Making for a mouth-watering program, heavy-hitter U.S. writer Alan Ball, showrunner of “Six Feet Under” and “True Blood” and the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Sam Mendes’ “American Beauty” will be one of the guests of honor at Barcelona’s fast-expanding Serielizados festival and market, running over Nov. 3-12.
“To welcome Alan Ball is an absolute honour and he was on our short list of guests for a long time,” Serielizados co-founder Victor Sala told Variety. “Six Feet Under” is a masterpiece and we are really happy to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the last episode of the series. It’s a much beloved series that is still relevant and fresh so many years later.”
Ball will hold a masterclass at the festival’s industry event Serielizados Pro (Nov. 5-7) co-organized with the Film and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (ESCAC) and discuss the cultural impact of his series at a public talk Nov. 8.
His presence comes on the heels of earlier drama luminary attendees David Simon (“The Wire”) and Vince Gilligan (“Breaking Bad”). It further consolidates Serielizados’ commitment “to bringing the most influential and innovative voices in international TV drama to Barcelona,” as underscored by the festival.
Other internationally-acclaimed writer-directors set to hold fireside talks in Barcelona include British creator of “Happy Valley,” Sally Wainwright and Iceland’s Benedikt Erlingsson (“Of Horses and Men,” “Woman at War”). Both will compete in the festival’s international competition with their latest shows “Riot Women” and “The Danish Woman” respectively.
Spanish Series Competition
In today’s full announcement of its 12th edition, Serielizados also unveiled its four-title Spanish series competition, to be judged by Norwegian showrunner-actress Henriette Steenstrup (“Pørni,” “Nepobaby”), Berlinale Series Market’s Jana Daedelow and Argentine critic Diego Batlle.
Headlining the slate is Movistar Plus+/Arte France’s “Anatomy of a Moment.” Helmed by Alberto Rodríguez, co-writer with Rafael Cobos and Fran Araújo, the series about the 1981 Spanish coup d’état, was one of the most buzzed about titles at the recent San Sebastian Film Festival where it world premiered.
“We wanted to open with ‘Moment,’ a highly stylish political biopic that is another sample of a successful co-production between Arte France and Movistar Plus + that have brought us so many good series in recent years,” commented Sala, before adding: “It’s not that common to film a show about recent historical events in Spanish TV drama during these polarized times, and this is a show about people who need to give something up in order to get something bigger than themselves: democracy; It’s about how fragile those days really were.”
Underscoring Movistar Plus+’ role as top purveyor of quality Spanish drama output, the Original “Yakarta” – reuniting writer Diego San José and helmer Elena Trapé of Series Mania’s award-winning “Celeste” – will also be showcased in competition, ahead of its national premiere on Nov. 6. ‘It’s one of my personal top choices as it comes from one of our favorite showrunners, Diego San José. who won best screenplay last year at Serielizados with ‘Celeste,’ said Sala.
In “Yakarta,” Javier Cámara (“Rapa”) plays Joserra, a former Olympic badminton player who makes end meet by teaching PE at a state high school. His uneventful life takes a new turn when he discovers at a school tournament the young prodigy Mar (Carla Quílez, a San Sebastian winner for “Motherhood”).
Yakarta
The show is produced by 100 Balas, part of The Mediapro Studio, and Buendía Estudios Canarias
From Secuoya Studios and pubcaster RTVE, the high-end historical thriller “The 39” (“Los 39”) tells the fact-based story of the 39 men that Christopher Columbus abandoned in 1492 on the Hispaniola Island, now the Dominican Republic.The show, created by David Martínez and Roberto Serrano, is co-helmed by Max Lemcke (“Casual Day”) and Jorge Saavedra (“Zorro,” “Road to Arcadia”).
In a totally different genre, “Argi Gorriak,” a Basque series ordered by pubcaster EITB and starring Itziar Ituño of Netflix “Money Heist” fame, weighs in as a quirky family comedy drama about a dubbing actress whose life is turned upside down by the return of her ex-husband, physically incapacitated by a recent stroke. Alberto Gastesi ,whose sci-fi thriller pic “Singular” just world premiered at the Sitges Film Festival, serves as director.
“Argi Gorriak” is one of two TV shows from the Basque region to be showcased in Barcelona, alongside the Bilbao-set noir “Mouths of Sky” (“Zeru Ahoak”) which just world premiered at San Sebastian. For Sala, this “unusual fact for Serializados’s 12th edition” reflects the successful push in quality scripted content backed by pubcaster EiTB and the Basque region’s incentives.
Closing the festival will be the 3Cat -Vértigo Films’ young adult drama “Sense FilTRES”, which just scooped best screenplay at Cádiz’s South International Series Festival. The short form series ,about the sexting phenomenon and digital relationships, is cut into three blocks of three chapters, with the first section helmed by Jiajie Yu Yan (“Xiao Xian”) about trans boy Charlie due to bow in Barcelona. “The show can dialogue very well with ‘Dates in Real Life’ that we screened last year,” Sala stated.
Sense FilTRES
Other Serielizados Highlights
Other potential festival draws include a special focus on documentary series to mirror the growing appetite of consumers for the genre on streamers, according to Sala, with five titles in the program: 3Cat’s “The Escape” (“La Fugida”), Movistar Plus+’s “Missing in Murcia,” SkyShowtime’s “The Nazi Cartel,” NRK’s “The Agent” and DR’s “Black Swan.”
Other major international series set to make their Catalan premieres take in HBO’s “I Love L.A.” created by Rachl Sennott, “I Kow Your Soul” from Oscar-nominated Jasmila Zbanic, Arte’s French true crime “37 Seconds, voted best French series at Series Mania, and South Korea’s “Family Matters.”
To celebrate past and future talent, Serializados will also screen iconic Catalan family drama “Ventdelplà,” 20 years after it first aired on TV3 in Spain, while up-and-coming directors Robert Abecasis (“Pol i Obe”), Emma Soler (“Storytelling”), Norbert Palazón (“<3”) and Josemi Online will screen their works at the Showcase Short Form co-organised with the Zoom Festival.
As announced earlier, one of the industry showcase’s plat de resistance this year will be the new Mind the Gap co-production platform with 10 international projects set to be pitched to industry delegates on Nov. 6.
The 12th Serielizados will run over Nov. 3-12 at Barcelona venues CCCB, Mooby Aribau cinemas, Casa Seat, SGAE Catalonia, Espai DAMA and over Nov. 10-23 on the platform Filmin.
