12 hot new feature film projects from Spain in the works

Ana No (in development)

Dir. Paz Vega
Spanish actress and director Vega is working on her second feature Ana No, based on the novel of the same name by Agustin Gomez-Arcos. After her husband and two sons are killed in the Spanish Civil War, a penniless Andalusian woman walks all the way to the north of Spain to visit her remaining son, who is held prisoner. “Her journey portrays what Spain was like in the 1960s,” says Egoitz Rodriguez Olea of Spain’s Baleuko, which produces alongside Blacklight Films and Aralan Films (both Spain) and Ombre Rosse (Italy). Ana No is aiming to shoot in the first quarter of 2026. 

Vega’s feature directing debut Rita premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2024. Her acting credits include Sex And Lucia, Talk To Her and Spanglish.
Contact: Baleuko 

The Beloved (post‑production)

Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Javier Bardem stars in The Beloved (El Ser Querido), playing an acclaimed director who is shooting a film set in the Sahara desert in the 1930s. The project reunites him with his estranged daughter, a struggling actress with whom he shares a past neither of them are willing to discuss.  

Victoria Luengo co-stars with Raul Arevalo, Marina Foïs and Mourad Ouani. Luengo’s credits include director Sorogoyen’s 2020 miniseries Riot Police and Pedro Almodovar’s The Room Next Door, and she filmed Bitter Christmas (also by Almodovar) and Sants by Mikel Gurrea this year.

Sorogoyen wrote the screenplay for The Beloved with longtime collaborator Isabel Peña, and shooting took place in Madrid and Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. It is backed by Movistar Plus+ and co-produced by Sorogoyen’s Caballo Films and France’s Le Pacte. A Contracorriente Films will release it in Spain.

Sorogoyen’s The Beasts screened in Cannes Premiere in 2022, going on to win nine of Spain’s Goya awards and a César in France for best foreign film in 2023.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas 

Bitter Christmas (post‑production)

Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Almodovar returns to filming in Spanish following last year’s English-language Venice Golden Lion winner The Room Next Door. Bitter Christmas shot this summer in Madrid and the Canary Islands, and is produced by Almodovar and his brother Agustin through their Madrid-based El Deseo in collaboration with Movistar Plus+.

Rather than allowing herself time to grieve her mother’s death, an advertising executive throws herself into her work, leading to a breakdown. She leaves her partner at home and goes to recover in Lanzarote with a friend. Her story intertwines with that of a film director who — according to early footage from El Deseo — explores his lifelong interest in how creativity and everyday life interact, much like Almodovar himself.

Barbara Lennie and Leonardo Sbaraglia, who worked with Almo­dovar on The Skin I Live In and Pain And Glory respectively, lead a cast that includes Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit and Quim Gutierrez. Deals have been sealed with Sony Pictures Classics in North America, Warner Bros for Spain and Curzon for the UK and Ireland.
Contact: Film Factory Entertainment 

The Black Ball (in production)

Dirs. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
The Black Ball (La Bola Negra) is the long-awaited return to feature-film directing by Calvo and Ambrossi (aka filmmaking duo Los Javis), who made their feature debut with the multi-Goya nominated Holy Camp! in 2017.

The duo were inspired both by an unfinished play by Federico Garcia Lorca, the playwright murdered by right-wing military authorities in Granada in 1936 at the start of the Spanish Civil War, and theatre play La Piedra Oscura by Alberto Conejero — itself inspired by Lorca.

The Black Ball will be a “queer vindication of three men in three different moments of Spanish history, 1932, 1937 and 2017”, according to the directors. Filming began in August.

Penelope Cruz, Lola Dueñas, Miguel Bernardeau and Carlos Gonzalez star alongside musician Guitarricadelafuente in his screen debut. It is produced by Movistar Plus+ and Calvo and Ambrossi’s company Suma Content Films, in co-­production with France’s Le Pacte.

Prior to The Black Ball, Los Javis focused on directing and producing TV series including La Mesías, which premiered at San Sebastian in 2023 before screening at Sundance in 2024.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas 

Hermanos (post‑production)

Dirs. Carol Rodriguez Colas, Marina Rodriguez Colas
The Rodriguez Colas sisters return to the working-class suburb of Barcelona for their second feature Hermanos. The coming-of-age drama follows teenager Ayman, whose family comes from Morocco, and his two close friends. They are invited to a party in an affluent neighbourhood at the house where Ayman’s mother works as a cleaner.

The Rodriguez Colas sisters — whose 2021 debut Girlfriends was written by Marina and directed by Carol — say they are keen to continue exploring the suburb where they grew up. “We want to see how new generations share everyday life alongside long-­established neighbours but without the class complex our generation had,” they add. “The boys are proud of their origins and are not so scared to show their longings and frustrations.”

Hermanos is produced by Barcelona-­based Fasten Films with Saga Film in Belgium. Filmax is distributing in Spain.
Contact: Fasten Films

I Won’t Die For Love (post‑production)

Dir. Marta Matute
Matute’s debut feature, about a young girl whose mother has Alzheimer’s disease, was inspired by her own experience looking after her parent from the age of 18.

“The driving force behind this film was my empathy with all the people who look after their loved ones,” says Matute. “I was particularly thinking of the youngsters that have to become caregivers and sacrifice part of their youth for the person they love. Up to the age of 28, I devoted a big part of my life to caring for my mother.”

The project was developed at the residency of the Spanish Film Academy as well as labs including Ventana Sur and Madrid’s ECAM Incubator. The film is in post-production having shot in spring this year.

The cast includes newcomer Julia Mascort, Sonia Almarcha, Tomas del Estal and Laura Weissmahr, who won the best new actress Goya in 2025 for Salve Maria. I Won’t Die For Love is produced by Spain’s Solita Films, Elastica Films (Carla Simon’s Romería and Alcarràs) and Belgium’s Saga Film.
Contact: Solita Films 

Iván & Hadoum (post‑production)

Dir. Ian de la Rosa
De la Rosa has been attracting interest since short film Farrucas was nominated for a Goya and won Catalan Film Academy’s Gaudi award for best short in 2022. As a screenwriter, they have also worked on TV series Veneno created by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, and won a prize at Cannes Cinéfondation for short Victor XX in 2015.

Iván & Hadoum tells the love story between a Spanish trans man and a Spanish Moroccan woman who work in one of the many industrial greenhouses in southern Spain’s Almeria region. Now in post-production after shooting in Andalusia, the project won a Eurimages co-production development award at the Berlinale Co-Production Market in 2023.

Iván & Hadoum is produced by Spain’s Avalon, Pecado Films and Vayolet with Germany’s Port au Prince and Belgium’s Saga Film. It will be distributed in Spain by Avalon. No sales agent is attached at press time.
Contact: Avalon 

La Unión (financing)

Dir. Cordelia Alegre
The first feature from Catalan filmmaker Alegre, La Unión is about 19-year-old twin sisters raised in Barcelona who travel to Colombia to meet the family of their father who died when they were little. Once in South America, one girl becomes consumed trying to understand their father’s past while the other is focused on the present. Their different approaches bring escalating tension.

Spain’s Dos Soles Media (co-producer of Carla Simon’s Romería) and Weekend Studio are producing with Colombia’s Rara Colectivo Audiovisual and Rhayuela Films. Twin sisters Ariadna and Marina Castello Caus will play the lead roles.

Currently at the financing stage, La Unión is slated to shoot in the first half of 2026 in Catalonia and Colombia. Filmax will distribute in Spain while Luxbox has international rights.
Contact: Luxbox

Manantial (post‑production)

Dir. Manuel Muñoz Rivas
Muñoz Rivas’ debut feature The Sea Stares At Us From Afar (El Mar Nos Mira De Lejos) premiered in the Berlinale’s Forum in 2017. His second feature Manantial is a road movie about an elderly couple who take a trip while the man recovers from a serious illness.

The project shot in Muñoz Rivas’ native Andalusia, and stars the director’s parents Carmen and Manuel. Spain’s El Viaje Films and La Maleta Films produce with Colombia’s Blond Indian Films.

Below-the-line talent includes editors Cristobal Fernandez and Ariadna Ribas, who worked on Oliver Laxe’s Sirât and Albert Serra’s Pacifiction respectively, and directors of photography Mauro Herce, a longtime Laxe collaborator, and Jose Alayon (White On White).

Manantial was selected for San Sebastian’s Ikusmira Berriak development programme in 2021 and went on to win the top prize at MECAS, the market for films in post-­production at Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival, in April this year.
Contact: Jairo Lopez, El Viaje Films

Out Of This World (post‑production)

Dir. Albert Serra
Out Of This World is the English-­language debut from Serra, who won San Sebastian’s Golden Shell last year with bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude. His previous feature Pacification screened in Cannes Competition in 2022, going on to win two César awards for best actor Benoît Magimel and cinematographer Artur Tort.

Out Of This World is about “the historical rivalry between the United States and Russia”, says Serra, whose international cast is headlined by Riley Keough and F Murray Abraham. Set against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the story follows a delegation that goes to Russia to find a solution to a dispute over economic sanctions. Liza Yankov­skaya also stars.

The film shot in Latvia this summer and is a co-production between Serra and Montse Triola’s Andergraun Films (Spain), Les Films du Losange and Idéale Audience (France), Pandora Film Produktion (Germany), Forma Pro Films (Latvia) and Rosa Filmes (Portugal).
Contact: Les Films du Losange 

Sants (in production)

Dir. Mikel Gurrea
Gurrea, a Screen International Spain Star of Tomorrow in 2022 and graduate of London Film School, is in production on Sants, his second feature following San Sebastian premiere Cork in 2022.

Named after a neighbourhood in Barcelona (‘sants’ also means ‘saints’ in Catalan), the film tells the story of a 30-year-old woman who goes back home to look after her terminally ill mother. Struggling to make a living, she takes on odd jobs and dabbles in petty crime until she meets a group of burglars who specialise in stealing religious works of art from churches.

Victoria Luengo, who has had a busy year filming with Pedro Almo­dovar and Rodrigo Sorogoyen, reunites with Gurrea following Cork. Spain’s Lastor Media and Nocturna Pictures produce. Written by Gurrea and Francisco Kosterlitz, the screenplay was selected for the first edition of the Catalan Film Academy script residency programme in 2022-23.
Contact: Nocturna Pictures 

To Live In A Shout (in development)

Dir. Diana Toucedo
Currently in development, To Live In A Shout tells the story of Lola, an architect involved in humanitarian projects, whose Syrian friend has disappeared while attempting to travel to Europe. Lola tries obsessively to solve the mystery, risking the lives of herself and others.

Director Toucedo and writer Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, rising stars of the Spanish film scene, have teamed up for the first time to write To Live In A Shout. Both have had success at the Berlinale: Toucedo with her debut feature Thirty Souls, which premiered in the Panorama section in 2018; and Urresola Solaguren with 20,000 Species Of Bees, which played in Competition in 2023 and won the Silver Bear for actress Sofia Otero.

To Live In A Shout is being produced by Alba Sotorra with Spain’s Miramemira and Amorambre Films. Greece’s Homemade Films is co‑producer.
Contact: Alba Sotorra, Cinema Productions 

• ‘Demon Slayer: Infinity Castle’ expands with $148m session at global box office