Catalan producer Àngels Masclans founded Dos Soles Media in Barcelona in 2023, building on a producing career that has seen her work with filmmakers such as Carla Simón, Belén Funes, Jaime Rosales, Antonio Chavarrías, Claudia Llosa, Agustí Villaronga, Judith Colell and Marc Recha. Her recent productions include Romería by Carla Simón, Join Me for Breakfast by Iván Morales and Runner by Laura García Alonso. She is attending the 48th Montpellier Mediterranean Film Festival, where she is pitching Arnau Vilaró’s project This Land Between Us (Una terra entre nosaltres) at the Cinemed Meetings Development Grant.

Cineuropa: What prompted you to produce This Land Between Us?
Àngels Masclans: It will be Arnau Vilaró’s second feature as a director, following The Men and the Days, which he is currently preparing. I started working with him two years ago on the short film Open Rehearsal. Arnau co-wrote Summer 1993 and Alcarràs by Carla Simón, and since I produced Romería with Elastica Films, we had that in common and had wanted to work together for a long time. We now have this beautiful project, which is connected to the short film and deals both with the power of desire and with the weight of inheritance on our lives, all within a queer dramatic western set in the Catalan Pyrenees. Arnau is one of the most exciting contemporary filmmakers. He has a very distinctive creativity and sensitivity, and a deep understanding of the tools of cinema. So I was extremely keen to work with him, no matter the project. Moreover, making a short film together strikes me as one of the best ways to establish a director-producer relationship. I was able to appreciate his approach to building stories, the way he interacts with crews and how he makes coherent artistic decisions while taking risks. Now, with This Land Between Us, we are entering a new phase and moving forwards step by step.

What stage has the project reached in its development?
It is quite far along. Arnau and his co-screenwriter Natalia Kolesova are working on the third draft of the screenplay. We already have development support and are applying for MEDIA slate funding in December. The plan is to start financing production next March. Ideally, we are aiming to shoot in early 2029. We are looking for European co-producers, particularly French ones, as well as a sales agent to help build an international future for a project that I believe has strong prospects at festivals and the potential to reach several types of audience.

What is Dos Soles Media’s editorial approach?
I feel lucky and honoured to be able to support first and second features. It is very rewarding to help filmmakers emerge, sometimes starting with their short films. Working with talents such as Carla Simón or Jaime Rosales has been a wonderful experience. What I generally look for are artistic projects with a humanistic impact.

What other projects are you currently working on?
La Unión, the debut feature by Cordelia Alegre, co-produced with Colombia, is in the editing stage. Dos Soles Media is also developing projects with Andrés Ramirez Pulido (winner of the Grand Prize in the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2002 with La Jauría) and Ulises Porro (who attracted attention last year in Toronto’s Centrepiece section with Under the Same Sun). And for the first time, working with WKND, a company specialising in the sector, we are venturing into animation – a real breeding ground for talent – with two projects aimed at adult audiences: Mancera by Khris Cembe, and El Viaje by directorial duo Júlia Francino and Susana Cáceres.

What do you make of the very positive wave that Spanish cinema is currently riding?
One thing is certain: Spain has an enormous pool of talent. The economic and political climate, and the entire film-industry ecosystem – from universities to festivals and labs – offer excellent conditions for this talent to emerge and work, particularly women. This new generation of talent is here to stay, but now we need to bring all our forces together to strengthen opportunities and ensure that this wave of talent truly takes root. We are experiencing a remarkable moment in terms of films and production, but it is still very fragile, and so we need to nurture it. That depends on strong political decisions being made.