‘The Enchanted,’ ‘Good Manners, ‘Co-Husbands’ Head Malaga Festival’s Spanish Screenings Content

Callum McLennan Recently, there has been a consistent tide of well crafted and highly regarded films coming out of Spain. “Alcarràs,” “The Beasts,” “Lullaby,” “La Maternal,” “Prison 77,” to name just the five that the Spanish Academy Goyas singled out in early February.  This level of quality, over a short period, is getting noticed internationally. Last week the Glasgow Film Festival, Scotland’s largest, shone a light on eight films in its Viva el Cine Español program. A cultural moment is a strange beast, hard to fathom, but there are strong signals that Spanish Film is having one.   In addition to the aforementioned five, Glasgow added Andrea Bagney’s debut “Ramona,” “Wild Flowers,” from Jaime Rosales, another debut with Elena López Riera’s “The Water,” and a Penelope Cruz starrer, in Juan Diego Botto’s “On The Fringe.” 

Holly Jones Oscar award-winning veteran producer Gerardo Herrero, (“The Secret In Their Eyes”) returns to the director’s chair with “Under Therapy,” his stark and unnerving big screen rendition of playwright Matías Del Federico’s theatrical production. The project bowed in competition at the Málaga Film festival earlier this week and is set for broader theatrical release in Spanish cinemas on Friday. Latido Films handles international sales.  Enamored with the staged rendition, Herrero was inspired to add a distinctly cinematic touch to the script, honoring its darker underpinnings amidst the narratives’ anxious banter.

Emiliano De Pablos It’s been a short time since the Spanish government launched a new increase in its international film and TV productions incentives. This bold move has rapidly put Spain at the level of the most attractive international shoot locales.  In 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, Spain already saw a muscular rise in tax breaks, but the really killer hike came last December, with new record tax advantages, which raised relief for international productions to up to €20 million ($21.2 million) per movie and – even more transcendent – $10.6 million for any single series episode. Early positive effects were confirmed March 15 at a presentation held at the Malaga Film Festival, as part of the fast expanding and ambitious Mafiz-Spanish Screenings industry zone.

Emiliano De Pablos Confirming the increasingly strong interest by international buyers in Spanish animated features, Pink Parrot Media has scored a bevy of key European pre-sales on upcoming Spanish family adventure toon film “4 Days Before Christmas,” led by deals with Splendid in Germany and Kaleidoscope in the U.K. Produced by Spain’s 3Doubles Producciones and Capitán Araña with Canada’s PVP Media, directed by Steve Majaury and Andrea Sebastián, “4 Days Before Christmas” was one of the five noteworthy animated works in progress presented at this week’s Malaga Film Festival–Spanish Screenings to the international industry.  The film has also been acquired by Voxell por CIS territories, GPI (Baltics), FMA (Former Yugoslavia), Kinoswiat (Poland), Front Row (Middle East), Just Ent. (Benelux), Romania (SC Idea Films), Nos Lusomundo (Portugal) and Scandinavia (Angel Films).

Love Island star Kaz Crossley has bravely opened up about her struggles with the hair loss condition alopecia once more, as she shared photos on her social media. Kaz, who entered the Love Island villa in Spain as a Casa Amor bombshell during the 2018 season, said she's been suffering through a "difficult time" over the last few months.The reality TV beauty, who was recently arrested and held in a prison in the UAE on suspicion of committing previous drug offences, was incredibly honest with her followers.

Emiliano De Pablos In an early market deal at this week’s Málaga Film Festival, Guido Rud’s sales house FilmSharks has nabbed worldwide sales rights to Spanish period thriller “Olvido” (“The Forgotten Killings”). Directed by Inés París (“A mi madre le gustan las mujeres,” “La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre”) and written by Fermín P. Pina, “The Forgotten Killings” is produced by José Luis Rancaño at Madrid-based La Dalia Films.   Inés París’ “La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre,” also produced by Rancaño at La Dalia and starring Spain’s Belén Rueda and Argentina’s Diego Peretti, snagged the audience prize at the 2016 Málaga Film Festival.

Spanish Screenings Content at Malaga Festival’s industry zone Mafiz, supported by ICEX Spain’s Trade & Investment entity with the collaboration of Diboos, the Spanish Federation of Animation Producers and the VFX Production Companies Associations.

Liza Foreman Barcelona-based production-distribution-sales outfit Filmax has taken on international sales on Spanish director Víctor García León’s new comedy “One Hell of a Holiday!” Filmax is presenting the trailer to international buyers at this week’s Malaga Film Festival at Mafiz’s Spanish Screenings Content, a massive industry platform where Filmax is also talking up a raft of titles led by “Girl, Unknown” and “Co-Husbands.” “One Hell of a Holiday!” is written by Manuel Burque and Josep Gatell (“Undercover Wedding Crashers”).This grandparents’ tale follows Manuela and José, two grandparents who love looking after their grandkids but have had enough of their children dumping their offspring on them every five minutes. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Running March 13-17, the Málaga Festival’s Mafiz-Spanish Screenings Content weigh in this year as one of the biggest dedicated Spanish movie platforms in history, boasting also a strong line in Latin American arthouse projects and productions. 10 Takes as the event kicks off, blessed by early Spring sunshine, in the Andalusian city: XXXL In 2022, super-sized by the Spanish Screenings Content, part of Spain’s €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) AVS Spain Hub, a vibrant Mafiz, the Malaga Film Festival industry area, fair exploded, delivering  a sterling confirmation of Spain’s build as a fiction force in a platform age, aided by robust state sector backing. This year, Mafiz looks even larger. At 1,560 delegates and counting as of March 6, Mafiz is tracking to pass 2022’s final attendance figure of around 1,600, Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Festival director told Variety. Participants come from 62 countries, up from 53 last year. “The event’s consolidation is clear,” Vigar added. “It makes us feel that the work we do is useful for the sector,” he adds. 

There is something comforting and appealing about “Champions” in that it’s the type of film that used to be multiplex mainstays in the ’80s and ’90s but now usually pops up on a streaming service’s carousel without much fanfare. Audiences need accessible and entertaining movies like this.  It’s an adaptation of the 2018 Spanish film “Campeones,” which drew its inspiration from a real-life team of people with intellectual disabilities.

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic While Peter Farrelly was off winning Oscars for “Green Book,” younger brother Bobby has been largely absent from feature directing. It’s been nearly a decade since the siblings shared credit — the last time being 2014’s “Dumb and Dumber To.” Now, rather than competing with Peter at the respectability game, Bobby sticks to what he knows with “Champions,” in which Woody Harrelson plays a minor-league basketball coach court-ordered to assist a Special Olympics team for 90 days — just long enough to take the team from bumbling incompetents to national finalists. There are zero surprises in “Champions,” unless you count the not-inconsiderable shock that such a movie exists at all. A remake of 2018 Spanish box office sensation “Campeones,” this awkward (if presumably well-intentioned) comedy might have felt enlightened 25 years ago — back when “Forrest Gump” was an Oscar favorite — but today makes for a patronizing portrayal of people with intellectual disabilities. That’s still better than no portrayal at all, I suppose, and there’s some satisfaction to be had in watching Harrelson’s character overcome his prejudices — reflected by using the “boo-boo word” that starts with “R” — and grow to see these amateur athletes for more than their limitations. But did the film (little more than a “Role Models” redux) have to paint its players as such extreme incompetents from the outset?

Talking Prince Harry & Meghan Markle with our Cuban mother.

Karol G is making her mark! The Colombian singer is enjoying the success of her new project ‘Mañana Será Bonito,’ becoming the first woman in history to score No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart with an all-Spanish-language album.The 32-year-old musician has achieved a historic record, debuting at the top of the charts. Previously, only two all-Spanish albums led the list, both by Bad Bunny (‘Un Verano Sin Ti’ in 2022 and El Último Tour del Mundo in 2020).Karol G continues to reach for the stars, as her latest collaboration with Shakira has been a total success.

Bebe Rexha is sharing some stomach-turning, behind-the-scenes details of the music video for her and David Guetta’s chart-topping banger “I’m Good (Blue)”.

The competition winners of the 73rd Berlinale are about to start rolling in as the festival draws to a close Saturday evening.

Guy Lodge Film Critic In time, stories like “20,000 Species of Bees” will come to feel as commonplace within the coming-of-age genre as tales of first love or heartbreak: a young girl, unhappy in her skin and at odds with her family, finally recognizes her gender over the course of one pivotal summer, and persuades others to recognize it too. For now, Spanish writer-director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s mellow, softly piercing debut feature joins the likes of Céline Sciamma’s “Tomboy” and Emanuele Crialese’s “L’Immensità” in a select but growing canon of trans or nonbinary childhood studies. Unassuming and meanderingly character-oriented, the film doesn’t assert itself as an issue drama — in large part because, as Solaguren presents her eight-year-old protagonist’s gradual steps toward self-realization, her film doesn’t see much of an issue to begin with.

Liza Foreman He’s become one of Spain’s most successful auteur directors of big audience hits. Now director-writer-producer Alex de la Iglesia (“The Day of the Beast,” “30 Coins”) and producing partner, the actor-producer Carolina Bang (“The Last Circus”), have turned to wayward soccer players for their latest TV outing, HBO Max show “Headless Chickens.” The starting point for this upcoming Spanish series is curiosity, Bang explained at an afternoon Q&A session at the Berlinale Series Market on Tuesday scheduled in the Next from Spain strand. “Alex and I don’t like soccer very much but we have a lot of curiosity about the industry,” said Bang. “You have a lot of young people that became very rich very quickly. It destroys your head.”

A high school teacher has reportedly been stabbed to death by a pupil during a Spanish lesson.

.The US and UK currently don't offer this benefit as standard, but we hope that more governments will take inspiration from Spain—as well as Japan, Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea, and Zambia—in accommodating the impact of periods on our health.Studies have found that the workplaces ignoring the impact of periods on an employee affects productivity considerably, as well. that people who menstruate tend to work through their period pain, and it makes them less productive.

Holly Jones In a knock-out deal, Ignacio Cucucovich and Gustavo Hernández of Montevideo-based Mother Superior Films have acquired rights to Spanish boxer and entertainer José Luis ‘Dum Dum’ Pacheco’s life story, starting with his autobiography, “Mear Sangre.” “Dum Dum is a living reflection of a generation that’s managed to overcome many blows at a difficult time in history. He was born into a humble home, imprisoned at a very young age,” Cucucovich told Variety. “In addition, the era the story would encompass is fascinating to us, full of freedoms gaining ground, young people exploring and developing, in success and error, a lot of creative abundance, in a constant clash with what society then considered correct. It was a time of discovery and creation.”