Netflix Unveils Latest Spanish Film Slate at San Sebastian

SAN SEBASTIAN —  At one of the biggest industry gatherings at this year’s San Sebastián Festival, Netflix has announced new Spanish movies from “Cable Girls” showrunner Ramón Campos and  “Cross the Line” director David Victori, as it unveiled new talent details on four other banner titles.

Produced by Ramón Campos at his Madrid-based label Bambú Producciones, also behind “Grand Hotel,” “Velvet” and “Fariña,” and directed by Carlos Sedes “The Asunta Case,” “Cable Girls”), murder mystery “La Viuda Negra” begins with a body stabbed seven times is discovered in a car park in Valencia. The prime suspect for the city’s Homicide Group is Maje, the dead man’s Maje, young and kind widow to whom the deceased had been married for less than a year.  

Billed as a psychological thriller, Victori’s “Cortafuego” is produced by Anxo Rodríguez y Ferrán Tomás of ESpotlight Media and stars a topnotch cast of Joaquín Furriel, Belén Cuesta, Enric Auquer and Diana Gómez. It tracks Mara, a recent widow, who travels to the family’s summer house in the woods to prepare it for sale. The trip soon turns into a nightmare as Mara’s daughter Lise disappears as a forest fire rages in the vicinity.

Other talent announcements: 

*Eva Vives (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “All About Nina”) will direct the procedural “La Desconocida,” produced by Matías Mosteirin, Pola Zito, and Leticia Cristi at Argentina’s K&S Films, behind Netflix banner title “El Eternauta.”

*Produced by local megastars Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s label Suma Content, “My Dearest Señorita” is an upcoming adaptation of Jaime de Arimañán’s 1972 feature of the same name, which received an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Film. The project was first unveiled back in February, but today, Netflix revealed that the remake will be directed by Fernando González Molina and written by Alana S. Portero.

*“53 Sundays” is the next project from box office hit director Cesc Gay, produced by Marta Esteban and Laia Bosch at Imposible Films. Starring Spanish superstars Carmen Machi, Javier Cámara and Javier Gutierrez, it tells the story of three siblings who get together to debate what to do with their ageing father, who has started exhibiting strange behavior. What starts as a civilized family reunion quickly turns to chaos as no consensus can be reached.

“Un fantasma en la batalla,” is a new political thriller from writer-directed Agustín Díaz Yanes.  The project has big names attached to producer Belén Atienza, Sandra Hermida and Oscar-nominated “Society of the Snow” filmmaker J.A. Bayona, and stars Susana Abaitua, Andrés Gertrúdix, Iraia Elias, Raúl Arévalo and Ariadna Gil. Unveiled via a clip in San Sebastian which suggested a fast-paced shoot-em-up, it is inspired by the experiences of several members of the Guardia Civil who were involved in the fight against terrorism in the Basque region. 

“We are going to go on investing, betting on stories of quality, diversity, Verónica Fernández, head of fiction film, Netflix, said at the San Sebastian presentation. That will be not only as a producer of originals, but also as a distributor, she added, citing the case of Alejandro Amenábar (“The Captive”) and Fernando Trueba (“Haunted Heart”).

Four of the 10 most watched non-English films ever on Netflix are from Spain, Fernández reminded the San Sebastián audience. 

Netflix Spain also revealed that from January to June of this year, three of the 15 most-watched titles in the world were from Spain.