María Ripoll and Max Lemcke Headline Six Projects at South Boost in Cádiz

South Boost brings six Andalusian TV projects to Cádiz this year, up from five, after submissions jumped from 15 in 2024 to 22 in 2025 and 36 now. The third edition of the development platform, tied to the South International Series Festival, has one stated filter: viability.

"From the very beginning, what we have been trying to select are projects that we think are doable, realistically doable," festival director Carles Montiel says.

That is the promise. The caveat: a slot at a development forum is a meeting schedule, not a greenlight. What it changes for these producers is access — to partners, broadcasters and platforms — not funding.

Who made the cut?

• "La playa de los alemanes" — a seven-part thriller created by Silvestre García, developed by Cádiz-based Intuitivofilms with Cahuenga Filmmakers. María Ripoll ("Un asunto privado") serves as executive producer, showrunner and episodic director, alongside director David Valero Simón ("Enemigos").
• "Algo malo va a suceder" — a four-part psychological horror thriller from Seville-based Spal Films, directed by Max Lemcke ("Casual Day"), inspired by a 1970 family murder in Tenerife.
• "Los extranjeros" — an eight-episode murder mystery/sci-fi hybrid from Odeón Studios, created by Julio Blez and Hugo Baena, set in an Andalusian mining town in the late 1980s.
• "Folklóricas" — Enciende TV's six-segment comedy from Fany de la Chica and Miguel Ángel Parra, reuniting four faded copla stars for a 1991 TV documentary.
• "Lo de siempre" — a six-part comedy from Magnetika Producciones about a Portuguese entrepreneur reopening the only bar in fictional border village Valdemedio.
• "Colombine" — a six-chapter historical drama from Almería's 32 Historias Producciones, written and directed by Kurro González and produced by Francisco Conde, the team behind "La zona vacía."

What draws Ripoll and Lemcke?

"La playa de los alemanes" opens with a woman's body found during a tuna catch on Cádiz's Atlantic coast. A police detective and a German-descent heiress uncover family secrets tied to a Nazi past.

"That contrast opens up many possibilities for developing the characters and bringing an emotional dimension to the thriller," Ripoll says. She cites a landscape where fishing communities, luxury villas and World War II bunkers coexist. "As a director, I'm attracted to exploring what lies beneath the beauty of that landscape," she says.

The project is now courting producers and broadcasters. "The pilot is our strongest calling card," Ripoll says. "We'd love them to read it and feel the same need we did to find out what happens next."

Lemcke's series follows a documentary crew returning to the Tenerife crime scene with the family's sole surviving daughter, stirring memories and unsettling phenomena. "The heart of the series is the house where the murders took place. It's not just a physical space, but a container of time, a prison for memories," he says.

"Colombine" connects journalist and women's rights advocate Carmen de Burgos with a librarian protecting her books from Francoist censorship in 1939.

Who judges, and what comes next?

"This year's South Boost selection confirms the vitality of Andalusia's audiovisual industry, with an extraordinary diversity of formats, subjects and genres," says Alejandro Ávila, coordinator of the festival's SUR and South Boost sections. "The region has not only tremendous creative talent but also a competitive production sector capable of bringing its creators' projects to life."

The six contenders compete for the Andalucía South Boost Award before a jury of Canal Sur deputy director Isabel Cabrera, Goya-winning production manager Manuela Ocón, Andalucía Film Commission president Carlos Rosado and Studio60 creative director Enrique Pérez, Flipy.

The initiative's first winner offers the working proof. "La Roca," a Gibraltar-set six-part thriller developed by Womack Studios and Diffferent Entertainment with Canal Sur, director Alexis Morante and patron Ronan Bennett ("Top Boy"), returns as an industry case study ahead of a Cádiz shoot.

"Without South Boost, they probably would never have been able to reach the right production companies or, in this case, Canal Sur," Montiel says.

Other strands run alongside: SUR showcases Andalusian-linked productions including Netflix's "El cuco de cristal," Disney+'s "Olivia," Atresmedia's "La Nena," Movistar Plus' "La más grande," "100 años de copla" and "La foto del azulejo." South Connect pairs Andalusian producers with national and international players, including a Danish delegation exploring co-productions.

Whether this year's six follow "La Roca" to a shoot, or stall at pilot stage, will be the real measure of Montiel's "doable" standard.