LILLE, France —One of Spain’s most awaited drama series of the year, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s ‘The New Years’ will be co-produced by Spain’s Movistar Plus+, its original backer, and new partner Arte France, the upscale French public broadcaster.
Going into production last year on Oct. 2, and shooting in Madrid, Lyon (France) and Berlin (Germany), the series is produced in collaboration with Madrid-based independent production house Caballo Films (“Riot Police,” “The Route”), co-founded by Sorogoyen.
Movistar Plus+ International will handle distribution outside Spain and France.
Set on the same day every year for a decade, New Year’s Eve, “The New Years” stars Iria del Río (“El Inmortal,” “El increíble finde menguante,” “Riot Police”) and Francesco Carril (“Un amor,” “La reconquista,” “Galgos”). Ana and Óscar, meet at 30 and start a relationship which lasts 10 years.
The period from thirty to forty is “a crucial decade for all of us,” Sorogoyen commented when the new series was announced. “During these years, we make vital decisions and we have a sense of maturity, but it’s hard to leave youth behind,” he added.
One episode is a 40-minute sequence shot. Full details of ‘The New Years” look set to be unveiled Thursday by Arte France at a Series Mania session. It marks the latest production from Sorogoyen. director of “The Beasts,” the Best Foreign Film winner at France’s 2023 Cesar Awards, which followed on his acclaimed “Riot Police,” and his episode in “Offworld,” chosen byPvNewas one the best international series of 2022.
“The New Years” underscores Movistar Plus+’s talent-driven production strategy which offers creators the possibility of making both series – “The New Years,” “Riot Police,” “Offworld” – and now movies, Movistar Plus+ unveiling its first movie slate in January, which includes a new feature by Sorogoyen, ““El ser querido.”
Arte France’s co-production of “The New Years” was announced Wednesday at a Series Mania keynote by Domingo Corral, director of fiction and entertainment at Movistar Plus+. At it, he drilled down on Movistar Plus’ original content.
“I think TV is about quality,” citing the three years of production of “La Mesías.” You have to have talent with a vision, give them confidence,” said Corral.
“I don’t know h0w to do shows which are not local. If you have to make a showwhich is authentic it has to be grounded in a reality,” he added.
Shows highlighted took in a criminal comedy “Marbella” which turns on a sweet-talking defence attorney, Cesar, who defends mafias which live happily enough side by side in Marbella, “the U.N. of organised crime,” he says.
Corral also talked up “Querer,” the first TV series from Alauda Ruíz de Azua, whose feature debut, “Lullaby,” was described by Pedro Almodovar as the “best debut in Spanish cinema in years.”
An intimate family drama mixed with elements of psychological drama, said Corral, it is set in Ruíz de Alauda’s lush native Basque Country. The story, like “Lullaby,” delivers once more some uncomfortable home truths about women’s role in traditional family structures. It turns on a woman who, after 30 years of seemingly perfect marriage, files for divorce, accusing her husband of sexual abuse.
“Alauda has an ability to look at people with compassion with judging them,” said Corral.
