Spain’s Next Gen Talent: Four Takes on Madrid’s 2022 ECAM Incubator Directors, Producers

variety.com:

Emilio Mayorga Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Lullaby” was described by Pedro Almodóvar as “undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years.” Chema García Ibarra’s “The Sacred Spirit” was hailed by Variety as “one of the standouts of the 2021 Locarno Film Festival.” David Pérez Sañudo’s “Ane is Missing” won three Spanish Academy Goya Awards last year.

What these three Spanish movies, all first features, have in common is that they have passed through the ECAM Madrid Film School’s Incubator, a six-month producer mentorship initiative.

As its fifth edition rounds a final bend, Variety analyzes what its projects say about the state of cutting-edge young Spanish cinema and what the talent behind it says about the state of contemporary filmmaking.  Filmmakers With Attitude On the face of it, the five projects developed this year could not be more different, in genre, tone and issues tackled.

Gabriel Azorín’s “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes” explores male friendship, while drawing links between two modern-day teens and young Roman soldiers who used the same baths in the Spanish countryside 2,000 years ago. “Ripli” plumbs ADHD, depression and processing anxiety. “Macramé” focuses on sexuality and power play, “Festina Lente” on functional diversity and “Disposable” on social segregation, as “Lente” director Carlos Villafaina points out.