Actualités

Malaga-based writer-producer Ezekiel Montes is teaming with director Sergio Siruela on “Aullar,” a thriller centering on a father-daughter relationship.

Elena Martínez, who worked with Montes on the appreciable 2021 crime thriller “A Dead Man Cannot Live” and Rafa Russo’s 2023 drama “Devoción,” stars in the film as a strong and independent woman struggling to make ends meet and support her son. One day her estranged father shows up in need of help – his house has become occupied by drug addicts.

Although they haven’t seen each other in years due to his alcoholism, which was exacerbated by the death of her mother and ultimately destroyed their relationship, she agrees to help him recover his home. In the process, however, wounds of the past gradually reopen.

“Aullar” marks the feature film debut for Siruela, a Spanish director who has shot a number of high-profile series in Mexico for major streamers such as Disney+ and ViX,...

The 68th edition will screen a mix of new Spanish films and 2023 favourites and host an expanded industry programme.

The 68th edition of the Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week opens this weekend (October 21) with a screening of The Movie Teller, directed by Lone Scherfig, starring Bérénice Béjo, Antonio de la Torre and Daniel Brühl and written by Walter Salles, Isabel Coixet and Rafa Russo.

For what is a vital launchpad into the Spanish market, new festival director José Luis Cienfuegos has programmed a series of international festival favourites from 2023 alongside new films by Spanish directors Antonio Méndez Esparza and...

Movies about movies tend to be as sentimental as Cinema Paradiso, the all-time tearjerker in the genre, or as caustic as the recent Babylon. But Lone Scherfig finds a fine balance between love of movies and the harsh wider world in The Movie Teller, a beautifully made coming-of-age film about Maria Margarita, who acts out the Hollywood movies she has seen at the local cinema in her small mining town. Set in the Chilean desert in the late 1960s and early ’70s, the drama benefits greatly from the sure hand and clear eye Scherfig has brought to her best films, other period pieces including An Education (2009) and Their Finest (2016). All that can’t quite make up for the rocky screenplay, though.

The story is adapted from the Chilean writer Hernan Rivera Letelier’s 2009 novel. The first version of the screenplay was tackled years ago by the Brazilian director Walter Salles,...

Last year, as movies conceived and shot during the Covid-19 pandemic began to be released, we saw a sudden influx of films rejoicing in the act of moviemaking and movie-watching. From Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” to Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” from Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” to the Indian Oscar entry “Last Film Show,” a surprising number of films bred during pandemic isolation were movies about movies.

And a year later, during the final days of the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival, another movie that belongs in that company had its world premiere. “The Movie Teller,” a Spanish-language film set in Chile and made by a Danish director with a cast whose biggest names are known for French and German movies, puts an international spin on the love of movies and embraces the art of storytelling in a way that is at times profoundly moving.

The film is a mixture of genres,...

When I was in college cinema courses I made a Super 8 film called Movie Girl. It was a Hollywood-set love letter to movies centered on a Musso & Frank waitress who put herself dreamily into the plots of classic films. It won an award there but was the highlight of the directing career I never had. However, I have always been partial to filmmakers who put their own early film-going experience and passion into their careers now. You may have heard of them: Kenneth Branagh won an Oscar for doing just that in Belfast. Steven Spielberg got several nominations last year for his very personal The Fabelmans. Woody Allen had his own charming take in The Purple Rose of Cairo. Peter Bogdanovich made a lasting impression with 1971’s The Last Picture Show, as did Giuseppe Tornatore with his Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso.

It is a combination of the latter two especially...

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.

“Devotion” depicts the encounters between Fernando, a priest accused of murder, and Ruth, the woman who falls in love with him. Ruth’s defense and absolution of the priest becomes a personal crusade.

“Captain America: Civil War” star Daniel Brühl has boarded Lone Scherfig’s upcoming feature “The Movie Teller,” Variety can reveal.

The BAFTA-nominated actor, who recently reprised his Marvel role in “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” and has appeared in features including “Rush” and “Inglourious Basterds,” will star alongside Bérénice Bejo (“The Artist”) and Antonio de la Torre (“Marshland”) in the film.

Embankment are executive producing the film and have launched worlwide sales, co-repping Latin American rights with Latido Films. A Contracorriente Films’ Adolfo Blanco (“The Bookshop”), Selenium Films’ Vincent Juillerat and Andres Mardones of Al Tiro Films are producing.

Directed by BAFTA nominee Scherfig (“An Education”), “The Movie Teller” sees Brühl star as Nansen, a European outsider who, via his restraint and diplomacy, earns the respect of the families he encounters at a Chilean mine before embarking on a relationship with a local woman, María Magnolia (played by Bejo).

In particular,...

Bérénice Bejo, who rose to fame as the Oscar-nominated star of The Artist, is set to lead BAFTA nominee Lone Scherfig’s upcoming adaptation of The Movie Teller.

Antonio de la Torre (Marshland) will also star in the film, first adapted by Palme D’Or nominee Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Rafa Russo from Hernán Rivera Letelier’s acclaimed novel. The Spanish language film is an autobiographical tale of life in the mining community of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and a tribute to the inspirational power of cinema.

The Movie Teller is a Spanish, French and Chilean co-production and will shoot in the Atacama Desert ...

Bérénice Bejo, who rose to fame as the Oscar-nominated star of The Artist, is set to lead BAFTA nominee Lone Scherfig’s upcoming adaptation of The Movie Teller.

Antonio de la Torre (Marshland) will also star in the film, first adapted by Palme D’Or nominee Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) and Rafa Russo from Hernán Rivera Letelier’s acclaimed novel. The Spanish language film is an autobiographical tale of life in the mining community of Chile’s Atacama Desert, and a tribute to the inspirational power of cinema.

The Movie Teller is a Spanish, French and Chilean co-production and will shoot in the Atacama Desert ...

Bérénice Bejo, Oscar nominated for “The Artist,” and two-time Goya winner Antonio de la Torre are to star in “The Movie Teller,” which is to be directed by Lone Scherfig, a BAFTA nominee with “An Education.” Embankment is launching worldwide sales on the Spanish-language film at the virtual AFM.

Walter Salles, a BAFTA winner with “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Central Station,” and Rafa Russo have adapted Hernán Rivera Letelier’s novel, which is the story of life in a mining town in Chile’s Atacama Desert, and a tribute to the inspirational power of cinema, reminiscent of “Cinema Paradiso.”

The film is produced by Adolfo Blanco (“The Bookshop”) of A Contracorriente Films and Vincent Juillerat of Selenium Films and Al Tiro Films. Embankment is an executive producer, and co-represents Latin American rights with Latido Films. It shoots in the Atacama Desert in the first quarter of next year.

Bejo stars as María Magnolia,...

The Year of Fury and Poliamor para principiantes are set to participate in the festival, being held on-site between 15 and 23 April in Barcelona. The Year of Fury is a coproduction between Spain and Uruguay, set in the run-up to Uruguay’s 1973 coup and starring Alberto Amman, Joaquín Furriel, Daniel Grao, Sara Sálamo, Miguel Ángel Sola and Maribel Verdú. The film marks the return of Rafa Russo after three years immersed in other audiovisual projects. Meanwhile, home-grown Spanish comedy Poliamor para principiantes is the latest film from veteran director Fernando Colomo, featuring a cast led by Karra Elejalde, Quim Ávila, María Pedraza and Toni Acosta. The two premiers are among the highlights of this fifth edition of Bcn Film Fest, which kicks into gear today, Thursday 15 April. A wide range of in-person events, hosted by cinemas across Barcelona, are on offer until 23 April. Ticket holders are in...

Uruguay’s government has announced new and ambitious film-tv legislation aimed at converting the small Latin American nation into a far larger film-tv hub via a new series of cash rebates for international shoots and co-productions with Uruguay.

Coming as Uruguay neighbors Brazil and Argentina battle huge challenges to state film funding – an incentive free in Brazil, a decimation of state funding in Argentina tanks to Covid-19 – the new regulation in Uruguay looks set to accelerate a disappear of productions from Latin America and runaway international shoots to its shores.

Measures take in a qualitative leap in the ceiling put on cash rebate plus a plunge in the minimum expenditure in Uruguay required to access them.

Announced Nov. 25, the regs, framed in an Uruguay Audiovisual Program (Pua), establish four action lines. International shoots and international co-productions filming in Uruguay with a local expenditure from $300,000 to $4 million receive a 25% of spend...

Uruguay’s already expanding industry still has plenty of room to grow and looks primed to do so with its new financing pilot program about to be extended until 2025 and a host of companies who cut their teeth in international co-production.

Below, Variety highlights twelve Uruguayan companies with outstanding resumes in both domestic and international production likely to usher in a new era of film and TV prominence.

Cimarrón –

Cimarrón is a pan Latin-American alliance between established producers Hernán Musaluppi, Diego Robino and Santiago López. From their offices in Montevideo, Buenos Aires and São Paulo, the company has backed six films since 2017, including Argentine Academy Award and San Sebastian Horizons-winner “The Snatch Thief” and Miguel Cohan’s Netflix Original feature “Blood Will Tell.” Currently Cimarrón has two films in post-production, Martín Boulocq’s “El visitante” and Rafa Russo’s “El año de la furia.”

Coral Cine –

Coral Cine focuses on...

Remember Me is Spanish filmmaker Rosete’s second feature after his 2016 English-language thriller Money.

Bac Films has jumped on international sales of Martin Rosete’s romantic drama Remember Me, starring Bruce Dern as a retired widower who comes to the rescue of an old flame struggling to cope with Alzheimer’s by herself.

Dern’s character, the larger-than-life septuagenarian figure of Claude, pretends he too is suffering from the disease so that he can join the love of his life Lilian, played by French actress Caroline Silhol, in the senior residential community where she resides.

“We think that this production...

Twice Oscar-nominated Bruce Dern and Emmy Award-winning Brian Cox (“Nuremberg”) are attached to star in Martin Rosete’s “Remember Me,” which will go into production on Aug. 24, shooting in Spain, France and Los Angeles.

“It is without a doubt the most unique love story ever put on the screen,” Dern told Variety.

A co-production between the U.S.’ Create Entertainment, Spain’s Lazona Films and Kamel Films, and France’s F Comme Film, key cast also includes Caroline Silhol (“La Vie en rose”) and Brandon Larracuente (“13 Reasons Why”).

A “quirky romantic comedy,” according to Rosete, “Remember Me” turns on Claude (Dern), a 70-year-old widower and former theater and cinema reviewer who learns that the love of his life, Lilian (Silhol), is in a senior home going through difficult times without anybody looking after her. With the help of his best friend Shane (Cox), Claude decides to fake Alzheimer’s...

MADRID -- Spain's premiere showcase of homegrown fare, the Malaga Spanish Film Festival, will feature 14 films in its official competition, offering a balanced dose of new and veteran talent, organizers announced Thursday. Manuel Iborra's period piece The Idiot Maiden, Eliseo Subiela's mid-life reflection Heartlift and Daniel Sanchez Arevalo's coming-of-age tale DarkBlueAlmostBlack are three of the films that will vie for the €60,000 ($72,000) main prize. Other films in competition include: Carlos Iglesias' 14 Coins Till the Border, Raimon Masllorens' Without You, Cesar Martinez Herrada's Sand in the Pockets, Sigfrid Monleon's The Bicycle, Roger Gual's Remake, Gerardo Herrero's Rough Winds, Mireia Ros' The Beat of the Streets, Gerardo Olivares' The Great Match, Chema Rodriguez's The Railroad All-Stars and Rafa Russo's Love in Self Defense.

Director Maria Ripoli's feature debut is an uneasy blend of traditional romantic comedy and magical realism that, much like its central character, alternately charms and irritates. Evocatively reflecting its multinational origins -- the filmmakers are Spanish while the cast and crew come from Great Britain -- "Twice Upon a Yesterday" is probably too offbeat to appeal to mainstream audiences.

Highly reminiscent of the recent "Sliding Doors" in its use of fantastical situations to comment on romantic woes, the film unfortunately lacks a performer with the star presence of someone like Gwyneth Paltrow. The film was recently showcased at the Miami Film Festival and is due for a commercial release via Trimark Pictures.

Anyone who has had second thoughts about the breakup of a relationship will find something to relate to in the problems of Victor (Douglas Henshall), a perennially unemployed Scottish actor living in London who is despondent over the fact that his ex-girlfriend Sylvia (Lena Headey) is about to marry another man. Victor has no one but himself to blame for the situation, as it was his confessed infidelity that drove Sylvia away. But he feels he made a terrible mistake, as he woefully confides to a friendly bartender (Elizabeth McGovern).

An encounter with a pair of magical garbagemen -- yes, that's right -- gives Victor another chance in life. He's transported back in time to the moment before he first confessed to Sylvia, and this time he's less forthcoming. But, as any character in a time-travel movie could tell you, fate has a way of not denying its victims. Victor winds up losing Sylvia all over again. Except this time, he's consoled by another bartender, the gorgeous Louise (Penelope Cruz), who falls in love with him.

Rafa Russo's rather convoluted screenplay may sometimes baffle those who aren't playing strict attention; fortunately, she's more effective at creating well-delineated, complex characters. Every figure in the story gets his or her due and is provided with interesting motivations and feelings. And to the movie's credit, it's not afraid to make its protagonists act in some not very nice ways. No doubt, if the project had attracted major stars, they would have insisted on sanitizing some of their characters' less attractive traits.

Henshall brings a properly frenetic comic desperation to the central role, though an actor with more conventional good looks might have made more credible endlessly self-absorbed Victor's ability to score with beautiful women. Headey is excellent as the aggrieved Sylvia, and Cruz is highly appealing as the love-struck Louise.

TWICE UPON A YESTERDAY

Trimark Pictures

Director: Maria Ripoli

Screenwriter: Rafa Russo

Producer: Juan Gordon

Executive producers: Jon Slan, Gareth Jones

Cinematography: Javier Salmones

Editor: Nacho Ruiz-Capillas

Music: Luis Mendo, Bernardo Fuster, Angel Illarramendi

Color/stereo

Cast:

Victor: Douglas Henshall

Sylvia: Lena Headey

Louise: Penelope Cruz

Dave: Mark Strong

Alison: Charlotte Coleman

Freddy: Neil Stuke

Running time -- 96 minutes

No MPAA rating...