By Variety | Created at 2024-09-25 14:24:46 | Updated at 2024-09-30 11:26:54
4 days ago
SAN SEBASTIAN – Basque production outfit Amania Films and Andalusia’s La Claqueta have launched a new strategic partnership to increase both companies’ presence in the Spanish audiovisual marketplace and further abroad.
According to the companies, their partnership “marks a milestone in the collaboration between Basque and Andalusian cinema and reinforces a commitment to the diversification and mutual growth of both companies.”
The first project under their new arrangement is the big-budget serial killer drama-thriller “Sacamantecas,” directed by Amania founder and award-winning filmmaker David Pérez Sañudo. The companies are also poised to team on a new fiction series, “Maddi y las fronteras,” based on writer Edurne Portela’s fictionalized biography of María Josefa Sansberro, who backed French resistance during WWII and died in a Nazi concentration camp.
Under the terms of their deal, La Claqueta will acquire a portion of Amania and, in return, help the company take on larger projects. The Basque company will also become a partner in La Claqueta’s Antípodas Film Lab, a post-production entity founded four years ago in Seville with editor José Manuel García Moyano and colorist and VFX supervisor Juan Ventura. Amania will open a new branch of the facility in the Basque Country.
Amania, producer of the Spanish Academy Goya-winning feature “Ane is Missing,” will maintain full autonomy in its day-to-day business and continue to embrace its cultural identity as a producer of distinctly Basque films. The Amania team will remain entirely intact, with Pérez Sañudo continuing to lead the unit.
“This collaboration allows us to maintain our essence and, at the same time, access new opportunities in the sector. Both companies combine experience and momentum to continue producing in the north of Spain with momentum from the south, and vice versa,” said Pérez Sañudo of the partnership.
“This agreement is an opportunity to grow together, respecting the identity, editorial line and unique character of each of our production companies,” said Olmo Figueredo, founder of La Claqueta and the Antípodas Film Lab. “We want to continue promoting Basque and Andalusian cinema, and this union will allow us to do so in an even more ambitious and global way.”
La Claqueta has long been an ally of Basque filmmakers and production companies. The organization worked with San Sebastian-based Irusoin on the documentary “30 Years of Darkness” and “The Endless Trench,” a multi-Goya-winning fictional feature inspired by it. La Claqueta also produced Basque titles “El Estado contra Pablo Ibar” – directed by Figueredo, “Los últimos románticos” – directed by Pérez Sañudo, and the animated documentary “The Longest Journey” from director Manuel H. Martín and animation studio Dibulitoon.
