Film Constellation Finalizes Global Deals on Juan Galiñanes’s Upcoming Thriller “Fatum”

Juan Galiñanes’ latest project is going global…

Film Constellation has finalized several deals on the 42-year-old Spanish director’s upcoming thriller Fatum.

Juan GaliñanesThe film has been acquired for France (Canal+), Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy (Plaion) and Latin America (California Filmes).

The Spanish-language feature brings together a compulsive gambler and an elite sniper, whose destinies become intertwined on a fateful day when the local betting shop gets robbed.

When a single gunshot is fired, the next 24 hours will set them on a race against time that will define their lives forever.

The cast features Luis Tosar, Álex García, Elena Anaya and Arón Piper.

The production will be released in Spain in 2023 by Universal Studios.

Anaya Starring in Matias Bize’s Drama “La memoria del agua”

She may be one of Pedro Almodovar’s muses, but Elena Anaya is earning raves for her work with another Latino director.

The 40-year-old Spanish actress is starring in La memoria del agua, the latest film by Chilean director Matias Bize.

Elena Anaya in La memoria del agua

Anaya describes the film as “a dark and profound – but also marvelous – journey” addressing the experience of life and love.

Known for her work with Almodovar, Anaya praised Bize and talked about the details of filming the project, which will begin showing this week in Chile.

Anaya has acted in films like Lucia y el sexo, Van Helsing and Dead Fish, but she’s best known for starring in two of Almodovar’s most highly acclaimed works: Talk to Her and The Skin I Live In.

But Anaya is now showing off her dramatic talent opposite Chilean actor Benjamin Vicuña in La memoria del agua, the latest work by the director of The Life of Fish, which won the Goya and Buñuel awards.

Anaya plays Amanda, a young woman who, after her son’s death, experiences an emotional crisis that distances her from her partner, Javier (Vicuña).

After contacting her to propose the project, Bize traveled to Madrid to discuss the details of the story and the characters with her.

“We spent several days speaking about our experiences in life regarding the issues that we would later deal with in the film,” Anaya said. “We spoke about the script, the characters, what Matias wanted to say … Later, Benjamin joined the project and made an impression on us with his generosity in sharing his experiences.”

Vicuña’s 6-year-old daughter Blanca died in 2012 from a brain hemorrhage.

The actress also emphasized the respect that prevailed among the director, actors and crew.

Anaya said that “each viewer will feel something different” upon watching the film, “but … they will find a careful, meticulous, subtle work and perhaps will manage to make the trip along with the characters, the dark and profound – but also marvelous – journey.”

Leguizamo to Star in the Thriller “The Infiltrator”

John Leguizamo is infiltrating Londontown..

The 50-year-old Colombian actor has joined the cast of The Infiltrator.

John Leguizamo

The fact-based drama about a fearless undercover agent has just begun principal photography in London.

The thriller from director Brad Furman also stars Bryan Cranston, Diane Kruger and Benjamin Bratt.

The Infiltrator is adapted from Robert Mazur’s autobiography about a customs and excise agent (Cranston) who went undercover as a money launderer and helped orchestrate one of history’s most elaborate stings, getting to the bankers behind the Medellin drug cartel. Ellen Brown Furman wrote the transfer.

Shooting will move to Miami in late April.

Amy Ryan, Olympia Dukakis, Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In) and Juliet Aubrey have also joined the cast.

Almodovar Receives France’s Prix Lumiere for His Lifetime Filmmaking Achievements

Pedro Almodóvar is beloved in France… And he has the prize to prove it!

The 65-year-old Spanish filmmaker has received the country’s Prix Lumiere for his lifetime filmmaking career.

Pedro Almodovar

Almodóvar was overcome by emotion during the tribute ceremony over the weekend, which was attended by members of the French film industry, as well as some of the actresses closest to him like Marisa Paredes, Rossy de Palma and Elena Anaya.

The ceremony ended with the 3,000 attendees packed into the Lyon Congress Center showing their devotion to the director, and at one point singing and dancing to “Resistire” by the Duo Dinamico.

Almodóvar closed the night’s moving festivities, which went on for more than two and a half hours, with a speech that, he said, he had prepared as if it were for a Nobel Prize and which he dedicated entirely to his mother.

Almodóvar, known for such films as Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother and Talk to Her, said that his use of “explosive and saturated” colors is his act of revenge for the more than 30 years his mother spent in the “imposed” black of mourning.

Among the film icons who came to honor him were Isabella Rossellini, Paolo Sorrentino, Berenice Bejo and Keanu Reeves.

French actress Juliette Binoche presented him with the prize while shouting “Merci!” which recalled Penelope Cruz’s famous cry of “Peeeedro!” when she announced that the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to All About My Mother in 2000.

The prize offered by the Lumiere Institute has paid tribute every year since 2009 to an international film personality. Previous recipients include Clint Eastwood, Milos Forman, Gerard Depardieu, Ken Loach and Quentin Tarantino.

The next day, on Saturday, Almodovar announced that he has begun pre-production for his next film and that on Monday he will begin finding locations for the shoot, but specified it will take place “in various points around Spain’s geography, as well as in Madrid.”

“About the rest, the actors and other details, we’ll have time to talk about that in the coming months,” Almodovar said, after confessing that his visit to the Lumiere Festival has been a “delightful pause” in his new moviemaking project.

Tena Earns Best Actress Honors at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival

Natalia Tena has gone the distance at the Malaga Spanish Film Festival

The 29-year-old Spanish actress – born and raised in England – tied Elena Anaya (Todos Estan Muertos) for best actress honors at the fest over the weekend.

Natalia Tena in Long Distance

Tena, best known for her role as wildling Osha in the HBO’s Game of Thrones, earned the honors for her performance in Carlos Marques-Marcet’s directorial debut Long Distance, which also won the top award, the Gold Biznaga, and the best director prize.

Marques-Marcet also landed the best new scriptwriter award with co-writer Clara Roquet for penning the long-distance romance with a production budget less than $690,000 (€500,000).

Distance is a Spanish-U.S. co-production between L.A based Panda Productions and Spain’s Lastor Media and will be released in Spain on May 16.

“The awards mean a huge chance for this independent movie to have success at the box office,” producer Pau Brunet said. “It’s also a triumph for a kind of independent cinema done with untraditional budgets but financed with international vision and the artistic bravery that has characterized the European art house.”

Beatriz SanchisTodos Estan Muertos, about a woman who lives with her agoraphobic daughter, also took the Silver Biznaga with a Special Jury Mention.

Other key awards included Juan Diego’s best actor honor for Anochece en la India, Yolanda Ramos’ for supporting actress in Carmina y Amen, Salva Reina and Hector Medina’s tie for supporting actor in 321 Days in Michigan and Paco Leon for screenplay for Carmina y Amen.