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In its 23rd year, Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event has expanded in its scope and reach without moving away from its core: training, promoting Baltic film and TV filmmakers and connecting them with the rest of the world.

According to industry honcho Marge Liiske, this year’s event will focus on the role of cinema in larger society. “As the world undergoes profound changes, the role of cinema is more important than ever. At a time when humanity faces environmental challenges, social injustice and unrelenting conflict, our films need to be more than entertainment; they need to be calls to empathy, understanding and action.”

More than 800 delegates from 47 countries have signed up for the event, which spans eight days (Nov. 15-22) instead of the usual five, due to an extra three days dedicated to short films.

The new Shorts Industry Shortcut for emerging local, regional and international filmmakers is meant to...

A museum curator faces all facets of mourning in Spanish director Sergi Pérez’s upcoming feature “Memorial,” selected to participate at Madrid’s 7th Annual Ecam Incubator, among Spain’s most prestigious international co-production forums.

Written by Pérez and Anna Cammany, the project is produced by Eave and Berlinale Talents Alum Carla Sospedra Salvadó and her production outfit Edna Cinema (“Mamífera”). Other producers include Jofre Ferré and Ander Sagardoy at Barcelona’s Sumendi Filmak (“Betiko Gaua”), Alex Lafuente at Madrid’s B Team Pictures (“Reinas”) and Jerome Vidal at Paris-based Noodles Production (“Robot Dreams”).

Having contributed to the pre-production of Carla Simon’s Golden Bear-winning Berlinale title “Alcarràs,” Sospedra has also produced Isabel Coixet and Laura Ferrés’ 2022 San Sebastian stunner “El techo amarillo,” Bélen Funes’ “Sara a la Fuga” and Simon’s 2020 short “Correspondencias,” co-directed with Dominga Sotomayor. She’s also worked with Elena Trapé, Liliana Torres (“Mamífera”) and Alba Cros...

This year, 22 Catalan productions have been selected for the 72nd San Sebastian Film Festival, highlighting just how much the region’s film industry is booming.

Among them is Mamífera, directed by Liliana Torres. The Barcelona-born filmmaker wanted to tackle the subject of “non-maternity” — a woman’s decision not to have children — in response to a stigma she has felt personally.

Torres’ project, screening in San Sebastian this week, follows Lola (played by Maria Rodríguez Soto) and Bruno (Enric Auquer), two 40-something-year-olds in a happy relationship. As Lola watches her friends and family obsess over either their own children or having children, she is shocked to find herself pregnant and unhappy about it. Everyone around her is so connected to the experience of motherhood, it causes Lola to grapple with the idea that something is wrong with her.

The film offers a poignant commentary on the societal pressure placed on women...

Spoiler Alert: The last two paragraphs of this review contains spoilers.

“Mamífera” introduces 40-year-old Lola (Maria Rodríguez Soto) having tender sex with boyfriend Bruno (Enric Auquer), standing up in the shower. Then, sitting on their bed, they dry off together, him seated behind her, carefully using a hairdryer on her hair, and at one point playfully directing its jet of warm air down the front of her panties. In this short but intimate sequence, writer-director Liliana Torres conjures worlds of easy, contented empathy between two people who know each other’s bodies very well indeed, but have not grown remotely tired of one another.

Unbeknownst to Lola and Bruno, their bond is about to be tested by a pregnancy so unexpected that it isn’t detected until 10 weeks gestation. It’s worlds away from the experience of Lola’s friend Judit (Ruth Llopis), who is coincidentally trying to conceive via IVF,...

Visit Films has announced a torrent of recent deals on its slate led by a further key territory sale on Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry Good One.

India Donaldson’s feature debut starring newcomer Lily Collias as a 17-year-old who goes on an awkward backpacking trip with her father and his best friend has gone to Cherry Pickers for Benelux after a previously reported deal with New Story for France.

Multiple territories remain in active negotiation after Cannes, and Metrograph Pictures holds North American rights.

SXSW documentary Mogwai: If The Stars Had A Sound about the cult post-rock band has been...

Descubre cómo Lola y Bruno enfrentan un giro inesperado en sus vidas en esta película que ha cautivado al público en el SXSW. © Filmax

Se ha publicado el tráiler oficial de “Mamífera”, la tercera película dirigida por Liliana Torres. En su estreno mundial en la Sección Oficial del prestigioso Festival de Cine South By Southwest (SXSW) de Austin, la película recibió una aclamada acogida por parte del público y la crítica.

En la película, Lola (Maria Rodríguez Soto) disfruta de una vida feliz con su pareja, Bruno (Enric Auquer), hasta que un embarazo inesperado revoluciona todos sus planes. Aunque Lola siempre ha tenido claro que lo de ser madre no va con ella, ahora se siente cuestionada por las expectativas sociales y se enfrenta a sus temores internos. Durante los tres días que tienen que esperar hasta que llegue su cita en la clínica, Lola se acerca a sus amigas...

Austin, TX – The 2024Sxsw Conference and Festivals wrapped on March 16th, after nine days of magic and Austin wackiness, showcasing film, TV, interactive, conferences, interviews and music. The Film & TV Fest named “Bob Trevino Likes It” as the top Narrative Feature and “Marvin is Sorry” as top TV Pilot.

The Narrative Jury included Chicago critic Robert Daniels. The Jury’s statement about “Bob Trevino Likes It” was “Tracie Laymon’s semi-autobiographical story of a struggling young woman who finds anchor in an unlikely connection feels at once familiar and yet surprising. Laymon’s sure hand transforms what might have been saccharine into something raw thanks to vulnerable lead performances from Barbie Ferreira and an unusually uncool John Leguizamo. Refreshingly real and wrenchingly bittersweet, “Bob Trevino Likes It” stole our hearts and earned this prize.”

The following is the list of top honorees …

Grand Jury Prize - Narrative Feature

Bob Trevino Likes It

Photo credit: SXSW.

While there are still several days of buzzy film premieres remaining at SXSW 2024, all of the films playing in competition have screened for audiences and critics. The film festival’s jury announced the winners of the festival’s major awards on Thursday, giving out prizes for narrative feature, documentary feature, and a variety of short, episodic, and Xr categories.

The narrative feature competition was won by “Bob Trevino Likes It,” Tracie Laymon’s dramedy that stars Barbie Ferreira as a young woman who seeks to heal wounds from her relationship with her abusive father by befriending an unrelated man with the exact same name (John Leguizamo).

The top documentary prize went to Sam Crane and Pinny Grylls’ groundbreaking documentary “Grand Theft Hamlet,” which followed a group of actors staging a production of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” inside “Grand Theft Auto Online” during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Keep reading for a complete list...

Tracie Laymon’s Bob Trevino Likes It has won the SXSW narrative feature competition while Grand Theft Hamlet has taken home the documentary feature prize.

Laymon’s comedy drama, about a young woman who forms an unlikely bond with a man bearing the same name as her estranged father, was awarded by the jury for feeling “at once familiar and yet surprising” in a ”refreshingly real and wrenchingly bittersweet” watch. John Leguizamo and Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira star.

The special jury award for performance went to Maria Rodríguez Soto in Liliana Torres’s Spanish family drama Mamifera while Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu...