Juan Antonio: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentIn a sign of just how much the film and TV industry has evolved over the past few years, 25% of participants at the Malaga Festival’s new Spanish Screenings XXL will represent in one way or another VOD platforms, the organizers announced Tuesday.After taking place in November 2020 and October 2021 during two years of pandemic, Malaga’s leg of the 2022 Spanish Screenings XXL will take place over March 21-24 as part of an even larger Malaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ).In line with the Unifrance Rendez-Vous in Paris a fortnight ago, the event will expand to take in not only recent Spanish movies but series, animation and, in the case of the Spanish Screenings, straight to digital formats. “Not just features get sold these days,” said Malaga Festival director Juan Antonio Vigar.

EXCLUSIVE: Amid its continuing drive to ramp up local feature productions, Netflix has a host of ambitious titles coming out of Europe in the next year. Already, Paolo Sorrentino’s Oscar-shortlisted The Hand Of God launched on the service in late 2021, hitting the Top 10 in 11 countries, while ahead are films from such directors as Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Louis Leterrier, Romain Gavras, Edward Berger, Roar Uthaug and Oscar winner Sébastian Lelio, among others. Currently in production for later down the pike are J.A. Bayona’s Society Of The Snow and the Spanish feature spinoff of Netflix hit series Bird Box.