“Official Competition”, a The Mediapro Studio production directed by Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat (“The Distinguished Citizen”, “My Masterpiece”, “4x4”, “The Man Next Door”) and written by the Argentine filmmakers together with Andrés Duprat, has presented its teaser-trailer.
The film, in collaboration with RTVE, TV3 and Orange España, stars Penélope Cruz (winner of an Oscar® Award for Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and produced by MEDIAPRO, and Best Actress Award at Cannes for Pedro Almodóvar’s “Volver”), Antonio Banderas (Best Actor Award at Cannes for Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory”) and Oscar Martínez (Best Actor Award in Venice for Cohn and Duprat’s “The Distinguished Citizen”).
Completing the cast are José Luis Gómez, Nagore Aramburu, Irene Escolar, Manolo Solo and Pilar Castro.
Producer Jaume Roures and the executive producers Laura Fernández Espeso, Javier Méndez, Javier Pons, Antonio Banderas, Penélope Cruz and Oscar Martínez.
“Official Competition” will hit theatres in Spain distributed by Buena Vista International and released in Latin America by Star Distribution. Protagonist Pictures is responsible for international sales.
Synopsis
In search of significance and social prestige, a billionaire businessman decides to make a film to leave his mark. To do so, he hires the best: a stellar team formed by famous filmmaker Lola Cuevas (Penélope Cruz) and two renowned actors, both enormously talented, but with even bigger egos: the Hollywood actor Félix Rivero (Antonio Banderas) and radical theater thespian Iván Torres (Oscar Martínez). Both legends, but not exactly the best of friends. Through a series of increasingly eccentric challenges set by Lola, Felix and Iván must face not only each other, but also their own legacies.
The Telson image team, the MEDIAPRO Group post-production company, has created 618 visual effects (VFX) and 3D recreations which were a key element in the construction of the spectacular fantasy universe thought up by the director Fernando González Molina for his ‘Paraíso’, a The Mediapro Studio production for Movistar+.
The main action takes place within a mountainous setting by the sea where the nightclub that gives its name to de series is located. For this, the Telson team has built the entirely nightclub in 3D integrating it into a retouched environment to achieve the most aesthetic aerial shots for the series. In addition, the team has managed to create a three-dimensional extension of the nightclub's set, with a large glass dome displaying the distinctive pink neon sign with the nightclub's name and such a popular feature on spectators screens in recent days.
One of the post-production highlights on 'Paraíso' is the effect of the "magical crossings" the protagonists undertake, a feature that was created ad hoc for the series, both technically and artistically. Animals, such as moths and seagulls were generated using CGI (Computer-Generated Imagery) technology, a scene with "ghost-like" sheets, a body evaporating into particles, the aura of light surrounding the actors' bodies, as well as many other objects created digitally, constitute some of the most spectacular effects of Telson's production efforts.
A crew of over 30 imaging professionals from Telson's image post-production team were involved in the project under the supervision of Daniel de Madrid, with the company's technical post-production manager, Isidro Jiménez at the helm. The Mediapro Group studio also has designed and created the header, a 3D construction that recreates a series of different perspectives of the nightclub and closing out the spectacular post-production work on the first season of 'Paraíso'.
In addition to 'Paraíso', Telson were also commissioned to manage post-production on films produced by The Mediapro Studio, including 'Official Competition' and 'The Good Boss', programs such as 'Órbita Laika' (TVE) and series including 'The Boarding School' (Amazon Prime Video), 'Nasdrovia 2' (Movistar+), 'Express' (Starzplay), 'The Head' (Orange TV) and 'Paco's Men' (Atresmedia). Telson, a leading Spanish company in post-production for more than thirty years, is also immersed in projects for very different clients: "The Cook of Castamar" by Buendía Producciones for Atresmedia and Netflix, La Claqueta's feature film "Erase una vez Euskadi" and "Sentimos las Molestias" for Movistar+.
In cinemas, Telson's work is currently on display in "El olvido que serremos", by Fernando Trueba (Goya award for best Ibero-American film), and "The Year of Fury", by Rafa Russo, recently released in theaters and on which Telson carried out all the sound post-production work during the months of lock-down, when the MEDIAPRO Group's post-production studio maintained its activity at 100% thanks to the design and development of in-house engineering that allowed to combine face-to-face and remote work on a daily basis. In addition to the design, mixes and sound editing, the Telson team, led by sound designer Pelayo Gutiérrez, has produced all the theatre sound effects thanks to the work of the company's Foley Artist, Kaihiamaru Martínez, whose work highlighted the harshness of the situations reflected in the film, which portrays the final months of 1972, when Uruguay was hurtling headfirst towards the military dictatorship that was to remain in power until 1985.
The MEDIAPRO Group has recently reached an exclusive broadcast agreement with OneFootball to show live games and highlights of the Apertura 2021 and the Clausura 2022 of la Liga MX. With this deal, each match-day, OneFootball, the leading global football media platform will provide its 85 million active monthly users free-to-air coverage of between 2 and 5 live matches featuring clubs such as Club América, Cruz Azul, Pumas, Toluca, FC Juárez, Necaxa and Tigres.
The partnership will allow la Liga MX to reach a much wider audience via the OneFootball platform with audiences in a host of European countries, including France, Italy, Germany, and the UK, as well as in Latin America, Africa and Asia. With la Liga MX joining the OneFootball streaming platform it takes its place alongside deals reached with other leading national competitions such as the Bundesliga, the Scottish Premier League and the Belgian Jupiler Pro League.
The new agreement with OneFootball, which leverages the long track record of the MEDIAPRO Group in the sale and distribution of audiovisual rights for sporting competitions around the world, will expand the international reach of the Liga MX to a younger fan-base and football supporters across the globe.
The MEDIAPRO Group is the global sales agency for the audiovisual rights for the LaLiga, the Chinese Super League and the Belgian Jupiler Pro League.
wTVision has designed and set up an upgraded virtual set for the Formula E for Eleven Sports Portugal, a program which provides coverage of the Formula E competition.
After years of successful association with Eleven Sports, providing production and play-out solutions from the wTVision technical center, the company’s design team has created a new virtual set for live broadcasts for the upcoming motor-sport season.
The design and virtual graphics were created from scratch, in close collaboration with the client and Fia Formula E, the channel brand image and the program content. The same team implemented the virtual scenarios for the TV broadcasts leveraging the wTVision software package and its one-stop shopping skills.
wTVision is also responsible for providing innovative graphics using enhanced reality for the 2022 World Cup qualifying games broadcast on Tigo Sports thanks to the agreement reached with Sports TV Rights, a wTVision partner, and Mediapro Bolivia. The virtual solution is based on a combination of the latest version of the wTVision FootballStats CG V5 system with an intuitive software which uses AR³ Football enhanced reality software and a 3D flexible, R³ Space Engine for rendering.
AR³ Football and R³ Space Engine are responsible for pitch tracking and the placing of virtual graphics, whilst the operators control and broadcast all the enhanced reality graphics using the FootballStats CG software. The graphics include data such as starting lineups, managers, and add excitement to the broadcast of live matches. This is the second project that wTVision is currently developing with virtual solutions for the qualifying matches in South America for the 2022 World Cup.
The Barcelona International Gaming Center (BIG C) in the Catalan capital is the venue chosen by LVP (MEDIAPRO Group) for the playing of the final of the Superliga, the official League of Legends competition in Spain and the benchmark national competition in the eSports sector.
The BIG C will be decked out in Superliga colors on August 12th for one of the most exciting finals of recent years. Since the start of the pandemic, the competition is set to be the first to be played with the teams and a live audience, following all the recommendations set out by the health authorities. The last three finals, the two from 2020 and the one from spring 2021, were played completely online, with the commentaries on set, but with the teams playing from their own bases.
The final which que takes place this summer will also be the official debut of the new Superliga trophy, one of the most awaited events by the followers of the competition. The winners will be able to lift the new cup live from the game stage, something which hasn’t happened since the summer of 2019 in Tenerife.
“It’s excellent news for the sector that we’re able to hold a Superliga final with the teams all together. It’s still not ideal, as we’d love to see crowds back, but it’s a step in the right direction. From LVP, together with Riot Games, the clubs and our sponsors, we’ll be doing all we can to make it an unforgettable final”, explains Jordi Soler, CEO of LVP.
The Superliga is moving into the home straight of the regular season with everything up for grabs. The top two spots, which will which provide direct passage into the semi-finals, the four teams that qualify for the quarter-finals and get the chance to fight it out for the last two semi-final spots and the teams who are looking to avoid relegation. The competition has seen some big surprises with the pre-tournament favourites, Vodafone Giants knocked out, the up-and- down second round of matches of the current champion UCAM Esports Club and the impressive fight-back by Cream Real Betis, led by their coach Mario “Motroco” Martínez, with seven wins on the trot after kicking off the season with only 2 wins in the first seven matches.
The date in the diary, August 12th in the BIG C in Barcelona will see a new champions crowned to take over from UCAM Esports Club, who beat Cream Real Betis (3-0) on March 25th in a final that was watched by 328,385 viewers (38% more than in spring 2020) and which set a new audience record for the competition.
The Superliga this season features sponsorship from OMEN, Intel and El Corte Inglés, Mahou 0,0 Tostada, Openbank, Kit Kat, Domino’s, Takis, Magnum and Cacaolat.
“#Encrucijada!” the mini-series developed by the Red Cross in November 2020, has recently won a Publifestival 2021 award in the Best Social Value category at the event’s 15th edition.
This innovative initiative, created by the 101 agency and produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, is a call to encourage people, especially younger generations to become a volunteer, via a fiction format. Four stories based on the work of Red Cross volunteers in different fields: energy poverty, providing company for elderly people, fighting against failure at school, and necessary work during the pandemic.
The shorts were shot using TV-fiction production level quality with the help of actors such as Jaime Blanch, Ruth Díaz, Emilio Buale, Lucía Caraballo, César Mateo and María de Nati, among others. Written by Pablo Lara (“El Ministerio del Tiempo”), directed by the film-maker, illustrator and writer Borja Crespo (“Caminantes”, “Neuroworld”) and music written by Lucas Vidal and his team (with two Goya awards for “Nobody Wants the Night” and “Palmeras en la nieve”),
“#Encrucijada” places society at the crossroads between sitting idly by or making a contribution to helping the vulnerable.
Publifestival, the International Social Advertising Festival, opens doors to individuals, companies and organizations involved in social projects, with the aim of not forgetting the less fortunate in society, be it people, other living creatures or the planet itself.
