Ian de la Rosa’s Iván and Hadum, which had its world premiere in Panorama at this year’s Berlinale, is the most visible evidence of a wave of first Catalan features, nurtured by a development lab, a short-form program, and an institutional infrastructure that is now coming to fruition.
Dela Rosa’s trajectory is instructive. His short film “Farrucas” won the Gaudí Award, making him the first trans filmmaker to win the award in Spain. He also co-wrote an episode of HBO Max’s hit series “Veneno.”
Now, in a Spanish-German-Belgian co-production that explores love, identity and labor in the greenhouses of southern Spain, he joins a generation of Catalan debutantes who combine personal vision with international ambition.
Something is changing in Catalan cinema. A new generation of filmmakers in the region are no longer bound to the intimate, site-specific arthouse style that often defined neo-Catalan cinema in the late 2010s, such as Carla Simon’s perhaps iconic title Summer 1993. They’re branching out into genres, international co-productions, and areas their predecessors barely touched on.
This pipeline is being implemented through initiatives like RECLab, the industry arm of Tarragona’s REC Festival, which has supported ground-breaking debuts seen in rough cuts, such as Aestivalis Uresola’s “20,000 Species of Bees” (Berlin Competition 2023) and Mikel Greer’s “Cork” (San Sebastian New Directors 2022).
“In the early days, we created a space for more independent films, films that were a hybrid of fiction and documentary. We were part of the new wave in Catalonia,” Javier García Puerto, director of Tarragona’s REC Festival and RECLab, told Variety. “Little by little we have diversified our themes and styles, delving into Spain’s deep creative diversity, from the most independent arthouses to creative documentation and genre photography.”
A distinctive feature of this generation is the willingness to blend registers. A fusion of arthouse sensibilities and genre beats. Social comments bring elation, not despair. The intimate becomes universal.
Jaume Claret Mouksar’s Strange River, which had its world premiere at Horizons in Venice last year, exemplifies this approach. The film, a coming-of-age story following a group of teenagers on a cycling holiday along the Danube, won the Golden Puffin Award in Reykjavík, with the jury praising it for revealing Claret Maxart’s “precocious and accomplished talent that never indulges in mannerisms or formalism”. The film, which was shot in Catalan, “felt right for me to hear my own words in my first feature film,” the director previously said. It was sold worldwide through Film Boutique.
Meanwhile, director Gemma Blasco’s “Fury” is a work that translates personal trauma into theatrical form. After being sexually assaulted at age 18, Blasko spent years preparing to tell her story. “It didn’t take me long to realize that one day I would make this film, because I couldn’t find any references that I thought expressed me or my inner feelings,” she previously said. As a result, it won three major awards in Malaga and opened the D’A Film Festival in Barcelona. Filmax released it theatrically across Spain.
Other debuts to be tracked include Lucía Arenhal Iglesias’ genre-heavy sad drama “Fostera,” which won Toronto’s Fiplessi Award for Emerging Filmmakers, and Julia de Paz Sorvas’ drama “The Good Daughter,” which swept the Grand Prix, Actress Award, and Audience Award at the Tallinn Black Nights Festival in November. She says, “It’s a new language, more associated with the masculine atmosphere of thrillers and action films.”
Other notable films include Claudia Estrada’s Wolf Grrrls (part trap musical, part ambitious drama, but packed with undercurrents of social issues) and David Gutierrez’s Pyrenees-set The Convulsions (winner of the Tallinn Works in Progress Award).
This means a generational change. While its predecessors often worked with budgets of less than 1 million euros ($1.2 million) and pan-Iberian co-production partners, the group has built international packages from the start, winning over audiences both at festivals and, increasingly, at the box office.
More Catalan titles selected in Berlin
“Porto Alegre”
Director: Alvaro Gago
The second feature film directed by Gago. The “Matria” was selected for Berlin Panorama 2023. “Porto Alegre” has been selected for the Berlin co-production market. While “Matria” is bittersweet, “Porto Alegre” is more uplifting and has been described as a “vibrant drama” about young Tome, who discovers the strength to sustain himself in his roots and community after the death of his mother. Mireia Grael of Barcelona’s Lingo Media will once again be co-producing.
“Robbery, Assault, and Death”
Director: Marcel Bollas, Nao Albet
Chosen to perform in the Berlinale’s Series Market Copro series, Boras and Albet are friends with the famous Catalan playwright and inseparable writer and director, who was asked to write a series about bank robberies. Their ambition to be recognized drives them to unexpected results. “‘Robbery, Beaten and Death’ uses comedy to explore universal themes such as friendship, family, loyalty, work, art, capitalism and the contradictions of our industry,” said Marta Bardo of Cable Car Films, which produced Cannes series winner ‘This Is Not Sweden’.
“The Stallion and the Crystal Ball”
Director: Christian Avilés
Avilés’ “La herida luminosa” was selected for the Berlinale short story category and was nominated for the EFA. Here, his signature magical realism mixes with bizarre desires as a spell-casting teenager who unites with a fantasy hero. Berlinale Short Cuts is the fourth consecutive Short Cuts title produced by film school and production company Escac/Escandaro.
John Hopewell contributed to this report
