Catalonia Pushes Beyond Arthouse
Ian de la Rosa’s “Iván & Hadoum,” world premiering in Panorama at this year’s Berlinale, is the most visible evidence of a wave of Catalan first features that has been nurtured by development labs, shorts programs and an institutional infrastructure now bearing fruit.
De la Rosa’s trajectory is instructive. His short “Farrucas” won the Gaudí Award, making him the first trans filmmaker to claim the prize in Spain. He also co-wrote episodes of HBO Max’s hit series “Veneno.”
Now, with a Spain-Germany-Belgium co-production exploring love, identity and labor in the greenhouses of southern Spain, he joins a generation of Catalan debuts that blend personal vision with international ambition.
Something is shifting in Catalan cinema. The region’s new generation of filmmakers is no longer bound by the intimate, place-specific arthouse mode that often defined the late 2010s New Catalan Cinema —with Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993” as its perhaps its emblematic title. They are pushing into genre, into international co-production, into areas their predecessors rarely touched.
The pipeline runs through initiatives like RECLab, the industry arm of Tarragona’s REC Festival, which has supported breakthrough debuts, seen in rough cut, including Estibaliz Urresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees” (Berlin competition 2023) and Mikel Gurrea’s “Cork” (San Sebastián New Directors 2022).
“In early years, we made space for films which were much more indie, fiction-documentary hybrids. We were part of the Catalan new wave,” Javier García Puerto, director of Tarragona’s REC Festival and RECLab, has told Variety. “Little by little, we’ve diversified in themes and styles, drilling down on Spain’s deep creative diversity — from the most indie arthouse to creative docs and genre pics.”
What distinguishes this generation is a willingness to blend registers. Arthouse sensibility meets genre beats. Social commentary delivers uplift rather than despair. The intimate becomes universal.
Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Strange River,” which world premiered in Venice’s Horizons last year, exemplifies the approach. A coming-of-age story following a teenager on a cycling holiday along the Danube, the film won the Golden Puffin at Reykjavík, where the jury praised Claret Muxart for revealing “a precocious and accomplished talent that never indulges in mannerisms or formalism.” Shot in Catalan, “It felt right to hear my own language in my first feature,” the director said previously. It sold internationally via Films Boutique.
Gemma Blasco’s “Fury,” meanwhile, channels personal trauma into theatrical form. After being sexually assaulted at 18, Blasco spent years preparing to tell the story. “It didn’t take me long to realize that, one day, I would end up making this film, because I couldn’t find any references that I felt represented me and the way I was feeling inside,” she said previously. The result won three major prizes at Málaga and opened D’A Film Festival in Barcelona. Filmax released it theatrically across Spain.
Other debuts to track include Lucía Aleñar Iglesias’ genre-tinted grief drama “Forastera,” which won the Fipresci Prize for Emerging Filmmakers in Toronto, and Júlia de Paz Solvas’ drama “The Good Daughter, which swept the Tallinn Black Nights Festival in November, scooping its Grand Prix, actress and Audience Awards. She spoke to Variety at the time of wanting to explore “new languages, more associated with a masculine register, such as a thriller or an action film.”
Other ones to watch include Claudia Estrada’s “Wolf Grrrls,” part trap musical, part aspirational drama, but packing a social-issue undertow, and David Gutiérrez’s Pyrenees-set “The Convulsions,” a Tallinn Works in Progress winner.
This marks a generational shift. Where their predecessors often worked with budgets under €1 million ($1.2 million) and pan-Iberian co-production partners, this cohort is building international packages from the outset and finding audiences both at festivals and, increasingly, at the box office.
Other Catalan Titles Selected for Berlin
“Porto Alegre”
Director: Álvaro Gago
The second feature from Gago, whose “Matria” was selected for Berlin’s Panorama 2023. “Porto Alegre” has been selected for Berlin’s Co-production market. While “Matria” is bittersweet, “Porto Alegre” looks more uplifting, described as “a vibrant drama,” about young Tomé who, after his mother’s death, discovers strength to sustain himself in his roots and community. Mireia Graell at Barcelona’s Ringo Media once more co-produces.
“Robbery, Beating and Death”
Directors: Marcel Borras and Nao Albet
Selected to pitch at the Berlinale’s Series Market Co-Pro Series, “Robbery, Beating and Death” stars Borras and Albet, distinguished Catalan playwrights and inseparable writer-director friends commissioned to write a series about a bank robbery. Their ambition for recognition drives them to unforeseen consequences. “‘Robbery, Beating and Death’ uses comedy to explore universal themes: friendship, family, loyalty, work, art, capitalism and the contradictions of our industry,” saysMarta Baldó at Funicular Films, which is behind Canneseries winner “This Is Not Sweden.”
“Stallion and a Crystal Ball”
Director: Christian Avilés
Avilés’ “La herida luminosa” scored a Berlinale Shorts selection and an EFA nomination, and here his hallmark magic realism is mixed with queer desire as a teen casts a spell to be united with his fantasy hero. A Shortcut title marking the fourth year running in which the film school/production house Escac/Escándalo makes the Berlinale Shorts cut.
John Hopewell contributed to this report
De la Rosa’s trajectory is instructive. His short “Farrucas” won the Gaudí Award, making him the first trans filmmaker to claim the prize in Spain. He also co-wrote episodes of HBO Max’s hit series “Veneno.”
Now, with a Spain-Germany-Belgium co-production exploring love, identity and labor in the greenhouses of southern Spain, he joins a generation of Catalan debuts that blend personal vision with international ambition.
Something is shifting in Catalan cinema. The region’s new generation of filmmakers is no longer bound by the intimate, place-specific arthouse mode that often defined the late 2010s New Catalan Cinema —with Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993” as its perhaps its emblematic title. They are pushing into genre, into international co-production, into areas their predecessors rarely touched.
The pipeline runs through initiatives like RECLab, the industry arm of Tarragona’s REC Festival, which has supported breakthrough debuts, seen in rough cut, including Estibaliz Urresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees” (Berlin competition 2023) and Mikel Gurrea’s “Cork” (San Sebastián New Directors 2022).
“In early years, we made space for films which were much more indie, fiction-documentary hybrids. We were part of the Catalan new wave,” Javier García Puerto, director of Tarragona’s REC Festival and RECLab, has told Variety. “Little by little, we’ve diversified in themes and styles, drilling down on Spain’s deep creative diversity — from the most indie arthouse to creative docs and genre pics.”
What distinguishes this generation is a willingness to blend registers. Arthouse sensibility meets genre beats. Social commentary delivers uplift rather than despair. The intimate becomes universal.
Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Strange River,” which world premiered in Venice’s Horizons last year, exemplifies the approach. A coming-of-age story following a teenager on a cycling holiday along the Danube, the film won the Golden Puffin at Reykjavík, where the jury praised Claret Muxart for revealing “a precocious and accomplished talent that never indulges in mannerisms or formalism.” Shot in Catalan, “It felt right to hear my own language in my first feature,” the director said previously. It sold internationally via Films Boutique.
Gemma Blasco’s “Fury,” meanwhile, channels personal trauma into theatrical form. After being sexually assaulted at 18, Blasco spent years preparing to tell the story. “It didn’t take me long to realize that, one day, I would end up making this film, because I couldn’t find any references that I felt represented me and the way I was feeling inside,” she said previously. The result won three major prizes at Málaga and opened D’A Film Festival in Barcelona. Filmax released it theatrically across Spain.
Other debuts to track include Lucía Aleñar Iglesias’ genre-tinted grief drama “Forastera,” which won the Fipresci Prize for Emerging Filmmakers in Toronto, and Júlia de Paz Solvas’ drama “The Good Daughter, which swept the Tallinn Black Nights Festival in November, scooping its Grand Prix, actress and Audience Awards. She spoke to Variety at the time of wanting to explore “new languages, more associated with a masculine register, such as a thriller or an action film.”
Other ones to watch include Claudia Estrada’s “Wolf Grrrls,” part trap musical, part aspirational drama, but packing a social-issue undertow, and David Gutiérrez’s Pyrenees-set “The Convulsions,” a Tallinn Works in Progress winner.
This marks a generational shift. Where their predecessors often worked with budgets under €1 million ($1.2 million) and pan-Iberian co-production partners, this cohort is building international packages from the outset and finding audiences both at festivals and, increasingly, at the box office.
Other Catalan Titles Selected for Berlin
“Porto Alegre”
Director: Álvaro Gago
The second feature from Gago, whose “Matria” was selected for Berlin’s Panorama 2023. “Porto Alegre” has been selected for Berlin’s Co-production market. While “Matria” is bittersweet, “Porto Alegre” looks more uplifting, described as “a vibrant drama,” about young Tomé who, after his mother’s death, discovers strength to sustain himself in his roots and community. Mireia Graell at Barcelona’s Ringo Media once more co-produces.
“Robbery, Beating and Death”
Directors: Marcel Borras and Nao Albet
Selected to pitch at the Berlinale’s Series Market Co-Pro Series, “Robbery, Beating and Death” stars Borras and Albet, distinguished Catalan playwrights and inseparable writer-director friends commissioned to write a series about a bank robbery. Their ambition for recognition drives them to unforeseen consequences. “‘Robbery, Beating and Death’ uses comedy to explore universal themes: friendship, family, loyalty, work, art, capitalism and the contradictions of our industry,” saysMarta Baldó at Funicular Films, which is behind Canneseries winner “This Is Not Sweden.”
“Stallion and a Crystal Ball”
Director: Christian Avilés
Avilés’ “La herida luminosa” scored a Berlinale Shorts selection and an EFA nomination, and here his hallmark magic realism is mixed with queer desire as a teen casts a spell to be united with his fantasy hero. A Shortcut title marking the fourth year running in which the film school/production house Escac/Escándalo makes the Berlinale Shorts cut.
John Hopewell contributed to this report