Silver Biznaga: Last News

Emiliano De Pablos Paco León, one of Spain’s most prominent talents, is attached to star in thriller “Líbranos del mal” (“There Is Evil”), directed and produced by brothers José and César Esteban Alenda at their Madrid-based outfit Solita Films.Currently in development, “There Is Evil” is planned to shoot for six weeks in Madrid from January 2024.Solita Films is one of the five Spanish companies selected by Spain’s trade promotion board ICEX and its ICAA film institute to pitch their production slates at Cannes’ Producers Network, on Friday 20.In “There Is Evil,” after another girl is found dead, a former police officer decides to hunt down a child serial killer with the help of his six-year-old daughter.  “We want to make an impulsive, hypnotic thriller, but with the emotional texture of a family drama where the anguish and fear are born from perfectly real, recognizable and close circumstances,” José and César Esteban Alenda said.The Alenda brothers’ 2018 feature debut “Sin Fin” earned a Goya Award nomination for best new director, and won a Silver Biznaga at the Málaga Film Festival.A celebrated film and TV multi-hyphenate, Spain’s Paco León is well-known in Latin America, starring in Mexico’s “House of Flowers” and Colombia’s “Capital Noise.” He co-created, wrote and directed Rose d’Or winner “Arde Madrid,” one of Movistar Plus’ best reviewed series.“Rainbow,” León’s feature adaptation of “The Wizard of Oz,” a Netflix and Telecinco Cinema production, will be released this year on the streamer. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Isaki Lacuesta has returned to the Malaga Film Festival with his highly anticipated rock band drama “Saturn Return” (“Segundo Premio”), a fabled account of iconic Spanish group Los Planetas and their struggle to make their legendary third album,“Una semana en un motor de un autobús.” The film, which the award-winning filmmaker directed with Pol Rodríguez and wrote with Fernando Navarro, stars Daniel Ibáñez, Stéphanie Magnin and musician-turned-actor Cristalino. “Saturn Returns” screened in competition in Malaga, where Lacuesta and Isa Campo, double San Sebastian Golden Shell winners, won the best director Silver Biznaga for their 2016 mystery drama “The Next Skin.” Speaking to Variety, Lacuesta explains how the film is not about Los Planetas but rather about the legend of the band and the mystique they themselves have cultivated over the years. Indeed, the story of “Saturn Return” is largely based on the band’s songs.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a bid to bypass traditional distribution channels and open up new ones, Madrid-based 59 En Conserva has launched a newly expanded Les Films de la Résistance, its international sales agency for non-fiction and hybrid Spanish films. Among the first titles in its roster is the critically acclaimed feature debut of 59 En Conserva co-founder Irene M. Borrego, “The Visit and a Secret Garden” (“La visita y un jardín secreto”).

“El agua,” (Elena López Riera)A Directors’ Fortnight title, the feature debut of Locarno winning López Riera (“Los Que Desean”), a fantasy-laced village-set critique of gender violence. S.A. Elle Driver“Alcarràs,” (Carla Simón)The 2022 Berlin Golden Bear winner, Simón’s follow-up to “Summer 1993” and the flagship title for Catalonia and Spain’s newest filmmaking generation.

Emiliano Granada After having won the Silver Biznaga for best documentary director at this June’s Malaga Festival with “El Father Plays Himself,” which screens now at the Spanish Screenings, director-cinematographer Mo Scarpelli is leaping into fiction with her new project, “A Song That Slays.” Following a number of eye-catching doc titles that have always generated festival buzz  whether “El Father Plays Himself” at last year’s Visions du Réel, “Anbessa” at the 2019 Berlinale and Frame by Frame at 2015’s SXSW –  Scarpelli’s production company Rake Films has now been joined on her new project by Rome-based Dispàrte, which has boarded as lead producer.Soon finishing the development workshop Less is More (LIM), organized  by Le Groupe Ouest,