Latest news with #Querer
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
France Embraces Spanish TV, But for How Long?
At France's Series Mania in April, now firmly consolidated as Europe's biggest TV festival, Spain scored a historic double, scooping its two top awards, Competition's Grand Prize with 'Querer' and its International Panorama major sidebar with 'Celeste.' Both 'Querer' and 'Celeste' were produced by Spain's Movistar Plus+, 'Celeste' along with The Mediapro Studio. Since Series Mania launched its International Panorama in 2018, no country, let alone the same company, has won its two biggest prizes in one and the same year. More from Variety LA Screenings Independents Bounces Back Brazilian Major Streamer Globoplay Bets on Global Reach of True Crime By Bringing Fourth Season of 'The Anti-Kidnapping Unit' to LA Screenings The Rise of 'Like Water for Chocolate' Producer Endemol Shine Boomdog In recent dealing, Arte France, the French leg of pan-European public broadcaster Arte, also co-produced Rodrigo Sorogoyen's 'The New Years' and acquired 'Querer' and 'La Mesías,' the biggest series to date from 'Velvet' creators and Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – 'Los Javis.' 'It's the first time that we have so many projects at the same time with the same commissioner and the same program unit of one company or one broadcaster or platform, whatever,' notes Alexandre Piel, Arte France's deputy head of drama. At 2025's Series Mania's, 'Celeste' lead Carmen Machi also won Panorama's best actress award, while 'Interregnum,' from Spain's Tornasol Media, received its SeriesMakers Beta & Kirch Foundation Award. 'The two major international prizes confirm the prominent place of Spanish series in today's serial landscape,' Series Mania founder and general manager Laurence Herszberg commented, announcing the awards. Movistar Plus+ and The Mediapro Studio certainly aren't making all Spain's running in France. In early 2018, 'Money Heist' exploded onto the world's TV scene, becoming Netflix's first ever non-English-language global blockbuster. France was one of La Casa de Papel's core markets. Netflix is still going great guns in Spain. 2025's Series Mania looked to mark another milestone moment, which says a lot about what's happened to Spanish TV and international market trends since. 'There has been massive investment from the global streamers in recent years, in part because of the potential of Spanish-speaking markets, and that has pushed competition, producers and talent and the average quality of shows,' says Francesco Capurro, Series Mania Forum director. Begun by HBO over 1999-2002, global streamers when they launched aimed to amplify that phenomenon, creating a feeding frenzy for scripted premium TV which many big Spanish groups – Movistar Plus+, The Mediapro Studio, Atresmedia – have responded to with energy. With no MipTV in Cannes, their executives and titles have flooded Series Mania. A fourth Spanish title selected by the European TV festival was 'Mariliendre,' created by Javier Ferreiro and produced by Los Javis, and described by Variety as Spain's answer to 'La La Land.' Series Mania was very close to tying down a fifth title, comments Herszberg. As things stood, only France had more series at Series Mania this year than Spain. Ghislain Barrois at Spain's Mediaset España, RTVE's José Pastor and Movistar Plus+'s Rubén Fernández Loa (Movistar Plus+) served on Forum juries. Spain's across the board growth is now reaping international market benefits. Founded in 2010 at Paris' Forum des Images and moving to Lille in 2018, Series Mania has grown as Europe's premier co-production meet. In Europe, in real terms broadcaster budgets in Europe, at both public or commercial networks, are now edging down, according to a European Audiovisual Observatory study presented at Series Mania. 'It's increasingly difficult to make an ambitious series just within your country. Getting outside money already opens up being broadcast elsewhere or accessing a sales agent,' says Herszberg. 'Co-financing and co-production are more relevant than than ever,' agrees Series Mania director Francesco Capurro. In Arte France, Movistar Plus+ has found a like-minded partner. The two's now intense title-by-title relationship is knit by what Piel calls 'common editorial guidelines.' From Alauda Ruíz de Azua, and teaming Movistar Plus+ with Kowalski Films and Feelgood Media, 'Querer' plumbs what must be one of the least explored but most frequent scenarios of rape in the world: marital relationships. Based on Javier Cercas' acclaimed non-fiction book of the same title, 'Anatomy of a Moment' captures Spain's Feb. 23, 1981 one night coup' d'etat, emphasizing the complexity of events, the fragility of its democracy, the value of its defence and how two men distant on the political spectrum – Spanish prime minister Adolfo Suárez, who came from Spain's Francoist Falange, and Spanish Communist Party leader Santiago Carrillo – came to an intricate understanding which allowed Spain's 1970s passage from dictatorship to democracy. 'It's how to be relevant, accurate, bring something a bit different, taking risk but bringing some nuance in a world which is so polarized, so radical that you just need a little bit of elements to understand or to switch point of views,' says Piel. 'It's a brick of knowledge that we all need in Europe just to understand where Spain is today,' he adds. 'Thanks to Suárez and Carrillo's ability to understand each other's point of view, pact and be flexible, they facilitated Spain's transition,' said Domingo Corral in April, when still Movistar Plus+'s director of fiction and entertainment content. Co-production brings more money to the table than a simple licensing deal, and pares risk. Movistar Plus' is a local operator without the magnitude of global services and 'Anatomy of an Instant' is 'an expensive series,' said Corral. 'Having a parter like Arte France allows us a lot at a economic level but also because of its creative vision,' said Corral. Since it bowed its first shows in 2017, the largest achievement of Movistar Plus+ has been to attract some of Spain's biggest creative talents as many creators in Spain have seized an opportunity to make series of the same level of artistic ambition and cinematographic execution as in cinema. As the Series Mania double suggests, this younger generation is ever more on France's radar. Sorogoyen won France's best foreign film Cesar for 'The Beasts' in 2023. Winning two prizes at last year's Series Mania, Los Javis 'La Mesías' was greeted with rave reviews in France when released last November on Arte: 'One of the most beautiful series of the year,' said Libération. Two Spanish films – Oliver Laxe's 'Sirat,' Carla Simon's 'Romería' – have now been selected for Cannes competition. Movistar Plus+ and Arte France now hope to co-develop series together, says Piel. In April, that looked to spell well for the Spanish operator's bottom line and international creative reach. In late April, however, Corral, the main architect of Movistar Plus+' artistic ambition over the last decade, supported by Sergio Oslé as Movistar Plus president and then CEO of Telefónica España, was dismissed as Movistar Plus+ director of fiction and entertainment content by its parent Telefonica, itself under new management. 150 prominent figures from the Spanish entertainment sector have signed a public letter expressing their gratitude and consternation. The most obvious way to interpret his Corral's removal is that Movistar Plus+ will now pursue a different production strategy. Other operators remain bullish about Spanish TV talent. It remains to be seen whether Spain's consecration in France now mark halcyon days. Best of Variety New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week Emmy Predictions: Talk/Scripted Variety Series - The Variety Categories Are Still a Mess; Netflix, Dropout, and 'Hot Ones' Stir Up Buzz Oscars Predictions 2026: 'Sinners' Becomes Early Contender Ahead of Cannes Film Festival
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Series Mania Awards: Lili Reinhart Takes Best Actress as Spain Scores Historic Double With ‘Querer,' ‘Celeste'
LILLE, France — Lili Reinhart scored best actress for 'Hal & Harper' at France's Series Mania, Europe's biggest TV festival, as its attendance figures went through the roof. Meanwhile, Spain's Movistar Plus+ scored a historic double, winning the top Grand Prize in main competition for Alauda Ruiz de Azua's 'Querer' and best series for Diego San José's 'Celeste,' co-produced with The Mediapro Studio, in the fest's major sidebar. More from Variety 'Operación Triunfo' Finalist Martin Urrutia on His 'Mariliendre' Acting Debut, First Studio Album and Joining Los Javis' 'Welcoming, Brave and Inclusive' Creative Community Series Mania Booms, Grows Market Edge, Anticipates New U.S.-Europe Tensions: These and Other Takeaways from the 2025 Edition ZDF, RTVE Show Off Their Genre-Defying Procedural 'Weiss & Morales' at Series Mania Further top honors in main competition recognised a second series from a major female talent, Quebec's Florence Longpré whose 'Empathy' won Series Mania's prestigious Audience Award. Presided by Pamela Adlon, the main competition jury recognized most of the competition favourites also prizing veteran Israeli writers Moshe Zonder and Ronit Weiss Berkowitz for the screenplay of 'The German' and Luca Marinelli for his tearaway performance as Benito Mussolini Joe Wright's 'M: Son Of The Century.' Festival attendance spiked 10,000 to already over 108,000 spectators by Friday afternoon. That can be put down to the recognition of the quality of series selected in sections and the galaxy of stars and luminary speakers at the this year's edition, led by Amanda Seyfried, Christina Hendricks, Charlie Brooker, Miguel Bernardeau and Edvin Ryding. Delegates at the Series Mania Forum, its industry zone housed in Lille's Grand Palais, surged a spectacular 19% to 5,000 participants, way beyond the organizer's estimates even just a week out, confirming that Series Mania is emerging as Europe's not only premier co-production forum but also biggest TV market. Reinhart has already won acclaim for her performance in 'Hal & Harper,' an arrested development dramedy, featuring two doting siblings, Hal (director Cooper Raiff), a senior at college, and Harper, (Reinhart), an entry level administrative assistant, who are locked in a cocoon of past trauma and co-dependency, 15 years after their mother's suicide sent their dad (Mark Ruffalo) into tail-spin depression. Reinhart pulls off he achievement of playing convincingly both her adult self and nine-year old former self, forced to grow too fast. A courtroom thriller and family drama, charting a 50-ish woman's separation from and prosecution of her abuse husband after 30 years of sexual assault, 'Querer' marks the first TV series from the Basque Country's Alauda Ruiz de Azua whose feature, 2023's 'Lullaby,' was endorsed by Pedro Almodóvar as 'undoubtedly the best Spanish debut for years.' The series has been hailed for its across.-the-board performances, control, psychological percipience and tempo, building to a truly moving climax. Mixing laugh-out-loud comedy and drama, 'Empathy' has creator Dupré also leading the cast playing a psychologist at a Montreal psychiatric institute, herself attempting to recover from ghastly loss. Capturing the epic tragic emotional battles with self of the mentally disturbed, 'Empathy's' Series Mani win looks set to consecrate Dupré, after winning acclaim and awards with 'Audrey's Back' and 'Last Summer of Raspberries.' From Lionsgate Television, 'The German,' set in 1970, turns on Uri, once a brutal Auschwitz guard – if a flashback is not misleading, has found some sort of redemption as an Israeli war hero living a perfect marriage on a kibbutz. He's then embroiled in a Mossad mission to infiltrate an SS veteran cell in order to trap Nazi war criminal Josef Mengele. Series Mania winners Moshe Zonder, writer of 'Fauda' Season 1 and 'The Girl From Oslo' co-creator Ronit Weiss-Berkowitz, turn in a typically taut, suspense laden, twist-sluiced screenplay of waht looks like the story of a man's search for redemption. Marinelli was always the front-runner for the best actor award at Series Mania, turning in a towering, tearaway performance capturing Mussolini's gesticulating buffoonery, vacuousness – fascism is 'a synthesis of all affirmations and negations,' he shouts – but uncanny ability to exploit ordinary people's resentments. Which may sounds familiar. 'We made a selection of works that were very open to the world, and we're delighted that the prizes reflect these choices by rewarding, among others, an American independent series, an Israeli series, an Algerian series and an Iranian series. The two major international prizes also confirm the prominent place of Spanish series in today's serial landscape', commented Laurence Herszberg, founder and general manager of Series Mania. The festival also confirmed its 2026 dates of March 20-27 with the Forum taking place March 24-26. SERIES MANIA PRIZES: Audience Award 'Empathy,' (CRAVE (BELL Medias), Canada) INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION Grand Prize 'Querer,' (Spain, Movistar Plus) Best Writing Moshe Zonder, Ronit Weiss Berkowitz ('The German,' Israel, U.S.) Special Mention 'The Deal,'(RTS – Radio Télévision Suisse, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Luxembourg) Best Actress Lili Reinhart, ('Hal & Harper,U.S) Best Actor Luca MarinellI, ('Mussolini: Son of The Century,' France, Italy) FRENCH COMPETITION Series '37 Seconds,' (ARTE, France, Germany) Best Actress Elsa Guedj, ('Reformed') Best Actor Arthur Dupont, ('The Rose Family') Best Original Score Anthony D'Amario, Edouard RIGAUDIÈRE, ('Log Out') INTERNATIONAL PANORAMA Best Series 'Celeste,' (Spain, Movistar Plus+) Special Mention 'Putain,' (Belgium, Streamz) Best Directing Ida Panahandeh, ('At the End of The Night,' Iran) Best Actress Carmen Machi, ('Celeste,' Spain) Best Actor Matthew Gurney, ('Reunion,' U.K.) Student Jury Prize 'Requiem for Selina,' (Norway, NRK) SHORT FORMS COMPETITION Best Series 'One of us is Trembling,' (Denmark) Special Mention 'El'Sardines,' (Algeria, France) Student Jury Prize 'Wingspan,'(Germany) Best of Variety What's Coming to Disney+ in April 2025 New Movies Out Now in Theaters: What to See This Week The Best Celebrity Memoirs to Read This Year: From Chelsea Handler to Anthony Hopkins
