The film, starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, is produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and Thin Man Films
‘Hard Truths', Mike Leigh’s 23rd film, is set for release in Spain on February 28, 2025, with distribution by BTeam Pictures. Produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and Thin Man Films, in association with Film4 and Creativity Media, the film's producer is Georgina Lowe, and the co-producers are Laura Fernández Espeso for THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and Henry Woolley for Thin Man Films.
The film has been screened at various international film festivals, including in Toronto, San Sebastián, New York and London, garnering excellent reviews at all of them. Its star, Marianne Jean-Baptiste, received the Excellence in Acting award at the Denver Film Festival, and the film was twice-nominated in the British Independent Film Awards in the categories of Best Lead Performance, for Marianne Jean-Baptiste, and Best Supporting Performance, for the actress Michele Austin, as well as being twice-nominated at the Gotham Awards for Best International Feature and Outstanding Lead Performance.
Back with his first film in six years, Mike Leigh returns to contemporary London with family as the central focus in a story that is not exempt from pain, but through which there are moments of humor and warmth, allowing the director to explore themes such as family relationships, grief and mental health. The film revolves around Pansy, played by the terrific Marianne Jean-Baptiste, a woman for whom life is a constant struggle and who interacts with the world through anger and confrontation: she argues with her family, with her dentist, with her doctor, with the checkout operator, etc. Her husband Curtley hasn't known how to relate to her for a long time; son Moses is immersed in his own world, and the only one who seems to understand her is her sister Chantelle.
'Hard Truths' reunites the British filmmaker with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who starred in 'Secrets & Lies', one of Leigh's best-known films, now 30-years-old, and which earned Marianne Jean Baptiste an Oscar nomination.
Also returning to work with Leigh is Michele Austin, playing Chantelle, who earlier appeared in 'Secrets & Lies'. 'Hard Truths' rounds out its cast with performances by David Webber, Tuwaine Barret, Elliot Edusah, Tiwa Lade, Jonathan Livingstone, Bryony Miller, Llewella Gideon and Hiral Varsani.
The film also features many of Leigh's usual collaborators behind the camera: cinematographer Dick Pope, composer Gary Yershon, casting director Nina Gold, costume designer Jacqueline Durran and production designer Suzie Davis, and marks the addition of editor Tania Reddin ('This England') as well as makeup and hair designer Nora Robertson ('Scrapper') to Leigh's line-up.
The "deeply sober and compassionate drama, not without flashes of fun," according to The Guardian, marks the return of a filmmaker considered a maestro of film, winner of Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for the aforementioned ‘Secrets & Lies’ and the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for ‘Vera Drake’. Mike Leigh has also received seven Oscar nominations and won two Bafta awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
‘Hard Truths’ is produced by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and Thin Man Films in association with Film4 and Creativity Media and will be released by BTeam Pictures in Spanish movie theaters on February 28.
More than 100 hours of sport have been broadcast live, from Spain, Croatia, Egypt, France, Morocco and Türkiye
GRUP MEDIAPRO has been responsible for the live production of the Karate World Cup - National Teams Championship organized by the Spanish Karate Federation and the World Karate Federation and held November 22-24 in Pamplona. Throughout the three days of the championship, MEDIAPRO BMS (Broadcast Media Services), the group division specializing in audiovisual production for events, managed the audiovisual production and signal relay for this major sporting event which brought together over 1,000 participants from 43 countries in the Navarra Arena.
MEDIAPRO BMS dedicated a major deployment of skilled staff and the latest innovations in technology in order to turn this highest level international karate competition into great TV. The deployment involved a team of 30 staff and a mobile unit with 14 cameras – including special equipment such as a crane and one ultra slow-motion, two super slow-motion and two cinematic cameras – so that the action on the tatami could be followed from a range of angles.
Also among the services deployed by MEDIAPRO BMS was a VAR (Video Assistant Referee) system allowing the referees and judges to review the most crucial points of the bouts. It also provided the broadcast signal relay to more than 10 operators so that martial arts fans could follow the sporting event in Spain (RTVE) and around the world: Australia (FOX Sports), Croatia (Sport TV), the Czech Republic (IFC Media), Slovakia (IFC Media), the Philippines (Solar Entertainment), France (Sport en France), Italy (Sky), Indonesia (Vidio), Italy (Sky TV), Kazakhstan (Sport Plus TV) and various countries in Latin America, the Middle East and North Africa through Panam Sports Channel and RTVM, respectively. The group was able to carry out all these productions thanks to the staff and broadcast equipment at its disposal across its 52 branches around the globe.
With this production, MEDIAPRO BMS wraps up a year in which it has been the host broadcaster of the main international competitions for this sport. In addition to the Pamplona event, it has produced Premier League karate tournaments over the course of 2024 in Paris (France), Antalya (Türkiye), Cairo (Egypt) and Casablanca (Morocco), as well as the European Karate Championships held in Zadar (Croatia). In total, all this makes for 100 hours of live production.
GRUP MEDIAPRO has vast experience in the production of live sporting events. Highlights from its extensive resume include the production of the America's Cup (Barcelona, 2024), the European Games (Krakow, 2023), the Pan American and Parapan American Games (Chile, in 2023, and Peru, 2019) and the Mediterranean Games (Oran, 2022), among various other competitions.
The new General Manager of GRUP MEDIAPRO from January 1st 2025
Laura Fernández Espeso has recently won the Executive of the Year Award at the 8th edition of the PRODU awards, an accolade which highlights the achievements of the professionals working in the audiovisual industry who through their accomplishments enrich and contribute to the growth of both the industry and the development of their own careers, demonstrating a management excellence for the company and the group they represent. The awards ceremony took place on November 21st as part of the Industry Gala held at the MIP Cancún event.
This award comes on the back of other high-profile accolades which Fdez. Espeso has picked up over the last year and which include the prestigious Variety magazine award for International Media Woman of the Year, as well as being featured in a variety of high-profile lists of top women in the media and entertainment industry, such as the Forbes List of the top 100 most influential women in Spain, the Forbes List of the Top 50 most influential women in the media and entertainment industry in the “Los cien” list from the CVeintiuno magazine, and for the second year running in the list of the top 30 most powerful women in international television by The Hollywood Reporter.
Laura Fdez. Espeso directs the worldwide creation, production and distribution strategy for THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO, she is also part of the Management Board and the Executive Board at GRUP MEDIAPRO, and from the 1st January she will become the General Manager of GRUP MEDIAPRO. She’s a member of the Board of Directors of the Television Arts and Science Academy of the United States, a jury member of the Emmy® international awards and the Rose D’Or Latin awards. Under her leadership, the Studio has increased its film and television production for the leading streaming platforms and TV channels such as Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Max, Disney+, ViX, Lionsgate+, Paramount+, Movistar Plus+, Atresmedia, Mediaset and RTVE.
She’s also been the architect of important international agreements, such as the launch, together with Penélope Cruz of the Moonlyon production company, a strategic alliance with the leading Turkish production company Medyapim. Committed to equal opportunities and the promotion of emerging talent she’s the principle backer of the Scriptwriter Masters’s degree course run by THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO and is part of the Diversity and Sustainability Board at GRUP MEDIAPRO.
In 2024 THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO has continued to move forward in its international expansion with the opening of a new base in Los Angeles, with the goal of promoting the production of more projects in English. With a team led by JC Acosta, The Mediapro Studio US & Canada are already working on their first productions in the USA and which were announced at the last edition of the MIPCOM Cannes event, and which include projects such as the series ‘Witness 36’, a high-risk spy thriller created by Daniel Burman, which features Evan Katz as the showrunner; ‘El hijo de la novia’, a remake in English, in series format, created and directed by Juan José Campanella inspired by the film of the same name nominated for an Oscar®; ‘Screaming Ball of Chaos’, a fun comedy with a high-profile list of female actresses about bank robberies led by a crazy woman, created by Julie McDaniel; the films ‘Mother Wolf’, a family drama starring Melissa Leo, and ‘Is There No Place on Earth for Me?’ a moving feature-length film written and directed by John Turturro, in addition to the comedy series ‘I Love the Prime Minister’, set in Canada and directed by Matt Hastings, and non-fiction content such as the documentary series ‘Hollywood Homicide: Robert Blake’, a true crime story which digs into the murder of Bonny Lee Bakley, Blake’s wife; and the adaptation in the USA of the popular game show ‘Atrápame si puedes’, screened in 11 different regions of Spain and with more than 10 years on air and which in the American version (‘Catch me if you Can’) will feature Anthony Carbone as executive producer and showrunner.
The Studio has also just successfully launched the series ‘Celeste’, co-produced with Movistar Plus+, as well as reaching far and wide with the film ‘El 47’, the movie directed by Marcel Barrena, which is still being shown in Spain and has taken more than three million euros at the box office and is close to half a million spectators, in addition to being the most watched film in Catalan of the last 40 years.
Upcoming premieres include the third season of ‘The Head’, on Max in Spain, the USA and Latin America, and a host of other operators across the rest of the world. Other projects for 2025 feature ‘Su Majestad’, for Prime Video, and ‘El mal invisible’, in co-production with 3Cat, for the platform and which will also be seen on Disney+, the documentary series ‘El minuto heroico’ for Max, and the films ‘Hard Truths’, directed by the British filmmaker Mike Leigh, and ‘El Talento’, shot this summer and directed by Carlos Polo Menarguez, with a script co-written by Fernando León de Aranoa. Other productions in Latin America where the Studio has seen continued success include ‘Iosi, el espía arrepentido’, a nominee for an international Emmy; ‘Consuelo’, ‘Barrabrava’, ‘Las Bravas’, ‘Primate’; premieres such as the films ‘Transmitzvah’, presented at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and recently released on Netflix, and ‘Intercambiadas’, in co-production with VIX, and upcoming releases for 2025 such as series like ‘Cometierra’ for Prime Video and ‘Las Maldiciones’ for Netflix, in addition to the film ‘Mesa de regalos’, in co-production with Pampa Films for Disney+.
Leticia Pasamontes provides insight into the production of one of the great sporting events
Tickets now on sale via mpcentradas.es
After more than a decade of comedy, memorable improvisation sketches and a really close professional relationship, Andreu Buenafuente and Berto Romero will be back on stage with 'The Chicken’, the new show that we never realized we needed by El Terrat (THE MEDIAPRO STUDIO) and MPC Management. The show based on ‘Nadie Sabe Nada' is a unique opportunity for the followers of the show to relive the best bits with all the essence of the original show and the deadly comedy duo on stage.
'The Chicken' promises to be much more than a mere look back at the ten years of 'Nadie Sabe Nada'. The two comics will be getting the audiences buzzing with live improv comedy set to be center stage as only Andreu and Berto, know how to do it with a special set designed for the occasion.
Five stand-alone shows for the loyal fans and for those looking to find out why the comedy duo are still front and center of Spanish comedy. Tickets are now on sale at mpcentradas.es
The dates and cities for the show are: 1st February in the Bizkaia Arena in Bilbao, 4th and 5th April at the Vistalegre Palace in Madrid, and the 3rd and 5th May in the Auditorio Forum CCIB in Barcelona.
'The Chicken' is a show that can only be seen live because just like in 'Nadie Sabe Nada’, every show will unrepeatable.
Plot
‘The Chicken’ is a show based on ‘Nadie Sabe Nada’ which we never knew needed Andreu, Berto and the ‘Nadie’ team. An excellent chance of reliving the best bits of more than 10 years working together and experiencing live full-on improv comedy.
A huge screen incorporated scenes from the film with real-time live images
Adisar Media was responsible for the creation and production of an interactive screen set up in Príncipe Pío (Madrid), using clips from the fantasy musical ‘Wicked’, directed by Jon M. Chu. Services provided for the Croatian production company Light Film, with Universal Pictures as the end client. With a screen set up to appear to be a crystal, it integrated clips from the film in real time whilst the cameras were filming live, with the aim of generating a unique audience interactive experience.
Adisar Media, a specialist in audiovisual services and solutions, was involved across the entire production process for the project. Services included location search, the management of the requisite permits, the design and construction of the set in collaboration with another group company, Rez Estudio. In addition, it was also responsible for the management and selection of content as well as the installation of the video camera, multimedia servers and video screens. It also coordinated the provision of the power supply, safety measures and the carrying out of the entire project plan.
