Spanish Sellers Ride Cannes Momentum

Spanish cinema hits Cannes with momentum. Now comes the market test: turning festival attention into sales deals.

After one of Spain’s strongest Cannes festival selections in years, the country’s sales agents arrive with stronger talking points, but also a tougher market to convince.

February’s European Film Market in Berlin offered a first market take: Buyers are active but cautious, selective and increasingly unwilling to move without proof that a film can travel; genre is moving faster, name auteurs still matter when distributors can picture a theatrical release, and local box office is carrying more weight.

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“The reality is that Spain is giving birth to a mix of generations of enormous talent and making wide-ranging and creative cinema. In that sense, we seriously think there can be curiosity around titles beyond those sold by French agents,” says Antonio Saura, at Latido Films.

“Spanish fiction, both film and TV, has been drawing a lot of attention from the international market for some time,” notes Filmax International’s Iván Díaz. “That doesn’t mean a film will sell just because it is Spanish. But clients, festivals and agents are paying attention to the best we offer internationally.”

“The main impact is on the selected films, as distributors are highly selective and focused less on volume than on titles that can generate business in their own markets,” says Film Factory founder, Vicente Canales. 

At Berlin, Filmax’s standout was “Balandrau: Where the Fierce Wind Blew,” which played well in market screenings and benefited from a strong Spanish theatrical release, while the company is still licensing remake rights on “Sentimental,” helped by U.S. redo “The Invite.”

“Berlin was broadly in line with 2025, but distributors were more cautious than usual while waiting for Cannes’ Official Selection and new projects traditionally unveiled there,” Canales says.

Film Factory’s Cannes lineup speaks to that split. It includes Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” and local box-office phenomenon “Torrente for President,” combining prestige auteur cinema with a broad commercial play.

Berlin remains “a more auteur-driven market,” Saura says. Latido continued selling in that space, including further deals on Eva Libertad’s “Deaf.” But the strongest interest was around “bigger, more open films and genre.” This year’s EFM, he adds, “was more about generating interest than closing major sales — a less buoyant market than last year, driven more by current uncertainty.”

“Hopefully Cannes will be more assertive,” Saura says.

For Spanish titles without an A-list festival berth, the bar is rising. Buyers now want “as many requirements as possible” to be fulfilled, Díaz says. For quality dramas, that means festival selections, awards, critical recognition and local performance. 

In the current market, an auteur drama without festival selection is “very complicated to sell,” Saura coincides. Genre films with a creative vision, by contrast, are finding space.

Latido’s Cannes market premieres reflect that range, led by “The Harvester,” a suspense thriller directed by David Pérez Sañudo (“Ane”), Gerardo Herrero’s revenge war actioner “Carte Blanche” and Fernando Franco’s psychological drama “La Luz.”

For buyers to return, Spanish films need to work after they sell. “That will make distributors trust Spanish cinema more,” Canales adds.

“Spanish film sales have become more significant in recent years. That is not by coincidence,” argues Emir Duzel,  international sales head at Deep Com Roots, the ISII Group’s recently launched Madrid-based agency. 

“Our main focus is theaters,” Duzel says. “With our feature films, our mission is to achieve sustainable, long-term success through consistent quality.”

Its flagship title at Cannes is “Trinidad,” the €14 million ($16.4 million) Spanish-perspective Western and family saga starring Karla Sofía Gascón, Paz Vega and Gabriela Andrada. “‘Trinidad’ offers high-concept action and bold storytelling with global attention,” Duzel says.