Why do you talk about television in Spain at the world’s largest film festival? One reason: In 2024, San Sebastian held the world premiere of the Movistar Plus+ original series “Querer” and “Celeste.”
Spanish pay TV/SVOD operators Movistar Plus+ and Netflix are both now in operation at San Sebastián this year, two companies that have driven most of the Spanish filmmaking needles over the past five years.
Just like any other big TV company, think of Fremantle – Movistar Plus+ and Netflix both cultivate filmmaking. Results and businesses produce many of the best films at this year’s festival and some of its main story points.
Movistar Plus unveiled the film’s original first slate in January 2024, revealing its early epic results. Cannes main competition, Oliver Lax’s “Sir” was acquired by Neon for North America, won the Cannes Juju Award, processed at the match factory, and is now sold in all major markets.
In Spain, “Sirât” was released on June 6th by BTEAM photos and by September 7th it had won 2.7 million euros ($3.2 million). Movistar Plus+ upcoming production slate includes the next film from Pedro Almodóvar (“Bitter Christmas”: Bora Negra”, with Penelope Cruz.
Two more Movistar Plus+ titles (Alberto Rodríguez’s “Los Tigres” and Alauda Ruiz de Azúa’s “Sunday”) account for half of San Sebastian’s four Spanish main competition Golden Shell candidates.
“We created a hybrid model. We are broadcasters, but we support theatre running, collaborate with independent producers, allowing complex access to normal finance.”
Netflix Spanish filmmaker Ja Bayona’s Society of The Snow remains ranked as Netflix’s third biggest non-English global hit film, with 98.5 million views. Netflix Spain commissioned 1-2 Spanish films every six months from the second half of 2022 to 2024, then ordered five films in the first half of 2025. “There’s a noticeable shift in film in early 2025 compared to early 2025 TV shows,” commented Ampere’s Guy Bisson. In Latin America, film orders surged from four in late 2023 to eight in late 2024 and six in the first six months of 2025 when operators generally retreated for Hollywood strike action.
This shows that at San Sebastián, Netflix movies have secured the best festival real estate ever. The Basque Festival opens with the Argentine Netflix film 27 Nights, directed by Daniel Hendler (“Loose End”). Another Netflix feature of Chile’s Dominga Sotomayor (“too late to get younger”) is “Limpia,” a Latinx horizontal in San Sebastian, one of the festival’s most important sidebars. The buzzy Spanish Netflix title “She Has Walks in Darkness” rings out of the competition.
The main topic of the festival is set to turn on the future of Movistar Plus+ under new top management. The Telefonica-owned pay-TV/SVOD player, driven by the Fiction Head Domingo Collar at the time, appeared as a prominent content investor since 2017, producing the 10-11 series a year, often creating enormous artistic ambitions.
Now under new CEO Daniel Domenjo, Movistar Plus+ is fighting to build and expand beyond what Corral, former CEO Cristina Burzako and former President Sergio Oslé have created.
“Movistar Plus+ has a well-known brand of unique, remarkable integrated brands that bet on this legacy that has been built very well in the past. We aim for future growth that broadens the focus of Movistar Plus+.”
Movement in that direction has already been created. “Sunday” is a classic arthouse that dives deep into complex contemporary ethics. In contrast, “Ross Tigress” is Rodriguez’s biggest film to date. “It’s a very personal film about the instability of certain working class in Europe, the lack of prospects, and at the same time, it’s a very personal film about a very entertaining thriller that counters the Narco trade, a very open film,” says Fare.
“We need to make more noise, we need to open up to formats and genres like entertainment that aren’t now,” Domenho says. Entertainment can be “particularly.” There is a “fiction/document hybrid, for example, that can stay true to a brand but innovate.”
As Movistar Plus+ viewers are distorting the elderly, Jorge Pezzi of Movistar Plus Director of Fiction and Alliances employs the novel by Victria Martín, one of Spain’s most well-known YouTube and podcast comedians, as an early example of the younger audience’s “Se Tiene Que Morir Mucha Gente.”
Movistar Plus+ allows you to play tailwinds from several markets. It’s still growing. Movistar Plus+ is a streaming version of the basic pay-TV tier selling for just 9.99 euros ($11), and has helped add thousands of double-digit nets every quarter since the second quarter of 2024. “Movistar’s growth is particularly noteworthy given the wider trend in wage TV declines across Europe,” she adds.
I also enjoy my fruitful title-by-titled alliance with Arte France. Their latest co-production, “The Anatomy of the Moment,” is a sharp, sniffing miniseries portrait of three figures who rose up against an attempted Spanish military coup in 1981. It is also directed by Alberto Rodriguez and is formed as one of San Sebastian’s biggest talks this year.
Movistar Plus+ also allows you to play a much more fluid international television business that allows for split rights and window trading. “Making it on Netflix or Amazon Prime Video? Why not? We’ve already spoken to them. They’re very, very receptive,” says Domenjó. Movistar Plus+ points out that it already has the original “Muertos” season 3 for streaming on Netflix.
