ANNOUNCED IN THE FRAMEWORK OF THE CIIF MARKET THE TELEVISION ADAPTATION OF THE NOVEL “EN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT”, A BESTSELLER BY THE AUTHOR MIKEL SANTIAGO, WHICH IS PART OF THE ILLUMBE TRILOGY
Sydney Borjas, CEO of Scenic Rights; Curro Royo, showrunner and scriptwriter; and Álvaro Benítez, partner and director of Business Development at Plano a Plano, accompanied the writer Mikel Santiago during the presentation
The 19th edition of CIIF Market ( Canary Islands International Film Market), is once again positioned as a leading film and audiovisual market, serving as a meeting point for producers, distributors and investors at a national and international level, with the aim of promoting co-production and seeking financing for the development of feature-length fiction films, documentaries and television series for the global market.
The delegates of the selected projects have a personalized agenda of one-on-one meetings and market and networking activities, and panel days and conferences have been scheduled, in which experienced professionals discuss trends in film and audiovisual creation.
SUCCESSFUL CASE STUDY: ADAPTATION OF THE ILLUMBE TRILOGY
This Thursday the panel “Successful Case Study: Adaptation of the Illumbe Trilogy” was presented. Spanish black novel authors cross borders and make the leap to the screens, with the adaptation of their bestsellers . Mikel Santiago, a star author who has become a reference label as one of the most read in Spanish, has spoken about the process and challenges of how to take a work from paper to screen, as well as the keys when writing ” The liar”, “In the middle of the night” and “Among the dead”, mystery plays with unexpected twists of suspense that make up the Illumbe saga.
“In the middle of the night” will soon be adapted as a series by Plano a Plano , with Curro Royo as showrunner and Norberto López Amado (La cocinera de Castamar, Heridas, La chica invisible) as director. The forecast is to start preparing production at the beginning of 2024.
This was announced for the first time by Sydney Borjas , CEO of Scenic Rights, the leading audiovisual agency in the Hispanic market by volume of business in the management and sale of rights for the adaptation of literary works for television series and films, sale of original projects and developments, being the promoter of more than 200 adaptations for series and films such as Promises of Arena (TVE), Hernán, the man (Dopamine, Amazon, A&E), La Templanza (Amazon, Atresmedia), La Cocinera de Castamar (Atresmedia), Magic for Humans: Mago Pop (Netflix); Invitation to a murder (Netflix), Red Queen (Amazon), Los Farad (Amazon), Zorras (Atresmedia), among many others.
Curro Royo, renowned Spanish scriptwriter and prominent showrunner, premiered Hernán el Hombre in 2019, the series with the highest budget in the history of television in Latin America. Today he is in charge of the creative direction of several international projects and for ten seasons he has been one of the writers of the acclaimed and award-winning Spanish series “Cuéntame”. He has premiered five films, among which “The Art of Dying” and the artistic “Thirteen Chimes” stand out. His scripts include “Alatriste” and “Olmos y Robles”. “Alatriste” is a European co-production based on the highly successful novels by Arturo Pérez Reverte.
Completed the panel Alvaro Benitez Perea, partner and director of Business Development and International Relations at Plane to Plane, an audiovisual production company specializing in fiction and entertainment and with a long and successful career in film and television, with titles such as Valeria, Toy Boy, El Príncipe, Allí Abajo, Servir y Proteger or La Verdad.
“In the middle of the night” is set again in the imaginary Basque town of Illumbe, as “The Liar” already did, in a story marked by a past that could have terrible consequences in the present. This thriller transports you to the nostalgia of the nineties while unraveling the mystery of that night that everyone struggles to forget.
During the session, the current moment of the audiovisual sector was valued, which is returning to the previous model, in which many production companies are once again choosing to preserve the intellectual property (IP) of the work and where a few years ago they were mainly requested further originals and now co-productions proliferate. On the other hand, it is happening that the industry is demanding that prestigious writers create projects and stories directly for the platforms, not adaptations of books or scripts, but their own universes.
Here you can see the full conference.
CIIF MARKET 2023
In total, 17 audiovisual projects in the development phase from nine countries, including Spain, the Dominican Republic, Chile, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia, Portugal and Lithuania participate in this edition. Projects include 10 fiction feature films, 1 documentary feature film, 1 docu-fiction feature film and 5 fiction series.
Likewise, through the CIIF Market Lab training program, which has carried out its second edition in collaboration with the SGAE Foundation , two screenplays by new talents have been presented on the market.
Today, Friday, the last day of the market is celebrated and this afternoon the awards ceremony and closing ceremony will take place at the Iberostar Heritage Grand Mencey Hotel , the official headquarters of CIIF Market .
Canary Islands International Film Market will award six prizes to promote the growth and internationalization of projects:
CIIF Market Santa Cruz de Tenerife Award for the best international project, with a cash prize and a travel grant to attend an international market of your choice.
Cabildo de Tenerife Award for the project with the greatest European scope, with free accreditation to attend a European film and/or audiovisual market of your choice.
Canary Islands Film Award to the best Canary Islands project, which will reward the winner with a travel bag to attend a sectorial market and international projection.
Filmarket Hub Award, with access to its online marketplace through an exclusive invitation to exhibit in its catalog for unlimited time for the designated project, within the curated industry area and including a script analysis of the project.
Music Library & SFX Award, the winning project will have a flat rate limited to one free production, which will allow the synchronization of production music from the Music Library & SFX catalogs into the content of the project.
MAFIZ Award , to attend the Málaga Festival Industry Zone 2024, which grants two projects, one Spanish and the other Latin American, with Premium access to all the exclusive activities of the Málaga Festival industry area, as well as the festival’s own activities.
CIIF Market has the sponsorship of the Council of Tenerife; Government of the Canary Islands, through the Canary Institute for Cultural Development, Canary Islands Film and PROEXCA; Tenerife Film Commission, and the support of Turismo de Tenerife; City Council of Santa Cruz de Tenerife; Development Society of Santa Cruz de Tenerife; and Macaronesian Films.
In addition to the collaboration , among other entities, of the Clúster Audiovisual de Canarias, IsLABentura Canarias, Control Freaks, MAFIZ (Málaga Festival Industry Zone), Music Library & SFX, Filmarket Hub, River Flow Pictures, SGAE Foundation, PNR (Platform of New Directors ), CIMA Impulsa, ZEC (Special Canary Islands Zone) and Rahn Mercedes Benz.
