awesome titles will remain unavailable to all but the most dedicated and wealthy of cinephiles who can travel 'round the world chasing film festivals.

It's time for The Film Experience to dive in to the possibilities ahead. We've been bringing you the web's most comprehensive foreign chart for 9 years now.

Israel. Third Time Lucky?

Israel is an 8 time nominee in the foreign film race but they've never won.

• Right before the big announcement of films competing for the Golden Lion, the Venice Film Festival announced the Venice Days sidebar selections which is flooded with mostly Euro titles from Spain, Italy and France. The section, the equivalent to Cannes Director's Fortnight, will feature eleven films including nine world premieres and the international preem for Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water (who we interviewed for his Sundance premiere). Among the list of films that we should look out for in the long term which includes the added six world premieres in the Special Events category, we have Sherry Horman's directorial debut Desert Flower which is not necessarily a rags to riches narrative, but more of a look "where I came from" drama, there is a prison pic from Spanish helmer Daniel Monzon (Celda 211) and legend Claude Miller co-directs with his son Nathan Miller on Je Suis Heureux Che Ma Mere Soit Vivante,

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• Spain: Local Film Scene The month of April brings us one of the more important events for Spanish cinema. From the 17th to the 25th, the best in local cinema will be presented at the Málaga Film Festival. Although being quite a young competition (this is just the fest's 5th edition), the Málaga Festival has positioned itself as a great platform for burgeoning new filmmakers. La Vergüenza (Shyness) from David Planell and produced by Avalon, is the Festival's opening film. Planell’s debut in the full-length feature that comes with high expectations – some of the experts have already compared him to Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and his movie Azuloscurocasinegro (Darkbluealmostblack). In La Vergüenza, Pepe (Alberto San Juan) and Lucía (Natalia Mateo) explore the complexities of being a couple. One year after adopting their son Manu, both are exhausted and want to give the kid back. Nevertheless, they soon realize the

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Variety reports that Spanish genre veteran Alejandro Amenábar (pictured) is one of the producers on El Mal Ajeno (The Evil Of Others), a new psychological thriller with fantasy overtones. Amenábar’s Himenoptero company is teaming with Mod Producciones and Telecinco Cinema on the project.

To be directed by Oskar Santos Gómez from a script by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo, El Mal Ajeno focuses on a doctor who is accused of driving one of his patients to suicide, and becomes a victim of a shooting himself. The leads are Eduardo Noriega, who starred in the Amenábar-directed Open Your Eyes and Thesis as well as The Devil’S Backbone and Nadie Conoce A Nadie, and The Orphanage’s Belén Rueda. We’ll bring you more details as we find ’em out.

• Knowing very little about the film except that it was a Toronto film fest pick last year, Daniel Sanchez-Arevalo's award-winning title DarkBlueAlmostBlack will see distribution via Strand Releasing later in 07’. Spain’s distrib house Sogepaq pacted the deal.The gay-themed film goes as such: Living according to others’ expectations – be they society’s or those of family and friends – can be suffocating. Daniel Sánchez Arévalo’s tender debut, DarkBlueAlmostBlack, examines the feeling of entrapment that arises when needs and desires are subjugated to family obligations. It is also an astute exploration of generational politics in Spain, where the young are generally expected to carry on traditions and values. Jorge (Quim Gutiérrez) is forced to put his career plans on hold when his father, Andrés (Héctor Colomé), suffers an incapacitating stroke and is unable to take care of himself. The debut feature has collected a fair amount of silverware – including 3 Goya awards.

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Pedro Almodovar's Volver and Agustin Diaz Yanes' Alatriste are the leading contenders for Spain's Goya Awards, taking 14 and 15 nominations respectively. The two movies will go head-to-head at the end of January in the Best Film and Best Director categories. Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth - which picked up 13 nominations - and Manuel Huerga's Salvador - with 11 nominations - are also up for Best Film and Best Director. Volver and Pan's Labyrinth - Spain and Mexico's respective entries for next year's foreign-language Oscar - are both up for Best Script, alongside Daniel Sanchez Arvalo for Darkbluealmostblack and Jorge Sanchez Cabezudo for The Night Of The Sunflowers. Penelope Cruz is nominated for Best Actress (Volver) alongside Maribel Verdu (Pan's Labyrinth), Marta Etura (Darkbluealmostblack) and Silvia Abascal (La Dama Boba). American-born actor Viggo Mortensen and German Daniel Bruhl are named in the Best Actor category for Alatriste and Salvador respectively, alongside Sergi Lopez (Pan's Labyrinth) and Juan Diego (Leave Me).