From A Sneak Peek of Los Javis’ ‘La Mesias’ to Entertaining Crime, Takeaways From This Year’s Conecta Fiction

TOLEDO, Spain The tide has changed. Just one year after Disney+ dazzled with Santa Evita, a banner title from its extraordinary swathe of Latin American originals, the 7th Conecta Fiction Entertainment caught the mood of a larger international market with panelists in its conference strand focusing often on market challenges, when a feeding fever for premium content dominated conversations in recent editions. That said, running June 26-29 in Toledo, in market attendance and insight and shows brought to market, CFE fairly rocked.

10 takeaways from this years edition:

Conecta Fiction Booms Despite Toledos sweltering in a hot snap, even by Spanish standards, Conecta Fictions attendance sky-rocketed to 1,031 accredited professionals, an all-time record and 42% up on figures announced at the end of 2022s edition. Reasons abound. Its a wonderful opportunity to exchange ideas, to touch base with production partners, new ideas. Its really interesting to see whats happening here on Prime Video, Netflix or Disney+, whats really working in Spain or Italy, and what lessons I can take back to my territory, says Marie Leguizamo, MD Banijay Mexico U.S. Hispanic.

Togetherness Time For other reasons too, the business still needs to meet. The market, currently, has slowed: Selling series is harder, a CFE international distribution panel acknowledged. Yet marketwheels are still turning. There is a market out there that still wants to buy TV, it wants new things constantly, said eOnes Noel Hedges. Financing projects is just becoming so much more complicated: There are so many options, added Beta Films Christian Gockel. Such market trends requiere frequent face-to-face meetings. CFE provides a priceless occasion.

What Do Adrian Guerra and Nria Valls Eat For Breakfast? Have Adrian Guerra and Nria Valls at Spians Nostromo Pictures discovered a Netflix elixir? As Conecta Fiction unspooled, they were in Barcelona at a sneak peakof Bird Box Barcelona, which they co-produced. It bows on Netflix from June 23.Just before Conecta Fiction, Through My Window: Across the Sea opened on Netflix, shooting to the top of Netflixs Global Non-English Top 10 over June 19-25, gives the Nostromo producing duo the chance of scoring three Netflix Top 10 global titles in one month.

Spanish-Language Streaming Boom Continues There is, however, a bigger picture. Just before Conecta Fiction, Amazons Prime Video announced that romantic teen meller My Fault, released June 8, has become its most-watched non-English title of all time is. Five of its 10 most-viewed titles worldwide in the last 12 months are Spanish-language, including the most-watched series, A Private Affair, from Cable Girls producer, Bamb Producciones. Business these days focuses ever more on potential growth axis: Animation and genre, for example. Little wonder that 68% of CFE delegates were from Spain and general attendance numbers were up. Much of the upbeat energy at Conecta Fiction came from Spain, driven by its ICEX-backed Spain Content Showcase and Spain Film Commission drill-down on its now extraordinary incentives.

Los Javis La Mesas: A World Premiere Sneak Peek Never-seen-before first footage of Movistar Plus+s La Mesas, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvos follow-up to Veneno as writer-director-producers and part of a new CFE Spanish Content Showcase, proved a definite Conecta Fiction highlight. Some scenes shown in a 90-second college captured its messianic mother (Lola Dueas) dispatching her kids to leave their family home and save the world. Brief more modern-day scenes suggest all the kids are one way or another scarred by their childhood for life. One big question is whether La Mesas will be ready in time to world preem at Septembers San Sebastin Festival.

Spanish Buzz Titles Showcased in three sessions, top Spanish titles also took in Studiocanals The Vow, where producer Bamb brings its hallmark production values to a daily series; Filmaxs Dating in Barcelona, an episodic take on romance and sex in an online age; Atresmedias Nights in Tefa, a moving fiction portrait of a Francoist labor camp for homosexuals and other undesirables; Onzas three-part doc series Young Addictions, plumbing social media, porn and online gambling; abduction revenge thriller Express 2 from The Mediapro Studio which, focusing on fear and family, looks even more brutal and action-packed than the first season; and Mediterrneos Wrong Side of the Tracks, its Season 1 already a Netflix No. 1 Non-English global series hit for three weeks last year. Format and ready-made rights will be available at the end of this year. Sergio Gndara, at Chiles Parox meanwhile sneak peaked nine minutes of Allende, the Thousand Days, an engrossing and often good-humoured take on the man and his actions in government before the 1973 coup detat.

The Vow Credit: Manuel Fernandez-Valdes Industry Main Bane: Skyrocketing Production Costs No other complaint drove a bigger through line at Conecta Fictions 23 panels and eight keynotes. Best practice solutions abounded too. With such a demand for content, prices have spiralled, so its key to remain competitive and international co-production allow this, RTVEs Jos Pastor said. At Banijay, Leguizamo created a production hub in Mexico for Last One Laughing, bringing in production teams from Colombia and Argentina to make local versions. Producers are also looking increasingly to soft moneys to offset price hikes. We can now link production and financing. Subsidies are a big issue with producers. They know subsidies in their local market. We can become experts in European subsidiaries and be able to pick here a little bit and there. Its a goal for us, said Beta Films Gockel.

Buzz Projects At Conecta Fiction, RTVEs coveted development award went to Spains Wellborn Family, a broad social satire. There was good word and prizes for some of the most ambitious projects brought to market at Conecta Fiction: Abduction thriller Disgrace, from Germanys Story House Pictures, given depth and edge by its setting of the 1978 Argentina Word Cup; Vertice 360-backed Border Station, a time travelling espionage drama-thriller, part set in WWII; and Death in the Andes, from Federation Studios-backed Glisk, adapting one of Mario Vargas Llosas greatest later novels.

Crime Still Pays What sells? The best product is product that can work on both platforms and on linear. You double your clients, Beta Films Gockel said on Conecta Fictions international distribution panel. That could be crime. The way were going to generate most financing on [a series] it to have more doors to bang on, Hedges agreed. Often that is more accessible genres such as crime and less so in science fiction or period realms, he added. Buyers are playing it safe at the moment and the safe option is crime in uncertain times, agreed Keshet Internationals Anke Stoll.

Entertaining Crime It may be no coincidence that one of biggest new series brought to market at Conecta Fiction was Fremantles Negotiator. Theres a swing towards sort of lighter, more episodic television, different ways of doing the procedural. A mystery show or lighter crime show can be quite high concept and still fun, like Poker Face. Were seeing more entertaining crime rather than deep, meaningful moody crime, said Hedges. Its definitely interesting that procedurals are back in fashion, as well as in the U.K. which was traditionally not keen on procedurals. Its lighter stories: You tell a complex story in an hour. Its an interesting trend currently happening, Stoll added.

Gender Equality: Limitations Remain Spains has progressed on gender equality, but limitations remain, concluded a round table featuring Macarena Rey, CEO, Shine Iberia, Spain, Mercedes Gamero, CEO at Beta Fiction Spain and Eva Leira, co-founder of Leira y Serrano Casting. There are women in positions of responsibility in corporations but a glass ceiling remains, said Gamero. Movies from women now get bonus points when applying for subsidies in Spain. If that works in film, it should be replicated in TV, Rey argued. We shouldnt fall in the error of thinking women can just make stories for women, said Gamero. Theres no reason why women cant make a war film, Leira added.

Mexicos Roadmap When in August 2015 Netflix released Club of Crows, its first fully foreign-language series anywhere in the world, one industry take is that the reign of telenovelas would be over. Fast forward to June 2023 and telenovelas are the most-watched titles on TelevisaUnivisions VOD service, ViX, the companys Vanesa Rosas said at Conecta Fiction. Melodrama is in Mexicos DNA, observed ngel Inzunza at Amazon Studios in Mexico. Super series such as La Reina del Sur caused Mexico to be pigeon-holed as great narco drama creators, said Atenea Medias Ana Celia Urquidi. Mexicos challenge is still to broaden its gamut, a second panel on the country concurred. International co-production opens up a larger range of content, argued BTF Medias Francisco Cordero. Here, one crux is to mix writers from production partner countries, he added.

Brazil and Portugal: Conecta Fiction Entertainment Focus Countries, 2024 At a wrap press conference on Thursday, Geraldine Gonard, Conecta Fiction director, announced that Brazil and Portugal will be CFEs focus countries in 2024, which will take place once more at Toledo. Both look good choices. Brazil is back, its federal government under Lula plowing nearly $1 billion into its audiovisual sector just this year, which will turn into Latin Americas production powerhouse. Driven by RTP and private sector companies such as SPi, Portugal has powered into premium TV drama which sometimes retains a social-issue depth, as in female empowerment heist thriller Vanda, from SPi, Legendary Ent and Spains Panda.

Yet a Sense of Opportunity Still Remains, Especially for Super Indies If streaming services pull back from originals, other well-pockets companies can pull in, as producers or buyers. The scaling back at the top end of the market is actually a great opportunity for distribution companies to really be creative about helping producers finance, said Hedges. While I amlooking for new literature that can be adapted into scripts forseries and films outside of Poland, I remain committedto bringingfresh Polish ideas to our group, Ryszard Sibilski, managing director of EndemolShine Poland, toldVariety.

I wouldalwaysencourage Polish writers to come to meas we can support in getting their ideas off the ground locally, and hopefully beyond, he added.

Allende, the Thousand Days Courtesy of Parox The Deals 10 of the biggest announced at or around Conecta Fiction:

*In an appointment which sums up much of a transfer of energies from U.S. streaming platforms to European independents, Marcelo Tamburri, formerly VP, scripted content development at Warner Bros. Discovery Latin America, was named to the newly-created position of director of international content at Madrids Zeta Studios, producer ofElite.

* Spains Buenda Estudios Vizcaya is set, with Atresmedia TV,to adapt Harry and Jack Williams Angela Black, directed by Norberto Lpez Amado (The Time in Between). As broadcasters across Europe look to power up their streaming services, Angela will air first on Atresplayer Premium, Atresmedias high-profile fremium VOD service.

*Negotiator, a So Paulo-set episodic crime thriller was brought onto the market by Fremantle which dropped a trailer along with producers Spiral (Falco) and Boutique Filmes (3%).

*Filmax brought Dating in Barcelona, from one Spains biggest show runners, Pau Calpe (Red Band Society, I Know Who You Are), another lighter episodic drama.

*Chiles Invercine is teaming with Spains Abacus, Pausoka and Grupo Lavinia to produce Boom Agency, set around the rift between Latin American Boom stars Mario Vargas Llosa and Gabriel Garca-Marquez, the story of the battling Barcelona agent Carmen Balcells, played by Carmen Machi, who helped make them. Oscar Pedraza, (Patria) directs.

*Warner Bros. Discovery has announced its first new Spanish series for Max, crime thrillerWhen Nobody Sees Us, directed by Spains Enrique Urbizu (No Rest for the Wicked) and produced by Elites Zeta Studios.

*Spains LaLiga Studios, created by Banijay Iberia and Spains LaLiga soccer league, is set to produce a new doc, The Power of Our Ftbol, co-produced with Banijay Iberias IMA, as it expands its management team.

* Isabels Daniela Ramrez is to star in Claudia Huaiquimillas upcoming La Isla, from Rio Studios (Dime Con Quin Andas), a singular sci-fi thriller.

*Clara Films, based out of Santiago de Chile, has struck a strategic development pact with Barcelona VFX studio Unbound Hub on dystopian thriller Numana, part of Conecta Fictions High End Pitch session.

*Shine Iberia has acquired format rights to musical interview travel series Tu vida en 3 minutos, developed by Mexicos Dopamine with renowned Spanish composer Lucas Vidal (Elite, Fast Furious 6) on board for the format.