The 55-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actor has signed on to star in the next film from Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen.
Titled El ser querido, the film will be directed by Sorogoyen from a screenplay he penned with Isabel Peña.
The film will also star Victoria Luengo.
The official synopsis reads: In ‘El ser querido’, an acclaimed film director and his daughter, an unsuccessful actress, shoot a film together after years of estrangement and a difficult past that none of them want to talk about.
The project is a Movistar Plus+ original film in co-production with Caballo Films, El Ser QueridoAIE and Le Pacte (France), financed by ICAA with the support of the Creative Europe Media Program.
The film will be released in cinemas, distributed by A Contracorriente Films, and will later be available exclusively on Movistar Plus+. International sales will be handled by Goodfellas.
Bardem is one of Spain’s most famous exports. His most recent titles include Dune: Part Two and The Little Mermaid.
His last Spanish project was Fernando León de Aranoa’s The Good Boss, for which he won the Goya for Best Actor.
Luengo most recently starred in Pedro Almódovar’s English-language debut The Room Next Door. On the small screen, she starred in Riot Police, the Movistar Plus+ series directed by Sorogoyen, for which she won the Ondas Award for Best Actress.
Sorogoyen will be known to most for his 2022 feature The Beasts, which won nine Goya awards.
Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo are celebrating rockie victory…
The Banff World Media Festival has revealed the winners of its 2024 Rockie Awards International Program Competition, with the 39-year-old Spanish actor, director and writer and the 33-year-old Spanish actor, director and writer among the honorees.
Ambrossi and Calvo’s Spanish family thriller series La mesías has won the Drama Series: Non-English Language.
Created, written and directed by Ambrossi and Calvo (‘Los Javis’) that was originally released on Movistar Plus+, the series stars Macarena García, Roger Casamajor,Lola Dueñas, Ana Rujas, Carmen Machi and Albert Pla, among others.
Featuring musical, religious, psychological drama and science fiction elements, the series follows a family torn apart by the matriarch’s religious fanaticism.
The competition saw participation from 30 countries and featured 155 nominees representing 19 countries including USA, UK, Canada, France, Germany and Taiwan.
HBO’s The Last of Us won the Grand Jury Prize and Best English-language Drama Series. Poker Face won Best English-language Comedy Series, Family Guywon Best Animated Series and The Masked Singerwon Best Competition Series & Game Show.
The International Program Competition winners include:
Comedy & Variety The Graham Norton Show
So Television
UK
Competition Series & Game Shows The Masked Singer
FOX Alternative Entertainment
USA
Docuseries Boris
Woestijnvis NV
BELGIUM
Lifestyle Taste the Nation with Padma Lakshmi
Part2 Pictures
USA
Reality Series Wild Cooks
Avanti-Toast, Vrai, TVA, Zeste
CANADA
Podcast: Fiction The Sesame Street Podcast with Foley and Friends
Sesame Workshop, Audible
USA
Podcast: Non-Fiction The Other Side of the Story (L’autre moitié de l’histoire)
Radio-Canada OHdio
CANADA
Animation: Children The Sound Collector
Eagle Vs Bat, Enanimation, Mackinnon & Saunders, ITV, RAI, Serious Kids
ITALY, UK
Animation: Preschool Tabby McTat
Magic Light Pictures
UK
Interactive Children and Youth Content Weirdwood Manor Vol. 2 – Rise of the Therimancer
Relish Studios, Wasabi Entertainment
CANADA
Live Action: Children Horrible Histories
Lion Television, BBC, BBC Studios
UK
Live Action: Youth Sofiy and Her War
Hakka TV
TAIWAN
Arts & Culture Otto Baxter: Not A F**ing Horror Story
Story Films, Archface Films
UK
Crime & Investigative Scandalous: Phone Hacking on Trial
Hardcash Production, BBC Panorama
UK
Environmental & Wildlife Planet Earth III
BBC Studios, BBC America, France Televisions, ZDF, The Open
FRANCE, GERMANY, UK, USA
History & Biography Lockerbie
Mindhouse Productions, Sky Documentaries
UK
Science & Technology Deep Sky
Crazy Boat Pictures
USA
Short Form Non-Fiction Series Out of the Shadows: Born from Rape
BBC News, BBC World Service 100 Women
UK
Social Issues & Current Affairs The Shamima Begum Story
BBC Current Affairs
UK
Sports Documentary Gods of Tennis
Mindhouse Productions, BBC Studios
UK
Animated Series Family Guy
20th Television Animation, Fuzzy Door Productions
USA
Comedy Series: English Language Poker Face
T-Street, MRC, Animal Pictures, Paramount Global Content Distribution
USA
Comedy Series: Non-English Language Gorgeous (Les Bombes)
Les Productions Sovimage
CANADA
Drama Series: English Language The Last of Us
HBO, Sony Pictures Television Studios, Playstation, Naughty Dog, Word Games, The Mighty Mint
USA
Drama Series: Non-English Language La Mesías
Movistar Plus+, Suma Content
SPAIN
Feature Length Film Men Up
Quay Street Productions, Boom, BBC1, Cineflix Rights
UK
Limited Series Best Interests
AC Chapter One, BBC One, Fifth Season
UK
Short Film The Flying Sailor
National Film Board of Canada
CANADA
Short Form Fiction Series The Fades of Papineau (Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau)
Trio Orange
CANADA
Best Use of Music in a Series Yellowjackets
eOne, Showtime
USA
Emerging Talent Prize Emilie Mannering The Fades of Papineau (Ça prend pas la tchas à Papineau)
Trio Orange
CANADA
Prix Francophone Les Bombes (Gorgeous)
Les Productions Sovimage
CANADA
Roger s Prize for Excellence in Canadian Content Satan Wants You
Nootka Street Film Company, Grand Scheme Productions, 666 Films
CANADA
Grand Jury Prize
The Last of Us
HBO, Sony Pictures Television Studios, Playstation, Naughty Dog, Word Games, The Mighty Mint
USA
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s latest project has new support…
Movistar Plus+, Spain’s most-viewed pay television operator, is partnering on Los domingos, a new film from the 46-year-old Spanish filmmaker and Lullaby director and the producers of that critically acclaimed film.
A Movistar Plus+ Original, Los domingos is set in and will shoot in Ruiz de Azúa’s native Basque country, said Nahikari Ipiña at Sayaka Producciones.
Now in development, Los domingos is produced by Movistar Plus+ and Sayaka and Marisa Fernández Armenteros’ Buenapinta Media, Sandra Hermida at Think Studio and Colosé Producciones and Manu Calvo.
“Los domingos is a co-production between Movistar Plus+ and four producers and as independent producers for us that’s important,” Fernández Armenteros said at Cannes.
Los domingos, which shoots in the first half of 2025, is a drama, although plot details are under wraps.
“It is such luck to accompany Alauda in Los domingos after Lullaby success with audiences and critics. We are moved again by her talent in picturing the contradictions of her characters, and her unique visions when depicting life,” Los domingos’ producers said Friday in a joint statement.
Sold by Latido, and bowing in Berlin’s 2022 Panorama section, Lullaby swept Spain’s Malaga Festival, taking eight awards including best picture, a rare achievement.
Endorsed by Pedro Almodóvar as “undoubtedly the best debut in Spanish cinema for years,” Lullaby was distributed in Spain by BTeam Pictures. It over-performed notably in Spain, grossing €823, 933 ($880,847) at theaters, before scooping three Goya Awards, including best new director and gongs for both main actresses, Laia Costa and Susi Sánchez.
“Movistar Plus+ wants to bet on auteurs with a key vision but also the potential to reach a broad public, and ‘Los domingos’ is a case in point,” said Guillermo Farré, Movistar Plus+ head of original films & Spanish cinema.
Los domingos will be a Movistar Plus+ Original “but Movistar Plus+’s strategy when it produces films is to co-produce,” he added.
The 37-year-old Mexican singer, actress, producer and model has signed with AFA Prime Talent Media, a division of Kenan Thompson’s Artists for Artists company, in all areas.
Sodi is currently shooting the series El Dentistaalongside Demián Bichir for ViX and Movistar Plus +. She plays Sofia Roth, a brilliant chemist who aids Bichir’s character, Nolasco Black, in solving a case involving the infamous Jack The Ripper. The series is produced by Oscar-winning brothers Pablo and Juan de Dios Larraín.
Also, earlier this year, Sodi created and executive produced the series Cualquier Parecido for Viacom CBS and ViX. The series, also starring the actress, is based loosely on her own romantic experiences and explores stories of love and heartbreak, friendship, family and sex, as well as the process of rediscovering oneself and becoming empowered. The show tells the tale of Carlota, who, after separating from the person she thought was the love of her life, discovers that the saying “happily ever after” is not always true, but that doesn’t mean she can’t be happy.
The signing heralds a reunion for Sodi and Cuban Talent Manager Eliseo Ruiz; they worked together in the past when Ruiz was an up-and-coming talent agent in Mexico City.
“I am honored to join forces with Eliseo and AFA Prime Talent, said Sodi in an exclusive statement to Deadline. “Their commitment to nurturing talent and strategic vision aligns perfectly with my goals. I look forward to this collaboration and the exciting projects that lie ahead. I have no doubts we will create some magic together.”
The 46-year-old Spanish actor will star opposite Leonor Watling in psychological thriller From the Shadows (Desde la Sombra), a film adaptation by Spanish writer Juan José Millas, winner of most of Spain’s foremost literary awards, including the Planeta, Nadal and National Narrative Awards.
The film will be directed by Felix Viscarret
A star of sitcom Aida, a free-to-air television phenomenon from 2005-14, and most recently Netflix Mexico’s hit House of Flowers, Leon co-wrote and directed Arde Madrid, a Movistar Plus Rose d’Or winning original series.
Star of Pedro Almodovar’s Academy Award-winning Talk to Her, Watling confirmed her comic talents most recently in Movistar Plus’ excruciatingly discomforting Russian mob comedy Nasdrovia.
Produced by Academy Award winning Tornasol Media and co-produced by Belgium’s Entre Chien et Loup, From the Shadows will be brought onto the international market at Ventana Sur by Latido Films.
Co-written by David Muñoz, From the Shadows turns on Damián who, to escape from his boss, hides in a massive antique wardrobe that is delivered to a middle-class home, inhabited by Lucia and Fede and their teenage daughter. A persistent fantasist – he imagines himself as a TV celebrity delivering candid interviews to prestigious journalists – Damián realizes that staying in the wardrobe gives him a chance to lead the normal life he has always missed.
He becomes the family’s guardian angel, doing the housework in its absence, as his hold on reality crumbles and Lucia, on anti-depressants, believes the wardrobe hides the specter of her dead brother.
“This story is a portrait of the madness, sometimes strange, sometimes comical, we all have: Dialogues we carry on with ourselves, how we fall in love, how we deny realities,” said Viscarret, saying he likes to dance between the comical and melancholic.
Championed by Fernando Trueba off the back of a notable short, Dreamers, Viscarret’s debut, Under the Stars, produced by Cristina Huete, confirmed his passion for bringing a human dimension to lost cause characters, which he aims to repeat in From the Shadows, he said.
“I like to fix my gaze on clumsy, hurt or humiliated characters who, generating compassion, struggle to make things better. Even if that fight is not successful, even if the final redemption – like in this case – is loaded with contradictions, it makes it all worthwhile.”
“Felix is one of Spain’s most talented young directors, he has a unique capacity of inventing worlds. In this case, the novel he adapts is from one of Spanish greatest living writers,” said Latido Films head Antonio Saura.
Saura added: “What is even more interesting, it is a great adaptation, that mixes humor and genre in a very intelligent way and, of course, the cast is brilliant!”
Titled El ser querido, the film will be directed by Sorogoyen from a screenplay he penned with Isabel Peña.
