Julio Medem: Last News

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentMoving waves on Spain’s film-TV scene when it launched in early May, Beta Fiction Spain has unveiled its first project as a producer, “Dolores,” a portrait of Spain’s Dolores Ibarruri, a worldwide icon of the workers’ movement and struggle against fascism.The feature film is inspired by “Pasionaria. La vida inesperada de Dolores Ibárruri,” a question-posing non-fiction book by Spanish historian Diego Díaz Alonso published in 2020.Underscoring Beta Fiction Spain’s ability to attach best-of-class Spanish talent, the screenplay for “Pasionaria” is being penned by two of Spain’s foremost film-TV scribes, Alejandro Hernández, co-writer of Alejandro Amenábar’s “While at War” and Mariano Barroso’s “What the Future Holds,” and Michel Gaztambide, a writer on Julio Medem’s milestone 1992 debut “Cows,” Enrique Urbizu’s best picture Goya winner “No Rest for the Wicked” and Freddy Highmore heist thriller  “The Vault,” the second highest-grossing Spanish movie of 2021.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Over the last six years, thanks in the main to the SVOD revolution, Spain, once known for select auteurs – Pedro Almodóvar, J.A. Bayona, Fernando Trueba – has stepped fully onto the world stage as a European film and TV power. Appropriately then, Spain is the Country in Focus 2025 at Berlin Festival’s European Film Market.

Callum McLennan Julio Medem, one of Spain’s most distinctive cinematic voices, returns to the spotlight at Berlin’s European Film Market with “8,” an ambitious and formally daring film that spans 90 years of Spanish history through the intertwined lives of Octavio and Adela. Javier Rey (“Cocaine Coast”) stars as Octavio, while Ana Rujas, acclaimed for her role in Los Javis’ “La Mesías,” plays Adela.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Firmly established as one of Europe’s biggest dedicated showcases for movies from Latin America, Spain and Portugal, Huelva Ibero-American Film Festival celebrates its 50th edition with a bang, with a high-caliber main Competition, a new showcase on Spain. Following, some highlights and trends at this year’s festival, which runs Nov. 15-23.

EXCLUSIVE: Goodfellas is expanding its footprint into Spain in a new production venture with prolific local producer Enrique López Lavigne aimed at producing ambitious projects with Spanish talent with international appeal.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent SAN SEBASTIAN — Beta Fiction Spain, the distributor of the opening and closing films at this year’s San Sebastian Festival, Audrey Diwan’s “Emmanuelle” and John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” has tapped Arantxa Echevarría to direct its banner Spanish feature, “Dolores.” Echeverría has already helmed for Beta Fiction “La Infiltrada,” about a police infiltrator in Basque terrorist org ETA, which bows Oct. 11 starring Luis Tosar and Carolina Yuste.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent New films by Julio Medem, Alejandro Amenábar, Alberto Rodríguez, Isaki Lacuesta, Jonas Trueba and Oliver Laxe join a brace of smart thrillers in a rich Cannes lineup from Spain. “8,” (Julio Medem) Medem (“The Red Squirrel,” “Julia and Sex”) returns towhat he does best: a love story transcending time and space and a poetic critique of recent history, according to sales agent Latido Films. “Fariña’s” Javier Rey and “La Mesías” Ana Rujus star as the lovers.

French director Laurent Cantet, who won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2008 for The Class, has died at the age of 63.