Tag Archives: Blancanieves

Neon Acquires North American Rights to Pablo Berger’s First Animated Feature “Robot Dreams”

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Pablo Berger’s dreams will bring him stateside…

Neon has acquired the North American rights to Robot Dreams, the first animated feature from the 60-year-old Spanish Goya Award-winning filmmaker.

Pablo BergerThe film premiered in the Special Screenings section of the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 20th.

Robot DreamsBased on the award-winning graphic novel of the same name by Sara Varon, Robot Dreams follows DOG, who lives in Manhattan and one day, tired of being alone, decides to build himself a robot, a companion. Their friendship blossoms, until they become inseparable, to the rhythm of ’80s NYC. One summer night, DOG, with great sadness, is forced to abandon ROBOT at the beach. Will they ever meet again?

Berger produced the film alongside Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé, Sandra Tapia Diaz and Ángel Durández, with Jérôme Vidal, Sylvie Pialat and Benoit Quainon co-producing.

The acquisition, which is the first North American deal announced for a Cannes festival movie this edition, comes on the heels of Neon’s past triumphs at Cannes with three consecutive Palme d’Or winners: Parasite, Titane and Triangle of Sadness.

Berger’s previous projects include Torremolinos, Blancanieves and Abracadabra.

Bejo Earns César Award for Her Performance in Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past”

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It’s a blast from the past for Bérénice Bejo…

The 37-year-old Argentine actress has earned a César Award nomination for Best Actress for her critically acclaimed performance in Asghar Farhadi’s The Past.

Berenice Bejo

The film’s twisting plot involves secrets, lies, deceit, divorce, affairs, comas, pregnancy and other traumatic situations.

“This is a film that is so far removed from my life, from my everyday,” says Bejo. “But at the same time, it’s really interesting to play someone who is your total opposite.”

It’s Bejo’s second Best Actress nomination for the César Award, France’s equivalent to the Oscars. She previously won the prize in 2011 for her star-making performance in The Artist, a role that also earned her an Academy Award nomination.

Even though Bejo failed to earn an Oscar nomination this time around for her performance in the French-language drama The Past, she did win the Best Actress prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival.

Meanwhile, Pablo Berger‘s Blancanieves and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity are both nominated in the Best Foreign Film category.

The César Awards ceremony will take place on February 28 in Paris.

Here’s a look at this year’s Latino nominees:

BEST ACTRESS
Fanny Ardant, Les Beaux Jours
Bérénice Bejo, The Past
Catherine Deneuve, Elle S’En Va
Sara Forestier, Suzanne
Sandrine Kiberlain, 9 Mois Ferme
Emmanuelle Seigner, Venus In Fur
Léa Seydoux, Blue Is The Warmest Color

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Blancanieves
Blue Jasmine
Dead Man Talking
Django Unchained
The Great Beauty
Gravity

Spain Selects Querejeta’s “15 Years and One Day” for Oscars’ Best Foreign Film Consideration

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She’s won a Goya Award for her work behind the lens… And, now Gracia Querejeta is hoping to win an Oscar.

Spain has selected the 51-year-old Spanish director’s latest film 15 Years and One Day as its entry for Best Foreign Language Film at next year’s Academy Awards.

15 Years and One Day

Chosen by the Spanish Academy of Cinematographic Arts and Sciences, the film stars Spanish actress Maribel Verdu and tells the story of an unemployed mother and her adolescent son who is expelled from school and sent to live with his grandfather.

Querejeta is daughter of late Spanish film producer Elias Querejeta, who died in June.

15 Years and One Day, which earned several prizes at the Malaga Film Festival, was released in Spain in June and has earned about $544,000 at the box office.

The U.S. film academy will select finalists for the Oscar next January with the awards announced a month later.

The film will also represent Spain in Mexico’s Ariel prizes.

Spain, which has won four Oscars for best foreign language film, submitted the black-and-white silent film Blancanieves, which also stars Verdu, last year, but failed to bag a nomination.

Spain’s last film to win the Best Foreign Language Film prize was 2004’s The Sea Inside, starring Javier Bardem.

Delgado Wins Saturn Award for “Les Miserables”

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Paco Delgado is still picking up awards for his Miserables work…

The Spanish costume designer, who earned his first Oscar nomination this year, won a Saturn Award for Best Costume for his impressive work on Les Miserables.

Paco Delgado

Delgado oversaw the creation of more than 2,200 outfits for the ensemble cast of the epic film. He recently opened up about his designs in an online featurette.

Delgado’s credits include creating the Goya Award-winning costumes for Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, as well as the Pedro Almodovar films Bad Education and The Skin I Live In.

He most recently completed work on Álex de la Iglesia’s Witching and Bitching.

Berger’s “Blancanieves” Wins Ibero-American Picture Prize at Mexico’s Ariel Awards

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Pablo Berger‘s Blancanieves continues to pick up hardware around the world…

The 50-year-old Spanish director’s black-and-white silent fantasy drama won the prize for Best Ibero-American Picture at the 55th Ariel Awards ceremony.

Blancanieves

Based on the fairy tale Snow White by the Brothers Grimm, Blancanieves was the big winner at this year’s Goya Awards in Spain. The film, which is set in a romantic vision of 1920s Andalusia, also won the Cine Latino Award at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Meanwhile, Paula Markovitch‘s El Premio, a drama set during Argentina’s dirty war, won Mexico’s top film award for best picture, first work, original screenplay and editing.

Winner of two Silver Bear awards in Berlin, the production has fared well on the festival circuit, although it’s struggled at the Mexican box office.

The film academy gave best director to Rodrigo Pla for his Uruguay-set drama La Demora, which also walked away with an Ariel for adapted screenplay.

Here’s a complete look at this year’s Ariel Award winners:

BEST PICTURE

El Premio

DIRECTOR 

La Demora (Rodrigo Pla)

ACTOR

El Fantastico Mundo de Juan Orol (Roberto Sosa)

ACTRESS

El Sueno de Lu (Ursula Pruneda)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Colosio, El Asesinato (Daniel Gimenez Cacho)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

La Vida Precoz y Breve de Sabina Rivas (Angelina Pelaez)

FIRST WORK

El Premio

IBERO-AMERICAN PICTURE

Blancanieves (Spain)

DOCUMENTARY

Cuates de Australia

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

El Premio 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

La Demora

EDITING

El Premio

CINEMATOGRAPHY

El Fantastico Mundo de Juan Oral

SPECIAL EFFECTS

La Vida Precoz y Breve de Sabina Rivas

VISUAL EFFECTS

Depositarios

SOUND

Cuates de Australia

ORIGINAL SCORE

Carriere 250 Metros

MAKEUP

Colosio, El Asesinato

COSTUME DESIGN

El Fantastico Mundo de Juan Orol

ART DESIGN

La Vida Precoz y Breve de Sabina Rivas

ANIMATED SHORT

La Noria

FICTION SHORT

La Tirica o Como Curar la Tristeza

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

La Herida Se Mantiene Abierta

Pablo Berger’s “Blancanieves” Wins Big at the Goya Awards

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Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves has proven to be the belle of the ball at this year’s Goya Awards…

The 49-year-old Spanish director’s silent, black-and-white film, a retelling of the Snow White story, earned 10 statues, including the top prize for Best Film, at the Spanish Film Academy‘s annual awards show, Spain’s equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Blancanieves

Maribel Verdu, who said she’s “grown to enjoy playing the bad guy,” won her second Goya for her role as the evil stepmother in Blancanieves. The 42-year-old Spanish actress edged out Naomi Watts, Penélope Cruz and Aida Folch for the award.

Blancanieves’ re-imagined Snow White, Macarena Garcia, was named New Actress. It’s the 24-year-old Spanish actress’ first starring role.

Paco Delagado, currently nominated for an Oscar for his costume design work for Les Miserables, won the Goya for his work on Blancanieves, which included the creation of 18 different costumes for Verdu’s character.

Meanwhile, Juan Antonio Bayona’s dramatic The Impossible, which has broken box office records in Spain, scored five awards, including the Goya for Best Director.

Bayona brought down the house when he left the stage after receiving his Goya to present it to Maria Belon, the mother of the real-life family that survived the 2004 tsunami upon which the film is based.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Film
Blancanieves

Director
Juan Antonio Bayona for The Impossible

Actor
Jose Sacristan for The Dead Man and Being Happy

Actress
Maribel Verdu for Blancanieves

Original Screenplay
Pablo Berger for Blancanieves

Adapted Screenplay
Javier Barreira, Gorka Magallon, Ignacio del Moral, Jordi Gasull and Neil Landau for Tad, the Lost Explorer

Supporting Actor
Julian Villagran for Grupo 7

Supporting Actress
Candela Pena for Una Pistola en Cada Mano

Honorary Goya
Concha Velasco

Production Design
Sandra Hermida Muniz for The Impossible

Artistic Director
Alain Bainee For Blancanieves

Photography
Kiko de la Rica for Blancanieves

Special Effects
Pau Costa and Felix Berges for The Impossible

Wardrobe
Paco Delgado for Blancanieves

Editing
Bernat Vilaplano and Elena Ruiz for The Impossible

Sound
Peter Glossop, Marc Orts, Oriol Tarrago for The Impossible

Original Score
Alfonso Villalonga for Blancanieves

Original Song
No Te Puedo Encontrar from Blancanieves

New Actor
Joaquin Nunez for Grupo 7

Makeup and Hair
Sylvie Imbert and Fermin Galan for Blancanieves

New Actress
Macarena Garcia for Blancanieves

New Director
Enrique Gato for Tad, the Lost Explorer

Animated Feature Film
The Adventures of Tadeo Jones

Documentary Film
Sons of the Clouds, The Last Colony

European Film
Untouchable (France)

Ibero-American Film
Juan de los Muertos (Cuba)

Animated Short
Jaime Maestro for El Vendedor de Humo

Fiction Short
Esteban Crespo Garcia for Aquel no Era Yo

Documentary Short
Sergio Oksman for A Story for the Modlins

Berger’s “Blancanieves” Wins Cine Latino Award

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Pablo Berger is one of this year’s shining stars at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The 49-year-old Spanish director’s latest film Blancanieves, which premiered in the United States at the festival, claimed the Cine Latino Award in Palm Springs.

Blancanieves

Blancanieves, which earned 18 Goya Award nominations last week, is a black-and-white silent film that re-imagines Snow White as a female bullfighter in 1920s Seville. The film is described as an homage to the black-and-white Golden Age of Europe’s silent cinema.

Blancanieves beat out Argentina’s Las mariposas de Sadourni, directed by Dario Nardi, to win the award.

Meanwhile, Peru’s El limpiador, directed Adrian Saba, won the New Voices/New Visions Award; Paraguay’s 7 Boxes, directed by Juan Carlos Maneglia and Tana Schémbori earned honorable mention honors.

The festival, which began January 3, screened 182 films from 68 countries, including 42 of the 71 foreign language entries for this year’s Academy Awards.

“Blancanieves” Earns 18 Goya Award Nominations

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Pablo Berger‘s silent black-and-white reinterpretation of the Snow White fable, Blancanieves, is this awards season’s Goya darling.  

The 49-year-old Spanish director’s film, hailed as an homage to 1920s European silent films, leads the pack with 18 nominations for the Spanish Film Academy‘s Goya Awards, Spain’s equivalent to the Oscars.

Blancanieves

Blancanieves, which recently debuted in the U.S. at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, received nominations in the best picture, best director, best original screenplay and best editing, best original music and best original song categories.

In addition, six of the films stars earned nods, including Maribel Verdú in the Best Actress category, Daniel Giménez Cacho in the Best Actor field and Macarena García in the Best Actress Revelation category.

“We are very, very happy. We ran for 18 possible nominations and we got 18,” said Blancanieves producer Ibon Cormenzana. “We’ve sold to many territories and in two weeks we’ll release in theaters in France. I think we’ve benefited from the success of the The Artist.”

Meanwhile, Alberto Rodriguez’s Unit 7 earned 16 nominations, Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible received 14 nods and Fernando Trueba’s The Artist and The Model picked up 13 nominations.

The Impossible’s Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor will compete for lead actress and supporting actor thanks to a change in the Spanish Academy’s rules that allows non-Spanish speaking actors who participate in Spanish productions to compete for acting honors. That translates to Watts vying for the lead acting nod against Verdu’s evil step-mother from Blancanieves, Penelope Cruz from Volver a nacer and Aida Folch‘s muse-like performance in The Artist and the Model.

Blancanieves’ Cacho, Model’s Jean Rochefort, Unit’s Antonio de la Torre and veteran actor Jose Sacristan from The Dead Man and Being Happy will compete for the lead actor statue.

In Spain, Bayona’s film has broken box office records, where it is just about to hit the 42 million euro mark at the box office.

“Our objective is to sell more than 6 million tickets,” said Impossible producer Ghislain Barrois.

The Spanish academy will dole out the awards on February 17 at a gala ceremony in Madrid.

“Blancanieves” to Open the Palm Springs International Film Festival

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Blancanieves is leaving the forest and heading to Palm Springs…

Blancanieves

The Spanish film, a reinterpretation of the Snow White fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, has been picked to kick off the Palm Springs International Film Festival next month.

Directed by Spanish filmmaker Pablo Berger, the black-and-white silent film – described as an homage to the black-and-white Golden Age of Europe’s silent cinema – re-imagines Snow White as a female bullfighter in 1920s Seville. The film is Spain’s entry in the Oscar race for a Best Foreign Language Film nomination.

Blancanieves will open the festival, which will feature 180 films from 68 countries, on January 3. The festival concludes on January 14.

Spain’s “Blancanieves” to Be Released in the U.S. Next Month

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Spain’s reimagining of Snow White will be hitting theaters in the United States next month…

Blancanieves Poster

In October, Cohen Media Group acquired the rights to Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, which has been described as an homage to the black-and-white Golden Age of Europe’s silent cinema. But now they’ve announced plans to release the film in January.

Blancanieves, Spain’s entry in the Oscars’ Foreign-Language Film category, tells the story of Snow White in 1920s Spain. It stars Macarena García as Carmen and Maribel Verdú as her stepmother Encarna.

The film will open in the U.S. on January 18th.