FILMS from AFAR

First their bank cards stopped working. Then their jobs were eliminated. Rights like owning property were repealed. In early episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale series on Hulu, main character June/Offred (Elisabeth Moss) flashes back to these warning signs of women’s rights getting stripped away one by one by the repressive “Republic of Gilead.” But loss of all individual rights, including over their own bodies? Violent subjugation? June wasn’t expecting that. In retrospect, wom

Fresh off an Audience Award at San Sebastián (SSIFF), the top People’s Choice prize in Toronto and a Best Director award at Cannes for Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, known in Spain as ‘Los Javis,’ La Bola Negra opens in US theaters on Oct. 16 and will stream on Netflix beginning Dec. 2 (marking the streamer’s longest-ever theatrical release). In Spain, the film has been a true phenomenon, reportedly outrunning The Odyssey in opening weekend pre-sales and already in the to

Mexican filmmaker Alejando González Iñárritu’s Digger is Birdman for the post-climate catastrophe age. The director has updated his 2014 multi-Oscar winner, swapped out Michael Keaton for Tom Cruise and punched in more political messaging. The result is an uneven satire featuring an imposing performance by Cruise that has landed at the box office with a resounding thud. The cast’s exaggerated performances and the film’s stagey scenery can be explained away by the storyline, b

This case study was conducted as part of a Fulbright research grant in 2026-27 supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Central Washington University. Please cite in full. At the time of this writing, La Bola Negra, from co-directors Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, is generating historic Oscar buzz for a Spanish film. Already Spain’s International Film nominee, La Bola Negra is landing on many commentators’ watch lists for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, S

I spoke with Iván Díaz, head of International at Barcelona-based Filmax, about the remake market, the sale of rights on Cesc Gay’s Sentimental (The People Upstairs)—now on its way to becoming one of Europe’s most-resold IPs—and his thoughts on Olivia Wilde’s US version, The Invite. This Q&A has been edited for length and clarity. There have been 5 remakes already and 4 more in the works, is that right? Yes… Sentimental, from the beginning was a movie that we all felt very pro

This case study was conducted as part of a Fulbright research grant in 2026-27 supported by the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Central Washington University. Please cite in full. In director Olivia Wilde's Sundance 2026 hit The Invite, Wilde co-stars as Angela, a woman whose marriage to Joe (Seth Rogan) is on the rocks. When they invite their enigmatic upstairs neighbors, Pina (Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton), over for dinner, their plans for their marriage and their ex