The night of the Oscars gala not only meant the triumph of the team of Everything at the same time everywhere, the overwhelming film about the multiverse that monopolized seven of the eleven awards for which it was nominated. Luis de Val (Barcelona, ??1979), the distributor who risked bringing the Daniels’ film to theaters in Spain, also celebrated it in style by watching the ceremony live from the Malaga Festival. “I took watching the Oscars as an anecdote with friends and it has become something that has changed my life,” explains this man in conversation with this newspaper who never imagined that the film he bought last year at the festival market in Berlin would become the phenomenon of the season.
It by no means seemed like a safe bet for the Spanish market. “We bought it because it represented many of the things that we are. In addition to being a film distributor, we are an agency of influencers and we like innovation, multiverses. We acquired it with a vocation that the film was going to remain deserted in Spain. It was very expensive and in the end we were able to take it. Our idea was to put it in theaters and on platforms, specifically at Movistar because we work a lot with them.” De Val thought it could become a cult film. But when the Oscar nominations began to sound loud “we were perplexed and hallucinated.”
YouPlanet Pictures also won in Cannes The Whale, winner of the Oscar for best actor for Brendan Fraser and makeup, from which they started with more confidence. “When we read the script and we saw that it was from A24, the producer of Everything at the same time everywhere, and it was directed by Darren Aronofski with a return like Fraser’s, with a very emotional story and it was going to be released in awards season , we thought it could be a movie that would go big.”
The trust was placed above all in Fraser because Luis de Val Sr., one of the greats of film distribution in Spain and founder of Manga Films, bought El luchador, by Aronosfki, with Mickey Rourke, “and I always had that feeling that the Academy owed the director an Oscar for which it didn’t give Rourke. That’s also why we bought it, apart from the fact that we loved the project. We usually buy movies with our heads, that can generate business, and with the money we With some of Bruce Willis or Mel Gibson, we allowed ourselves to bet on films that our hearts dictate and that we like. This year it was these two and I think we’ve been lucky”.
De Val assures that “we are very fans of A24” and hopes that the American independent film producer and distributor will consider them for a “strategic association” to release their films. And he remembers that he comes from a family of Catalan distributors. “I have grown up as a child seeing what the distribution industry is. My father started with Bud Spencer and Terence Hill movies in the eighties and I remember my childhood putting stickers on VHS and covers on the sleeves.” His mother, Maite Mínguez, ran a video store and owned an important collection of personal Hollywood objects.
Over time, he did not intend to continue down the path of distribution because he did not want to be considered “plugged in” and opted for production. She produced her first film when she was 23 years old and it was called FBI: Frikis Buscan Incordiar, by Javier Cárdenas, “a film with a dubious reputation but with very high profitability.” For the second she had Bigas Lunas in Yo soy la Juani. In total he produced 16 tapes until 2012 “that I was ruined by the crisis”. But, like Fraser and Ke Huy Quan, she emerged strongly from that difficult period.
He parked production and entered distribution, following in his father’s footsteps. He first created Youplanet in 2015, the agency for the production and representation of influencers and youtubers (they carry names like Reborn, Auronplay or Xbuyer) and five years ago he launched Youplanet pictures, with which he has reached this milestone in Catalan distribution. “Until now they didn’t believe us very much, I hope that with the success of the Oscars the industry understands that we are right. It’s been 5 days since we have credibility,” he says with a laugh.
But if something is clear, it is that it is difficult to repeat a success like that of this edition. “Never has an independent national distributor had so many Oscars in the entire history of cinema and we hope to continue betting on films that are good and that provide something different to the viewer. That’s what cinema is about.” And he adds: “As a distributor, my goal is to be able to make a living from this. If, in addition, I can bring quality films that can be remembered, it gives me even more enthusiasm.”
Everything at once everywhere was re-released in February “and this Friday we released it on 300 screens, double the number it had when I released it in June. It’s the biggest premiere I’ve ever done in my life.” Looking ahead to upcoming projects, De Val advances that they are about to premiere Yes, I want… or not, with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Diane Keaton. Also the new Paul Schrader, The Master Gardener, with Sigourney Weaver. In Berlin they bought Io capitano, by Matteo Garrone, “one of the films this year at a European level.”
“At the moment I don’t have anything American that sounds like an Oscar. What has happened at these Oscars is a rarity. It is very rare for an independent distributor to get to opt for films that have so many nominations or awards. Generally the studios have it and now too the platforms,” ??he concludes. But that does not mean that they are enjoying this unique and well-deserved moment.
