Lorena Ares: Last News

Jim Sheridan and David Merriman’s real crime re-imagination “Re-Creation,” Alberto Rodríguez’s big-scale “Los Tigres,” Paz Vega’s directorial debut “Rita” feature in Spain’s lineup at this year’s AFM. They are joined at the Spanish Screenings on Tour by “Nightfall,” a Federico García Lorca focused real life horror film from “Wounded” director Fernando Franco, and “Wolf Night,” the latest from Guillem Morales (“The Uninvited Guest,” “Julia’s Eyes”). Rich on crime thrillers, this year’s Spanish slate also plays to two of Spain’s strengths, the subject of Spanish Screenings showcases, which luckily enough are also proved to be of general market demand: animation and genre/fantasy.

Jamie Lang International sales and distribution outfit Pink Parrot Media has closed several key deals for Doce Entertainment and Mr. Miyagi Films’ animated kids and family feature “Hanna and the Monsters.” Agreements have been made with World Visions for CIS, Boxoo for South Korea, Front Row for the Middle East, GPI for the Baltics, Cinetel for Hungary, Wediacorp for Turkey and Movie Company for Benelux.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Organizers of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards on Friday presented 25 finalists as part of the Malaga Film Festival’s Mafiz-Spanish Screenings Content Animation Hub section. The 25 works from seven countries will compete in 10 categories at the seventh edition of the Ibero-American Animation Quirino Awards, taking place on May 11 in Tenerife.

Emilio Mayorga “Unicorn Wars” (Alberto Vázquez)Alberto Vázquez, the director of “Birdboy: The Forgotten Children,” a Gkids pickup for North America, delivers an apocalyptic anti-war parable narrating the ancestral war between teddy bears bigots and environmentalist unicorns with irreverent visual exuberance and moments of real horror.WIP’S“They Shot the Piano Player” (Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal)Trueba and Mariscal’s much-awaited new collaboration after their 2012 Oscar-nominated “Chico & Rita” is a co-production with France, Portugal, the Netherlands and Peru. Sold by Film Constellation, project threads “music, politics and documentary as well as fiction, thriller and memory,” Trueba has said.

Spain trails only France in the number of animated projects set to pitch in March at Bordeaux’s 2022 Cartoon Movie, a key international event for the artform.Spanish producers will bring 10 feature projects to the event, including two from Lorena Ares and Carlos Fernández de Vigo in “Moonbeam” and “DinoGames,” María Trenor’s “Rock Bottom,” Lorenzo Degl’Innocenti and Xosé Zapata’s “Draw” and Carmen Córdoba’s “A World of Their Own.”From the slate, four are international co-productions, two boast budgets more than €8 million ($9.04 million) and seven of the 10 projects are aimed at adult audiences, mirroring a recent global trend. With a glut of projects currently in the works from Spain, several other possible gems include Pablo Berger’s Elle Driver-sold “Robot Dreams,” Warner Bros. España and 4 Cats Pictures’ co-production “Mummies,” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal’s “They Shot the Piano Player” – sold by Film Constellation – Salvador Simó’s SC Films Intl.-sold “Dragonkeeper,” and the third release from the popular “Tadeo Jones” franchise.Spain has a long and solid tradition in animation, particularly in developing talent.