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PRODUCTION Spain

Amezcua, Castón and Naharro-Pastor seek co-producers at New Cinema Network

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Three Spanish-produced projects took part in the recently closed sixth edition of New Cinema Network, the co-production forum at the Rome International Film Festival. These are Seventh, another thriller by Patxi Amezcua after the pleasant surprise that was 25 Carat [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Patxi Amézcua
film profile
]
in 2008; The Silly Ones and the Stupid Ones, by Roberto Castón, whose previous title Ander [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(2009) was shown at numerous festivals; and Un Gran Final, by Álvaro Pastor and Antonio Naharro (pictured), after their critical and popular hit Me Too [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
(2009).

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The farthest advanced project at this time is Seventh, which has secured half of its necessary budget (for a total of €1.6m) and is scheduled to start shooting in spring 2012. Co-written by Amezcua and Alejo Flash, the film’s screenplay centres on a father, Marcelo, who loses his children in his own building. “One of the things we most liked about 25 Carat was its great sense of suspense and in Seventh we know that this tension will come out in the finished film”, explained producer Victoria Borrás, who is producing the film for Catalan outfit Ikiru Films, which will have co-production support from Madrid-based El Toro Pictures and Argentina’s Cepa.

Meanwhile, The Silly Ones and the Stupid Ones, which will be produced by Bilbao-based Bitart New Media, is expected to shoot in summer 2012, with a budget of just over €2m. This “tragicomedy about people, more than characters”, commented director Castón, who also penned the screenplay, centres, as its title suggests, on silly people (“those who try to change their lives because they don’t feel good”) and stupid people (“those who don’t change anything although they feel bad and, as time passes, they feel worse”).

Finally, Naharro and Pastor presented Un Gran Final (working title), which will be produced by Topisto Films. Without doubt, the wide recognition achieved by Me Too on the international market (it was released across Europe, including the Netherlands, France, Belgium, Germany and Greece) made it easier to present their new project, which will have an estimated budget of €4.3m. Once again, they have chosen a powerful subject, that of death and illness, although, as they themselves explained: “It will be a film full of life. Its main theme is that we must live in the present”.

Three of the 12 projects presented in the European section at New Cinema Network were Spanish. This is an outstanding result in which a decisive role was played by the ICAA, which made “a strong proposal, with very well prepared projects, which show the high standard of young Spanish cinema”, according to José Antonio de Ory, the Institute’s deputy director general of promotion and international relations.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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