Paramount+ has set Tuesday, November 7 as the premiere date for journalist Nick Barili‘s new docuseries De La Calle in the U.S. and Canada.
25.09.2023 - 05:57 / variety.com
Callum McLennan Latido Films is venturing yet more into the inspiring world of e-sports and viral fame with Goya Award winning producer-helmer Alvaro Longoria’s new doc-feature, “La vida de Brianeitor.” The film serves as a spin-off from Javier Fesser’s Spanish box office smash hit, “Championext,” which Latido is also selling. The doc follows Brian Albacete, better known as Brianeitor2022. With millions of social media followers, an acting role in a top-charting Spanish film “Championext” and a spot on Team Heretics—one of Spain’s leading e-sport entities—Brian is redefining what it means to be a star.
And he’s doing it all despite living with muscular dystrophy and spina bifida. “Javier Fesser…told me Brian was an amazing subject for a doc. I wasn’t really sure until I met him in person,” recalled Alvaro Longoria, the film’s director, and the producer at Morena Films behind “Championext.” Brian’s popularity soared when he began streaming his gaming activities as Brianeitor2022, quickly amassing a dedicated fan base impressed by his skills and infectious personality.
Latido Films discovered Brian seeing images of his performance in “Championext,” and was impressed by his attitude and charisma. Longoria filled the sales company in with Albacete’s extraordinary story. and, recalled Latido head Antonio Saura.
Paramount+ has set Tuesday, November 7 as the premiere date for journalist Nick Barili‘s new docuseries De La Calle in the U.S. and Canada.
The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.
Jessica Kiang A predictably spectacular sunset spreads streaks of pink and orange across a northern Spanish late September sky, heralding the end of another packed edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, where at the closing gala, “The Rye Horn” the second feature from Spanish director Jaione Camborda has just been handed the Golden Shell, the festival’s top award. It is perhaps a surprising win, but does now mark the fourth consecutive year that the festival’s most prestigious prize has gone to a female director. But in another way it has to be a first: the international jury, comprising French director Claire Denis, alongside Chinese actor and producer Fan Bingbing, Colombian producer-director Cristina Gallego, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, Spanish actor Vicky Luengo, Canadian producer and distributor Robert Lantos and German director Christian Petzold, has chosen to award not just a Spanish film, but one from a director who was born right here in San Sebastián.
Women Rule Still Coming into the festival, many of the biggest main competition buzz pictures were directed by women. Many now figure, according to a El Diario Vasco Spanish critics’ poll, as Golden Shell frontrunners: Isabel Helguera’s animated pic “Sultana’s Dream,” Raven Jackson’s Sundance hit “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” Jaione Camborda’s Toronto platform screener “The Rye Horn” and Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang’s “A Journey in Spring.” New Talent All of these four films are debuts or sophomore outings in a competition where 10 of the 16 tiles are indeed first or second films.
Liza Foreman SAN SEBASTIAN — Legendary Spanish writer-director Victor Erice received a standing ovation from a packed press conference on Friday, ahead of receiving the festival’s Donostia Award tonight. The award ceremony for San Sebastian’s accolade for career achievement follows on from the San Sebastian screening this morning of his first feature film in 30 years, “Close Your Eyes,” which, already pre-sold to France’s Haut et Court, world premiered in Cannes Premiere in May with the Basque director notably absent. “Close Your Eyes” sparked highly positive reviews.
Callum McLennan Witscript and Hyperrate.io took home the prizes at San Sebastian’s 5th Zinemaldia Startup Challenge on Thursday afternoon. Each received €10,000 ($10,600) and access to incubation to nurture their fledgling companies, with the potential to vie for €500,000 ($530,000) in funding. Speaking with Variety following her win, Hendrikje Wagner CEO of Hyperate.io was delighted with the validation: “Other people think it’s a really good idea and it enables us to move discussions forward.” The startup integrates heart rate data into live streams, events, and games.
the end of the Writers Guild of America’s 148 day strike. That set the tone of proceedings at the two-day confab and maybe added a slightly larger sense of forward momentum to the central issue at stake: a State of the Union take on the challenges and opportunities for the U.S and global film industry, from a market and producers’ perspective. Multiple audience members, many from Spain and Europe, commented on their delight at the caliber of panelists and attendees, many at the top of their game.
Jessica Chastain is making a glamorous arrival at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.
Manchester United are ready to "listen to offers" for ousted forward Jadon Sancho - according to reports.
Isabel Coixet recounts that she vowed to never to do another literary adaptation after her 2017 English-language feature The Bookshop based on Penelope Fitzgerald’s critically acclaimed 1978 novel of the same name.
Holly Jones Frenetic and high-flying ‘90s rock emblem Mauricio Aznar trades his position as enigmatic frontman of Zaragoza’s Más Birras for a journey towards the soul of his craft in Spanish writer-director Javier Macipe’s highly-anticipated second feature, “The Blue Star” (“La Estrella Azul”) saw its world premiere in the New Directors strand of the San Sebastian Film Festival on Monday. Macipe’s (“Los inconvenientes de no ser dios”) short efforts, 2014 release “Children of the River” and 2019’s “Gastos incluídos,” earned Spanish Academy Goya nominations, placing him among Variety’s 10 Spanish talents to track in 2021.
Emiliano De Pablos European production-distribution giant Studiocanal is teaming with Spain’s Mr. Fields and Friends and Bambú, both led by producer Ramón Campos, on dramatic comedy “Rondallas,” written-directed by Daniel Sánchez Arévalo (“BlueDarkAlmostBlack,” “Cousinhood,” “Seventeen”).
Callum McLennan A salute to Basque cinema, the 71st edition of the San Sebastian Festival has once again unfurled its Zinemira section, a brainchild conceived in collaboration with the Basque government’s Department of Culture. Serving as more than just a showcase, Zinemira comes wrapped in the financial backing of sponsors Irizar and EiTB, with collaborative support from Urbil, the Basque Film Archive, EPE/APV, IBAIA, and Zineuskadi.
Holly Jones Incendiary Spanish director Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) heads to San Sebastian for the international premiere of her latest drama “Un Amor,” a take on devouring love starring Laia Costa (“Lullaby”) and Hovik Keuchkerian (“Money Heist”) that sets Coixet up to compete on the festival’s main stage for the first time. “Un Amor” is produced by Buenapinta Media’s Marisa Fernández Armenteros (“The Mole Agent”) alongside “Society of the Snow” producers Sandra Hermida and Belén Atienza, here producing out of Perdición Films. World sales are handled by Film Constellation (“Return to Reason”).
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.
J.A. Bayona was given a homecoming hero’s welcome at the San Sebastian Film Festival over the weekend as he touched down for the Spanish premiere of air crash survival drama Society Of The Snow.
Noah Pritzker’s bittersweet father and sons tale Ex-Husbands (aka Men Of Divorce) world premieres in Competition at the San Sebastian Film Festival on Sunday as one of the few U.S. productions to be accompanied by its cast this year thanks to its SAG-AFTRA interim agreement.
Emiliano De Pablos “A Hunt for Hedgehogs,” the new film by Hungarian director Mihály Schwechtje and “Rock Bottom,” the feature debut of Spaniard María Trénor mark two potential highlights of San Sebastian’s pix-in-post sidebar WIP Europa, that runs Sept 25-27. In 2020, the San Sebastian Film Festival, the highest-profile film event in the Spanish-speaking world, launched two new pix-in-post showcases, WIP Latam and WIP Europa, replacing respectively Films in Progress and Glocal in Progress sidebars.
Emiliano De Pablos Red Arrow International and leading Spanish indie producer-distributor Vértice360 have taken a co-production stake in real-life inspired series project “Lucio’s Treasure,” set up at Barcelona-based Friki Films. Also handling international sales rights, Red Arrow co-produces the project. An English-language shoot is scheduled by 2025.
John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Spain’s 71st San Sebastian Film Festival is tracking to welcome an even larger industry presence than 2022, currently up 10% in attendance on 2022’s already bullish figures, its status as the biggest movie event in the Spanish-speaking world remaining undiminished. Here are 10 key takes on potential highlights and trends which look likely to shape this year’s edition, running Sept.