27/08/2010

Eleven Spanish productions, including some prominent titles set to be released this forthcoming season, will be presented at the 35th Toronto Film Festival. The Canadian event, a major gateway to the North American market, has selected a series of films, most of which owe their international potential to the fact that they are intelligent and organic co-productions.

Indeed, nine of these 11 films were made with foreign backing and talents. This is the case for Mod Producciones’s third title Biutiful [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (see news), which was directed by Mexico’s Alejandro González Iñárritu and earned Best Actor Award for Javier Bardem at Cannes (see news). It is also true of New York-born director Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall, Dark Stranger [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the second film of his to be produced by Mediapro (after Vicky Cristina Barcelona [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and before Midnight in Paris, which will close the three-film agreement between the director and Catalonian production company).

Another international co-production is Brazilian director Andrucha Waddington’s Lope [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Antena 3 Films, El Toro Pictures and Ikiru Films. This spectacular biopic of legendary Spanish poet and dramatist Lope de Vega stars Argentinean actor Alberto Ammann (see news).

Finally, another title that falls into this category is US director Emilio Estévez’s new work, The Way, produced by Filmax. Shot on the Camino de Santiago, the film stars the director’s father, Martin Sheen (see news).

This formula also leaves room for new Spanish talents, like Rodrigo Cortés, whose film Buried (see news), produced by Versus Entertainment, will be the biggest Spanish release in history when it is launched on over 4,000 screens worldwide in October.

Another fresh talent is Guillem Morales, who brings to Toronto his second feature, Julia’s Eyes, the latest collaboration after The Orphanage [+see also:
trailer
film profile] between Mexican producer Guillermo del Toro and production company Rodar y Rodar (see news). The film also has backing from Antena 3 Films, Focus Features International, TVC and Mes Films.

Also set to attend Toronto are two acclaimed auteurs: Álex de la Iglesia, who will be at the Canadian event after presenting A Sad Trumpet Ballad (produced by Tornasol Films and Castafiore Films in collaboration with France’s La Fabrique 2) in Official Competition at the Venice Film Festival (see news); and Iciar Bollaín, with her fifth feature, Even the Rain, set in South America and produced by Morena Films, Vaca Films and France’s Mandarin Films (see news).

The Spanish contingent will also include three more modest auteur movies: José Luis Guerín’s documentary Guest [+see also:
trailer
film profile], produced by Versus Entertainment; Achero Mañas’s Anything You Want, produced by Bellatrix Films (see news); and Manuel Martín Cuenca’s Half of Oscar, produced by La Loma Blanca (see news).

(Translated from Spanish)