Actualités

Fernando León de Aranoa’s English-language debut pre-sells to multiple territories for WestEnd Films.

WestEnd Films has pre-sold multiple territories on A Perfect Day.

Fernando León de Aranoa’s English-language debut stars Benicio del Toro, Tim Robbins, Olga Kurylenko and Mélanie Thierry.

Rights have gone to France (TF1/Ugc), Germany (X- Verleih), Benelux (WildBunch), Switzerland (Praesens), Israel (United King), Middle East (Ecs), Greece (Spentzos), Malaysia (Suraya), South-Africa (M-Net) and Ex-Yugoslavia (Vti).

Further territories are still under negotiation, including Spanish distribution rights.

Following Princesas and Amador, A Perfect Day marks the third collaboration between Fernando León de Aranoa’s Reposado and Jaume Roures for Mediapro, who are producing the €7m film.

It follows four conflict zone aid workers who are involved in a race against time to save the water supply of a divided community.

WestEnd’s managing director Mata Amsellem commented: “Fernando’s endearing script had already been extremely well received by the marketplace prior to Cannes...

★★★☆☆ Spanish director Fernando León de Aranoa writes and directs well-meaning drama Amador, focusing upon the lives of Bolivian immigrants in Madrid - an under-represented group in cinematic terms - specifically Marcela (Magaly Solier) and her flower-selling partner Nelson (Pietro Sibille).

After discovering that she is pregnant (and in order to make ends meet due to her husband's struggling flower-trading trade), Marcela accepts a job taking care of the elderly, bedridden Amador (Celso Bugallo) while his family are away. Amador is initially cold towards his new carer, sitting aloof as he watches television or works on his jigsaw.

After a period of time, Marcela manages to break through Amador's icy exterior, engaging him on a personal level that his family seemed unable to achieve. However, the old man's sudden death leads Marcela to extreme measures in order to secure her full pay.

The subject matter here is certainly on the dark side,...

Film Movement has acquired North American rights to Fernando León De Aranoa's latest drama, "Amador." Winner of Best Director and Best Actress in an Iberoamerican Feature at the Guadalajara International Film Festival, "Amador" stars Peruvian actress Magaly Solier as young immigrant with financial troubles, facing a major moral crisis. The company will release it theatrically in New York during the second quarter of 2012, with a limited national roll-out to ...

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

“To Be Heard” and “Hot Coffee” win big at Seattle International Film Festival’s awards ceremony today at Seattle’s Space Needle.

See below for the full list of winners and runners-up:

Siff 2011 Competition Awards

Siff 2011 Best New Director

Grand Jury Prize

Gandu, directed by “Q” Kaushik Mukherjee (India, 2010)

Jury Statement: “We chose to give the prize to a movie that bowled us over with its kinetic, brash humor and style-hoping dexterity, a portrait of tortured youth that refreshingly pokes fun at adolescent self-centeredness while simultaneously exploring the anger, despondency and malaise of a generation.”

Siff 2011 Best Documentary

Grand Jury Prize

Hot Coffee, directed by Susan Saladoff (USA, 2011)

Jury Statement: “Going beyond a well-known headline that was the butt of many jokes, Hot Coffee makes dry legal boilerplate spring to life in portraying human dramas with tragic consequences. It makes us all question our simple assumptions – it’s a film that needs to be seen.

The 61st edition of Berlinale kicked off late last week, and with the inclusion of four spanish films, four less than the last year. The already well known “También La Lluvia” (“Even The Rain”) by Icíar Bollaín, “Amador” by Fernando León de Aranoa and “Medianeras” by Gustavo Taretto, all presented out of competition at the panorama section. The fourth film, “Escuchando Al Juez Garzón”, by cult filmmaker Isabel Coixet (“My Life Without Me”) is a documentary shot on black and white based on a popular figure in a Spanish judge -- this will be showcased at Specials section of the Berlinale. Although we have covered before films like “También La Lluvia” and “Amador”, the film “Medianeras” comes from out of nowhere. Directed by Argentinian Gustavo Taretto, this is an adaptation of its 2005 short film of the same title that won over forty international awards. This coproduction between Spain and Argentina...

The 2011 Berlin International Film Festival has just announced twenty more titles to the fest's Panorama section. The section offers a large and eclectic mix of films that push narrative and formal boundaries. The Berlinale programmers previously released a list of half of 2011 Panorama titles. Included in the new batch of films is "Amador" from Panorama alum Fernando León De Aranoa ("Familia"), genre film "Vampire," which stars Kevin Zegers, ...

O Apóstolo isn't only the latest animated offering from Spain, but it reflects upon Spain's rich history in film animation. For some, the more recent “Planet 51” was considered a major landmark due to the budget size, overseas box office, and the huge technical advances it made in rapport to previous films in the genre, but the latest animated offering, which was set to have its world premiere at Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival but has since shifted plans, is a bigger, more detailed, stereoscopic 3D item that is poised to become a benchmark in the animation field. Directed by newcomer Fernando Cortizo, O Apóstolo is unlike previous films in the genre since it's one of the first animated films in Spain in which the target audience is for mature audiences. The story and the mood are closely inspired by the likes of Tim Burton's “The Corpse Bride”, though here,...

O Apóstolo isn't only the latest animated offering from Spain, but it reflects upon Spain's rich history in film animation. For some, the more recent “Planet 51” was considered a major landmark due to the budget size, overseas box office, and the huge technical advances it made in rapport to previous films in the genre, but the latest animated offering, which just received its world premiere at Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival is a bigger, more detailed, and a true gem in the field. Directed by newcomer Fernando Cortizo, O Apóstolo is unlike previous films in the genre since it's one of the first animated films in Spain in which the target audience is for mature audiences. The story and the mood are closely inspired by the likes of Tim Burton's “The Corpse Bride”, though here, we get the folklore, traditions and history of the north of Spain. The...