Navarre: A Film-TV Company Guide

A burgeoning film-TV hub and shoot locale in Spain, Navarre is proving a hotbed for new companies and projects which are now helping the region to gain bigger visibility abroad. Some start-up, or standout Navarre-based outfits expected to attend this week’s on-site Conecta Fiction in Pamplona:

Adhokers Navarra

Created by Beatriz Acinas and José Luis Tejedor, Adhokers has offices in Madrid and Pamplona and produces TV contents and commercials. Upcoming projects include TV series “Encuentros en Villa Lancaster” and “Manual de usar y tirar.”

Apolo Films

Founded by legendary animation creator-entrepreneur Claudio Biern Boyd, indie studio Apolo has operated in Navarre since 2018, focusing on toon features inspired by well-known international brands. On Jan. 21, it will release in Spain swashbuckling adventure “Dogtanian & The Three Muskehounds,” the newest installment in the the 40-year-old iconic TV property. “Dogtanian” is helmed by Apolo creative director Toni García and written by “Puss in Boots” and “Kung Fu Panda’s” Doug Langdale.

CNPC

A team of five Madrid-based companies led by Tornasol Films are joining forces to launch Centro Navarro para la Producción Cinematográfica in October at Sarrio industrial park in Berrioplano, aimed at offering production services, developing R&D projects and professional training. Further partners: Peris Costumes, Camara Rental Services, Free Your Mind and Adhoc.

Emotional Films

A pioneering, ambitious R&D initiative involving a consortium of public and private universities and orgs, backed by Navarre audiovisual cluster Clavna and toon studio Dr. Platypus&MsWombat. The project combines audiovisual production, artificial intelligence and big data to create a disruptive algorithm that reads audiences’ reactions in real time, adapting the story plot.

Estudios Melitón

A production services and training company launched last year, built on the business campus of Lekaroz in the stunningly beautiful Baztán Valley. Its facilities include two sound stages, covering a total 809 square meters (8,700 square feet), plus catering and accommodation services. Its professional training activities take in to date immersion workshops with filmmakers such as double Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi and Spanish auteur Oliver Laxe. Under CEO Joaquín Calderón, the studios are expanding their business, teaming with Canary Islands’ Macaronesia Films to offer access to regional tax breaks.

Iñaki Ariztimuño

Pamplona-born writer Iñaki Ariztimuño, a co-creator of Antena 3 hit TV comedy “Aquí no hay quien viva,” is teaming with partner Iñaki San Román on TV series project “Quijote” and San Fermin-set comedy film “Pamplonada,” in which, according to Spanish press reports, Mexican studio Dopamine will be involved.

Kanaki Films

A Navarra and Basque Country-based company, producer of Goya, EFA and Platino awards-winning animation film “Another Day of Life.” Specialized in docu features located in remote places such as Potosí-set “Minerita,” which earned another Goya award, this time as best short doc. Launched in 2009 and led by film director Raúl de la Fuente and producer Amaia Remírez, Kanaki is preparing Carmen Chaplin’s “Charlie Chaplin, a Man of the World.”

Platypus&MsWombat

A fast-growing Navarre animation studio, co-founded by Carlos Fernández de Vigo and Lorena Ares, with credits on feature films (“Memoirs of a Man in Pajamas” and “The Swallows of Kabul”) and videogames (“Zombeer”). The studio is working on two feature projects, “Dinogames” and “Hanna y los monstruos,” which have won support from Spanish pubcaster RTVE.

The Think Lab

Julio Soto founded film production and digital services outfit The ThinkLab in Madrid in 2006 but returned last year to his homeland in Navarre to produce several animated features. Previously, The ThinkLab produced 3D toon film “Deep,” with a wide international distribution which took in the U.S. (Lionsgate) and China (with a more than 13,000 screens theatrical release). Current slate includes the 3D film “Inspector Sun,” set in a world of bugs where spiders are cops.

Tornasol Films

One of Spain’s biggest and most resilient indie production outfits, Madrid and Navarre-based Tornasol produced Juan José Campanella’s Oscar-winning “The Secret in Their Eyes.” A prolific company led by Gerardo Herrero and Mariela Besuievsky, Tornasol has shot seven movies in Navarre in the last three years.