Mubi, the global distributor, streaming service and producer, has acquired Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s romantic drama series “The New Years” (“Los años nuevos”) for distribution in North America, Latin America, U.K., Ireland, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and India.
The 10-part “The New Years” is set to launch on Mubi Dec. 3 with a double episode, followed by one episode every week. Mubi has also dropped an official trailer, hot on the heals of the title’s Mubi poster.
Struck with Spain’s Movistar Plus+, the biggest Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator, the deal is a milestone for Mubi – its first Spanish series – and also for Movistar Plus+, marking one of its most significant multi-territory licensing pacts to date.
Co-created and co-directed by Cesar Award-winning Sorogoyen (“The Beasts”), “The New Years” follows Ana (Iria Del Río, “Apocalypse Z: The Beginning of the End”) and Óscar (Francesco Carril, “Three Goodbyes”) from their first meeting on the night they both turn 30, through nine subsequent New Year’s Eves.
“She lives in a shared flat, dislikes her job, and changes friends frequently. He’s a doctor with a stable career and loyal friends—until they meet and fall in love,” the synopsis says. “10 consecutive years, with each episode capturing a single night that reveals how love evolves, the series is an honest examination of modern commitment and choosing someone, year after year.”
Created by Sorogoyen and Paula Fabra and Sara Cano – Fabra and Cabo having gone on to become lead writers on recent Netflix No. 2 global non-English-language hit “Angela,” – “The New Years” world premiered at the 81st Venice Film Festival in alongside new series from Alfonso Cuarón (“Disclaimer”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Families Like Ours”) and Joe Wright (“Mussolini: Son of the Century”).
Bowing on Movistar Plus+, the show was hailed by several Spanish journalists as the best series of the year. Some rave reactions can be read in Mubi’s trailer.
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“We are very glad that ‘The New Years’ will be the first Spanish TV series on a platform committed to independent cinema. Having the opportunity to reach viewers from so many different territories is a great opportunity for our original content,” said
Fabrizia Palazzo, distribution manager at Movistar Plus+ International.
“The New Years”is produced by Domingo Corral, Fran Araújo of Movistar Plus+, as well as Eduardo Villanueva, Nacho Lavilla and Sorogoyen at Madrid-based Caballo Films (“La Ruta”). The series is also co-produced by Arte France.
It is little surprise that Mubi has moved to acquire much of the world on “The New Years,” having lifted off as a streaming service, now with a community of 20 million cinema-loving registered users, by offering elevated director-driven movies such as Pedro Almodovar’s “Pain and Glory.” This year it brought four films to Cannes main competition including Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” and Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind.”
Few directors in Europe have broken out in the last decade with such force as Sorogoyen, who scored a 2019 Oscar nomination for his short “Madre” and won a Best Foreign Film César for “The Beasts” in 2023, beating out four Cannes Festival 2022-23 competition winners. He is currently naked movie “The Beloved,” starring Javier Bardem.
Mubi’s ‘The New Years’ Trailer
A play for a large audience, “The New Years” qualities are often caught, if just glimpsed, in Mubi’s official trailer. Sorogoyen has told Variety that he shot “The New Years” like cinema, structured like “The Best of Youth,” split into two movies, in the case of “The New Years” of 180 and 220 minutes.
Sorogoyen also brings a sense of sub-genre with every episode varying in tone. Some of their key beats are caught in the trailer such as the couple’s cute-meet (Ep. 1) to recognition of love (Ep. 2) to family drama (Ep.4) to a horror-tinged confrontation (Ep. 5) at and after a night at a club in Berlin.
As hinted in the trailer, “The New Years” posits a common relationship paradox: the same divergent qualities which attract Ana and Oscar to one another – her spontaneity, ability to live in the moment, his solid or stolid stability – also threaten to derail their relationship.
“The New Years” also charts Ana’s growth. She is still living a disoriented youth in the series’ initial going. “You need to grow up,” Oscar rebukes her in the trailer. “You can do whatever you want,” her mother encourages her later. Gradually, in “The New Years,” Ana finds her place in the world. One large question, playing out to the series’ very end, is whether that is with Oscar.
From Variety US