Malaga: Last News

Holly Jones Spain’s Festival de Málaga, through its industry arm Mafiz (Málaga Festival Industry Zone), heads to the Cannes Marché du Film with five works-in-progress from burgeoning Andalusian talent. “The Malaga Festival wants to support the completion of these works and make their international distribution viable,” commented Malaga head of industry, Annabelle Aramburu. This year, as Cannes more broadly celebrates Spain, the event curates two titles that tackle its tumultuous history and one which takes audiences on an unconventional road trip questioning the biological clock alongside narratives that dissect the minutiae of new forms of co-existing and the baffling concept of destiny.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Estíbaliz Urresola Solaguren’s celebrated Spanish feature “20,000 Species of Bees” and Kattia G. Zúñiga’s Panamanian drama “Sister & Sister” took the top prizes at the Malaga Film Festival, garnering the Golden Biznagas for Spanish and Latin American pictures respectively.   “20,000 Species of Bees” also won best supporting actress for Patricia López Arnaiz and picked up theSpanish Cinematographic Informers Association’s Feroz Puerta Oscura award. The film’s success follows two awards in Berlin, including a Silver Bear for Sofía Otero for her portrayal of a young girl going through a gender crisis. For Zúñiga, the Golden Biznaga is sure to help further propel “Sister & Sister,” an autobiographical story about two teenage sisters who travel from Costa Rica to Panama in search of their absent father.

Holly Jones Cementing their place as auteurs of the absurd, Spanish writer-directors Juan González and Nando Martínez, of creative outfit Burnin’ Percebes, presented their latest feature “The Fantastic Case Of The Golem,” to audiences at the Malaga Film Festival.  A sci-fi caper that embodies the duo’s freeform, standalone filmmaking style, it competes alongside further buzz titles “20.000 Species Of Bees,” from Spanish director Estíbaliz Urresola, and Gerardo Herrero’s,“Under Therapy.” After a night of heavy drinking, quintessential bachelor Juan and his friend David play a game of charades on the roof. During a highly-animated round, David falls from the ledge and shatters into a million ceramic pieces. The event sets off a fiendishly ludicrous odyssey through Juan’s daily affairs as he seeks to uncover the truth behind his ruptured relationship.

Pink Parrot, for example, unveiled a bevy of pre-sales on comedy romp “4 Days Before Christmas,” led by deals with Germany’s Splendid and Kaleidoscope in the U.K. FilmSharks has closed Latin America with The Walt Disney Co./Star Distribution on “Dalia and the Red Book,” as well as Germany, Russia/CIS and Taiwan with the U.S., France, Japan, Spain and Italy in discussions. Open-market international sales for theatrical distribution have sagged terribly in the past two decades on all but standout titles. One exception, which can still deliver seven figure returns, is animation.  Despite a slowing sales cycle, Mafiz and the Spanish Screenings still saw a dizzying slew of announcements. Following, a selection: 

Ed Meza @edmezavar This year’s Malaga Festival and its industry section’s Latin American Focus are celebrating Peruvian cinema and talent. A number of Peruvian films are screening in the festival and industry section, including “El Caso Monroy,” by Josué Mendez, and Leonardo Barbuy’s debut feature “Diógenes,” which unspool in the fest’s main section and Zonazine sidebar. As a meeting point for producers and directors from Latin American and investors from Spain and the rest of Europe, the Malaga Festival Industry Zone (MAFIZ) serves as a key hub that promotes the co-production of Latin American projects aimed at the international market.

Callum McLennan “Girl, Unknown,” the sophomore feature from Spanish director Pablo Maqueda (“Dear Werner”), currently ranks as one of the early buzz titles at the Málaga Film Festival, even before its world premiere. The film adapts Paco Bezerra’s stage play “Grooming.”  Maqueda, Bezerra and Haizea G. Viana wrote the script, which retains the play’s unsettling cat-and-mouse element. It delves into the recesses of desire, raising questions on depravity, sexuality, and the drive to be fulfilled. The story unfolds a pendulum swinging power dynamic between the seemingly innocent 16 year old Carolina, and a middle aged man she meets in a park named Leo. What begins and is a case of grooming morphs into something far more complex due to Carolina not being all she seems. Maqueda shows a Hanekesque talent in balancing the disturbing with the thrilling. On the film, Maqueda told Variety: “I feel the film as a kaleidoscope and the characters as masks. I like stories that navigate in the daily terror of everyday life,” 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Panamanian-Costa Rican director Kattia G. Zúñiga, whose debut feature “Las hijas” (“Sister & Sister”) premieres at the Malaga Film festival, is developing a new feature project about women finding their and a tougher attitude late in life through the power of dance. The project re-teams her with “Las Hijas” producer Alejo Crisóstomo. “Rabiosas” (“Raging”, their project, follows a group of 55-year-old friends in Panama who decide to take ballet classes together, as they did when they were schoolgirls, in order to cheer up a friend going through a difficult time and also to get out of the routine of daily life. Inspired by their 26-year-old teacher, however, they soon switch to bolder dancing moves.

Callum McLennan Few feature debuts at Malaga are more awaited than “Unicorns,” which world premieres on March 15, sold by Filmax. It is directed by multi award winning Àlex Lora best known for his work in documentary having won Gaudis, Emmys, and a nomination for a Goya with 2017’s “The Fourth Kingdom,”.  His feature debut gives us Isa played by Greta Fernandez. She is a hedonist, full of touch and feeling, lust and cool. She brings up Simone De Beavoir’s Second Sex in argument, but seems afflicted more by Sartre’s assertion of us being ‘condemned to be free.’ Skimming the surface of freedom from experience to experience fosters an inability to decide for herself what to focus on. Meanwhile, her mother is focussed on her novel writing, her boyfriend his wine shop, and her boss his marketing agency’s success. 

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent MALAGA, Spain — It’s not over yet. In March 2021, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the government would plow €1.6 billion ($1.9 billion) into a Spain AVS Hub plan designed to turn Spain into one of the foremost film and TV hubs in Europe. Supported by Spain’s E.U-backed Recuperation, Transformation and Resilience push for post COVID-19 recovery, the Spain AVS Hub plan has been co-financed by part of a €806.9 billion ($866.5 billion) NextGenerationEU stimulus package for the whole of the European Union, which is a temporary instrument.  As that package ends, Spain’s government will look to negotiate funding from alternative sources to ensure that Spain AVS Hub initiatives are more than a flash in the pan, a broad cross-section of governmental authorities told an audience Tuesday at a Malaga Spanish Screening Content conference.

Emiliano De Pablos In an early market deal at this week’s Málaga Film Festival, Guido Rud’s sales house FilmSharks has nabbed worldwide sales rights to Spanish period thriller “Olvido” (“The Forgotten Killings”). Directed by Inés París (“A mi madre le gustan las mujeres,” “La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre”) and written by Fermín P. Pina, “The Forgotten Killings” is produced by José Luis Rancaño at Madrid-based La Dalia Films.   Inés París’ “La noche que mi madre mató a mi padre,” also produced by Rancaño at La Dalia and starring Spain’s Belén Rueda and Argentina’s Diego Peretti, snagged the audience prize at the 2016 Málaga Film Festival.

Emiliano De Pablos The Walt Disney Co.’s Star Distribution has taken Latin American distribution rights to Argentine writer-director Pablo Solarz’s coming-of-age film “Desperté con un sueño” (“I Woke Up with a Dream”) An Argentina-Uruguay co-production, teaming Buenos Aires-based Pampa Films and Aramos Cine with Montevideo’s Mutante Cine and Bocacha Films, “I Woke Up with a Dream” screened March 14 at the Málaga Film Festival’s main competition. Top Argentine producer Pablo Bossi’s Madrid-based company Gloriamundi is handling “I Woke Up with a Dream” rights outside Latin America.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Running March 10-19, and now hosting the Spanish Screenings, the Malaga Film Festival is now firmly established as Spain’s biggest movie event in the early part of the year. Strategically positioned fairly sharp on the heels of the Berlinale, the Spanish event offers top Spanish titles at the German festival the chance to consolidate their reputations while often producing new discoveries, especially from first-time directors.  Many titles, from a Spanish film industry whose younger directors are highly social conscience and favor art-house, are issue driven.  “There’s a search for identity, whether a young trans girl’s exploration of gender identity or young leads to understand the world they live in, or the search for love and a sense pf strangeness, of being a stranger to oneself,” Juan Antonio Vigar, Málaga Film Festival director said of this year’s main Competition. Following, a brief breakdown of its titles. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Daniela Fejerman and Elvira Lindo’s “Someone Who Takes Care of Me,” a celebration of actors, their passion, craft and historical legacy, opened this year’s Malaga Film Festival in a fitting tribute to the Spanish entertainment industry.   The film, which screened out of competition, centers on three women whose careers have spanned stage, film and television, actresses of different generations whose fortunes in life have greatly differed and who struggle with untold secrets and unresolved conflicts. Aura Garrido stars as Nora, a young, award-winning actress with a promising future who carefully balances between the two main pillars in her life, her grandmother Lilith (Magüi Mira), who reigned for decades as a renowned theater star, and her mother Cecilia (Emma Suárez), whose career has languished after having achieved some glory in the 1980s, a decade of excess in which she heavily partook.

Spanish Screenings Content unspool March 13-16 in the Andalusian coastal city. 

Málaga Work in Progress, an Málaga Festival industry centerpiece where productions such as “The Platform” first saw the light of day. Playing in Malaga WIP, “The Platform” was acquired by Latido Film which sold the title to Netflix at Toronto. It has gone on to rank as the third most-watched non-English movie ever on Netflix.    At least three titles – Spanish road movie “Devil Dog Road,” horror pic “The Hidden City,” the neo-noir “Foremost by Night” – boast genre gristle. Some titles turn on gender oppression (“As Neves”), female self-discovery (“Mara’s Vacation”) or sexual diversity (“I Trust You”). Many, especially from Spain, have social-issue overtones.  

Jamie Laing and Sophie Habboo are busy planning their wedding after getting engaged in December 2021, and it's fair to say it's been hard to find the perfect venue for their nuptials. Now, speaking on their podcast The Nearlyweds, Candy Kittens founder Jamie, 33, and MIC star Sophie, 28, have told their listeners they are hoping to fly out to Malaga in Spain to decide on their wedding location after saying no to the "dream venue".The revelation comes after Jamie reminded listeners of Sophie "promising" she would have found a date as well as a venue by now.

Eddie Izzard was rocking a floral summer look and newly cropped blonde hair as she arrived for a break in Malaga on Tuesday.The 60-year-old comedian, who has previously sported a longer, swept-back style, as well as a ponytail, had her freshly bleached hair spiked up in a pixie cut.Wheeling a smart set of matching black luggage through the terminal, the popular comedian – who identifies as gender fluid and previously requested the use of ‘she and ‘her’ pronouns – also showed off her flare for style (and a good deal) in her outfit.The performer opted for a flowing pink and white printed mini dress with long sleeves and a belt around the waist, which can be snapped up at high street brand Zara for £32.99.Eddie matched the dress with her trademark bright pink lipstick, alongside large sunglasses and Nike trainers.She was also showing off a very fine set of fresh nails, painted white.Heading outside, the actor was also seen carrying a rucksack in her hand and a small black handbag with gold link chain over her shoulder.It is thought that the marathon runner is enjoying a two-week break, with Eddie seeming in a light mood while exiting the airport.Eddie, who is set to star as Dr Nina Jekyll in a ‘modern twist’ on Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic horror tale, has been out publicly as a trans since 1985, but in recent years has considered herself gender fluid.Discussing her ‘elastic’ approach to gender last year with the Radio Times, Eddie explained: ‘I go in girl mode or boy mode, which I see as a superhero thing.’She added: ‘It’s no big deal. It’s elastic, not hard and fast.

A holidaymaker from Rochdale says his Spanish holiday got off to a ‘nightmare’ start after finding his flight’s bags dumped across the terminal floor.

A plane bound for Scotland from Spain was diverted this afternoon after an emergency in the sky led to the Jet2 carrier being diverted to France.

Two 'disruptive' passengers were marched off a Ryanair flight from Manchester Airport to Malaga by police after the plane was forced to divert to Madrid. Witnesses on board the holiday jet claimed at least one of the men was drunk - and told how he 'kicked off for no reason'.

Emilio Mayorga Spanish director Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, who swept the board at March’s Málaga Festival, has wrapped shooting on her sophomore feature, “Eres Tú” (It’s You), a Netflix’ romantic comedy produced by Antonio Asensio and Paloma Molina at Zeta Studios ­­– the Madrid-based company behind phenomenon “Elite.” Miriam Rodríguez executive produces.After distributing Almodovar, and signing up J.A. Bayona, this is another move into director driven fare by Netflix in Spain, Ruiz de Azúa’s attachment to “Eres tú marks another association with a prestige director by Netflix in Spain which already distributes Pedro Almodóvar and has signed up J.A.