Emiliano De-Pablos: Last News

Emiliano De Pablos Top Spanish indie producer-distributor Vértice 360 has teamed with Madrid-based outfit Dexiderius Producciones to produce coming-of-age thriller series “Verdugos” (“Executioners”). Structured as a six episode mini-series in Spanish and Basque, “Executioners” has been picked as one of the 15 finalist projects selected at next month’s Series Mania Forum Co-Pro Pitching Sessions. The mini-series is created and written by Dexiderius co-founder Pedro Ríos (“Mis adorables vecinos,” “Fuera de control”) and Rodrigo Martín (“Manos de Seda,” “Lex”). Dexiderius co-founder César Martínez and Alberto Rull, EVP production and content at Vértice 360, will produce. 

Emiliano De Pablos Powerhouse Banijay Iberia is joining forces with Spain’s top soccer federation LaLiga to launch new sports-related content production, LaLiga Studios. The strategic deal sees Banijay tapping into its production expertise and LaLiga, its soccer knowledge and reputation, in a drive to establish LaLiga Studios as a global benchmark in the creation of content related to sport and its universal values.   Through this partnership, LaLiga Studios will produce audiovisual content for LaLiga, clubs, sponsors, and broadcasters. It will also work with international platforms and brands in the development, production, and distribution of entertainment, documentary, fiction, and animation content.  

Emiliano De Pablos Boosting its profile as a Spanish reference point, not only for TV drama but also for documentary production, Atresplayer Premium, the pay TV platform of media conglom Atresmedia Group, is preparing docuseries “Érase una vez en Marbella” (Once Upon a Time in Marbella). Produced by Atresmedia TV in collaboration with Seville-based Happy Ending (“Pongamos que hablo de…”), the four episode 50 minutes series will dive into real-life stories of deep impact that had the city of Marbella, in Spain’s southern Andalusia coast, as a common element.  The documentary will explain how Marbella went in a few years, since the 1950s, from being a fishing village in Málaga province to becoming one of the most ostentatious leisure centers for the worldwide jet set.

Emiliano De Pablos Madrid-based Zeta Studios, the producer behind worldwide hit series “Élite,” HBO Max’s “García!,” Movistar Plus’ “Reyes de la noche” and Prime Video’s “Días Mejores,” has teamed with double San Sebastián Golden Shell winner director Isaki Lacuesta for TV drama project “El hijo del chófer” (“The Chauffeur’s Son”). Lacuesta will direct and write the series alongside writer-director Isa Campo, and “Días mejores” creator and “Fariña” scribe Cristóbal Garrido. The project is currently in a development and looking for financing.

Emiliano De Pablos In a further step towards its consolidation as a global player of not only fiction but non-scripted entertainment content, international production powerhouse The Mediapro Studio has reached an exclusive deal with Belgium’s Be-Entertainment to produce its formats for Spain and Latin America. The pact also sees The Mediapro Studio developing non-fiction formats for VTM, a Flanders’ leading TV channel with more than 30 years of broadcasting. Like Be-Entertainment, VTM is owned by Belgian giant DPG Media.  TMS will become “the only production company that can exclusively adapt the distributor’s formats for Spain and Latin America,” the European super indie company noted in a press release Monday morning.

Emiliano De Pablos Globoplay, the streaming platform of Latin American TV giant Globo, has picked up Brazilian rights to police noir thriller series “Motel Valkirias,” a Spain-Portugal co-production handled by Onza Distribution.  Created by Ghaleb Jaber Martínez, writer-producer of Netflix’s Galician TV drama hit “O Sabor das Margaridas,” the series is directed by Álex Sampaio (Schibare”) and Jorge Quiroga (“Atras das Nuvens”). In post-production, the eight episode 50-minute “Motel Valkirias” is set in a cross-border motel between Galicia and Portugal, following three women with financial and personal problems who get in serious danger after joining forces to get their hands on some valuable merchandise from a guest in the motel.

Emiliano De Pablos Three years ago, platforms were asking Spanish producers for full rights to their TV fiction projects for all territories.  Times have changed. As platforms’ revenues taper off or slow in growth, originals are less habitual. Co-production is increasingly becoming the name of the game. A first-phase boom was triggered by Netflix titles “Money Heist” and “Elite.” Now, Spain is maintaining its momentum, remaining a priority region for Netflix, HBO Max and Prime Video. Newcomers Disney+, Paramount+ and Lionsgate+ have unveiled their first original productions.

Emiliano De Pablos Top Spanish arthouse distributor-producer Avalon had boarded “La niña de la cabra” (“Goat Girl”), the sophomore film by actor-director Ana Asensio whose “Most Beautiful Island” feature snagged the SXSW Grand Jury Award in 2017. The project, which has just earned support from Spain’s ICAA film institute, is set up at Aquí y Allí Films and co-produced with Romania’s Avantpost Media. Pedro Hernández’s Aquí y Allí Films is the producer behind Antonio Méndez Esparza’s festival hits “Here and There,” a Cannes Critics’ Week winner, and “Life and Nothing More.” An allegorical drama set in the suburbs of Madrid in the late ’80s, “Goat Girl” is scheduled to roll in 2023 and has been acquired for international sales by Paris-based Alpha Violet.

Emiliano De Pablos Portuguse public broadcaster RTP has taken an undisclosed co-production stake in animated series “My Brother Is a T-Rez,” a Spanish-Portuguese project created and directed by Spaniard Javi Peces (“Bento”). Executive produced by Celine Fernandes at Portuguese animation house Lusco Fusco Animation in co-production with Madrid-based Mr. Klaus Studio, “My Brother” is an upper pre-school series project aimed to promote adventure, educational and sustainability values. The project was previously pre-bought by Spain’s public broadcaster RTVE for its children-oriented channel Clan TV.

Emiliano De Pablos “The Silence of the Ants,” by documentary filmmaker Francisco Montoro, snagged top prizes at the 18th Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, part of the San Sebastián Festival. The documentary took the Ibaia–Elkargi Award for best project at the pitching session, plus the Distribution and Festival Consultancy Treeline Award and the Fipadoc Biarritz Award. Produced by Apnea Films, “The Silence of the Ants” follows a Spanish couple who traveled to the Ukraine in 2015 to find the seven-year-old girl they hosted for temporary foster care. Federation Spain’s “Carapirú: El Superviviente,” by Aner Etxebarria and Pablo Vidal, took The Ibaia – Bilibin Circular Prize for its environmental values with a title suggesting a combination of “Cast Away” and “Apocalypto” translated to real life in Brazil’s Amazon jungle.

Emiliano De Pablos As part of its objective of building into a key industry hub in the European animation and VFX landscape, Spain’s Madrid will host for the first time an edition of renowned training event Cartoon Springboard, which will run Oct. 25-27. 24 animated series and feature film projects by young European talents will be presented at the meeting, where a panel of experts will mentor the selected writers, directors, and producers with the aim of strengthening their projects both creatively and financially.  Organised by Cartoon, the training event reaches Madrid, after having been previously held in the cities of Valencia, Valenciennes and Halle. 

Emiliano De Pablos Spain’s Madrid region is riding the crest of a wave towards becoming one of the most important animation/VFX hubs in Europe. Taking in the country’s capital, the Madrid region hosts more than 32% of Spain’s active audiovisual companies and around 31% of its animation and VFX firms.  Regional animation and VFX players – structured around Pixel Cluster Madrid –  scored last year a net revenue of €72.6 million ($72.6 million) and generated 1,855 jobs.  “Animation and video games are strategic sectors within the economy of Madrid,” says Ignacio Carballo, head of audiovisual industries in the Madrid region. “They are elements of the future, dynamizers.”

Emiliano De Pablos Eight animated TV series projects involving Spanish companies will be presented to buyers and producers attending 2022 Cartoon Forum’s pitching sessions, the event’s main attraction.  Among well-known production companies presenting their latest cartoon shows figure In Efecto Atlantis, the Spanish-French studio behind Disney’s series “Tara Duncan;”Sygnatia, the producer of multi-award winning animated film “Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles,” and Peekaboo Animation, creator of world sales hit series “I, Elvis Riboldi.”  Two of the Spanish projects selected (“My Brother is a T-Rez” and “Polka Dot Zebra”) target preschoolers; five titles (“Bertie’s Brainwaves,” “Best Friends Forever… Stranded!,” “Mervyn’s Album,” “The Little Orchestra” and “Zoey Oceans”) are intended for older children; “Firsts” aims for family audiences.

Emiliano De Pablos The rise of Spain’s animation power promises to provide one of the leading narratives at this year’s Cartoon Forum.   In one of its strongest representations ever at the Toulouse event, eight high-profile TV series projects from Spain will be pitched, trailing only France.   To complete its standout presence, a spotlight on Spain will take place at the Forum, with several networking activities to promote local industry, backed by Spanish trade promotion broad ICEX in collaboration with Diboos, the country’s toon and VFX federation. In recent years, the animation scene has experienced a historic growth, becoming a key sector in the rapidly growing local audiovisual market. 

Emiliano De Pablos Few nations in the world have developed such a spread of film commissions as Spain, a country forged out of its regions, whose governments have energetically bought in to the benefits of foreign and local shoots. As the country moves ever more onto the big-shoot locations industry radar, the Spain Film Commission is experiencing rapid growth of its nationwide network as well as helping to drive the ambitious Spain AVS Hub plan. Following the March 2021 announcement by the central government of the launch of the Spain AVS Hub plan — with a €1.6 billion ($1.6 billion) budget — a royal decree in October granted $5 million in direct support to the SFC for actions eligible for subsidies from 2022-24.

Emiliano De Pablos Launched early May, the Spain Audiovisual Bureau acts as a facilitator for the production sector, attending enquiries about international markets, handling information about processing filming permits and providing tax incentives information. A ground-breaking development in Spain, the Bureau marks a first-ever effort to coordinate public and private entities related to the international presence of the Spanish film and TV production industry. The Spain Audiovisual Bureau represents an innovation of the Spain AVS Hub, an initiative launched in March 2021 by the Spanish government with a €1.6 billion ($1.6 billion) budget to power up local film and TV production and encourage big foreign players to shoot and set up production centers in the country.

Emiliano De Pablos Ten reasons why Spain is a favorite for big-budget productions: Up to 70% Tax Incentives In 2020, a tax break hike catapulted Spain into the top echelon of destinations for big international shoots. Its mainland offers a competitive 30% tax rebate for the first €1 million ($1 million) of spend and 25% for further expenditure, capped at $10.1 million. In the Canary Islands, the rebates reach 50% for the first $1.1 million and 45% thereafter, with a $19.4 million ceiling. The Basque Country’s Bizkaia province looks set to offer tax breaks up to 70% beginning in 2023. One thing are these figures, another the general international industry take that the tax breaks and rebates are reliable, in contrast to someplace around the world.

Emiliano De Pablos Spain has a long tradition of big international shoots. More recently, there’s been a production renaissance: “Wrath of the Titans,” “Game of Thrones,” “House of the Dragon” and “Vampire Academy,” among many others, have chosen Spain. One key driver is tax incentives. Tax breaks were raised in March 2020 when the government established a new rate for Spain’s mainland of a 25%-30% deduction on spend for both rebates on international shoots and credits for Spanish co-productions. No less important, the incentive cap per shoot was raised from €3 million ($3 million) to $10.1 million. The minimum production budget to trigger incentives was set at $2.02 million; a $1.01 million minimum expenditure in Spain qualifies a shoot for incentives. At the same time, the Canary Islands established a 50% tax rebate, with a $19.4 million ceiling.

Emiliano De Pablos Seismic shifts in the world’s entertainment industry have thrown a global spotlight on Spain’s film and TV industry as never before. Foreign productions are flocking to Spain, spending €263 million ($266 million) in 2021, double the 2016-19 average, according to a ProFilm study. International inward investment in national productions has also grown on an unprecedented scale. All the big streamers have beached in Spain. Reed Hastings cut the tape on Netflix’s first European Production Hub, in Madrid’s Tres Cantos, in 2019. Viacom Intl. Studios (VIS) EMEA and Asia and AMC Networks Intl. Southern Europe have set up production operations in Spain. Other players — Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max and Starzplay — run offices in the country.

Emiliano De Pablos Global film sales agency and U.S. domestic distributor Blue Fox Entertainment has announced that production has wrapped on family comedy “Popular Theory,” starring Cheryl Hines (“Curb Your Enthusiasm”), Marc Evan Jackson (“The Good Place”), Sophia Reid-Gantzert (“The Baby-Sitters Club”), Lincoln Lambert (“Nope”), and Chloe East (“The Fabelmans”). Century City-based Blue Fox Entertainment is handling worldwide sales and will release the film theatrically in the U.S. in 2023, the company said in a statement. “Popular Theory” is a coming-of-age comedy that plumbs the complexities of companionship and ambition.  In the film, Erwin (Reid-Gantzert) is a 12-year-old girl genius completely out of sorts as the youngest student in high school. She’s faced with only one problem she can’t solve: Social isolation. With fellow outcast and chemistry guru Winston (Lambert), the duo team up to invent a chemical that will change the high school hierarchy forever.

Emiliano De Pablos Chinese sales agent Parallax Films has acquired international sales rights to Malaysian director Ming Jing Woo’s feature “Stone Turtle,” which world premieres in the Locarno Film Festival’s international competition.A time-traveling movie, “Stone Turtle” is produced by Edmund Yeo and Ming Jin Woo at Malaysia’s Greenlight Pictures and co-produced by Cheng Thim Kian and Yulia Evina Bhara at KawanKawan Media in Indonesia.The story follows Zahara, a stateless refugee who lives on a small remote island in Malaysia, where she makes a living selling turtle eggs.One day, Samad, claiming to be a university researcher, visits the island, wanting to employ Zahara to show him around. As the day goes on, Zahara and Samad become entangled in a dangerous dance of duplicity and deception.