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Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural Ecam Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up.

Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious Ecam.

Founded in 1994, the school, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to more than 300 students a year, is Spain’s leading breeding ground for some of the country’s biggest names in film, television and advertising such as filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen and regular writing partner Isabel Peña or cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.

The reasons for Ecam being so industry-facing comes down to the school’s status and founding principles, as explained by Rafa Alberola, head of Ecam Industria (formerly known as ‘The Screen’), the umbrella regrouping the school’s...

A first trailer has been unveiled for debutant filmmaker Jow Zhi Wei’s “Tomorrow is a Long Time,” which will have its world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival’s Generation 14plus strand.

The film follows sixteen-year-old Meng for whom life is not the most fulfilling, with him lounging at home with his grieving father on a daily basis, being excluded from his family’s past and forced into bullying other kids at school. Everything changes when he is thrown into a life-altering adventure that propels him into an exciting unfamiliar landscape.

The cast includes Taiwanese filmmaker and actor and Golden Horse award winner Leon Dai, emerging Singaporean actor Edward Tan making his screen debut, Jay Victor, Julius Foo and Lekheraj Sekhar.

Producers include Fran Borgia (Locarno winner “A Land Imagined”), Jeremy Chua (Venice winner “Autobiography”), Stefano Centini (“In My Mother’s Skin”), Xavier Rocher (Locarno winner “The Sacred Spirit”) and...

Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” was described by Pedro Almodóvar as “undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years.” Chema García Ibarra’s “The Sacred Spirit” was hailed by Variety as “one of the standouts of the 2021 Locarno Film Festival.” David Pérez Sañudo’s “Ane is Missing” won three Spanish Academy Goya Awards last year.

What these three Spanish movies, all first features, have in common is that they have passed through the Ecam Madrid Film School’s Incubator, a six-month producer mentorship initiative.

As its fifth edition rounds a final bend, Variety analyzes what its projects say about the state of cutting-edge young Spanish cinema and what the talent behind it says about the state of contemporary filmmaking.

Filmmakers With Attitude

On the face of it, the five projects developed this year could not be more different, in genre, tone and issues tackled. Gabriel Azorín’s “Last...

Filmax has swooped in on one of Spain’s most awaited fiction feature debuts of 2022, Alex Lora’s “Unicorns” (“Unicornios”). Pic is produced by Inicia Films’ Valerie Delpierre, producer of director Carla Simon’s debut, “Summer 1993.”

Due to be completed by the fall, “Unicorns” is made with Valencia’s Jaibo, the shingle behind Chema García’s Locarno hit “The Sacred Spirit.” Filmax will screen a first promo at this week’s Cannes Film Market.

New York-based, and an alum of the City College of New York, where he was mentored by Chantal Akerman, Lora has carved out an exceptional documentary career, finding humanity in the most unlikely of subjects, often supposed outsiders or outcasts, and of places, such as a Brooklyn recycling center in 2017’s doc feature “The Fourth Kingdom, The Kingdom of Plastics.”

In “Unicorns,” by contrast, Isa, the protagonist, has it all. She is intelligent, beautiful, young and spontaneous.

Summer is around the corner, which means Rooftop Films is almost back. New York cinephiles can look forward to another season of film screenings from the longtime nonprofit, which screens independent films in a variety of outdoor locations throughout New York City. Over time, Rooftop Films has become an essential institution in the indie film world, helping top directors get their work seen while connecting undiscovered artists to the resources that they need.

Notable films on the year’s lineup include Chloe Okuno’s “Watcher,” a Sundance horror hit in the tradition of paranoid classics like “Rosemary’s Baby;” James Morosini’s “I Love My Dad,” a comedy that took the top prizes in the Narrative category at SXSW; and Andrew Semans’ “Resurrection,” a psychological thriller that earned high marks from critics and fans alike at Sundance this year.

Tickets for select upcoming screenings are on sale now via the Rooftop Films website,...

The Seattle International Film Festival returned to its in-person format for the first time since 2019 this year, with many of the indie film world’s finest making their way to the Emerald City. The 11-day festival, which concluded this weekend, screened 263 films, including 28 world premieres, and ultimately honored a combination of domestic and foreign films with its awards.

The timely Ukrainian war drama “Klondike” from Maryna Er Gorbach won the Grand Jury Prize, with Zia Mohajerjasbi’s Seattle-set drama “Know Your Place” earning rave reviews from audiences and winning the festival’s New American Cinema Competition.

“As we celebrated our first in-person festival in three years, we were so thrilled to bring great films and new voices from across the globe,” said Beth Barrett, Siff Artistic Director. “Creating those experiences that bring audiences around film, both in cinema and hybrid, allowed us all to connect, to learn, and to make...

The Seattle International Film Festival closed its 48th edition on Sunday by announcing its top honors, presenting awards at a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Seattle.

“Klondike,” a film following a family that lives on the tumultuous border of Russia and Ukraine in 2014, was awarded the grand jury prize within the festival’s official competition.

“For a work both tragically prophetic and universal in its impact, a ferocious and formalist vision of war that fuses humanism, black comedy and horror into a searing and original vision, we award the Grand Jury Prize to Maryna Er Gorbach’s ‘Klondike,'” said the jury, composed of Angel An, senior director of acquisitions at Roadside Attraction; David Ansen, lead programmer at the Palm Spring International Film Festival; and Matthew Campbell, artistic director of the Denver Film Society and the Denver Film Festival.

“Know Your Place,” a drama following two teenage...

The Aviary Trailer: "Malin Akerman, Lorenza Izzo, and Chris Messina star in this twisted thriller about two women's desperate attempt to flee the clutches of Skylight, an insidious cult.

Trapped at Skylight’s isolated desert campus, The Aviary, Jillian (Akerman), and Blair (Izzo) join forces to make a treacherous escape. Alone in the harsh wilderness, they are consumed by paranoia and unable to shake the feeling that they are being followed by the cult's leader, Seth (Messina), a man as seductive as he is controlling. With supplies dwindling and their senses failing, Jillian and Blair are faced with a horrifying question: how do you run from an enemy who lives inside your head?

The feature directorial debut from Chris Cullari and Jennifer Raite who, as writers and creators, have frequently collaborated with Blumhouse TV on projects and first-look deals, and made a splash with their 2012 Vimeo Staff Pick horror-comedy short The Sleepover.

Considering many films premiering at the Locarno Film Festival can take years to get a release here in the United States—should they get any at all—Locarno in Los Angeles has been a welcome addition to the festival scene. Now in its fifth edition, the series (curated by Jordan Cronk and Robert Koehler) highlights the best of Locarno over four days, and kicks off this Thursday at 2220 Arts + Archives. Check out our recommendations for what to seek out this year below.

Belle (Mamoru Hosoda)

If a name can trigger nostalgia, don’t be surprised when the occasional sense of deja vu sets in while watching Belle, a dazzling near-future tech fantasia wrapped around a tale, yes, as old as time. Directed by Mamoru Hosoda and mostly set in a vast online world of sweeping musical numbers and weightless action sequences, it tells of Suzu, an awkward teenager (as if...

New projects by David Pérez Sañudo, the rising young star of Basque cinema, Manuel Martín Cuenca, whose last four films have all been selected for Toronto, and Leire Apellániz, with one of the most ambitious Basque features in the making, all feature in a high-caliber lineup of projects at Eave on Demand Sevilla, a development workshop.

Madrid Ecam Incubator alum Ainhoa Menéndez and Berlinale Teddy Award winner María Trénor Colomer also have already announced projects at Eave on Demand, which kicks off industry events at Seville on Nov. 8 with a masterclass, Script Development Strategies, by Clare Downs.

Further masterclasses, given by Oliver Damian, on European Co-Production and the Role of the Producer, and Aranka Matits, on Distribution & the International Market, aim to provide the directors with the necessary skills to navigate a highly competitive market, which Martín Cuenca and Apellániz already have experience with titles such as “Cannibal” and “The Sacred Spirit.

Also deals for Berlin winner ‘Bad Luck Banging’.

Arrow Films has acquired UK rights to Chema Garcia Ibarra’s Locarno 2021 competition title The Sacred Spirit from Greek film production and sales firm Heretic, and is planning to give it a theatrical release.

HBO Europe has acquired the film for its European territories and will release on its online platform HBO Max.

Ibarra’s debut feature follows Jose Manuel and the devoted members of a UFOlogy association, who meet weekly to exchange information on extraterrestrial messages and abductions; while a Spanish investigation into the disappearance of a little girl picks up pace.

Narrowing down the best Basque projects on the horizon has become increasingly difficult in recent years, as the region is experiencing a boom in both the quality and quantity of local production that has made prognostication more difficult than ever.

Below, Variety has picked 20 projects from that crowded field which we will be tracking in the coming years.

“Almanac” (Jorge Moneo Quintana)

A Berlinale Talents project, “Almanac” challenges the limits of documentary cinema by revisiting the solar eclipse of July 18, 1860 through photos and records, speculating on the truth of the past in collective memory. Currently in development, the feature is backed by Kalakalab and Kleinen Filmak.

“And Thus it Will Go On” (Marina Palacio)

Likely to appear on Basque project lists for some time, production on this exercise somewhere between fiction and reality is scheduled to last five years, following a group of children through their formative years in the...

Espíritu Sagrado Review — Espíritu sagrado (2021) Film Review from the 74th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Chema García Ibarra, starring Nacho Fernández, Llum Arques, Rocío Ibáñez, and Joanna Valverde. The universe is full of mysteries that intrigue and terrify us, and there are some who will do anything to seek those answers out [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: ESPÍRITU Sagrado: A Deadpan Dramedy That Never Ascends to the Proper Plane [Locarno 2021]...

Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay CashINTERNATIONAL Competition(Jury: Eliza Hittman, Kevin Jerome Everson, Philippe Lacôte, Leonor Silveira, Isabelle Ferrari)Golden Leopard: Vengeance is Mine, All Others Pay Cash (Edwin) | Read our reviewSpecial Jury Prize: A New Old Play (Jiongjiong Qiu) | Read our reviewBest Direction: Abel Ferrara (Zeros and Ones) | Read our reviewBest Actress: Anastasiya Krasovskaya (Gerda)Best Actor: Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar (The Odd-Job Men)Special Mention: Soul of a Beast (Lorenz Merz) and The Sacred Spirit (Chema García Ibarra) | Read our reviewFILMMAKERS Of The Present( Jury: Agathe Bonitzer, Mattie Do, Vanja Kaludjercic)Golden Leopard: Brotherhood (Francesco Montagner)Special Jury Prize: L'Été l'éternité (Émilie Aussel)Prize for Best Emerging Director: Hleb Papou (The Legionnaire) Best Actress: Saskia Rosendahl (No One's with the Calves) | Read our reviewBest Actor: Gia Agumava (Wet Sand)First Feature(Jury: Amjad Abu Alala, Karina Ressler, Katharina Wyss)Best First Feature: She Will (Charlotte Colbert...

Locarno 2021 Golden Leopard Winner

The 74th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close over the weekend, with Indonesian film director Edwin scooping the Golden Leopard in the International Competition with Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash. Elsewhere in the International Competition, the Golden Leopard for Best Direction went to Abel Ferrara for Zeroes And Ones, while Qiu Jiongjiong’s A New Old Play won the Special Jury Prize. Best Actress went to Anastasiya Krasovskaya for Gerda, while Best Actor was shared by Mohamed Mellali and Valero Escolar from The Odd-Job Men. Special mentions went to Soul Of A Beast and Espiritu Sagrado.

Venice Completes Line-Up

Venice Film Festival finalized its line-up today with the addition of three titles. They are: Graziano Conversano’s 52-minute documentary Ricostruire insieme – Biennale Architettura, which looks at the themes, works and figures of the 2021 Biennale architecture festival; Nastia Korkia’s docGes – 2, a visual reflection upon the project by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop to renovate a former power plant in the centre of Moscow; and finally, Antonello Sarno’s Pietro Il Grande, a tribute to photojournalist Pietro Coccia, who died in 2018.