Movistar Plus+ has presented its new Original Film strategy with the launch of five new projects. Five films that will bear the signature of directors of national and international renown. Domingo Corral, Movistar Plus+ Director of Fiction and Entertainment, was accompanied by Guillermo Farré, Director of Original and Spanish Cinema, María Rubín, Head of Spanish Cinema, and by the five directors of the new projects: Icíar Bollaín, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Alberto Rodríguez, Óliver Laxe, and Ana Rujas.
The new Original Film strategy presented this morning reaffirms the platform’s historical relationship with Spanish cinema and goes a step further, making Movistar Plus+ a highly relevant player in the Spanish film industry by leading the production of five diverse projects in terms of genre and creative bet. This way, the platform reinforces its willingness to build its own cultural legacy, to accompany creators from the beginning of the process and to be part of projects of an exceptional interest.
Domingo Corral has highlighted the main points of the new Telefónica’s platform strategy: “The launch of these five feature films is a very important step in Movistar Plus+ original fiction strategy. Our goal is to enable unique stories to be told with the ambition of reaching a large audience, first in movie theatres, where films truly become big, and later on our platform. This strategy is based on our partnership with directors whom we truly admire, and on the rest of the Spanish film ecosystem, including independent producers that are collaborating with us on the projects presented today”.
Guillermo Farré has pointed out: “We want Movistar Plus+ to be the home of talent, the place where creators can be supported to tell their stories in the best possible way. Today we are presenting five very different projects, each of them with its own personal creative style and universe, but aiming to make distinct cinema and with a great desire to transcend both in the local and international market”.
Icíar Bollaín begins her creative journey with Movistar Plus+ with ‘Soy Nevenka’, the first original film of those presented that will begin filming. The director of ‘Maixabel’ (three Goya Awards) is inspired by the real case of Nevenka Fernández, a city hall worker who faced the abuses of the mayor, accepting the risk of paying a very high price.
“What impresses me most about Nevenka’s story is the abuses happening partly in plain sight, in a context that allowed it. And although she won the legal battle, she was left alone”, said Icíar Bollaín.
Rodrigo Sorogoyen is one of the most relevant talents of the Movistar Plus+ originals after the successful series ‘Riot Police’ and ‘Offworld’. He is the creator of the series ‘The New Year’s Eve’, which is shotting right now. The director is one of the most prestigious Spanish filmmakers. His latest film, ‘The Beasts’, has been recognized by public and critics, and has received nine Goya Awards (including Best Film, Director, and Original Screenplay) as well as the César Award for Best Foreign Film from the French cinema.
Sorogoyen has talked about his new project ‘El ser querido’: “Considering a next feature film after the unexpected success of ‘The Beasts' has been complicated. The only way we understand this profession is trying to learn from each project and demanding the maximum from ourselves so that we can tell a story in a different way from all those we have told before. ‘El ser querido’ will be our most ambitious film to date, but we face this challenge with enormous enthusiasm”.
Alberto Rodríguez, who has been awarded five Goya Awards for the Original Movistar Plus+ film ‘Prison 77’, has been the creator of the first great original series of the platform, ‘The Plague’ and has directed one of the episodes of ‘Offworld’. In his new film, Rodríguez sets an action plot on the Andalusian coast that portrays drug trafficking and the fascination with the sea as a space of freedom. The protagonist of the film is an industrial diver who becomes involved in illegal substances trafficking.
"It is a film that speaks of the end of the capabilities of an amphibious man, someone who is coming to understand that his time is up and that he is not special or different, but just one more”, said Rodríguez.
Óliver Laxe, a regular filmmaker at the Cannes Film Festival who has been distinguished with different awards for his works ‘You All Are Captains’, ‘Mimosas’ and ‘Fire Will Come’, has revealed details of his next film project. Actor, screenwriter, and director, Laxe joins the creative talent of Movistar Plus+ with an initiatory journey in search of a rave in a remote location in Morocco.
According to Óliver Laxe, “the characters do something as simple as looking for a party, the last party. They are young people in search of freedom and transcendence in a world in crisis of values, in full collapse. Their forward escape, leads them to a mysterious desert that will test them all, a mirror of sand that will reflect the faith of an orphaned generation”.
Actress Ana Rujas has talked about what will be her first film as a director and screenwriter after her success as the creator of the series ‘Cardo’ and her praised participation as an actress in ‘La Mesías’. “Going hand in hand with Movistar Plus+ and Suma Content to make my first film couldn’t make me happier. In this project, the two disciplines that I like the most, theatre and cinema, converge, guided by the Panero family as a source of inspiration,” said Ana Rujas.
Her new project in development is titled ‘El desencanto’ and the filmmaker has said about it: “In ‘El Desencanto’ we name the perpetual class distinction that exists between the elite and the proletariat. We want to capture the socio-political decadence of our times. Our protagonist embodies the fantasy of wanting to be someone she is not”.
For more information please contact movistarplus.comunicacion@telefonica.com
About Movistar Plus+
Movistar Plus+ is the leading audiovisual entertainment offering of the Telefónica Group in Spain. Its proposition includes bold original productions and the best premium sports content, films, series, documentaries and programmes, in addition to the best functionalities and on-demand access so users can enjoy watching television wherever, however and whenever they wish. The Movistar Plus+ offering also includes some of the top international operators with which we have established strategic partnerships in Spain, such as Netflix, Disney+, Prime Video, SkyShowtime, Warner Bros. Discovery and DAZN, along with the Spanish platforms ATRESPlayer, Mitele and FlixOlé.
