Madrid Co-Pro Market ECAM Forum Awaits 300 + Delegates: ’We’re Experiencing a Post-Cannes Effect,’ Says Head Alberto Valverde (EXCLUSIVE)

The Kelce brothers are taking over Cannes!

Lionsgate and Lionsgate Studios has upped Chase Brisbin to EVP, International SVOD Sales and Head of Global Channels.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Teresa Azcona, a driving force behind the build of the Spain Film Commission’s emergence as one of the key institutional players on Southern Europe’s locations scene, has been named general manager of the Madrid Audiovisual Cluster. While Barcelona has a thriving new generation of auteurist movie directors and producers and a building animation scene, Madrid has reaped the largest benefit of Spain’s building, decade-long TV boom. Spain’s Mediaset, Atresmedia, Movistar Plus+, The Mediapro Studio, Secuoya Group and Netflix’s European Production Hub are all located in a golden triangle stretching from northern Madrid to satellite town Tres Cantos, a 25-minute drive north of the Spanish capital.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Now on its 8th edition, the international TV forum Conecta Fiction & Entertainment (CF&E), held in the ancient Spanish city of Toledo from June 18 to 21, is turning its focus to Brazil and Portugal. The South American country is haltingly reactivating its audiovisual industry under President Lula de Silva’s new government, which earmarked nearly $1 billion for the sector last year.

Annika Pham Under the auspices of Comunidad de Madrid and the prestigious ECAM film school, the four day ECAM Forum co-production market got off to a flying start with its inaugural session, closing June 13 with an awards ceremony at Madrid’s historical Matadero cultural space. One of eight features in work in progress, the creative documentary “Gods of Stone” (“Deuses de Pedra”) by the Spanish Iván Castiñeiras Gallego scooped the new Comunidad de Madrid award and its €15,000 ($16,000) cash prize earmarked towards its post-production.

Annika Pham Invited by the new ECAM Forum co-production market in Madrid to inspire up-and-coming filmmakers and creators, veteran U.S. indie producer and former Amazon Studios film executive Ted Hope is delivering a masterclass, The Transformative Moment is Now. Double Down on the Glorious Disaster That Makes Us Human.

Crunchyroll Senior Vice President of Global Commerce Mitchel Berger was in ebullient mood as he gave a talk on the growing global reach of anime at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this week.

Annika Pham Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural ECAM Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up. Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious ECAM.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Madrid-based Begin Again Films has nabbed Santiago Maza’s Mexican documentary “State of Silence,” produced by Diego Luna and La Corriente del Golfo, the shingle he runs with Gael García Bernal. The sales agency and distributor, which acquired international rights with the exception of North America and Latin America, has also unveiled the film’s first trailer.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain will be the Country of Honor at 2024’s Mipcom, the biggest TV content market in the world. Celebrating Spanish creativity, the Country of Honor program will mix events will feature panels and screenings of first-look new content, focusing on opportunities for co-production and relocation to Spain, Lucy Smith, director of Mipcom, announced Thursday at a press conference in Madrid. The honor recognises “the country’s increased prominence in recent years on the global stage” which is “inescapable and is incredibly impressive,” Smith added.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent It’s not just Netflix which is cashing in on the K phenomenon. Federation Kids & Family has clinched a brace of first-wave deals with major international broadcasters on “Gangnam Project,” its new K-pop-inspired tween live-action series.

European TV distributors are weighing up the impact of the global streaming reset — and a key challenge is explaining the value of content to producers and global streamers.

Annika Pham Leading Barcelona-based production outfit Oberon Media (“Wild Flowers, “Holy Mother”) has confirmed co-financiers on “The Turtles” (“Los Tortuga”), the anticipated sophomore feature by the multi-prized Spanish filmmaker Belén Funes (“A Thief’s Daughter”). Besides sales agent Film Factory Entertainment and Spanish distributor A Contracorriente Films who came on board at an early stage, the round of co-financiers includespublic broadcasters RTVE for Spain, TVC (Televisió de Catalunya) for Catalonia and Andalusia’s Canal Sur, as well as Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator Movistar Plus+.

EXCLUSIVE: BritBox International has named Diana Pessin as its Chief Marketing Officer, while striking U.S. and Canada deals for UK drama The Inheritance.

EXCLUSIVE: Growing specialty distributor 3388 Films has acquired rights to Vietnamese smash Face Off 7: One Wish, and has set the weekend of June 14 to launch in numerous markets, including the U.S., Canada and the UK.

EXCLUSIVE: Out of the Cannes market, Sony Pictures Classics has bought North American rights and a raft of international territories on Walter Salles‘ anticipated first narrative feature in more than a decade: I’m Still Here.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Rolling off its acquisition of Francis Ford Coppola‘s “Megalopolis,” Italy’s leading independent distributor Eagle Pictures has scooped Italian remake rights to French smash hit “A Little Something Extra,” along with a raft of high-profile projects shopped at the Cannes Film Market. The company, which is owned by veteran producer-distributor Tarak Ben Ammar, will produce and distribute the Italian remake of “A Little Something Extra” (“Un Ptit truc en plus), Artus’ heartwarming family comedy which has taken the French box office by storm, selling a whooping 3.4 million tickets in theaters in three weeks. “It’s a delightful film about a father and his son who rob a little jewelry shop in a small town and as they’re looking a place to hide, they get on a bus without realizing that it’s taking them to a summer camp for young adults with disabilities,” Ben Ammar said.

Marta Balaga Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” won the Fipresci award at Cannes. The jury of the International Federation of Film Critics called it “a courageous story set in modern-day Iran that deals with the conflict between tradition and progress, depicted in a very powerful and imaginative way.” Following a rapturous screening and 2024 record 12-minute standing ovation, the film became a Palme d’Or frontrunner, reported Variety.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Cannes Film Festival is nearing its conclusion, with plenty of films making a splash on the starry Croisette on the French Riviera. However, one studio executive tells Variety, “There aren’t many Oscar-buzzy titles to be excited about, not even in the international feature space.” This year’s main competition jury, led by president Greta Gerwig and including J.A. Bayona, Ebru Ceylan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Lily Gladstone, Eva Green, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nadine Labaki and Omar Sy, will name its winners on Saturday.

French producer Dimitri Rassam is enjoying a high-profile Cannes Film Festival as producer of Competition title Limonov: The Ballad and The Count Of Monte Cristo, which scored a rousing 12-minute ovation at its Out of Competition debut.