Catalonia’s Golden Generation of Filmmakers Hits Its Stride

Catalan Carlos Marqués-Marcet’s best film win at Toronto’s Platform for “They Will Be Dust” points to a larger trend.

Backed by generous government support, experienced producers and sales and distribution companies with impeccable track records domestically and abroad, there is a generation of Catalan filmmakers that is hitting its stride with some of the most exciting titles set to come out of Europe over the next year.

The directors who make up this group of contemporaries can no longer be called new, although many are still young and are arriving in the early middle of their careers. Most have prestigious award wins on their mantles already but still have an energy and urgency to their craft that makes their films must-watch fare.

Perhaps the most highly anticipated Catalan film on the horizon is Carla Simon’s “Romería,” the third part of a trilogy begun by 2017’s Berlin Best First Feature-winner “Summer 1993 and continued with 2022’s Golden Bear-winner “Alcarrás.”

The film turns on Marina, a young woman who visits her biological father’s family in Celta, a blue-collar shipping community in the northwest of Spain. Marina’s father, like Simon’s own parents, died from AIDS when she was young.

“Romería” will heavily feature flamenco music, setting it apart from the rest of Simon’s work. “Since I discovered that my biological mother was passionate about flamenco, a great curiosity began to grow in me for this genre because of its history and its exceptional capacity to connect directly with emotion,” she explained to Variety when the film was announced last year.

Produced by Dos Soles Media, Elastica Films, Ventall Cinema and Romeria Vigo, “Romería” is being sold by MK2.

Óliver Laxe’s upcoming film, “After,” follows Cannes wins for all his first trio of features. 2010’s “You Are All Captains,” his debut, scored a Directors’ Fortnight Fipresci Award; 2016’s “Mimosas” scooped the Critics’ Week top Grand Prize, “Fire Will Come” a 2019 Un Certain Regard Jury Prize.

“After” turns on a man and his son who arrive at a rave lost in the middle of what is described as the arid and ghostly mountains of southern Morocco. They are looking for Marina, the man’s daughter and boy’s sister, who disappeared months ago after a rave.

The film is a Movistar Plus+ original film produced with Pedro and Agustín Almodovar’s El Deseo, Laxe’s Galicia-based label Filmes da Ermida, Oriol Maymó’s Uri Films in Barcelona, and Paris’s 4 A 4 Productions.  

Several experienced and award-winning short filmmakers are working on their feature debuts and looking to make similar impacts to their predecessors.

Gerard Oms’ 2021 short “Inefable” was a revelation, screening in competition at the Chicago International Children’s Film Festival, Guadalajara and Malaga, and winning awards at Huesca and Brussels. His debut feature, “Away,” is a trans-European tale about Dani, who suffers a panic attack while abroad in Utrecht and decides to stay, cutting himself off entirely from the life he left behind him in Barcelona. The film is currently in post, produced by Zabriskie Films and Revolver Amsterdam.

Eva Libertad is adapting her 2021 Spanish Academy Goya-nominated short “Sorda” as a feature film. Earlier this year, Libertad found festival success with her latest short, “Mentiste Amanda,” which won best short at the Medina Film Festival. The feature version of “Sorda,” about a deaf woman and her partner’s anxieties about bringing a child into an unaccommodating world, is produced by Diverso Films, Distinto Films, Verbena, Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films, Distinto Films.

Prolific actor Iván Morales has already enjoyed a long and fruitful career in front of the camera but has recently shifted the other side of the lens to helm his first feature, “Join Me for Breakfast.” Produced by Distinto Films, WKND and Dos Soles Media, the drama tells the intersecting stories of four characters who refuse to live a life without passion.

Celebrated animation filmmaker Adrià García (“Nocturna”) is working on his third feature, “The Treasure of Barracuda.” One of the buzziest Spanish titles on the market right now, it was picked up by Barcelona-based Filmax ahead of this year’s Cannes. Barcelona’s Inicia Films, Valencia’s Hampa Studio and Belgium’s Belvision are co-producing the film, which impressed as a project at 2021’s Cannes’ Marché du Film Animation Day and was a standout at 2022’s Weird Market in Spain.

Based on the adventure novel of the same name by Llanos Campos, the film tells the story of a young girl named Sparks who disguises herself as a boy and boards a pirate ship loaded with fearsome pirates. However, the swarthy crew has an abundance of muscles and ego, not one of the buccaneers knows how to read. But young Sparks does, making her an invaluable asset when hunting treasure.

Catalonia‘s golden generation is thriving, and the region’s future looks to be in safe hands for the foreseeable future.

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