Barcelona’s Serielizados handed its two biggest series prizes to shows that deliberately bend their genres. Hagai Levi’s Etty won best international series, and the Sánchez-Cabezudo brothers’ Killing a Bear (Matar a un oso) took best national series at the festival’s 13th edition awards ceremony on Saturday.
The common thread is stretching familiar formats without losing platform appeal. Etty follows 27-year-old Etty Hillesum in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam, drawn from the Dutch Jewish writer’s diaries, but gives the period piece a modern register. Killing a Bear reworks the crime story by making the victim a bear, shifting among multiple perspectives, and placing the suspects inside a 262-member “Anti-Bears” chat room in the Pyrenean Val d’Arán.
Spain’s national slate shares the wealth
National jury member Roosa Toivonen, also co-head of Tallinn TV Beats, said the Spanish winner felt “so distinctly Catalan but portrayed with a confidence and a muscularity that left us astonished.” All four titles in the national competition went home with recognition.
- Killing a Bear: best national series, premiering in Spain Dec. 1 on Movistar Plus+.
- Segunda Temporada: best screenplay, from Miguel Ángel Blanca, Berta Prieto and Víctor Diago.
- Celeste Season 2: Carmen Machi won best actress for her role as tax inspector Sara Santano.
- In Vitro: special mention, with an 18.2% share on 3Cat after its Oct. 19 launch.
On the international side, Arte France-backed Etty went through a French cinema bow on May 6 before reaching Arte.tv on May 16. French comedy Camarades took best screenplay, while BBC’s Ann Droid earned Diane Morgan best performance as a second-hand robot named Linda.
The pitch floor is becoming a deal floor
The Mind the Gap pitch competition gave its top €5,500 ($6,100) prize to El Observatorio, created by Laura Roqué, Luis Sorolla and Eloy Zamora. The early-development project follows astrophysicists studying flickering lights in a Sierra Morena village until one character, Sara, starts to believe the light may be her deceased father trying to communicate. It is now looking for a producer. Callback received the €2,000 Konga Music Agency award, and the Finnish psychological drama Dangerous Woman took an honourable mention.
Festival co-founder Betu Martínez Molero said the 13th edition reached 18,000 attendees across more than 60 activities, including more than 30 national and international premieres. The selected titles move online on Filmin from Nov. 10-22.
Why buyers should keep this list
For ScreenStat readers, the signal is not the trophy count. A mid-size curated festival is doing three jobs at once: validating shows for platforms, surfacing non-distributed international titles for Spanish buyers, and flagging creators before they attach producers. That turns the winners list into an early watchlist for acquisition, co-production and campaign planning, especially around Arte France and Movistar Plus+ slates.
Source: Variety
