Javier Bardem to Star in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s Next Film “El ser querido”

Javier Bardem has lined up his next project…

The 55-year-old Spanish Oscar-winning actor has signed on to star in the next film from Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Javier BardemTitled 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 Querido AIE 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.

Rodrigo Sorogoyen to Serve as Jury President at This Year’s Cannes Critics’ Week

Rodrigo Sorogoyen is taking the lead at this year’s Cannes Critics’ Week

The 42-year-old Spanish film director and screenwriter, best known for his 2023 feature The Beasts, has been revealed as the jury president for this year’s edition of Cannes Critics’ Week.

Rodrigo SorogoyenThe parallel Cannes section devoted to emerging talents and first and second features will unfold from May 15 to 23 this year.

“It is a big responsibility, which I look forward to,” Sorogoyen said in a video statement on X announcing his presidency.

“La Semaine de la Critique supports and rewards first and second feature films as well as short films, thus providing vital support to cinema, new voices, and new ways to tell stories. Without these new voices, there would be no new cinema. They’re the ones who make it live and make it work.”

Sorogoyen’s last film, The Beasts, debuted at Cannes in 2022 and dominated the main prizes at the 37th edition of Spain’s Goya Awards, taking home nine gongs, including best film and director.

The film’s story follows a middle-aged French couple who move to a small village, seeking closeness with nature. However, their presence inflames two locals to the point of outright hostility and shocking violence.

The Beasts also picked up wins for best screenplay, leading actor and supporting actor.

The year’s Critics Week lineup will be announced in the next few weeks.

The official Cannes Film Festival lineup will be announced on April 11.

Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985” Sweeps This Year’s Platino Awards

Santiago Mitre has picked up another award…

The 42-year-old Argentine film director and screenwriter’s Argentina, 1985 swept the top prizes for Best Picture on Saturday night at the 2023 Platino Awards.

Santiago MitreNews of a Kidnapping, created by Andrés Wood and Rodrigo García, is another top award winner.

One highlight of the ceremony, dedicated to films and television shows in the Spanish-speaking world, was Benicio del Toro’s acceptance speech of a honorary Platino in which he reflected on being typecast for many years in Hollywood as a Latino actor.

“If I had to play stereotypes, I tried to find the character’s humanity, a sense of complicity, so that audiences felt what my character felt and whilst they’re watching, don’t forget who I am and where I come from.,” he said. “What’s important is to share more than be divided,” he added.

Del Toro received a standing ovation by an audience made up of some of the best actors in Spain, which hung on his every word.

Directed by Mitre, who broke out to attention with The Student, then conquered Cannes with Paulina, the Academy Award-nominated “Argentina, 1985,” produced by Amazon Studios, Infinity Hill, Mitre’s label Unión de los Rios and star Ricardo Darín’s Kenya Films swept best picture, screenplay (Mitre, Mariano Llinás) actor (Darín), among five awards.

Commissioned by Prime Video in 2020, in the same funding round that included “Iosi, the Repentant Spy,” “News of a Kidnapping” scooped best series, creators (Wood, García), series actress (Cristina Umaña) and supporting actress (Majida Issa).

Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios and Chile’s Invercine & Wood produce.

It may or may not be a coincidence that both titles, as well as Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, which swept four prizes including best director, talk about how individuals or institutions – the Colombian senator husband of an abduction victim in “News,” Darin’s crusading public prosecutor in “Argentina, 1985,” a French couple in deep Galicia in “The Beasts” – confront violence, whether the institutionalized torture and murder under Argentina’s Junta,  endemic drug gang coercion in  “News” and wounded machismo in “The Beasts.”

“Thank you to the thousands and thousands of Colombians who, silently, without any show, try to make peace and a country, despite all the obvious difficulties,” said Umana.

“Memory is important. We can’t allow violence to be the innate solution in any part of the world,” said Infinity Hill’s, Axel Kuschevatzky, a producer of “Argentina, 1985.”

In other Awards highlights, Spain’s Laia Costa and Susi Sánchez repeated their Goya plaudits taking best film actress and supporting actress as daughter and mother in “Lullaby.”

FILM

Best Feature
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina)

Director
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, “The Beasts”

Lead Performance
Laia Costa, “Lullaby”
Ricardo Darín, “Argentina, 1985”

Screenplay
Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre, “Argentina, 1985”

First Feature
“1976” (Chile, Argentina)

Best Feature Comedy
“Official Competition,” (Argentina, Spain)

Original Score
Sergio Prudencio, “Utama”

Supporting Role Performance
Susi Sanchez, “Lullaby” (Spain)
Luis Zahera, “The Beasts” (Spain, France)

Animated Feature
“The Eagle and the Jaguar: the Legendary Warriors” (Mexico)

Documentary Best Feature
“El Caso Padilla,” (Cuba, Spain)

Editing
Alberto del Campo, “The Beasts”

Art Direction
Micaela Saiegh, “Argentina, 1985)

Cinematography
Barbara Álvarez, “Utama”

Sound Direction
Aitor Berenguer, Fabiola Ordoyo, Yasmina Praderas, “The Beasts”

Film & Education In Values
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina, U.S)

HONORARY AWARD
Benicio del Toro

TV

Best Series Or Mini-Series
“News of a Kidnapping” (Colombia, Chile, U.S.)

Best Series Or Mini-Series Creator
Andrés Wood, Rodrigo García, “News of a Kidnapping”

Actor In A Series Or Mini-Series
Guillermo Francella, “The One in Charge”

Actress In A Series Or Mini-Series
Cristina Umaña, “News of a Kidnapping”

Supporting Actor In A Series Or Mini-Series
Alejandro Awada, “Iosi, The Regretful Spy”

Supporting Actress In A Series Or Mini-Series
Majida Issa, “News of a Kidnapping”

Albert Serra Named Best Director at France’s Lumière Awards for “Pacification”

It’s an illuminating time for Albert Serra.

The 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards have taken place in Paris, with the 47-year-old Spanish independent filmmaker claiming a top honor.

Albert SerraSerra, who is currently working on a bullfighting documentary, was named Best Director for the French Polynesia-set drama Pacification.

The feature also clinched two other prizes: Best Actor for Benoît Magimal and Best Cinematography for Artur Tort.

Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts won Best International Co-production.

The awards are voted on by members of the international press corp hailing from 36 countries based in France.

Here’s the full list of winners:

Best Film: The Night Of The 12th, by Dominik Moll
Best Director: Albert Serra for Pacifiction
Best Screenplay: Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand for The Night Of The 12th
Best Documentary:We by Alice Diop
Animation Film: Little Nicholas, by Amandine Fredon and Benjamin Massoubre
Best Actress: Virginie Efira for Other People’s Children
Best Actor: Benoît Magimel for Pacification
Female Revelation: Nadia Tereszkiewicz for Forever Young
Male Revelation: Dimitri Doré for Bruno Reidal
Best First Film: Le Sixième Enfant by Léopold Legrand
Best International Coproduction: The Beasts by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (Sp-Fr)
Best Cinematography: Artur Tort for Pacifiction
Best Music: Benjamin Biolay for Flickering Ghosts Of Loves Gone By

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts” Wins Three Awards at Tokyo International Film Festival

Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s latest project has proved to be a beast in Japan…

The 41-year-old Spanish Goya Award-winning film director and screenwriter’s psychological thriller The Beasts has won three awards at this year’s Tokyo International Film Festival, including the Tokyo Grand Prix, best director and best actor for Denis Menochet.

Rodrigo SorogoyenThe film, which premiered in an Out Of Competition slot at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, follows a French couple who move to Spain’s Galician countryside to run an organic farm, but receive a hostile welcome from the locals.

The Tokyo Grand Prix prize comes with a cash award of Y3M (US$20,400).

Iranian filmmaker Houman Seyedi’s satirical drama World War III took the Special Jury Prize at the festival following its wins in Venice for best film and best actor in the Horizons section. Tokyo’s Special Jury Prize comes with a cash award of Y500,000 (US$3,400).

Best actress went to Aline Kuppenheim for her role in Manuela Martelli’s 1976, in which she plays a woman sheltering a man during Chile’s Pinochet dictatorship. The best artistic contribution award went to Sri Lankan film Peacock Lament, directed by Sanjeewa Pushpakumara.

The festival’s audience award went to Rikiya Imaizumi’s By The Window, about a man confronted by his wife’s affair, which was one of three Japanese films to be selected for the international competition.

In the festival’s Asian Future competition, the best film award went to Butterflies Live Only One Day, directed by Iranian filmmaker Mohammadreza Vatandoust, who was on hand to accept the award in person.