Category: Entertainment

Barcelona’s soccer players packed out Spain’s FIFA World Cup winning team. Now Catalonia, the northeast region of Spain counting on Barcelona as its capital, accounts for a very significant chunk of the Spanish films playing this year’s San Sebastián Festival, one of its principal draws. Some 150 Catalan companies, no less, will be in San Sebastián.

The bullish Catalan presence can be put down to an exciting new generation of Catalan directors and producers exploding on the scene over the last decade, since Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993.”

Key, also is Catalonia’s drive into pan-regional co-production, as many movies tap funding from around Spain. Also at play is a step-up in ambition among Catalan films at large and far larger mobility on the part of talent. So “Saints,” one of the big new Catalan films, is directed by Basque but Barcelona-based Mikel Gurrea, and one of the standout films by a Catalan director at San Sebastián, Carla Simón’s short feature “Flamenco,” is produced by Madrid’s Mamma Team.

Here are just some standouts from the far ranging Catalan presence at the 2026 San Sebastián Film Festival:

Main Competition

“5 More Minutes” (Javier Ruiz Caldera, Movistar Plus, El Terrat, Ikiru Films, Spain)

An on-the-rocks couple is caught in a time loop at a rural getaway. Part sometimes excruciating dark comedy, part sci-fi mindwarp and part suspense thriller whose grip bids fair to surprise at San Sebastián. Written and starring Berto Romero, one of Spain’s top stand-ups, playing opposite Belen Cuesta (The Endless Trench”) and an ineffable Javier Camara (“Talk to Her”). Spanish pay TV/SVOD colossus Movistar Plus, El Terrat, a Mediapro Studio company, and Ikiru Films, produce a typical genre cocktail for Romero, much directed with virtuosity by Javier Ruiz Caldera as a series of millimetrically calculated five-minute sequence shots. Filmax handles world sales. JH

“Saints,” (“Sants,” Mikel Gurrea, Lastor Media, Nocturna Pictures, Deloris Films, Kino Produzioni, Spain, Italy)

Played by Victoria Luengo, who starred opposite Javier Bardem in “The Beloved,” Lali cares for her dying mother Glòria, as she falls in with a gang who steals statues of saints, giving much of the proceeds to the needy and forsaken. Gurrea’ second feature, a step-up in style, shot with a continuous visual pulse, varying in tone from scene to scene. Produced by Barcelona’s Nocturna Pictures, Deloris Films and Lastor Media and Kino Produzioni, the latter two both behind Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” another exploration of an alternative economy. JH

Special Screenings

“Pray for Us,” (“Ruega for nosotras,” Daniel Monzón, Arcadia Motion Pictures, Ikiru Films, Spain)

The latest from the still underrated Monzón, director of the breakout blockbuster “Cell 211” and the memorable “The Laws of the Frontier,” a five-time Goya winner that played out of competition at 2021’s San Sebastián. Set in 1974, after a night on the tiles, Ana, 19, is dispatched by her wealthy family to Spain’s Women’s Protection Board, a Francoist state-backed institution confining young women in the guise of moral “reform.” Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind the Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” produces. Picked up by Film Factory Entertainment for international, Elastica for Spanish distribution. JH

Horizontes Latinos

“Ashes,” (Diego Luna, La Corriente del Golfo, Animal de Luz Films, Inicia Films, Perro Azul)

Lauded actor Diego Luna (“Y tu mamá también,” “Andor”) steps behind the camera to helm the adaptation of Brenda Navarro’s critically acclaimed feminist novel “Eating Ashes.” The film stars Anna Diaz (“La Cocina”) and Adriana Paz, who shared the Cannes best actress award with Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The heartfelt drama trails Lucila, a young woman who leaves Mexico with her young brother to reunite with their distant mother in Madrid. Luna also produces via his La Corriente del Golfo label, founded alongside Gael García Bernal. Luxbox handles sales. RSR

“Narciso,” (Marcelo Martinessi, La Babosa Cine, Guay Films, Bocacha Films, Pandora Filmproduktion, Bteam Pictures, Oublaum Filmes, Esquina Filmes, La Fábrica Noctura)

Paraguay’s submission to the Oscars, the eight-country co-production “Narciso” began its lauded festival journey at the Berlinale, where it won the Fipresci Award at the Panorama section. Martinessi’s sophomore feature is set in 1959, where the charismatic titular performer returns to Buenos Aires at the height of a strict military regime. When the popular young man is found dead after a show, the culprit becomes even harder to find within this regime built on silence and fear. Luxbox handles world sales. RSR

Zabaltegi – Tabakalera

“Far From the Trees,” (Meritxell Colell, Allegra Films, EXIT Media, Animalita Cine, Spain)

A Locarno 2026 Fipresci Prize winner. Adela, a sound artist recording endangered languages travels to the Peruvian highlands in a film which weaves present and past – collective and personal memory and archive footage of the Catalan diaspora after the Spanish Civil War – speaking about family, forced exile, roots, memory and hybrid identity. “A richly contemplative journey of physical and mental meanderings, beautifully combining 4K digital with Super 16,” says Variety. “Ambitious in scope yet intimate in focus,” Far From the Trees” “could well become an arthouse sleeper,” it adds. JH

“Flamenco Sketches,” (“Jaleos,” Isaki Lacuesta, Lastor Media, Goroka Contents, with La Termita Films, Spain)

Sharing with Francis Ford Coppola the rare honour of two San Sebastián Golden Shells, Isaki Lacuesta returns to the festival fresh from co-directing HBO Max’s acclaimed series “Ravalear.” “Flamenco Sketches” is a restless ride through cinema, machines, Nazism, Civil War, and avant-garde art. The film shows how flamenco has often swallowed disruption whole only to morph itself anew. “Always dying, never dead.” one of the many contributing voices in the doc tells us. CM

“Red Rocks,” (Bruno Dumont, Rosa Filmes, Luxbox, Nightswim, Andergraun Films, Tessalit, Pulpa Films, Sula Films)

The latest by the Silver Bear winner of “The Empire” premiered at Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes and tells the tale of two gangs of kids who compete in the dangerous game of cliff jumping in the French Riviera. Dumont worked with a cast of non-professional actors, adopting a documentary-like approach to the film, shot against the cliffs and open waters of the Mediterranean. The lauded director won two Grand Prix awards at Cannes for “Humanity” and “Flanders.” Luxbox handles world sales. RSR

Made in Spain

“Alive” (“Viva” Aina Clotet, Ikiru Films, Funicular Films, La Terraza Films)

In the intimate “Viva,” which earned its director-star Clotet the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award, follows 40-something Nora as she finds a new lease of life following cancer treatment. The heartfelt drama explores relationships, as well as the dilemmas brought in by climate change, with a standout performance by the established Clotet, whose 2024 series “This is Not Sweden” racked up several awards and found great success with audiences. The director produces under her Funicular Films label, alongside veteran Edmon Roch of Ikiru Films. Loco Films handles sales, while Caramel Films distributes in Spain. RSR

“The Good Daughter,” (Astra Pictures, Avalon, Krater, Spain, Belgium)

The sophomore feature of Julia de Paz Solvas, also a co-writer on Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Querer,” plumbing gender violence from the untutored perspective of Carmela, the daughter of a direct victim. A trenchant portrait of self pitying, violent male narcissism and an uplifting take on teen female friendship which swept the Tallinn Black Nights Festival in November, sweeping its Grand Prix, actress (Kiara Arancibia) and Audience Awards. JH

“Sixteen Moments of My Life” (Albert Serra, Idéale Audience, Andergraun Films, Weltfilm, Spain, France, Germany)

The latest by irreverent Catalan maverick Albert Serra (“Pacifiction,” “Afternoons of Solitude”) premiered at Locarno. It documents a one-off performance by legendary German film actress and singer Ingrid Caven – known for her collaborations with then-husband Rainer Werner Fassbinder – at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris. Neither a biopic nor a concert movie, “Sixteen Moments of My Life” puts forward a fascinating portrayal of creatives on creatives. Serra’s Andergraun Films label produces and handles sales. RSR

“Three Goodbyes,” (Isabel Coixet, Cattleya, Ruvido Produzioni, Bartlebyfilm, Buena Pinta Media, Vision Distribution, Bteam Prods, Perdición Films, Tres Cuencos, Apaches Entertainment, Spain, Italy)

Bowing at least year’s Toronto, a home-run from Isabel Coixet, Adapting a short story collection by Italy’s Michela Murgia, who died of cancer at 51. Alba Rohrwacher “dazzles in a humane, heartfelt drama” as the “luminous center of a charmingly bittersweet and life-affirming movie,” Variety wrote. “In other hands, this would cue a standard disease-of-the-week weepie, but Coixet keeps the tone lightly wistful and wise,” it added. JH

Ten major Japanese broadcasters are joining forces for the first time to send a joint delegation to MipCancun, marking the country’s first coordinated television market presence outside Asia.

The “All-Japan” initiative is organized under the Japan Commercial Broadcasters Association (JBA) in collaboration with Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) and the Broadcast Program Export Association of Japan (BEAJ). JBA represents commercial broadcasters operating television and/or radio services across the country, and the initiative is designed to promote Japanese IP and expand business opportunities across the Latin American content market. MIP Cancun is marking its 13th edition this year.

The delegation includes Tokyo-based key stations TBS Television, Nippon TV, TV Asahi, Fuji Television Network, Inc. and TV Tokyo, along with Wowow Inc., BS Asahi, Tokai TV, MBS, Inc. and Yomiuri Telecasting Corp. A dedicated Japan Pavilion will be set up within the market’s matchmaking zone, giving each company its own table for meetings with Latin American buyers.

While Japan remains best known internationally for anime, the delegation will emphasize live-action content, particularly television drama, a category the Japanese government is now specifically targeting for overseas growth.

“As IP development and co-productions become increasingly vital in the entertainment market, the industry is reaching a major turning point,” said Maria Perez Bellière, director of MipCancun. “We have high expectations for this initiative to introduce the appeal of Japan’s new content and firmly establish the ‘Japan brand’ in Latin American countries, with whom Japan shares a long history. We are deeply honored that Japan has united to leverage the unique Latin American market opportunities that MipCancun has spent 13 years building here in Cancun.”

A “Japan Content Showcase” screening event will run Nov. 18 in the Cancun Theater Room, spotlighting programming from the participating broadcasters with a focus on Japanese drama for Latin American industry professionals. A networking cocktail reception will follow, giving the visiting companies and local buyers additional time to talk business.

The push into Latin America comes as the Japanese government has named the content industry one of the country’s core growth sectors. Tokyo has set a target of expanding the overseas market for Japanese-origin content from JPY5.8 trillion ($37 billion) in 2023 to JPY20 trillion ($129 billion) by 2033, with a specific target of JPY0.5 trillion ($3.2 billion) for live-action content overseas by 2033.

Latin America brings its own long history of serialized television drama, rooted in telenovelas that have been produced across the region since the 1950s and have traveled widely across borders. The continued growth of streaming in the region is also opening new pathways for international scripted content to reach audiences.

Organizers frame the delegation as a way for Japanese networks to strike deals with Latin American buyers, distributors and producers when the market runs in November.

MipCancun is a content market and conference serving Latin American and U.S. Hispanic television, bringing together acquisition, distribution and production companies to close content deals in the region’s growing TV markets.

Tenzin Dalha, at the Toronto Film Festival with Jennifer Peedom’s Apple original Film “Tenzing,” has been revealed as the male lead in Bengali-language thriller “Chheledhora,” opposite Swastika Mukherjee.

His casting had been withheld when the Indo-American production was first announced earlier this year, with producers naming only Mukherjee at that point.

“Tenzing,” a gala presentation at TIFF, features Genden Phuntsok as legendary mountaineer Tenzing Norgay, with Tom Hiddleston, Willem Dafoe and Caitríona Balfe also in the cast. A limited theatrical run begins Oct. 9, with global streaming on Apple TV following Oct. 16.

In “Chheledhora,” written and directed by Shieladitya Moulik – whose credits include “Sweater” and “Surjo” – Dalha and Mukherjee anchor a story set off by an act of parental defiance. Mukherjee plays Brishti, a divorced mother who “steals” her own daughter for a birthday outing, only for the child to be genuinely abducted. The discovery then draws a group of deeply flawed adults and their children into an erratic journey through Northeast India, where the youngest characters gradually emerge as the moral compass for the adults around them. Filmed extensively in Arunachal Pradesh’s Ziro Valley, the production combines family drama, thriller elements and dark humor with the cultural texture of India’s Northeast. It is currently in post-production.

“We made a very conscious decision not to announce Tenzin when we first revealed ‘Chheledhora,’” said Ann Mukherjee, founder of Indo-American production company Sita22 Films. “We knew he had this extraordinary international moment ahead of him with ‘Tenzing,’ and TIFF felt like exactly the right time for audiences to discover another side of him. Tenzin possesses a quiet emotional intelligence and restraint that makes him a fascinating counterpoint to Swastika’s tremendous emotional force. Their chemistry is central to the film.”

Mukherjee described “Chheledhora” as a film that makes both a physical and emotional journey into India’s Northeast. “We want to tell stories that are deeply rooted in India but aren’t constrained by conventional ideas of language, geography or identity,” she said.

Dalha said it felt “particularly special” to be discussing one project while at the festival for another. “They are completely different films, yet rooted in human grit, empathy, the lengths to which humans are capable of going for people they love,” he said. “What drew me to ‘Chheledhora’ was Shieladitya’s writing. His understanding of humans as imperfect complex beings and looking at life beyond the dichotomy of individuals as good or bad. He wrote these beautiful broken young adult characters making questionable choices for their loved ones.”

The actor described Mukherjee as “a force of nature in frame and a force of joy on set,” adding that the Arunachal landscape shaped the film’s atmosphere from the outset. “Shooting in Ziro and Arunachal Pradesh provided the perfect backdrop for a thriller, and the weather set the tone right for the ambience,” he said.

The film is produced by Ann Mukherjee for Sita22 Films, with Jitin Hingorani as co-producer and creative producer, Dhanraj Sawant as executive producer and Priyangi Borthakur as supervising producer. Italian cinematographer Vincenzo Condorelli shot the film.

“The idea was never to make a Bengali film that simply happens to travel to the Northeast,” said Hingorani, who also heads content and development at Sita22 Films. “The journey changes these characters, and the Northeast becomes part of the film’s emotional language. Pairing Swastika and Tenzin gives us two performers coming from very different cinematic and cultural energies, and that tension is part of what makes the film so exciting. At Sita22, our mandate is to find stories that can be hyper-local and super-global at the same time, and ‘Chheledhora’ embodies that philosophy beautifully.”

The 31st Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has announced the first-ever Korea visit by Alfonso Cuarón, alongside a dedicated spotlight on nine films from European women and genderqueer filmmakers.

Cuarón, who has won the Academy Award for best director twice, for “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018), also holds the Venice Film Festival’s best screenplay prize for “Y Tu Mamá También” (2001) and a Golden Lion for “Roma.” He first caught Hollywood’s attention with “Y Tu Mamá También,” a portrait of youth and desire, before taking “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (2004) in a moodier, more personal visual direction than the series had gone before, and later used extended long takes in “Children of Men” (2007) to pull audiences directly into a world at war. He is expected to appear at BIFF’s opening ceremony and will sit down for an extended conversation with festivalgoers about the camera language and instincts behind his films. An Imax screening of “Gravity,” co-written with his son, filmmaker Jonás Cuarón, will also be at the festival.

Jonás Cuarón’s latest feature, “Campeón Gabacho,” will have its Asian premiere in the World Cinema section, followed by a post-screening Q&A. Since writing on “Gravity,” the younger Cuarón has built his own filmography with “Desierto” (2015) and “Chupa” (2023). “Campeón Gabacho,” starring Juan Daniel García Treviño, Leslie Grace, Rubén Blades, Eddie Marsan, Rosario Dawson and Cheech Marin, follows a Mexican immigrant building a life in the United States, and was produced by Jonás Cuarón alongside his father and Gabriela Rodriguez under their Esperanto Filmoj banner, with Nicolás Celis also producing.

Elsewhere at the festival, BIFF is showcasing “Europe! Voices of Women+ in Film,” a program run with the European Film Promotion (EFP), spotlighting nine officially selected films through targeted promotion and industry networking. The lineup spans period drama, documentary and contemporary narrative work built around questions of freedom, memory and family, with four of the nine as feature debuts. May el-Toukhy‘s “Woman Unknown,” winner of the Golden Lion at Venice, anchors the group; el-Toukhy became the first Danish woman filmmaker to take that prize, while Mathilde Arcel won the Volpi Cup for best actress in the same film. Also included are Marine Atlan’s debut “La Gradiva,” Pegah Ahangarani’s “Rehearsals for a Revolution,” Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime,” winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes, Margherita Ferrari’s debut “Föa – Once Upon a Future,” Isabelle Stever’s “I Rarely Wake Up Dreaming,” Marie Kreutzer’s “Gentle Monster,” Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “No Good Men” and Sarah Arnold’s debut “Too Many Beasts.” Judith Godrèche’s “A Girl’s Story,” part of this year’s gala presentations, joins Angela Schanelec’s “My Wife Cries,” Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak’s “Birds of War,” Jacqueline Lentzou’s “A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra,” winner of the Horizons Award for Best Director at Venice, and Konstantina Kotzamani’s “Titanic Ocean” among the additional selections.

Five directors from the program, el-Toukhy, Godrèche, Ferrari, Lentzou and Kotzamani, will travel to Busan to present their films. Godrèche will also take part in a Cine Class session, “Women, Rewriting the Screen,” and BIFF and EFP will co-host a Talk-to-Talk panel, “Women Directors: Taking the Scene,” bringing together Ferrari, el-Toukhy and Lentzou alongside Iranian director Marjan Khosravi (“Dreams of the Wild Oaks”), Chinese director Michelle Zhou (“Big Little Things”) and Afghan director Zainab Entezar (“771 Days”).

BIFF programmer Seo Seunghee said that in reviewing films for this year’s festival, she noticed European women directors becoming more prominent among the strongest titles under consideration, in both volume and quality. “Moreover, the fact that four of the nine invited films are feature debuts is also an indicator of the generational shift taking place in European cinema,” Seo said. “Our ongoing collaboration with EFP has become a reliable channel for discovering and validating outstanding films and filmmakers, and the results are fully reflected in this year’s lineup.”

EFP managing director Irina Ignatiew-Lemke said the “Europe! Voices of Women+ in Film” initiative lets EFP and its member organizations “join forces to give distinctive European voices greater international visibility.” She added, “Busan is an important platform for bringing these filmmakers and their works into dialogue with audiences and industry professionals in Asia. By combining the festival’s selection with EFP’s targeted promotion and networking, we are proud to support underrepresented voices and create opportunities for the next generation of women+ filmmakers.”

The program runs in collaboration with BIFF, the Sydney Film Festival and Festival do Rio, with support from the Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union. This year’s participating national film promotion organizations are Austrian Films, Cinecittà, the Czech Film Center, the Danish Film Institute, German Films and Unifrance, with Cineuropa serving as media partner.

The 31st Busan International Film Festival will run Oct. 6-15 at the Busan Cinema Center and venues throughout Busan, with the 21st Asian Contents & Film Market held Oct. 10-13.