What We Know by Jordi Núñez, shot in Valencia

The new films shot in the Valencian region bring together experience, freshness and genres: from horror to thrillers, family dramas, coming-of-age and comedies, directed by renowned filmmakers, but also exciting newcomers.

For example, the Valencian filmmaker Paco Plaza had never shot in the region before, having filmed The Grandmother [+] in Madrid and Paris, and his previous Eye for an Eye [+] in Galicia. However, for his latest film he has chosen to shoot in the Sant Jeroni de Cotalba Monastery, in the town of Alfahuir, which has been converted into a girls’ school where the story of his second character in his Verónica [+] (2017) has been recreated. The title is Hermana muerte, and its main actresses, Almudena Amor and Maru Valdivielso (read more).

The British director Guy Ritchie also filmed his new thriller The Interpreter in locations around the province of Alicante, such as Sax, Novelda and Petrer. Californian Jake Gyllenhaal stars in this feature film about a soldier who offers to help an interpreter who saved him in the war in Afghanistan.

And from renowned filmmakers to newcomers: Jordi Núñez opened the Mostra de Valencia festival with a story called What We Know [+], which will be released in Spanish cinemas on 25 November, distributed by #ConUnPack. The region of Horta Sud is one of the stars of this journey to maturity of a girl who is facing love for the first time.

The short filmmakers Marisa Crespo and Moisés Romera have also chosen the region to shoot their debut film Tú no eres yo, which combines family drama with thriller and irony. Another filmmaker who has recently finished shooting her debut in Valencia is Elena Escura. Sierra de Irta, Alcalá de Xivert, Marines Viejo and Valencia are just some of the locations where Les vacances de Mara was filmed, which tells the story of a search for and discovery of identity.

Finally, Óscar Montón debuts his feature film Quan no acaba la nit, which follows a group of young Valencians at the end of the 1980s, during the famous “Bakalao Route” clubbing movement.

The Ciudad de la Luz has now been added to the diverse locations available in the Valencia region. The last San Sebastian film festival officially presented the reopening of the Alicante film complex where, in the past, hits such as Juan Antonio Bayona’s The Impossible [+] (2012) were filmed. These studios boast more than 14 hectares and 11,200 square metres of workshops and warehouses: it is hoped that the relaunch will boost filming in the region and put the complex back on the map as a European film destination.

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By the time that approximately 60 films had been made there, Pinewood Studios in Britain complained to the European Commission that Ciudad de la Luz’s subsidies from the regional government constituted unfair competition.

The complaint was upheld and in 2012 the studios were ordered to close for 15 years.

Meanwhile, Ciudad de la Luz remained Generalitat property, principally because there were no takers for what was then a white elephant. During the pandemic it was used as a vaccination centre and more recently to house Ukrainian refugees.

In March this year, the EU lifted the restrictions, announcing that the complex,s which covers a 300,000-square metre area, could resume cinematographic activities from July 1, five years sooner than the original ruling.

On September 12, Generalitat president Ximo Puig announced that he had received formal notice from the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Competition that the case was definitively closed.

“This brings to an end a nightmare that has lasted too long,” Puig said.

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EXCLUSIVE: Filming is underway in Alicante, Spain, on Guy Ritchie’s untitled action-thriller starring Oscar nominee Jake Gyllenhaal.

Joining opposite Gyllenhaal is Dar Salim (Warrior) as Ahmed, the local Afghan interpreter working for the U.S. military who risks his life to save Gyllenhaal’s Sgt. Kinley.

Also joining are Alexander Ludwig (The Hunger Games), Antony Starr (The Boys), Jason Wong (The Gentleman) Bobby Schofield (Anne), Sean Sagar (The Gentlemen) and Emily Beecham (Cruella).

Gyllenhaal plays Sgt. John Kinley, who is on his last tour of duty in Afghanistan when he is teamed with local interpreter Ahmed to survey the region. When their unit is ambushed on patrol, Kinley and Ahmed are the only survivors and with enemy combatants in pursuit, Ahmed risks his own life to carry an injured Kinley across miles of grueling terrain to safety. Back on US soil, Kinley learns that Ahmed and his family were not given passage to America as promised. Determined to protect his friend and repay his debt, Kinley returns to the warzone to retrieve Ahmed and his family before the local militias reach them first.

Spanish producer Fresco Films are providing local production services in Alicante, which is doubling for the Afghanistan locations.

Ritchie directs from a script co-written with Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. Ritchie and Atkinson are producing alongside Josh Berger and STXfilms’ John Friedberg. Olga Filipuk (of Yandex-owned Kinopoisk) and Samantha Waite are executive-producing.

As we previously revealed, STX is handling sales and deals have been cut with MGM for domestic and Amazon Prime and local buyers for international distribution.

Dar Salim is represented by Emptage Hallett and Buchwald. Alexander Ludwig is represented by Untitled Entertainment and UTA. Antony Starr is represented by UTA and Impression Entertainment. Jason Wong is represented by 42 and Neon Kite. Sean Sagar is represented by 42 and Luber Roklin Entertainment. Bobby Schofield is represented by Lou Coulson Associates. Emily Beecham is represented by Accelerate Management, Seven Summits Management, ICM Partners and Goodman, Genow.

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One of Spain’s most notorious and costly white elephants, the Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) film studios in Alicante, is to get a new lease of life 10 years after it was forced to shut by the EU on grounds of unfair competition.

The Valencian regional government has announced that the studios will reopen, with productions expected to begin later this year. Brussels had banned it from operating until 2027 after production companies, including Pinewood Studios in London, complained that government subsidies broke EU competition rules.

Without revealing any details of the talks, Josefina Bueno, a Valencian minister, said it was thanks to the local government’s “tireless efforts to persuade the European authorities of the seriousness of its economic and political project that the sanction was lifted” early.

The studios hope to make 26 major films and more than 200 productions over the next five years, creating 4,900 jobs and generating €850m (£730m) in revenue for a region with an unemployment rate of 13%.

Streaming services have created a huge demand for crew and studio space, and Spain is well placed to take advantage of these opportunities.

A large pool of technical expertise and lower costs have made Spain an increasingly popular location for foreign productions, with scenes from series such as Game of Thrones and Black Mirror being shot there.

Kevin Loader, whose production credits include Enduring Love and My Cousin Rachel, said there was a global shortage of crew. Additionally, as a result of Brexit the industry had “lost the flexibility to bring in people from EU countries” to the UK. “In the past, people used to bring in entire lighting crews from Spain but clearly that’s no longer possible. A lot of UK crew are trying to get EU passports.”

However, he points out that the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-Production is a pan-European, not an EU, agreement and is not affected by Brexit. He believes this will lead to more UK-European co-productions as a way around the strictures imposed by Brexit.

The film director Ridley Scott once described the Alicante complex as “the finest facilities in the world”, but the studios fell into disuse after the EU ban and have since been used by some digital start-ups and as a Covid vaccination centre. The site currently provides a temporary home for Ukrainian refugees.

Between 2005 and 2012, the six sound stages produced 36 films, of which the most famous was Juan Antonio Bayona’s tsunami movie, The Impossible, starring Naomi Watts. Asterix at the Olympic Games, starring Gérard Depardieu, was also shot there.

By then the studios had absorbed about €400m in public money, much of which the European Commission said had to be repaid.

Attempts by a consortium that included associates of the US director Francis Ford Coppola to acquire the complex in 2017 came to nothing.

Eventually, the EU said it had to be auctioned off to the highest bidder but no one was prepared to meet the minimum asking price, a third of its overall value.

Now Valencia’s government has created a film commission to promote the studios. “We hope to turn the complex into a European role model for audio-visual production,” said Ximo Puig, the Valencian president.

It is hoped that the management of the site will be better than last time around, when at least one producer complained that it was run by people who knew nothing about film-making.

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Eva Andújar, a production coordinator, had said it was probably the only studio in the world that closed at the weekend, and that on one occasion a doorman refused the film-maker Quentin Tarantino admission because he didn’t have a security pass.

Ciudad de la Luz is just one of Spain’s many white elephants. Before the 2008 financial crash put a stop to it, Spain’s regional governments vied with each other to build pharaonic projects, bankrupting most of Spain’s savings banks in the process and leaving the country saddled with at least three airports with no planes, high-speed rail connections with no passengers and stretches of motorway without cars, not to mention unfinished or abandoned cultural institutions, conference centres and sporting arenas.

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La entrada SPAIN’S CIUDAD DE LA LUZ FILM STUDIOS REOPEN 10 YEARS AFTER EU BAN se publicó primero en Valencia Film Commission.