Filmax Boards Spanish Comedy ‘One Hell of a Holiday!’ from Goya-Nominated Víctor García León (EXCLUSIVE)

Sky and AMC’s upcoming Mary & George adaptation has found its King James I.

Ben Affleck knows an impressive amount of Spanish. The actor showed off some of his jokes while on the red carpet for his new film, “Air.” The cameras captured the moment as Affleck talked about the gossip program “El gordo y la flaca,” jokingly requesting them to stop making up lies. Ben Affleck talks about Jennifer Lopez’s love of ‘Yellowstone’Ben Affleck’s sweet tribute to Jennifer Lopez at ‘Air’ premiere: ‘You mean the world to me’The program shared the moment in one of their Instagram stories, showing Affleck’s “rant” and the reporter’s laugh.

Gemma Atkinson has called out her other half Gorka Marquez and named the thing he does that would make her consider leaving him. The Hits Radio host and the Strictly Come Dancing star met when Gemma was a contestant on the BBC One show in 2017.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Documentary specialist Autlook Filmsales closed a raft of sales at a vibrant market during the Copenhagen documentary festival CPH:DOX. “Subject,” directed by Camilla Hall and Jennifer Tiexiera, got picked up by Sweden’s SVT, Denmark’s DR, Norway’s NRK, Norway’s VGTV, The Netherlands’ VPRO, Israel’s Yes Doc, and Madman for Australia and New Zealand. Dogwoof released the film early this month in the U.K. “Subject” is an examination of the relationship between nonfiction filmmakers and their subjects. It raises important ethical questions during a golden of age for documentaries, when docs are screened by millions of viewers. The film re-visits protagonists of some of the most viewed documentaries of today – “The Staircase,” “The Square,” “Hoop Dreams,” “The Wolfpack” and “Capturing the Friedmans.”

Series Mania on March 21 just after a Spanish series, “Wrong Side of the Tracks” from Mediaset España and Alea Media, had scored 149.6 million watching hours in three weeks on Netflix for Seasons 1 and 2.  That platform connection and power of Spanish series threaded most of the series and much of the commentary at Tuesday’s Next from Spain, supported by Audiiovisual from Spain.  At least in terms of titles now ready to hit the market, there’s little sign as yet of platform pullback in Spain. Rather, it remains a ground zero in the streamer wars.

Eva Longoria has lined up her next job. The actress, producer, and director is now in charge of the Spanish-speaking adaptation of the succesful French series “Call My Agent!” The show is a satire about celebrity agents, and has been greatly succesful all over the world, having remakes set in Italy, Canada, and the U.K.Eva Longoria shows off incredible figure posing poolside in chic bikini: ‘Ready for summer?’Eva Longoria celebrates 48th birthday: See her best bikini momentsA post shared by Eva Longoria Baston (@evalongoria)Deadline was the first to break the news, revealing that Longoria would be producing the series through her company UnbeliEVAble Entertainment.

Naman Ramachandran New history documentary series “Queens That Changed the World,” that shines a light on some of the world’s most powerful female rulers, has scored a raft of worldwide sales. Channel 4 has acquired the series for the U.K. The series is produced by Woodcut Media who brokered the deal with Channel 4, and is distributed worldwide by Abacus Media Rights who have already pre-sold it to streaming service BBC Select (U.S. and Canada) and broadcasters SBS (Australia), AMC Networks International (Spain and Portugal), Viasat World (CEE, Scandinavia, Baltics, CIS), NRK (Norway), DR (Denmark), SVT (Sweden), Czech TV (Czech Republic) and HOT8 (Israel).

One of the world’s most popular international comedies is being remade in Spanish, courtesy of Eva Longoria.

They had somewhat of a tumultuous journey on Love Island UK season 9, so fans are eager to know if Lana and Ron are still together after being runners-up to winners Kai and Sanam.

Ange Postecoglou has some Celtic injury headaches to deal with going into the clash with Hibs - but it doesn't appear Greg Taylor will be among the absentees.

Callum McLennan Recently, there has been a consistent tide of well crafted and highly regarded films coming out of Spain. “Alcarràs,” “The Beasts,” “Lullaby,” “La Maternal,” “Prison 77,” to name just the five that the Spanish Academy Goyas singled out in early February.  This level of quality, over a short period, is getting noticed internationally. Last week the Glasgow Film Festival, Scotland’s largest, shone a light on eight films in its Viva el Cine Español program. A cultural moment is a strange beast, hard to fathom, but there are strong signals that Spanish Film is having one.   In addition to the aforementioned five, Glasgow added Andrea Bagney’s debut “Ramona,” “Wild Flowers,” from Jaime Rosales, another debut with Elena López Riera’s “The Water,” and a Penelope Cruz starrer, in Juan Diego Botto’s “On The Fringe.” 

Holly Jones Oscar award-winning veteran producer Gerardo Herrero, (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) returns to the director’s chair with “Under Therapy,” his stark and unnerving big screen rendition of playwright Matías Del Federico’s theatrical production. The project bowed in competition at the Málaga Film festival earlier this week and is set for broader theatrical release in Spanish cinemas on Friday. Latido Films handles international sales.  Enamored with the staged rendition, Herrero was inspired to add a distinctly cinematic touch to the script, honoring its darker underpinnings amidst the narratives’ anxious banter.

Emiliano De Pablos It’s been a short time since the Spanish government launched a new increase in its international film and TV productions incentives. This bold move has rapidly put Spain at the level of the most attractive international shoot locales.  In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Spain already saw a muscular rise in tax breaks, but the really killer hike came last December, with new record tax advantages, which raised relief for international productions to up to €20 million ($21.2 million) per movie and – even more transcendent – $10.6 million for any single series episode. Early positive effects were confirmed March 15 at a presentation held at the Malaga Film Festival, as part of the fast expanding and ambitious Mafiz-Spanish Screenings industry zone.

Emiliano De Pablos Confirming the increasingly strong interest by international buyers in Spanish animated features, Pink Parrot Media has scored a bevy of key European pre-sales on upcoming Spanish family adventure toon film “4 Days Before Christmas,” led by deals with Splendid in Germany and Kaleidoscope in the U.K. Produced by Spain’s 3Doubles Producciones and Capitán Araña with Canada’s PVP Media, directed by Steve Majaury and Andrea Sebastián, “4 Days Before Christmas” was one of the five noteworthy animated works in progress presented at this week’s Malaga Film Festival–Spanish Screenings to the international industry.  The film has also been acquired by Voxell por CIS territories, GPI (Baltics), FMA (Former Yugoslavia), Kinoswiat (Poland), Front Row (Middle East), Just Ent. (Benelux), Romania (SC Idea Films), Nos Lusomundo (Portugal) and Scandinavia (Angel Films).

Spanish Screenings Content at Malaga Festival’s industry zone Mafiz, supported by ICEX Spain’s Trade & Investment entity with the collaboration of Diboos, the Spanish Federation of Animation Producers and the VFX Production Companies Associations.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Running March 13-17, the Málaga Festival’s Mafiz-Spanish Screenings Content weigh in this year as one of the biggest dedicated Spanish movie platforms in history, boasting also a strong line in Latin American arthouse projects and productions. 10 Takes as the event kicks off, blessed by early Spring sunshine, in the Andalusian city: XXXL In 2022, super-sized by the Spanish Screenings Content, part of Spain’s €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) AVS Spain Hub, a vibrant Mafiz, the Malaga Film Festival industry area, fair exploded, delivering  a sterling confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a platform age, aided by robust state sector backing. This year, Mafiz looks even larger. At 1,560 delegates and counting as of March 6, Mafiz is tracking to pass 2022’s final attendance figure of around 1,600, Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Festival director told Variety. Participants come from 62 countries, up from 53 last year. “The event’s consolidation is clear,” Vigar added. “It makes us feel that the work we do is useful for the sector,” he adds. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Filmax has acquired international rights to “Ashes in the Sky,” the first narrative feature from director Miquel Romans. The film is inspired by the life of Neus Català, a feminist and republican who, after fighting in the Spanish Civil War, was captured by the Nazis and sent into forced labor at a weapons factory in Czechoslovakia. There she became the head of an anti-fascist group of women known as the Gandulas Commando, which resisted the Nazis by sabotaging the factory. The film, based on the book of the same name by Carme Martí, stars Nausicaa Bonnín (“Dating in Barcelona”), Rachel Lascar (“Elite”), Iria del Río (“Visitor”), Thomas Sauerteig, Daniel Horvath (“The Burning Cold”), Fernando Corral, Laura Conejero, Roger Batalla, Natascha Wiese and Joaquín Caserza.

Tara Karajica Cinephil has sold Valerie Kontakos’ documentary “Queen of the Deuce,” which charts the rise of Chelly Wilson, the queen of the porn industry in 1970s New York, to several key territories. The film premiered at Doc NYC and is now playing in the International Competition at the Thessaloniki Intl. Documentary Festival. Greece’s ERT, Canada’s Doc Channel, Switzerland’s Radio Télévision Suisse and Israel’s Channel 8 came on board at the funding stage. It has now been acquired by Spanish streamer FilmIn, Swedish broadcaster UR, and U.S. theatrical distributor Greenwich Entertainment. The film follows Wilson from pre-World War II Greece to New York, where she rose to become a major figure on the porn circuit in Times Square from the late 1960s to the mid 1980s. She is shown to be a trailblazing, taboo-breaking entrepreneur and an unconventional matriarch. It is presented as an empowering story of survival, as well as an alternative take on cultural history at a time of the rise of feminism, the sexual revolution and the emergence of the gay liberation movement.

Argentina, 1985 Leads 2023 Platino Awards NominationsSantiago Miter’s political thriller Argentina, 1985 leads this year’s Platino awards nominations with 14 nods, including Best Director, Screenplay, and Best Ibero-American Fiction Film. Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s latest pic Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths trails with six nominations alongside Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts and Lullaby by Alauda Ruiz De Azúa. On the TV side, the Colombian series Noticia de un kidnapping also notched six noms. This year’s Platino awards take place on April 22 at the IFEMA Municipal Palace in Madrid. Check out the full list of nominations here.

There is something comforting and appealing about “Champions” in that it’s the type of film that used to be multiplex mainstays in the ’80s and ’90s but now usually pops up on a streaming service’s carousel without much fanfare. Audiences need accessible and entertaining movies like this.  It’s an adaptation of the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones,” which drew its inspiration from a real-life team of people with intellectual disabilities.