Madrid Welcomes Cartoon Springboard

Married At First Sight UK stars Tayah Victoria and Adam Aveling have welcomed their first child together. Tayah, 26, and Adam, 27, announced they were expecting back in April in an exclusive OK! shoot, and now they've announced the arrival of their adorable baby daughter and her sweet name. The new parents both shared the happy news on Instagram and revealed that they'd named their baby girl, who arrived on 7 October, Beau Emily Aveling.

Tennis pro Rafael Nadal, 36, has reportedly become a dad for the first time after his wife Mery Perello was said to have given birth to a healthy baby boy with the tennis player at a hospital in Palma on Saturday morning, 8 October.The reports first emerged in the Spanish press on Saturday, as they reported that the 21-time Grand Slam champion’s wife Mery, 34, gave birth in a private clinic in the Majorcan capital this weekend.The couple themselves have yet to make any official comment. News of Mery’s pregnancy was only shared in June after weeks of speculation had dogged the couple after she was seen wearing more loosely fitted clothes in public, and later spotted donning a face mask at the Champions League final.

A footballing hero who battled back twice from cancer to play for his boyhood hometown is hoping to inspire a whole new generation of sporting superstars. Former Rochdale AFC footballer Joe Thompson, who was was thrilled to welcome his second daughter Athena Rae five weeks ago with his wife Chantelle, was part of a special welcome reception as the Rugby League World Cup trophy arrived in Bolton last week, ahead of the England men's team taking on France at the University of Bolton Stadium on Saturday October 22

Holly Jones A wandering love note to Madrid directed by local filmmaker Curro Sánchez Varela, “Voices of a City” ( “Voces de una ciudad”) merges prominent aesthetics with a charismatic populace, who so often blend into the background of photos taken of the bustling metropoli.  The film is a curated 24-hour journey through each urban corner, delving into the most integral part of any locale, the humans living within its confines, serving as an immersive peek into the city’s history, culture and enduring allure. Breezily narrated by Goya Award-winning Spanish actress Blanca Portillo (“Maixabel”), the sprawling shots of familiar architecture run alongside sharply focused studies of residents from the mayor to a famed chef, taxi drivers to artists and musicians, as well as a most charming retired couple.

La Liga giants Atletico Madrid are reportedly considering an offer for Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Buoyed by the success of last year’s one-to-one networking sessions, Madrid’s 2nd Iberseries & Platino Industria market is launching a new TV forum aimed at fostering co-production and financing pacts between selected producers and potential partners or investors. “We are functioning as an accelerator in a way as the selected projects have at least 40% of their financing in place and just need that final push to see the light,” said Iberseries director Samuel Castro, who adds that these series have budgets ranging from €5 million-€30 million ($ million-$30 million) . The 10 companies, selected out of some 25 submissions, include some heavy hitters led by Spain’s Zebra Prods (Grupo Izen), Gato Grande-MGM, Argentina’s Storylab and El Estudio, founded by former Canana producing partner Pablo Cruz, producer Enrique López Lavigne and former Sony Pictures Intl. Prods. head, Diego Suárez Chialvo. 

The number of clubs linked with a big-money move for Jude Bellingham seems to grow by the week.

Cartoon Forum saw the European animation scene in boom. With 292 buyers on site, the Toulouse-set event held three days of well-attended TV pitches that ran from Sept. 19 -22. Here are five key takeaways from the event. Buzz and Attendance Cheeky French short-form “The Hall of Fail” came up time and again as Cartoon Forum attendees buzzed about the 2D project that gives a loving raspberry to history’s also-rans. Dystopian Y.A. adventure “The Tern” was another major attention grabber, cited as much for its narrative ambition as for its elaborate sci-fi design. Still, if older skewing projects got the people talking, preschool fare got them buying – or at least, drew the largest shares of buyers to the pitch. Projects “Tiger and Bear,” “Wild Danish,” “Trotro & Zaza,” and “BeddyByes” led the pack, with all four titles playing to rooms where buyers accounted for more than 55% of all attendees. Produced by Dutch studio Submarine, the 2D series “Max” (pictured) drew the best of both worlds, playing to a room full of buyers who would then talk up the project for the rest of the event.

Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Baldwin have welcomed their seventh child together — a baby girl named Ilaria Catalina Irena. The name seemingly derives from the baby's mother, who was originally born Hilary Lynn Hayward-Thomas and only later adopted the Spanish pronunciation of her name, in a move that sparked outrage among the masses.

Hilaria Baldwin and Alec Baldwin, as the couple just welcomed baby No. 7 into the world!Hilaria took to Instagram on Saturday and announced she gave birth to Ilaria Catalina Irena. In the post, Hilaria revealed the baby girl was born Thursday at 6 pounds, 13 ounces.

Guy Lodge Film Critic It takes a village to raise a child, goes the old saying, and at least in the figurative sense, Spanish director Pilar Palomero’s tremendous sophomore feature “La Maternal” shows that to be true. Before that can happen, however, pregnant 14-year-old Carla needs to get out of the village and into the city — specifically, to a Barcelona shelter for teenage mothers where the troubled adolescent finds the community and empathy her life has been missing all along. Female solidarity drives Palomero’s follow-up to the celebrated, similarly sisterhood-themed “Schoolgirls,” but without any glib girl-power sloganeering: A tough, unsweetened work of social realism built around an astonishing screen debut by Carla Quílez, “La Maternal” sentimentalizes not one detail of juvenile motherhood, truly earning its flashes of hope and grace.

Emiliano De Pablos Portuguse public broadcaster RTP has taken an undisclosed co-production stake in animated series “My Brother Is a T-Rez,” a Spanish-Portuguese project created and directed by Spaniard Javi Peces (“Bento”). Executive produced by Celine Fernandes at Portuguese animation house Lusco Fusco Animation in co-production with Madrid-based Mr. Klaus Studio, “My Brother” is an upper pre-school series project aimed to promote adventure, educational and sustainability values. The project was previously pre-bought by Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE for its children-oriented channel Clan TV.

Ben Croll Capping an Iberian flavored edition that featured eight pitch projects and a spotlight on the national industry, Spanish outfits GoldBee and Peekaboo Animation won tributes at this year’s Cartoon Forum, with the Barcelona-based GoldBee named Investor/Distributor of the Year and indie production house Peekaboo Animation claiming the Producer prize. Rounding out the tributes with continental flair, Germany’s KiKA was awarded Broadcaster of the Year. Founded in 2013 and now boasting a catalogue over 2,500 titles strong, GoldBee specializes in half-hour children’s and family content, distributing animation and live-action productions to partners around the world. Projects like the Mexican-Spanish co-production “Cleo & Cuquin” and the British chiller “Scream Street” are but some of GoldBee’s notable titles. In keeping with German-Spanish pas-de-deux of this year’s tributes, the Barcelona-based GoldBee has found particular success with ZDF Studios productions “Ziggy and the Zootram” and “Henrietta.”

Lise Pedersen French animation studio Parmi Les Lucioles has sealed a pre-sales deal with Canal+ for its 26-minute TV special pitched at this week’s Cartoon Forum in Toulouse, southern France. “Gouti’s Great Journey,” by writer-director Benedicte Galup (“Kirikou and the Wild Beasts,” “Adama”) is an adaptation of the comic book “Le Grand Voyage de Gouti” by Michel Bussi and Peggy Nille published by Langue au chat. The film tells the story of the Agoutis, a family of small rodents who live in harmony on a dream island untouched by humans. But one day, their island is devastated by a violent storm and the family is forced to leave, leading to a journey into other worlds, other species, and, above all, a journey of self-discovery.  

Ben Croll A pre-school series produced by Ireland’s Paper Panther Productions, “Little Whale” was one of the early-breakouts at this year’s Cartoon Forum. Following their Tuesday pitch, series director Car­ol Freeman and producer Chris Hees greeted a steady stream of French studios and U.K. buyers, among others, auguring a bright future for the maritime project. Paper Panther shared this exclusive first-look with Variety. Loosely adapted from Freeman’s 2018 short “The Bird & The Whale” – a hand-painted gem that would claim nearly 70 awards throughout its festival run – this series follows the gentle Little Whale and his courageous friend Narwhalia as they travel the ocean blue. Dealing with questions of family and ecology, the program is above all a way for Freeman to share her particular enthusiasm.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s Madrid region is riding the crest of a wave towards becoming one of the most important animation/VFX hubs in Europe. Taking in the country’s capital, the Madrid region hosts more than 32% of Spain’s active audiovisual companies and around 31% of its animation and VFX firms.  Regional animation and VFX players – structured around Pixel Cluster Madrid –  scored last year a net revenue of €72.6 million ($72.6 million) and generated 1,855 jobs.  “Animation and video games are strategic sectors within the economy of Madrid,” says Ignacio Carballo, head of audiovisual industries in the Madrid region. “They are elements of the future, dynamizers.”

Lise Pedersen French director Julien Villanueva whose animation and VFX outfit Circus Studio has worked on the likes of “Lego City Adventures”, “Around the World in 80 Days” and “White Fang,” has pitched his first ever original TV series project at Cartoon Forum in Toulouse. “Dr Bob is a very simple concept,” he joked to the crowd of industry professionals gathered at the pitching forum in the southern French city. “It’s like Freud meets Kermit the Frog,” he explained about his show, a sitcom centered around Dr. Bob, a wacky psychologist who goes to extremes to make his patients happy, which often leads to radical consequences.