Movistar Plus Doubles Spanish Originals After Emmy and Oscar Wins

Movistar Plus will double its annual output of original Spanish series from eight to 16 titles, the company announced in early July, after a two-year run of top prizes at Series Mania, two Oscar nominations and two International Emmy nods.

Since 2025, Movistar Plus Originals have won the two top awards at Series Mania with "Querer" and "Celeste," earned two Oscar nominations with "Sirāt," and pushed "La Bola Negra" to the front of the Cannes Festival's Oscar conversation. Last week, the operator added International Emmy nominations for Alberto Rodríguez's "The Anatomy of a Moment" and best actor for Javier Cámara in "Jakarta."

Its Mipcom slate shows how the biggest Spanish pay TV/SVOD operator plans to build from there, under a new management team of CEO Alfonso Gómez Palacio and contents director Juan Andrés García Romero.

How does Movistar Plus reach younger viewers?

The standout answer is "Many People Need to Die," the series debut of YouTube-podcast comedian Victoria Martín. A withering take on Millennial angst, the show has driven both audiences and new subscribers, says García Romero, who confirms Movistar Plus has already ordered a Season 2.

"Killing a Bear," another top Mipcom title, points to a second strategic drive: co-production. Created by Jorge and Alberto Sánchez-Cabezudo ("Crematorium," "The Zone"), the fact-based wild bear murder mystery was shot in Catalonia's Aran Valley and marks the fourth co-production between Movistar Plus and broadcast network Arte France. Season 2 of "Celeste" is co-produced with the Mediapro Studio, with Mediapro Studio Distribution handling international sales.

Why do auteurs keep returning to the platform?

Movistar Plus has built its overseas breakout on close relationships with many of Spain's leading younger auteurs, giving them resources to make the films and series they envision at production values the company says are competitive with France.

"Celeste" creator Diego San Jose described the working method on Season 1: "we were given a marvellous degrees of creative freedom. It could have become a madcap comedy full of gags and jokes made for the broadest of audiences. Instead, we were even encouraged to make a series with light and shade."

That creative bet underpins the doubling of output. "Originals attract more client and generate more engagement," Movistar Plus noted in its July announcement.

Scaling from eight to 16 series a year also requires emerging talent alongside established names. "The Castle," another new Mipcom title, is the case in point: the TV debut of Rodrigo Sorogoyen's longtime co-scribe Isabel Peña as a series co-creator.

What links the three flagship Mipcom dramas?

"The Castle," "Killing a Bear" and "Celeste" are all crime drama-thrillers — the most exported and ordered program type — yet all three reject genre tropes.

• "Celeste" centers on a dowdy tax fraud inspector.
• "The Castle" plays like "Zodiac" with sex clubs, following a young police inspector's long pursuit of a prostitution kingpin.
• "Killing a Bear" is described by the Cabezudo brothers as a procedural and a "fable" that "uses genre as a vehicle to address the violence born of the deeply polarized conflicts over coexistence we see today."

The genre framework matters commercially: in a general market downturn, series — whatever their hot-button issues — must still entertain, the reasoning goes. The doubled slate will test whether auteur freedom and younger-skewing comedy can scale together.