Led by Oscar-Winning Tornasol, Production Services Outfit CNPC Launches in Navarre (EXCLUSIVE)

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn down-to-the-wire San Sebastian Festival business, Madrid-based Latido Films has pounced on world sales rights to Nicolás Postiglione’s debut feature “Immersion” (“Inmersión”), a Chilean suspense-thriller – and potential political metaphor for those who want to see it – starring Pablo Larraín regular Alfredo Castro (“The Club,” “No”).“Immersion” is based on a screenplay by Postiglione and two film directors in their own right: Fast-rising

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentMPM Premium has closed a raft of deals on “Ghosts,” a Turkish drama by emerging helmer Azra Deniz Okyay (“Hayaletler”) which won the Grand Prize at Venice’s Critics Week. The movie was just picked up for Spain by ConUnPack in a deal that was closed during the San Sebastian Film Festival.

Jamie Lang HBO Europe has closed a deal with Barcelona-based sales company Filmax for first window rights on “The Miramar Murders: The State vs Pablo Ibar” for Spain and Portugal, just before the true crime series world premieres at the San Sebastian Festival.Created and directed by Olmo Figueredo, co-founder of Sevilla’s La Claqueta, which co-produced alongside San Sebastian company Irusoin, “The Miramar Murders” is a six-part doc-series examining the exceptional circumstances of a now

Variety as Warner Bros. Spain unveiled its 2020-21 slate at Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, the bigger push into Spanish production will also see the Hollywood studio continuing to partner on a joint development fund with Atresmedia Cine – a title-by-title non-exclusive alliance which is emerging as a key production axis on the Spanish movie scene.

 Penélope Cruz  and actor  Antonio Banderas  were both filming a comedy titled, “Official Competition.” This film is considered to be one of “the year’s highest-profile international Spanish productions,” according to Variety. @lancomeofficial new

Emiliano Granada Hot off its announcement of strategic co-production alliances for film and TV with Gaumont and Spain’s Planeta and Amor y Lujo, Colombia’s Fidelio Films has linked up with Karlakum Film in Turkey.In its latest international collaboration, Fidelio partner Mauricio Leiva Cock is partnering with Esra Saydam, founder of Karlakum Film, to adapt Murat Menteş’ best seller “Double’s Dilemma” into an eight-episode TV series.The show follows an albino orphan named Nuh Tufan who

Emilio Mayorga Palme d’Or winning producer Luis Miñarro (“Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”) is set to direct his fifth feature, ”Impalpable” (a working title), produced by Miñarro’s label, Barcelona-based Eddie Saeta, one of Spain’s most prominent arthouse shingles.Written by Miñarro, “Impalpable” follows a series of characters who take a bus to an unspecified destination. The situation becomes graduallystranger as the bus make no stops.

Jamie Lang Leading Spanish sales, production and distribution company Filmax has secured sales rights for first-time director Carol Rodriguez Colas’ “Girlfriends,” currently in post-production.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBarcelona’s Gadea Films, co-producer of Laura Herrero Garvin’s Mexico City-set documentary “La Mami,” a hit at IDFA, is reaching across the Atlantic once more, linking to Colombia’s Rara Colectivo Audiovisual on the production of Cordelia Alegre’s “La Unión.”Put through this year’s Screen-Incubator at the Madrid Film School (ECAM), “La Unión” marks yet another feature debut from a Barcelona-based female director, this time a fiction film.“La Unión”

Emilio Mayorga Spanish producer-distributor and sales agent Filmax will handle international rights on Lara Izagirre’s “Nora,” the film opener at this year’s San Sebastian Zinemira Basque cinema showcase.Selected for San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2018, “Nora” is Izagirre’s second feature, following on ”An Autumn Without Berlin,” a Basque homecoming drama which scored a best new actress Goya award for Irene Escolar in 2016.A co-production between Gariza Films and

Emiliano De Pablos Navarre has never had such a prominent presence at the San Sebastian Festival as in this year’s lineup.Five linked-to-Navarre productions – three films, a TV series and a documentary – will screen at the Festival, highlighting its status as a standout hub for the Spanish audiovisual industry.Navarre’s higher-profile at San Sebastian, the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world, is no coincidence.Since 2015, the northern Spain region has attracted Spanish productions

Jamie Lang Spain’s northern region of Navarre has fortified its position as a hub for the audiovisual industry in recent years and, mirroring trends seen elsewhere in the country, seen particularly strong growth in TV production in the past year, in spite of the current COVID-19 pandemic.Why is another matter. In 2019, Netflix produced more hours of original productions in Spain (163) than any other country outside the U.S., apart from South Korea (238), according to an Omdia analysis.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentVenice’s Special Jury Prize-winning “Dear Comrades!,” a Russian historical drama directed by Andrei Konchalovsky, has been sold by Films Boutique to Southern Europe.“Dear Comrades!” was acquired for Italy by Paolo Del Brocco at Rai Cinema and for Spain by the Barcelona-based distributor Vercine.The film, which sheds light on the Novocherkassk massacre, was produced, co-written (with Elena Kiseleva) and directed by Konchalovsky, a revered and now veteran

Emilio Mayorga Valérie Delpierre and Pilar Palomero, producer and director of “Las Niñas,” one of the banner titles of a new – and often women-driven – Catalan cinema, are re-teaming with Madrid-based BTeam Pictures to produce Palomero’s second feature, “La Maternal.”Delpierre, who serves as a member of this year’s San Sebastian Horizontes Latinos, will produce once more out of Inicia Films, her Barcelona-based label which backed Carla Simon’s “Summer 1993,” a 2017 Berlin’s Generation Kplus

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMovistar Plus, the pay TV division of Telefonica, one of Europe’s biggest telecoms, is scaling up — in series’ ambition, distribution aggression and corporate magnitude — as it seeks preeminence as a producer not only in Spain but also in the world’s dramatically exploding Spanish-language content market.That expansive drive has seen bullish moves in 2020, despite COVID-19.

Ann-Marie Corvin While the pandemic has reduced film festivals’ capacity to showcase new work, an all-singing all-dancing Spanish-Italian number has been selected for two.“Explota Explota” (“My Heart Goes Boom!”), the assured debut feature of music promo and commercials director Nacho Álvarez, will receive an RTVE Gala Screening at the San Sebastian Festival next week and has also made the selection for the Toronto Festival’s market screenings.Set in dictator Francisco Franco’s Spain during the

Ed Meza @edmezavarWith a diverse lineup of series coming out this year, HBO España is making its mark in Europe with top tier productions that differentiate themselves from the current crop of shows currently on the market, according to the service’s head of original programming.Discussing the pay TV outlet’s strategy and upcoming productions at this year’s Conecta Fiction Reboot confab, Miguel Salvat, HBO España’s commissioning editor of original programming, said the channel receives and

Ann-Marie Corvin Filming is underway on new police thriller “Parot” – a series based on the chaos that followed a controversial move seven years ago to reverse a piece of legislation in Spain that ensured prisoners served their full jail terms.The ten-part drama, made up of one-hour episodes, focuses on a series of retribution attacks on prisoners who were subsequently released early, and a police officer determined to track down the person or people responsible for a series of revenge

Ann-Marie Corvin Barcelona-based Filmax has acquired the world sales rights to “The Art of Return” – a Spanish production by first-time director Pedro Collantes nurtured through Venice’s renowned Biennale College film workshop initiative.The boutique distributor will also handle the Spanish distribution for this coming-of-age drama, which focuses on a young actress (“Holy Camp’s” Macarena García) returning home to Madrid after six years in New York.The action takes place over a 24-hour period