The Netflix Spain team presented its 2020/21 content to the press, where it reaffirmed its commitment to the local industry, discussed diversity and young talent, and announced seven new original productions. All the details, up next.
“Our vocation continues to be to move the world with the charisma, diversity and creativity of stories made in Spain and to contribute to maintaining the position of Spanish fiction as an international benchmark.”
With those words, Diego Ávalos, Vice President of Original Content at Netflix Spain, summarized this Thursday, October 22, during the virtual presentation of content for the remainder of 2020 and early 2021, the platform’s commitment to the industry of the Iberian country .
A FIRM BET AT A KEY MOMENT
“We feel fortunate to work hand in hand with creators such as Nadia de Santiago, Carlos Montero or Elísabet Benavent, and producers such as Cristina López Ferraz, Sandra Hermida or Cesar Benítez. Collaborating with them, and with many others, has revealed us unique views, for which we will continue to bet firmly at a key moment for the industry,” said Ávalos.
The enormous evolution that Spanish fiction has undergone in recent years was the subject of conversation during the colloquium after the exhibition of new content, where Verónica Fernández, director of Content (Series); Teresa Moneo, Director of Contents (Cinema); and the creators Elísabet Benavent (Valeria, We were songs) and the actress Nadia de Santiago, who will debut as a screenwriter and director with El tiempo que te doy.
“The fundamental change has been that our content is being seen by the whole world. And if she is traveling, it will be because we will have something in Spain that connects with the rest of the world,” said Verónica Fernández.
“And I think our great strength is having a very strong and very diverse culture. We put in our stories a very original and very own voice, with a lot of character. And that has connected beyond our borders, and I think there is still a long way to go,” he added.
In addition, they spoke about the importance of empowering new talents, and especially women. Fernández and Moneo, the content directors, agreed to encourage young people to take the first step and that they, from Netflix, are committed to helping them.
“Nadia and Elísabet are an example, their stories are and will be references for many creators. But I also think that you have to help. We can help you tell your stories and get into the industry. The weight and responsibility of reaching out is also ours,” said Verónica Fernández.
NEW PROJECTS
Netflix unveiled seven new Spanish original productions that are currently in production and that make up a diverse range of genres and formats: three fiction series, a documentary miniseries, a documentary feature film, a fiction feature film and a stand up comedy special.
And the big news came in regard to its new series. Two of them will be short-form series, an “innovative format” that has “the ambition to seek new paths in the narrative”: El tiempo que te doy and Ídolo will have ten episodes lasting 10 minutes each.
In this regard, Verónica Fernández, Director of Contents (Series) at Netflix Spain, explained: “The idea was to find and test new formats, with a production at the level of any other series, with the same quality and production value. It is not a minor product at all.”
El tiempo que te doy (fiction series)
Created by Nadia de Santiago, Inés Pintor and Pablo F. Santidrián, and starring Nadia de Santiago (Lina) and Álvaro Cervantes (Nico), it is the story of overcoming a breakup.
In each episode, Lina tries to keep the time she spends thinking about Nico one minute less at a time, so she can move on with her life. The series is currently filming in Madrid and Andalusia.
Ídolo (fictional series)
A clear commitment to projects by new creators: Daniel López Sánchez, Federico Maniá Sibona and Yago de Torres are responsible for this story, also told in 10-minute chapters and directed by Roger Gual.
It tells the story of Chimera, the greatest musical idol in Spain who dies in front of his fans during a concert. Lázaro, an unconditional fan, sees the opportunity to escape from his monotonous and precarious life and overnight becomes what he has long admired: his own idol.
Feria (fiction series)
Created by Carlos Montero and Agustín Martínez and directed by Jorge Dorado and Carles Torrens, it is an eight-episode, 50-minute fantasy thriller that begins in a disturbing way: what if two teenage sisters find out that their parents are monsters?
Eva and Sofía will have to face the horrible crime that seems to have been committed by their parents who, before dand disappear, 23 victims have been left behind. This is the journey that Eva and Sofía will undertake in Feria, a small white town in the Andalusian mountains in the mid-nineties, where its inhabitants are not as naive as they appear and reality hides a fantastic universe.
800 metros (documentary miniseries)
On August 17, 2017, a van sped through the 800 meters that separate Plaça de Catalunya from the Joan Miró mosaic, running over crowds of people. A few hours later, another attack was committed in Cambrils (Tarragona). These terrorist attacks were perpetrated by young people fully integrated into Spanish society. How could something like this happen?
This three-episode documentary miniseries, produced by Bambú Producciones, will be executive produced by Ramón Campos and directed by Elías León (The Asunta case, The Alcàsser case), who will work together again as screenwriters, to which will be added a drafting committee made up of renowned investigative journalists such as Anna Teixidor, author of the book Los silecios del 17-A, Nacho Carretero and Jesús García.
El caso Wanninkhof (documentary feature film)
The first documentary film that addresses, twenty years later, the review of the Wanninkhof-Carabantes case. A film that covers the multiple prisms and facets of the case from a judicial, police, political, media, sociological and gender perspective point of view. It is the look of the filmmaker Tània Balló about one of the criminal episodes that has shaken Spanish society in recent decades.
La bestia (fiction feature film)
David Casademunt directs this fictional feature film that tells the story of a family that lives isolated from the rest of society and whose tranquility is disturbed by the presence of a terrifying creature that will put the ties that bind them to the test.
Odio (stand-up comedy special)
Netflix reaffirms its commitment to comedy with the production of Odio, a 60-minute special created by Dani Rovira. A monologue where, without filters, he will put on the table his most honest and delusional vision of today’s human being. After seeing him, only two things can happen: that you will love or hate him for life but where in any case laughter is guaranteed.
UPCOMING RELEASES
Netflix took the opportunity to release new materials and news of some of its upcoming original releases.
Main cast of El inocente
The main cast of the new series El inocente was revealed. Martina Gusmán, Juana Acosta, Gonzalo de Castro, Ana Wagener, Miki Esparbé, Xavi Sáez, Anna Alarcón and Susi Sánchez as a special collaboration join the previously announced Mario Casas, Aura Garrido, Alexandra Jiménez and Jose Coronado in this miniseries based on the Harlan Coben novel, written and directed by Oriol Paulo.
Release dates for Loco por ella and El desorden que dejas
During the presentation, the release date of Loco por ella (film directed by Dani de la Orden and starring Álvaro Cervantes and Susana Abaitua), which will arrive on Netflix on February 26, was made public.
The premiere month of El desorden que dejas, a miniseries created by Carlos Montero (Elite) and starring Inma Cuesta, Bárbara Lennie, Tamar Novas, Arón Piper and Roberto Enríquez, was also confirmed. This new original fiction will be released in December 2020.
First images of Sky Rojo
Filming is underway for the new series by Álex Pina and Esther Martínez Lobato, the creators of Money Heist. In her words:
«Sky Rojo is the story of a hunt, that of three women fleeing from the pimp who extorted them. Adrenaline in a genre of constant chase, where six charismatic characters act relentlessly. And below them, we show the impunity, ambiguity and brutal reality of prostitution, and the psychological portraits of those on both sides of the scale. It is a Trojan horse that bursts onto the screen under the casing of hedonism, aesthetics and action, but where the murky depths and dilemmas lie that will make the viewer oscillate in that same moral ambiguity».
