Malaga Competition Title ‘Unfinished Affairs’ Pounced on by Latido (EXCLUSIVE)

Emilio Mayorga Buzzy titles such as “Guián,” “Rhinoceros” and “Of Books and Women I Sing” are among the 14 titles at Málaga’s extensive WIP showcase, a springboard in the past for the discovery of titles such as Spanish horror thriller “The Platform” which, winning the Latido Films Prize at WIP, has gone on to become the second most-watched non-English language movie ever on Netflix.Awarded the biggest plaudit at last year’s Malaga WIP, Adrián Silvestre’s “My Emptiness and I” made a splash at February’s Rotterdam Festival and now competes at Málaga.In a 2022 spread of titles presented over March 22-25, six hail from Spain and eight from Latin-America In addition to the Málaga Film Festival award, private-sector prizes from Aracne Digital Cinema, Damita Joe, Latamcinema.com, Latido Films, Music Library, Yagán Films– are also at stake. The Spanish section’s jury comprises Madrid Film School’s Luis Ferrón, Quatre Films producer Alejandra Mora and Joana Gusmão, DocLisboa co-director.Jury members for the Latin America section are Pamela Biénzobas, a Locarno selection committee member, Cup Filmes producer Iván Carlos De Melo and Antoine Sebire, general delegate at the Biarritz Latin America Festival.2022 Málaga WIP Lineup:Spanish WIP“Of Books and Women I Sing,” (María Elorza, TxintxuaFilms)A creative documentary about four women who have spent their lives reading and studying, safeguarding a precious heritage.

Justin Morgan “Beyond the Summit” (“La Cima”), the latest film from director Ibón Cormenzana, producer of Goya-winning “Blancanieves,” has world premiered at Spain’s Malaga Film Festival, where it must rate as one of the event’s most singular and striking films. It was also one of four new Spanish films to feature in a Market Premiere showcase on Monday, the first day of the Spanish Screenings. The French-Spanish co-production, starring Javier Rey (“Sin fin”) and Patricia López Arnaiz (“The Plague”), tells the story of Mateo (Rey), an amateur mountaineer determined to scale Annapurna, a Nepalese peak rated as one of the world’s deadliest.On his first day, Mateo takes a fall, ending up in the care of revered Spanish mountaineer Ione (Arnaiz), who cares for him despite his recklessness. The story follows a tug-of-war relationship between the two of them, as Mateo seeks to summit despite ghastly conditions, and Ione attempts to bring him to sanity.But Mateo is determined to push for the summit, whatever the cost.

Emilio Mayorga Argentine actor Joaquín Furriel is set to topline Rafa Russo’s next feature, “Devotion” (“Devoción”), which will be produced by Málaga-born producer-director Ezekiel Montes at his label 73140323PC.Spanish actress Elena Martínez, who has starred in Gustavo Hernández’s “Lobo Feroz” and Montes’ admired feature debut “A Dead Man Cannot Live,” which premiered at the Málaga fest last year, will co-star in “Devotion.”Furriel is mainly known for his star turn in Sebastián Schindel’s Guadalajara Actor, New Director double-winner “The Boss, Anatomy of a Crime” and “The Son” by the same director. He was also a standout in the HBO Latin America and Pol-Ka-produced TV show “The Bronze Garden,” recipient of five Telly Awards in 2018 and an international Emmy Awards nomination.

Ed Meza @edmezavarIn his latest work, which was being singled out for praise on the first day of Malaga’s Spanish Screenings, Imanol Uribe recounts the fateful story of Lucia Cerna, the only witness to the 1989 massacre in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests and two other people by a U.S.-trained death squad at a university residence in San Salvador.“What Lucia Saw” (“Llegaron de Noche”) focuses on the story of Lucia and her husband Jorge, who, with the help of church officials and Spanish and French diplomats, are spirited out of the country to Miami, where they hope to find safe haven. Once in the U.S., however, they fall into the clutches of the FBI and a Salvadoran colonel, who interrogate the couple in an effort to discredit Lucia’s testimony.

Jared Leto is celebrating the release of his new movie!

JD Linville Chilean filmmaker Matías Bize’s pandemic-prompted film “Private Messages” will be part of the Official Selection at the 2022 Malaga Film Festival, and the feature dives face-first into the stories which make us human, vulnerable and strong. Bize, who won a Spanish Academy Goya for his Variety-championed film “The Life of the Fish” in 2011, uses self-filmed footage of the film’s international cast (including Blanca Lewin, Nicolás Poblete, Antonia Zegers, Néstor Cantillana, Vicenta Ndongo, Alex Brendemühl and Verónica Intile) confessing their most intimate stories during 2020’s global lockdowns, which coincided with filming.“Private Messages” pieces its narrative together carefully, the truth of its storytellers overlaid with original music, and culminating in a powerful ending which memorializes the power of rebirth. Variety spoke to Bize ahead of his film’s premiere at Malaga.Covid was the impetus for “Private Messages,” but what else inspired the film? This film was born on the first day of the pandemic’s confinement.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentLaunched in 1998, the Malaga Film Festival first grabbed attention as a Spanish movie showcase and birthplace of a Spanish star system, TV actors walking a red carpet to acclaim from milling throngs. Under Juan Antonio Vigar, director from 2013, it has consolidated as a platform for a new generation of Spanish filmmakers while adding ever increasing industry heft – co-pro forums, WIPs, a HACK digital forum initiative – and also opening up to TV. In 2021, however, Malaga Festival and Spanish Screenings have exploded in scale, impact and attendance.  The narrative of this year’s event is largely one of that growth. Eight takes on this and other Malaga highlights:Malaga Lifts Off  Little wonder Malaga forms part of what’s now the Spanish Screenings XXL.

“Ainarak,” (“Swallows,” Maluta Films, 601 Prods.Audiovisuales)Directed by Juan San Martín and starring singer-songwriter Anne Etchegoyen, the documentary follows the annual diaspora from 1870 to 1940 of hundreds of women from Navarre and Aragon to Mauléon in the French Pyrenees, where they worked from fall to spring making canvas shoes. First presented at Conecta Fiction in 2021.

2022 Malaga Festival Lineup:Main Competition“Emperor Code,” (“Código Emperador,” Jorge Coira, Vaca Films, Playtime, Spain)The Malaga Fest opener, a noirish crime thriller with special services operative Luis Tosar moonlighting for the elite, here trying to dig up the dirt on a young politico. Segueing rapidly to Netflix after an A Contracorriente release in Spain.“A Mae,” (Cristiano Burlan, Brazil) The latest from the prolific Brazilian narrative and doc director, maker of euthanasia-themed “Antes do fim,” and 2015’s “Hunger.” In it, a humble street vendor mother searches desperately for her missing son, claiming the right to at least bury his body.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched the Season 4 finale of “Elite.”Save Cannes, most film festivals have a TV strand. So the biggest event at a now super-sized Malaga Film Festival has also happened on just day two of proceedings; the presentation of the soon-to-drop Season 5 of “Elite,” the second most-viewed Spanish-language series-franchise on the streaming giant, after “Money Heist,” which is still saying something.Málaga focuses on Spanish and Latin American film and TV.

Justin Morgan Outsider Pictures has secured the international rights to co-directors Pablo Aragüés and Marta Cabrera’s genre feature “Para entrar a vivir” ahead of the Malaga Film Festival this March. It will showcase the film’s trailer at the NEXT from Spain section of the Malaga Festival; the whole film will screen at the Cannes Film Market this May.Paul Hudson, Outsider Pictures founder and CEO, shared with Variety the comedy-horror film’s trailer, which follows the troubles of a couple moving into a magical new home. The trailer begins by asking, “what if the dream house gave everything you wanted,” setting a light mood.The couple, played by Barbara Goenaga (Goya-nominated for “Oviedo Express”) and Gorka Otxoa (“Fe de etarras”), moves into their dream house, which they soon realize magically grants any wish they request.

Ed Meza @edmezavarRussia-set documentary “Tolyatti Adrift,” which premieres in competition at the Malaga Festival, has debuted its trailer with Variety. The first feature-length work by Spanish director Laura Sisteró is being sold internationally by Prague-based Filmotor (excluding Spain and France).“Tolyatti Adrift” examines life in the Russian city of Tolyatti, once the symbol of socialist pride and home of the famed Lada automobile (currently manufactured by Renault-owned AvtoVAZ), but now known as Russia’s Detroit.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentCarol Polakoff, a two-time Directors Guild of America award winner, is teaming with “Exodus” producer Denise O’Dell to adapt to the big screen “Speak Sunlight,” American writer Alan Jolis’ much-loved memoir. Now in pre-production and scheduled to shoot from May 8, the high-profile title is produced by Madrid-based Babieka Films, most recently behind Netflix hit “The Paramedic,”  and L.A.’s Viewfinder Pictures. “Speak Sunlight” (“La Voz del Sol”) marks the directorial debut of journalist-screenwriter Polakoff whose curriculum includes two DGA wins and three Daytime Emmy Awards nominations for “ABC Afterschool Specials.” Most recently, Polakoff produced Daniel Rosenberg’s 2020 Cannes Official Selection title “The Death of Cinema and My Father Too,” which won a Cannes Label for making the cut in Thierry Frémaux’s First Features category. To film in Spanish, with a smattering of French, “Speak Sunlight” is written by Polakoff with a Spanish version from Natxo López, a creator of top primetime series such as “Perdida” and “Unauthorised Living.” López also co-wrote the just-out Amazon Studios hit “Operation Black Tide,” the subject of a case study panel at Series Mania on March 23.A heartfelt coming of age tale set in Paris and majorly Pamplona in 1965, “Speak Sunlight” is based on the memoir of the same title by Jolis, who died aged just 46 in 2000. It drinks from his childhood memories as the son of posh but distant American parents in Paris who is really looked after by the family’s cook, Maruja, a force of nature, and her husband, Manolo, the butler. In 1965, they take Alanito off to Pamplona, where he awakes to a vivid sensual world and grows up emotionally.

K.J. Yossman Film Mode Entertainment has inked a multi-project distribution deal with Australian director/producer Luke Sparke’s company Sparke Films.Among the titles Film Mode will represent worldwide are Sparke’s upcoming projects “Weapons of Choice,” a television adaptation of John Birmingham’s World War Two trilogy “Axis of Time” and “Primitive War,” a horror feature franchise based on Ethan Pettus’ book series.Film Mode will also handle worldwide sales rights for “Occupation: Rainfall 2” and “Occupation: Rainfall 3” – the third and fourth films in Sparke’s franchise – as well as a number of other projects still in development.

Emiliano De Pablos Tenerife-based Bendita Film Sales has taken international sales rights to Nely Reguera’s sophomore outing, drama “La voluntaria” (“The Volunteer”), toplining “Broken Embraces,” “Perfect Life” and Piggy” star Carmen Machi, one of the biggest marquee draws in Spain.World premiering in main competition at this year’s Malaga Festival, “La voluntaria” marks Reguera’s follow-up to her well-received feature 2016 debut, the Bárbara Lennie-starrer “María (And the Others),” which won the best Ibero-American film prize at the Miami Film Festival and earned new director and lead actress nominations at the Spanish Academy Goya Awards.Barcelona-born Reguera forms part of the new generation of exciting young female Catalan auteurs, alongside Carla Simón (“Alcarràs”), Belén Funes (“The Daughter of the Thief”), Neus Ballús (“The Odd-Job Men”) and Meritxell Colell (“Facing the Wind”).  A Spain-Greece co-production, “La voluntaria” is produced by Adriá Monés at Fasten Films, Bteam Pictures’ Alex Lafuente and Maria Drandaki from Homemade Films. The film follows Marisa, a recently retired doctor, played by Machi, who has a big desire to having grand-children, but for an inexplicable reason none of her children has granted her wish.After the sudden death of her only companion, her bulldog, Marisa decides to leave everything and travel to a refugee camp in Greece, where the children seem to need people exactly like her. Itsaso Arana (“The August Virgin”), Arnau Comas (“Yesterday’s Two Nights”),  Dèlia Brufau (“Your Are Not So Special”), Yohan Levy (“Emily in Paris”) and Henrietta Rauth (“Gruber Is Leaving”) complete the cast.“We are very happy to add to our catalog the latest film by Nely Reguera, one of the most promising

Rita Moreno is back on the awards season circuit with Steven Spielberg's celebrated new adaptation of the Leonard Bernstein-Stephen Sondheim musical and ready to cheer on Ariana DeBose, who is poised to make Oscars history once again with a win for the same role.«I'll tell you what, this is an Oscar part,» Moreno told ET's Will Marfuggi at the 74th Directors Guild of America Awards on Saturday night. «And I can tell you the scene that seals it, and it's the scene in the candy store.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Documentaries about the conflict in Ukraine, the Cuban migrant situation and the Palestinian refugee crisis were among top winners at MiradasDoc, Spain’s foremost documentary film festival which wrapped its 15th edition on March 12. Based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, the festival was an in-person event running March 4-12, while its market (March 8-11) remained virtual for the second consecutive year.The best international documentary prize went to “Option Zero” (“La Opcion Cero”) by Cuban filmmaker Marcel Beltran while the best debut feature award was extended to “Trenches” by French journalist Loup Bureau who has covered the Arab Spring in Egypt, the Syrian War and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict in the Donbas region. “Trenches” follows the intrepid young men and women who are fighting Russian-backed separatists in Ukraine’s Donbas region.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentKino Lorber has acquired North American rights to “On the Edge,” a Belgian crime thriller by Giordano Gederlini (“Les Miserables”) from Le Pacte. The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber senior VP Wendy Lidell and Le Pacte’s head of sales Camille Neel out of the Rendez-Vous with French Cinema market hosted by Unifrance and the Film at Lincoln Center.“On The Edge” marks the sophomore outing of Gederlini, who co-wrote Ladj Ly’s Oscar-nominated film “Les Miserables.” The gritty and twisty noir is set in Brussels, where Leo, a Spanish metro driver, saw his estranged son right before he fell onto the rails and died.

K.J. Yossman Leading Latin American animation studio PinGuim Content have inked a deal with LA-based sales agent MultiVisionnaire Pictures to represent “Tarsilinha” internationally.“Tarsilinha” is the award-winning animated children’s feature based on the whimsical worlds created by Brazilian artist Tarsila do Amaral.

Jem Aswad Senior Music EditorSuperstar Puerto Rican songwriter-producer Tainy, who has helmed such hits as “I Like It” (by Cardi B featuring Bad Bunny and J Balvin), “Dakiti” (by Bad Bunny and Jhay Cortez), and “Telepatia” (by Kali Uchis), has sold his pre-2021 music catalog to fast-rising Influence Media (Influence Media Partners).Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although sources tell Variety it was in the $25 million range.The San Juan native (real name: Marco Masis) has appeared on Variety’s Hitmakers list several times and spoke with us about his hits last year. A four-time Grammy nominee and Latin Grammy winner, Tainy has helmed hits for Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Rosalia, Lauren Jauregui, Zion & Lennox, Anuel, Ozuna, Don Omar, Wisin & Yandel, Rauw Alejandro, Jhay Cortez and more.