• The Official Series Section presents the German comedy Das Manko and Disney+’s crime tragedy Dear Killer Nannies.
  Three professional panels will invite debate on global series production and distribution, as well as the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Cinema Jove, the international film festival of the Valencian Community organised by the Department of Education, Culture and Universities and promoted by the Institut Valencià de Cultura (IVC), will premiere tomorrow, June 21, the award-winning Filipino film Filipiñana and the Taiwanese fiction-documentary hybrid I Heard That They Are Not Going To See Each Other Anymore.

Recognised at the latest Sundance edition with the Special Jury Award for Creative Vision in the World Cinema section, Filipiñana is a Singapore–UK co-production in which Filipino filmmaker Rafael Manuel clinically dissects, through rigorous static shots, the dynamics of power and the deep divide between ruling classes in a luxury resort.

In the feature, Manuel uses the elite sport of golf as the perfect metaphor for his country: “A very large and fertile plot of land that is worked and tilled by many people, but which is ultimately enjoyed and profited from by only a few privileged ones,” explains the director.

Meanwhile, I Heard That They Are Not Going To See Each Other Anymore blends fiction and non-fiction to the energetic rhythm of 1990s Hong Kong cinema, exploring loneliness and urban alienation through its characters.

In the words of its director Ka Ki Wong: “The structure of the film has been designed in a unique way by having the actors share their real-life experiences, without ever revealing whether they are speaking as themselves or through their characters.”

Bureaucratic satire and Pablo Escobar’s childhood in series form

The Official Series Section concludes its competitive programme tomorrow with two international titles. Among them is the Spanish premiere of Das Manko, a production directed by the German collective of the same name alongside filmmaker Arne Feldhusen.

The project is presented as a physical comedy that pushes the incompetence of the bureaucratic system to its limits. Through sharp humour, the series reflects on the absurdity of contemporary society and the complex relationship we maintain with the workplace. Its performers use gestures drawn from circus arts to turn each scene into a burlesque ballet.

Showrunner, writer and actor Bastian Reiber, as well as actor and writer David Simon and cast members Annika Meier, Carol Schuler and Christophe Jöde, will present Das Manko at Cinema Jove after its run at the Séries Mania festival in Lille, where it won the Best Direction Award in the International Panorama section.

In a thematically contrasting line is Disney+’s Dear Killer Nannies, a drama about the childhood of the son of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar.

This production is written, narrated and co-created in the first person by Juan Pablo Escobar himself, who joins forces with creators Sebastián Ortega and Pablo Farina to offer an intimate, unprecedented and raw insight into the hidden history of one of Colombia’s most complex historical periods.

The audiovisual industry under discussion in three panels

The day will be completed with three roundtable discussions on the television industry. The first will focus on international co-productions and new markets, aiming to unpack the key aspects of financing and global distribution.

The panel will include two members of the official jury of this year’s Cinema Jove edition: Julia Fidel, representative of the German public broadcaster ZDF and responsible for supervising acquisitions within the international fiction team, and Christopher Sharp, head of fiction at one of Australia’s leading production companies, Easy Tiger.

The second session will focus on artificial intelligence in audiovisual production, analysing its practical applications, ethical and legal challenges, and the creative impact of AI tools.

Finally, a case study on successful transition to feature filmmaking will be presented by Russian-Iranian director Vasilisa Kuzmina, also a member of this year’s jury. Following the international success of her series Alisa, which screened at South by Southwest in Austin and at Cinema Jove itself, she will reveal details of her upcoming feature debut, a dystopian film currently in development in Spain with producer Frank Ariza.