Screen's Spain Stars of Tomorrow are making their mark

In Cannes, Elena Martin — one of the writer/directors selected for Spain Stars in 2022 — is in Directors’ Fortnight with her second feature Creatura, in which she also stars. The film explores female sexual desire through the story of a woman holidaying at her family home on the Costa Brava. A problematic relationship with her partner draws up memories of her sexual awakening as a young woman. Creatura was co-written with Clara Roquet and is produced by Vilaüt Films, Lastor Media, Avalon and Elastica Films. Luxbox has international rights.

Jason Fernandez, another Spain Star from the 2022 edition, is in Pedro Almodovar’s short Strange Way Of Life, in Cannes as a Special Screening, while actors Alex Monner and Carlos Cuevas (Spain Stars of Tomorrow 2021 and 2022) have voiced two of the short biographical stories in the audiobook version of Almodovar’s memoir The Last Dream (El Ultimo Sueño), which was published this spring.

Upcoming projects

Elena Lopez Riera (Stars 2021) premiered her first feature The Water (El Agua) in Directors’ Fortnight in 2022. A year later and while still promoting that title, she is finding time to focus on her next projects. They are a documentary short about “female love and desire” among the generation of women of her mother’s age, and a feature provisionally titled Give Me Poison (Dame Veneno) about a Spanish medium at the beginning of the 20th century, for which she will work again with Swiss production banner Alina Film.

Fellow writer/directors Mikel Gurrea and Alex Lora (Stars 2022) are busy on their next projects. Gurrea premiered Cork (sold by UK-based Reason8) in competition at San Sebastian and has since finished the screenplay of his second feature, Saints (Sants), backed again by Lastor Media and Malmo Pictures as producers. It is about a woman who distracts herself from losing her mother by joining a gang of burglars who target churches.

Lora premiered his first fiction feature Unicorns at Malaga Film Festival in March, with the prolific Elena Martin as one of the stars. He is now working on the screenplay of his second film, which will reunite him with producer Valérie Delpierre from Inicia Films. Between The Hammer And The Stone is a drama prompted by the terrorist attack in Catalonia in summer 2017 that saw 16 people killed. Lora is also in talks with UK-based Rashomon Films to work on upcoming series Armada.

Writer/director Maria Perez Sanz (Stars 2022) is working on the screenplay of her second fiction feature Leaving Madrid, a comedy set in contemporary Madrid, for which she is in talks with a Spanish company to produce. Jiajie Yu Yan (Stars 2021) has two fiction features ready to go: Three Ages is being produced by Solita Films, while Three Stories is co-written with Maria Miranda and produced by Spanish production company Canada. The first is in the financing stage and the second in writing, chosen to take part in the Cine Qua Non Lab in Mexico.

In February this year Alvaro Gago (Stars 2021) premiered his feature Matria in Berlin’s Panorama section, having won the Screen International buyers’ choice award at the 2022 International Audiovisual Market (MIA) in Rome. While busy supporting Matria, sold by New Europe Film Sales, Gago is working on his second feature Porto Alegre. It is inspired by the death of his mother when he was a child. Sétima in Galicia and Ringo Media in Catalonia produce.

For actress Dariam Coco (Stars 2021), the last year has been a whirl of activity. As well as her work on the second season of Welcome To Eden for Netflix, she was cast in Spanish-­language miniseries La Máquina, produced by Searchlight TV for Hulu and reuniting Mexican stars Diego Luna and Gael Garcia Bernal. Coco filmed her scenes last autumn in Mexico. “I have taken a big step and learnt a lot as an actress,” she says of working inter­nationally on La Máquina. “Being selected as a Spain Star by Screen has helped me, for sure.”

Coco met fellow Spain Star Berta Castañé at the 2021 photoshoot in Mallorca. They have since worked together on Welcome To Eden and Castañé has shot the second season of They All Lie for Movistar+.

Filmmaking talent

Moving behind the camera, Mireia Oriol (Stars 2021), who starred in the Netflix series The Girl In The Mirror (Alma) directed by Sergio G Sanchez and Kike Maillo, has started to write a series project herself — with plans to direct and produce through Blur Films.

Guillermo Lasheras (Stars 2021) has worked on Netflix romantic drama Through My Window: Across The Sea, the sequel to Through My Window, and has also written a book, Los Prospectos De Mis Medicamentos, for major Spanish publishing house Espasa.

Meanwhile, actress Jone Laspiur (Stars 2021) has been involved in Negu Hurbilak, an experimental feature shot in the Basque Country, and Ton Vieira (Stars 2021) has finished shooting the series Hit for Spanish broadcaster RTVE.

The acting talents showcased in the 2022 edition of Stars are all stepping up a gear. Zoé Arnao, whose credits include Schoolgirls and The House Among The Cactuses was cast in Journey To Bethlehem, a musical produced and directed by Adam Anders that shot in early 2023 in Spain. The film stars Antonio Banderas, Fiona Palomo and Milo Manheim; Arnao plays a young shepherd.

“I had never sung in front of a camera,” Arnao admits. “But I felt comfortable in the shoot, working in English and with an inter­national cast. I never had such a big trailer!”

Handling the lambs proved more challenging. “I had to hold one in the nativity scene, and gently keeping it still was not easy. It was so cute, I loved it, but it took two hours to shoot that. I ended up striking a friendship with the set’s vet, who was helping me,” she smiles.

Pol Hermoso (Stars 2022) has finished shooting Miguel Faus’s feature Calladita alongside Ariadna Gil, and is working on the second season of Netflix’s Holy Family (Sagrada Familia).

Veki Velilla (Stars 2022) starred in HBO Max original series ¡García!, while fellow 2022 Star Valeria Sorolla’s debut as a main character in a Spanish production — Fernando Franco’s The Rite Of Spring — played in competition at San Sebastian 2022. The role earned her a nomination for best new actress at the Goya Awards in February.

A camaraderie has sprung up between the Stars of Tomorrow cohorts. “There is a real connection between us,” says Lopez Riera. “We talk and share experiences. I have been in touch with Elena Martin just recently.”

The connection extends to the filmmakers in whose footsteps they are following. “I feel a very strong bond with filmmakers like Victor Erice and the recently deceased Carlos Saura,” says Gurrea. “We are all part of a tradition in Spanish cinema that we acknowledge and honour. Film festivals and European cinema are our natural habitat.”