Marie De-La-Fuente Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a bid to bypass traditional distribution channels and open up new ones, Madrid-based 59 En Conserva has launched a newly expanded Les Films de la Résistance, its international sales agency for non-fiction and hybrid Spanish films. Among the first titles in its roster is the critically acclaimed feature debut of 59 En Conserva co-founder Irene M. Borrego, “The Visit and a Secret Garden” (“La visita y un jardín secreto”).

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a deal unveiled at Mipcom, Movistar Plus+ International, the prominent Spanish pay TV/SVOD platform’s sales division, announced at Mipcom a key sale to HBO Latin America of series “La Mesías,” hailed as the buzziest title at the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. The series is written, directed and produced by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo of Suma Content, best known for their series “Veneno,” an HBO Max U.S. pickup, as well as “Paquita Salas,” sold to Netflix.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Multinational studio Dori Media Group (DMG), founded in Israel in 1996 by Yair Dori and with outposts in Israel, Switzerland, Argentina, Spain and Singapore, is presenting more than a dozen new series at Mipcom, led by two notable action-drama series, “Amia” and “Indal.” Led by Nadav Palti, CEO & President of Dori Media Group, the studio’s contingent of sales execs and reps will be presenting a slate of both scripted and unscripted series spanning multiple territories, languages and cultures at the annual confab in Cannes. “Amia” was filmed in Uruguay and is inspired by the terror attacks of 1992 on the Israeli embassy and in 1994 against the Argentinian Jewish community while “Indal” is a high-octane series that follows the kidnapping of a police officer by a group of Ethiopian Israeli youth.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Speaking at a panel during Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria, founding execs of Madrid’s newly formed Audiovisual Cluster held forth on the opportunities of the new initiative which launched in March this year. Also participating was Gonzalo Cabrera, director general of cultural promotion of the Community of Madrid who pointed out that Madrid generates an annual revenue of approximately 3.3 billion euros ($3.96 billion). “The audiovisual sector in the Community of Madrid employs around 20,000 people directly.

Anna Marie de la Fuente This is Why Cinema and Inna Payán’s Animal de Luz Films have licensed drama “Todo el silencio” (“All the Silence”) to Prime Video. This follows that of Animal de Luz’s licensing of Katina Medina Mora’s “Latido” (“Heartbeat”) to the giant platform. “All the Silence” marks the debut feature of award-winning theater director Diego del Rio, based on a screenplay by “La Jaula de Oro” writer, Lucia Carreras.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a glittering event at Madrid’s Florida Park, Spain’s Secuoya Studios brought out its big guns, led by its president James Costos and Secuoya Content Group CEO Raúl Berdonés, to tout the fast-growing company’s slate, led by its 10-episode series “Zorro,” its most ambitious production. The series pilot will be unveiled at Mipcom in a special screening on Oct.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Encouraged by the generous tax breaks on offer in Spain, Mexican producer Christopher Hool of Bazooka Films has launched new company Studio 33 Films, with outposts in both Mexico City and Madrid. His Spanish producing partner Pablo Gonzalez, with extensive experience in providing production services, will run Studio 33 Films Spain, Hool said at Iberseries & Platino Industria on Thursday.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In the lead up to its January theatrical release in Scandinavia and in Italy next Spring, Finnish adventure comedy “Snot & Splash: The Mystery of Disappearing Holes” (“Räkä ja Roiskis”) is sharing its trailer exclusively in Variety. FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud, who picked up world sales rights to the children’s film at the Locarno Film Festival in August, said: “Finnish cinema is known for having a high level of creativity, but a fantasy/adventure film like this one with a super refreshing plot is bound to be well received in cinemas, platforms and festivals, some of which have already booked the film from summer to the fall.” The family film from director Teemu Nikki is produced by It’s Alive Films, founded by Nikki and Jani Pösö, and displays the dark, witty humor of his previous films, including “The Player,” “The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic,” “Nimby,” sci-fi comedy “LoveMilla” and “Euthanizer,” Finland’s Oscar submission in 2019. Poland’s Orka and Post Control Helsinki are co-producers.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In more news emerging from Spain’s San Sebastian Festival, Clara Larraín’s Clara Films has boarded Lucía Lalor’s docu-fiction hybrid “Mam” from Argentina’s Gale Cine. Described as a “thought-provoking autobiographical hybrid documentary that explores how it is to grow up with a ghost mother,” it follows a millennial in her thirties and her fantasies about her dead mother.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Underscoring its historical importance, a further production marking the 50th death anniversary of Chile’s socialist president Salvador Allende could well be in the works. The historical drama, provisionally titled “The Meeting,” details a historical encounter between the doomed president, whose downfall heralded the rise of the infamous military dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in 1973.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Not long after the Miami episode of Netflix’s hit show “’Street Food: USA” dropped, its Emmy-nominated director Mariano Carranza received an Instagram message. It was from Gastón Acurio, Peru’s preeminent chef-restaurateur of Astrid & Gastón fame, but Carranza thought it was a prank.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Barcelona-born director Carla Simón, whose sophomore film “Alcarràs” clinched the 72nd Berlinale Golden Bear last year, received the 2023 National Cinematography Award, one of the highest honors bestowed by Spain’s Ministry of Culture. On hand to present the award in a ceremony held at the San Sebastian Film Festival was Miguel Iceta, Spain’s Minister of Culture and Sports, who first addressed Simón in Catalan before switching to Spanish: “With only two feature films, you have left your mark on the recent history of cinema in our country: a short but undisputed trajectory in terms of its strength and personality, recognized both nationally and internationally.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Speaking at the press conference announcing the Monterrey Film Festival’s 2023 edition, Lorena Villarreal, the festival’s president of the board, hailed the event’s ambitions for its @Nuevo León industry section, “which will undoubtedly be an important hub connecting Mexican and global cinema,” she said. With newly hired Diana Cadavid, a seasoned programmer at TIFF and artistic director-programmer of the LALIFF and Cali film festivals managing the section, Ficmonterrey has signaled its intent to become a new, unmissable appointment for the international entertainment industry.

Anna Marie de la Fuente A sardonic view of Popular Unity, the left-wing alliance once led by the assassinated Chilean socialist president Salvador Allende, Raul Ruiz’s docu-fiction hybrid, “Socialist Realism,” world premiered at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept 23, 50 years after the prolific filmmaker was forced to abandon it. It finally unspools after his widow, filmmaker-editor Valeria Sarmiento, with the backing of actress-helmer Chamila Rodríguez’s Poetastros production company, rescued and reconstructed the film.

Anna Marie de la Fuente As one of five intriguing titles selected by the Madrid Film School’s ECAM Incubator, now on its sixth year, Charli Bujosa Cortés’ feature debut “¿Es usted secuestrable?” (“Are You Kidnappable?”) offers a hybrid of sorts. He describes it as non-binary, just like him.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In one of the first deals to emerge from the San Sebastian Film Festival, powerhouse indie studio, Filmax, which celebrates its 70th anniversary at San Sebastian Festival, has snapped up international rights to LGBTQ+ dramedy “Norbert(a)” from Imposible Films, the producers of hits “Truman,” “The People Upstairs” and “Stories not to be Told.” Directed by newcomers Sonia Escolano, who also penned the script, and Belén López Albert, it is toplined by Luis Bermejo (“Magical Girl”), Adriana Ozores (“Alba”), Mariona Terés (“The Girls at the Back”) and María Romanillos. Norbert(a) follows Norberto and María, who’ve been married for decades and live what seems like an ordinary life in their working-class neighborhood.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Some of Colombia’s most prominent producers have banded together to form PI, a new association of independent producers led by Cristina Gallego, behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Birds of Passage,” who is an official jury member at this year’s 71stSan Sebastian Film Festival. “Colombia has become a production destination for major companies due to its tax benefits, which has led to growth, experience, and job opportunities within the sector,” Gallego told Variety. “However, members of PI view with particular concern the need for attention, updates, and the evolution of national and departmental policies that support the continued production of Colombian cinema, its voices, its artists, and its filmmakers,” said Gallego who will preside over the association along with director-producer Franco Lolli (“Gente de Bien”) as vice president while Diana María Bustamante (“Memoria,” “Land & Shade”) and Manuel Ruiz Montealegre (“Amparo”) serve as legal representatives.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Prime Video Latin America has snapped up streaming rights to Katina Medina Mora’s latest film “Latido” (“Heartbeat”), starring Oscar-nominated Marina de Tavira (“Roma”). This is the third feature from Medina Mora, whose credits include episodes of Netflix hit “Emily in Paris,” Apple TV+’s “Swagger” and romantic drama, “LuTo,” her debut feature picked up by Netflix. Its trailer debuts exclusively on Variety. “Latido,” which has its world premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival and its Mexican premiere at the Morelia Film Festival, turns on 45-year-old Leonor, played by De Tavira, who works for an NGO that supports young athletes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Canary Islands-based filmmaker Paula Bilbao, whose debut documentary “Inshallah,” about the Las Raíces migrant camp in Tenerife, won the Audience Award at the MiradasDoc festival this year, is turning to fiction in her upcoming dramedy “A Supermarket in Tigaday.” Among the projects in the development showcase at MIA’s Spanish Screenings on Tour, “A Supermarket in Tigaday” focuses on Fer, a frustrated musician, who returns home after a 20-year absence to bury his estranged father. He turns to the music of his past to deal with his grief but to his great surprise, he finds that his father is still alive and that he must prove himself to earn his inheritance, a tiny supermarket in the town of Tigaday.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In what signals a new source of financing for Central Asia’s nascent film industry, Mountain View, California-based tech company inDrive, best known for its bid-based ride hailing service, is getting into the film business. The tech giant, founded by CEO Arsen Tomsky, has launched Alternativa Film Project, a global non-profit film initiative aimed at supporting emerging filmmakers from less developed film industries, starting with Central Asia this year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In the debut feature of Mexican filmmaker-siblings Mariana and Santiago Arriaga, revenge is indeed a dish best served cold. Competing at the Venice Film Festival’s Orizzonti sidebar, the coming-of-age road movie “A Cielo Abierto” turns on two teen brothers who are bent on avenging the death of their father in a road accident. They are joined by their new stepsister who, unaware of their intentions at first, later becomes a willing accomplice.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Aya Films has snatched all U.K. and Ireland rights to the Dominican Republic’s “Ramona” from Paris-based film company Alief SAS ahead of its BFI London Film Fest premiere. The docu-fiction hybrid, which had its world premiere at the 2023 Berlinale’s Generation 14Plus sidebar, will have its U.S.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Work in Progress project “Patio de Chácales” (“A Yard of Jackals”) by Chilean editor-turned-director Diego Figueroa swept the 12thSanfic Industria awards Saturday where a slew of development prizes was doled out to multiple participants across the various sections of the forum. Equeco’s upcoming “Germain, the Black Angel” proved a big winner, grabbing three awards in the Santiago Lab – Fiction strand. Among the Santiago Lab – Documentary participants, “Mordaz” from Chile’s Cinespecie also took home three prizes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Dusseldorf Germany-based Patra Spanou Film has snagged psychological suspense-thriller “Delirio” by Alexandra Latishev, a co-production between Chile’s Cyan Prods and Linterna Films of Costa Rica. Backed by Costa Rica’s El Fauno fund and the Ibermedia program, the drama turns on 11-year-old Masha who, with her mother Elisa, moves into her ailing grandmother’s house.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sisterly love ruled at Chile’s 19th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic), which wrapped on Aug. 27 where female directors and actors clinched the top prizes. Israeli-Ukrainian drama “Valeria is Getting Married” by Michal Vinik and Kattia Zuñiga’s “Sister & Sister” snagged the preeminent Chilean festival’s best film plaudits, adding to their trove of accolades since their respective world premieres.

Anna Marie de la Fuente After a series of talks, upstart Madrid-based international sales agency Feel Sales has nabbed all worldwide rights, with the exception of Chile, to “Allanamiento” (“Breaking and Entering”), the investigative police thriller in official competition at the 19th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic). Feel Sales Acquisitions head Yvette de los Santos closed the deal with producer Camila Rodó Carvallo of Pira Films. Directed by Tomás Gonzales Matos, the drama first participated at Sanfic’s Works in Progress section and was later presented at the Cannes Marché du Films last year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Netflix is toasting Mexico’s National Day of Cinema on Aug. 15 with a slew of projects, many of them tapping the country’s wealth of literary classics and original storytellers. Working with some of the most prominent local filmmakers, the streaming giant is also reaffirming its $300 million commitment to Mexican cinema and series and its #QueMéxicoSeVea (“Let Mexico Be Seen”) initiative.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In what marks the most ambitious film from Peru’s leading producer Tondero and, most likely, Peruvian cinema in recent times, Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo, Infinity Hill (“Argentina 1985”) and Tondero have joined forces to co-produce a drama based on the hostage crisis that took place at the Japanese embassy in Lima in 1996. El Deseo executive producer Esther Garcia and Infinity Hill co-founder/chief creative officer Axel Kuschevatzky were in Lima to attend Tondero’s 15th anniversary festivities and for Garcia to receive a tribute from the ongoing 27th Lima Film Festival, which runs Aug.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Now on its fourth year, the Santiago Film Festival’s Morbido-Sanfic Lab features an ever more diverse selection from Ibero-America. As Morbido founder-CEO Pablo Guisa said of this year’s edition: “It has projects from multiple countries, several produced or directed by women as well as one LGBTQ-themed project and, for the first time, a documentary.” Vampire creatures abound in this crop.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Unfolding alongside Chile’s Santiago International Film Festival (SANFIC), Sanfic Industria runs August 20-26, promising a busy schedule that includes Iberoamerican Works in Progress (WIP) and a variety of labs that encompass fiction, documentaries, genre films, sustainable development, series, women producers’ projects, XR etc. Some of the 11 sections will be in a hybrid or online format.  At its July 19 press conference, Sanfic Industria head Gabriela Sandoval will highlight the premiere of two hotly anticipated Chilean series that will screen at the annual event.  Both shows are expected to debut later this year on Chilean television before passing on to streaming platforms. Recipients of the Chilean National Television fund, both deal with women’s themes in distinct genres. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Execs from Amazon Studios, TelevisaUnivision and Televisa debated on the current state of the telenovela and the impact AI will have on it in the not-so-distant future.  Among the multiple events at Conecta Fiction, the panel titled ‘Mexico: Broadcasters & Platforms’ saw Ángel Inzunza, development executive of original content at Amazon Studios in Mexico, Vanesa Rosas, VP of streaming partnerships and business operations at TelevisaUnivision, and Guillermo Quesada, script and content advisor for Televisa, debate on how the telenovela has been impacted by the advent of streamers. Moderator Alejandro Palma of Mestizo Lab played devil’s advocate, asking probing questions to tease their views on the current television landscape in Mexico.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sometimes dreams do come true. When Disney legend Andreas Deja was 11 years old, “The Jungle Book” played at his hometown in Germany and after watching it, he was hooked. He remembers how it cast a spell on him and how he knew right there and then that he wanted to take part in the Disney magic. With the help of his English teacher, he wrote to the Mouse House and to his surprise received a reply. Deja relates: “It basically said that if I was serious about the animation done at Disney, I first had to become an artist in my own right.” From that day on, he began his deep dive into the world of animation, poring over magazines, newspapers and books and later enrolling in art school. While at school, he wrote to Eric Larson, one of the legendary Nine Old Men of Disney lore, who after looking at Deja’s work said he thought he “had what it took.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Speaking for nearly an hour at his master class, one of the key highlights of the Annecy Animation Festival this week, maestro filmmaker Guillermo del Toro kept his packed-to-the rafters audience enthralled – and in stitches – as he extolled the virtues of stop-motion animation and of embracing flaws. Having just won a best animated feature film Oscar for his long-gestating stop-motion version of the classic tale “Pinocchio” gave his talk even more heft.   “Stop-motion is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of all the forms of animation because it’s the most intimate, and is quite literally a connection between the animator and a physical model,” he said, adding: “It’s is the closest thing to playing with your toys.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente A Blue Demon Jr. Lucha Libre Universe is in the works. Candle Media’s Exile Content Studio and L.A.-based film company Moxie 88 have joined forces to produce a range of content based on Mexican wrestling icon, Blue Demon Jr. The new 360-degree pact aims to expand the use of Blue Demon Jr.’s likeness in the areas of film, television, animation and merchandising on a worldwide scale. As the adopted son of Blue Demon, the legendary 1950s Mexican wrestling (Lucha Libre) icon who inspired hundreds of comic books and nearly 30 feature films, Blue Demon Jr. has continued the noble tradition, stamping his own style on the wildly popular sport. He became the first Mexican and second masked wrestler to claim the prestigious NWA World Heavyweight Championship and has sold out shows at Madison Square Garden.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” fresh from its triumphant world premiere at the Cannes fest, opens the 38th Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG) which touts new sections this year, including a branded series showcase and midnight screenings of Italian fright maestro Dario Argento’s horror films. Eva Longoria’s feature directorial debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” which had its West Coast premiere at the LA Latino Film Festival (LALIFF) May 31, marks its Mexican debut at the fest. The Series Showcase includes Patricia Martinez’s fact-based “La Narcosatánica,” which will stream on the rebranded Max, and Maite Alberdi’s “Libre de reir,” a Gato Grande production, which centers on inmates in a Mexican prison who enroll in a stand-up comedy workshop. Alberdi’s Sundance-winning docu “The Eternal Memory” also vies for a prize in the festival’s documentary sidebar.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sonora, among the top podcast platforms in Spain, has tapped leading Chilean scribes Enrique Videla and Paula del Fierro to write a couple of serial podcasts for it. Their credits include Amazon Original “La Jauria” (“The Pack”), showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”) and produced by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larrain’s Fabula. Both are also co-writers of Movistar’s “Los Prisioneros” and Chilean-German co-production, “Dignidad.” “We’re delighted to add Chilean creative talent to Sonora. The original content that Del Fierro and Videla will write for our platform will join one of our most outstanding fiction creations, ‘Retornados,’ a science fiction thriller written and directed by Chilean scriptwriter, Julio Rojas,” said Gabriel Sáenz de Buruaga, CEO and founding partner of Sonora. Rojas is also one of the writers on “La Jauria” and the scribe of Spotify’s most successful Spanish-language podcast, “Case 63.”