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Spanish TV fiction continues to reinforce its position at the forefront of global TV, maintaining its edge, its impact on streaming services and overseas reach. Recognizing its merits, Mipcom celebrates Spain as its 2024 Country of Honor. That honor is based on market performance.

Through Oct. 6 this year, seven Spanish titles hit No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English TV series charts for a total of 15 of 40 weeks, just ahead of South Korea (13). Japan (three) and France (two) trailed well behind.

“Local Spanish TV shows as diverse as ‘Berlin,’ ‘The Asunta Case’ and ‘Raising Voices’ led the way due to their authenticity and quality,” explains Verónica Fernández, Netflix director, series & films in Spain and Portugal.

At Prime Video, the Dopamine-Focus series “Red Queen” debuted Feb. 29 as No. 1 in more than 20 countries, including Spain.

That successful streaming performance extends to Spanish movies. J.A. Bayona’s 2023 multi-award winning “Society of the Snow” is...

Audiovisual from Spain, operated by Spanish governmental export and investment org Icex, hosted a short film screening, roundtable discussion and cocktail party at the San Sebastian Festival on Tuesday evening to promote its new screen industry promotion campaign: Spain, Where Talent Ignites.

At the city’s historic Tabakalera culture center, Icex CEO Elisa Carbonell explained, “This campaign aims to help build an image associated with the country related to transversality, diversity and the richness of its creativity. There is talent in all countries, but not everyone values it equally. Our commitment is to put talent at the top.”

The centerpiece of the evening’s festivities and the Where Talent Ignites campaign, which will host events at Mipcom, AFM and the Busan festival in the coming weeks, is a short musical fashion film titled “La causa del accidente que provocó el incendio,” which premiered in front of a packed house.

Directed...

Streaming giant Netflix unveiled an ambitious slate of eight upcoming Spanish films at the recent San Sebastian International Film Festival in Spain. The company is investing heavily in original Spanish-language content to attract global viewers. The diverse collection features thriller, drama, and family films from established and up-and-coming directors.

One highly anticipated thriller is “The Black Widow” directed by Carlos Sedes. The film follows a murder investigation in Valencia that uncovers an unexpected suspect. Sedes is known for his crime TV shows “Fariña” and “The Asunta Case.” David Victori also debuts his psychological thriller “Firebreak” about a family tormented by disturbing events while selling their summer home. Eva Vives directs the procedural thriller “The Unknown” which promises to offer complex characters.

Several remakes and period pieces are in the works. Fernando González Molina tackles a reboot of the 1973 Oscar-nominated film “My Dear Miss” exploring modern Spanish identity. Cesc Gay directs “53 Sundays,...

Netflix launched two new film titles and shared details on several projects currently in development at a buzzy showcase this afternoon at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

The streamer announced at the event that it will back two new genre projects, Cortafuego directed by David Victori (Cross The Line), and The Black Widow from filmmaker Carlos Sedes (The Summer We Lived).

The Black Widow will be produced by Ramón Campos, Bambú Producciones. The official synopsis shared by the streamer reads: August 2017. The body of a man appears in a parking lot in Valencia, stabbed seven times. Everything points to a crime of passion. The city’s Homicide Group, led by a veteran inspector, begins an investigation against the clock that soon leads them to a suspect that no one expected: Maje, the young widow, sweet and serene, who had been married to the victim for less than a year.

Cortafuego,...

San Sebastian — At one of the biggest industry gatherings at this year’s San Sebastián Festival, Netflix has announced new Spanish movies from “Cable Girls” showrunner Ramón Campos and “Cross the Line” director David Victori, as it unveiled new talent details on four other banner titles.

Produced by Ramón Campos at his Madrid-based label Bambú Producciones, also behind “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Fariña,” and directed by Carlos Sedes “The Asunta Case,” “Cable Girls”), murder mystery “La Viuda Negra” begins with a body stabbed seven times is discovered in a car park in Valencia. The prime suspect for the city’s Homicide Group is Maje, the dead man’s Maje, young and kind widow to whom the deceased had been married for less than a year.

Billed as a psychological thriller, Victori’s “Cortafuego” is produced by Anxo Rodríguez y Ferrán Tomás of ESpotlight Media and stars a topnotch cast of Joaquín Furriel,...

Spanish film-tv’s good and great joined illustrious international figures to sketch out a roadmap for Europe’s film-tv future at a Conference on Sunday at San Sebastian.

Hosted by Spain’s government, coinciding with its E.U. Council Presidency, the event delivered a bullish vote of confidence in film, TV and audiovisual in general.

Such confidence is natural given the panelists, such as Movistar Plus’ Domingo Corral, Morena Films’ Pilar Benito and Atresmedia TV’s José Antonio Antón, Beta Film’s Jan Mojto and Mario Gianani, at Italy’s Wildside at a first session turning on the consolidation of business models.

Another panel broke down three European hits – Netflix’s “The Snow Girl” and animated pic franchise “Tadeo Jones,” both from Spain, and mega European co-production “The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan,” led by France’s Pathé.

Below, eight takeaways:

Size Matters

99% of companies in Europe’s Av sector are SMEs,...

The battle for success on the new drama series scene is the battle for talent, led by screenwriters. Following, portraits of Spanish TV scribes or creators, sometimes writing teams, who’ve made an impact, or look set to do so:

Fran Araujo

2022 was Araujo’s year. He co-wrote Berlin Competition’s “One Night, One Day” and “Rapa,” Movistar+’s biggest 2022 bow. “Offworld,” a collective series he coordinated, was a Variety’s International TV Show of the Year. An iconoclast – “if I do the same thing, I get bored,” he says – who tears up the rule book.

Aina Clotet

Best known for acting, winning at Malaga for “The Wild Ones,” but a driving force as co-creator, director and star behind “This Is Not Sweden” a €1.5 million grant recipient and groundbreaking Spain-Scandinavia-Germany co-pro, turning on a couple who think they’ve found a model lifestyle. But “there are no guarantees,” says Clotet.

Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here. World Cup fever has gripped Deadline Towers and while our U.S. colleagues gobble up their turkey with all the trimmings, we’ve got plenty to round up in the world of international TV and film.

Shifting The Goalposts

Controversy keeps on coming: Those who thought the Qatar World Cup controversy would melt away when the real action started were sadly mistaken. It is hard to keep track of happenings off the pitch during a fast and furious first week of the world’s biggest sporting tournament but the tone was set by a helplessly bizarre tirade from FIFA boss Gianni Infantino Saturday, in which his robust defense of the Gulf state led with a much-mocked “Today I feel Qatari, today I feel Arab, today I feel African, today I feel gay” before he went on to equate serious human rights plights with him...

Netflix has said it will clock more than 30 Spanish-language projects across film, series, and non-fiction documentaries by the year’s end. The news was unveiled by Verónica Fernández, Director of Series for Spain and Portugal at an event to mark the expansion of the streamer’s production hub in Tres Cantos, Madrid.

Netflix has been available in Spain since 2015. The streamer’s Tres Cantos campus opened in 2019 and has since doubled its stage capacity and now features ten sets and a multi-purpose space that includes the company’s first in-house post-production facility.

Fernández said the new facilities “guarantee” that creatives in Spain will have the “means to continue to tell their stories.”

“No one thought we would have so much ongoing production and Spanish content,” she said at a Q&a session during the opening event. “We are 500 million Spanish speakers, but this content has gone beyond.”

The Tres Cantos...

Launch event attended by leading Spanish talent and government ministers.

Netflix has officially opened five more soundstages at its Spanish production hub in Tres Cantos just north of Madrid, doubling the complex’s total number of studios to 10.

The streaming giant inaugurated the studios today with an opening event for press, industry execs and Spanish government ministers.

The new studios, which incorporate post-production, wardrobe, hair and make-up facilities, are hosting the seventh season of Netflix’s Elite, J.A. Bayona’s disaster feature The Society Of The Snow and Charlie Covell’s upcoming UK series Kaos produced through Sister.

Netflix is making 30 Spanish productions this year,...

Netflix is on track to produce 30 series, movies and non-fiction shows in Spain by year end, Verónica Fernández, fiction director, Netflix Spain and Portugal announced at a presentation of the U.S. streaming giant’s five new soundstages at its imposing European Production Hub north of Madrid.

The expansion, with the new facilities up-and-running from this January, raises to 10 the total number of soundstages at the complex, which opened in 2019 with three.

The announcement was made Tuesday at the official inauguration of Phase 2 of the Production Hub which also saw “Money Heist” creators Alex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato tease details of a second series in development, apart from “Money Heist” spin-off “Berlin,” set in a luxury multi-storey underground bunker.

Meanwhile, María González Veracruz, Spain’s secretary of state for telecommunications, spoke in veiled terms of new fiscal facilities for film and TV in. Spain, which could be interpreted as...

With Txintxua’s series “Intimacy” shooting to No. 1 on Netflix’s global non-English charts this summer and 17 Basque films of ever greater renown participating at the San Sebastian Festival, led by Mikel Gurrea’s feature debut “Suro” and Fernando Franco’s “The Rite of Spring,” the region’s film and TV industry has flashed signs of real growth and international recognition.

Further advances are expected next year with the launch of up-to-70 tax credits in Bizkaia.

Leading Basque production company Irusoin backed “Suro” and is producing Disney+’s most notable TV project in Spain, “Balenciaga.” “It makes perfect sense; Disney wanted to make it here because the character and the story originate from the region,” says Irusoin producer Xabi Berzosa who has observed an already crowded market with three to four shoots happening simultaneously, including The Mediapro Studio’s “Pelotaris.”

“We’ve had problems finding crew as they’re all caught up in movies,...

Fully on-site last week for the first time since 2019, Spain’s Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, its first major TV event, returned to much of the winning formula of its early pre-pandemic editions: A spectacular setting in Spain, here the august historical city of Toledo; TV project pitches; an intense conference strand; marvellous networking opportunities, most especially the possibility of spending quality time with mover and shaker industry figures from Spain and Latin America.

“I love to be here and it’s healthy, mainly for networking. I’m learning a lot, it’s like going to school,” Fremantle’s Manuel Marti enthused at Toledo. Most attendees would agree with him.

But, compared to 2019, the industry has moved on and is now buffeted by larger turbulence. Following, 12 takeaways on a robust, intense 6th Conecta Fiction, running June 21-24:

Conecta Fiction: Bigger Than Ever…

This year’s edition was the biggest ever, with 728 delegates,...