Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we’re talking to AF Films, the Spanish company that has been quietly and rapidly building up its footprint since it was founded just three years ago. We chat to AF Films founder Frank Ariza about production and distribution ambitions, their soundstages in the Canary Islands and upcoming projects ‘Hammer Down‘, ‘No Man’s Land’ & more.
As production in Europe continues to grow at a rapid pace, AF Films is emerging as one of Spain’s most ambitious new players. In just three years, the predominantly Madrid-based banner has built itself into a fully-fledged indie studio that not only develops, finances and produces internationally-driven projects, but now also has a Spanish distribution label, AF Pictures, and boasts two soundstages on the incredibly tax-friendly Canary Islands, AF Stages. To boot, the company collaborates frequently with Canaries-based post-production house Match Point, enabling the company to offer up a “360 approach” to its productions.
The company was founded by producer-writer-director Frank Ariza, who runs the outfit alongside producing partner and actor Manu Vega. Its international portfolio includes Eva Victor’s Sundance-winning directorial debut Sorry, Baby, Antonio Banderas shark thriller Above and Below with Capstone Pictures and upcoming dystopian thriller No Man’s Land with Noomi Rapace and Millicent Simmonds.
More recently, AF Films has boarded action pic Hammer Down, which it is co-producing with Oppenheimer producer Charles Roven. It is also partnering with The Housemaid producer Hidden Pictures on action-driven feature Chopper. Last year, the company wrapped a Vatican-backed documentary on the tomb of St. Peter, which is headlined by Chris Pratt and is set to be released this year.
“Our aim is to build a 360 business where we can do everything from A to Z,” Ariza tells Deadline. “Our plan has been to break the traditional production company model and act more as a creative studio with a global focus that integrates development, financing, production and distribution into a unified ecosystem.”
Thanks to Spain’s generous 30% national tax rebate – which is higher in regions like the Canary Islands (think 45-54%) – diverse locations and skilled crews, global studios and streamers have flocked to shoot in the country in recent years. AF Films is building on this production boom to align with high-profile co-productions and English and Spanish-language projects that will click with a worldwide audience.
“Europe is attractive for many reasons, but its incentives are a big driver for international productions,” he says. “There are so many production services where people are not as hands on, but what we bring to the table is that we’re involved early on and we take risk. We manage the physical production and because of that, we try to save money and be as efficient as possible with everything on screen, including the structure and the incentives.”
First steps
Ariza had been working for Spanish streaming service Tivify before he moved to L.A. in 2019 where he worked with MGM and Disney Latin America to create ideas for shows in Spanish speaking territories such as Yo Quisiera Perdóname, Señor and Secretos de Estado.
Chris Pratt in St. Peter’s documentary
AF Films
While costs of production in the U.S. and Latin America were increasing, Ariza saw how Spanish incentives were luring international productions. “I thought it would be interesting to do something where we created an alliance with partners all over the world, and we could produce content and run the creative and physical production rather than just being a production service. We wanted to create and own IP.”
Ariza says the company initially started working on “very local content” before building its international business, which began with 2025 Sundance hit Sorry, Baby. Ariza admits that AF Films served “more as passive finance” on that project. “We didn’t run the physical production on it,” he says. “But it was a great experience working with [producer] Adele Romanski and Eva Victor.”
This year it has two projects that will shoot in Spain, both in the Canary Islands, which sees productions able to access up to a 54% tax rebate on the first €1M and 45% afterwards. AF Films is co-producing Hammer Down with Roven and his Atlas Entertainment banner. The film, which previously had Idris Elba attached (a replacement is expected to be announced soon), follows a seasoned long-haul trucker and his tenacious daughter as they’re forced to confront their fractured relationship while transporting a mysterious cargo across the country. Because it’s a road movie, Ariza says there’s no need to use AF Stages. “The story takes place in Southern California and Las Palmas [Gran Canaria] has the same landscape,” he says.
Meanwhile, No Man’s Land, which sees AF Films serve as the lead producer, will be shot partly in Madrid and partly in the Canaries. The film draws inspiration from real events in Hungary between the 1910s and 1920s, when a tightly knit group of women in a small village, led by a charismatic figure known as Auntie Suzy, began murdering their abusive husbands in an effort to reclaim control of their lives.
“We’re setting that film the mountains and we’re also able to find those landscapes in the Canaries,” he says. “One of the greatest things about the Canaries is that every single island looks different from the other so you can find these different landscapes wherever you go.”
Its two soundstages on the Canaries are 100% owned by AF Films and Ariza says the plan is to only use them for their own productions. “We built them last year and because we have so many productions in the pipeline, it’s efficient for us budget-wise.”
Ariza stresses that the company is “genre agnostic” and the company boards projects based on the quality of the script and the production partners attached. “There’s no rule, as long as the project is important to us, that’s all that matters.”
AF Films is also stepping into the doc space with projects such as La Casa Del Carnaval, directed by Joel Barrios, about how trans and queer communities contributed to the creation of carnival culture in the Canary Islands, and the documentary about the discovery of St.Peter’s tomb, presented by Chris Pratt. The latter was filmed at St. Peter’s Basilica and the Vatican Necropolis, a burial ground underneath Vatican City. AF Films produces with Vatican Media.
“This was one of those gifts of life,” said Ariza. “I have been in communication with the Vatican for many years and established a good relationship with them and they gave me the opportunity to tell the story of St. Peter, and they wanted to show some of the treasures of the Vatican that had never been seen before.”
He continues: “It’s not about faith, it’s also about history, which makes it more interesting because we’re not trying to tell people that St Peter was here and just focus on everything related to the Church, we also highlight some of the controversy that happened at the time. It’s something people are going to be shocked about when they watch it.”
This month, the company acquired Spanish remake rights to Italian comedy Buen Camino, which recently became the country’s all-time highest-grossing film. It’s also partnering with The Birthday Party filmmaker Miguel Ángel Jiménez for his next feature Hijos del Miedo about youth radicalization. “We’re deeply committed to cinema that dares to look directly at the most complex realities of our time,” Ariza says of the latter.
‘El vestido’
AF Pictures
Entering the distribution fray was always part of the “big strategy” for AF Films. Its label AF Pictures has released five films since it launched late last year: Jacob Santana’s psychological thriller Reversión, with Jaime Lorente and Vega; Santana’s supernatural horror Evil Dress (El vestido); Horacio Alcalá’s Spanish drama Fragments (Fragmentos), written by Ariza and starring Vega; drama Islands (Islas), starring Ana Belén and Vega; and Spanish comedy-drama Cool Books (Casi todo bien from directors Andrés Salmoyraghi and Rafael López Saubidet.
“It means we control the future of our movies in Spain,” he says. “This is important for us as it gives us the opportunity to support more independent films.”
Ariza continues: “With smaller, indie films and upcoming artists, it’s very difficult to give them the space to be seen and to travel. Right now, we see so many movies in Spain in theatres that last only one week and then they disappear. So, we wanted to negotiate with the movie theaters ourselves and have those conversations and try to give our projects the best scenario possible. It’s working well for us so far.”
Ariza says that while the vast majority of AF’s own productions will go through their distribution pipeline in Spain, the company is gearing up to make more acquisitions as it grows. “We’re going to the market, we’re trying to acquire content, but it’s not easy,” he admits.
The company also collaborates with post-production house Match Point in the Canaries. “We use them for our movies, and we are producing so many things at the same time that we want to give opportunity to the directors to go to the offices and work wherever they want, however they want and do what they need to be free,” he says.
When it comes to next steps, Ariza is keen to grow but not for the sake of growth. “The idea is for people to know us more and for us to continue working with the right partners and grow the company and own more IP,” he says. “We’re creating a library. That’s the goal. We don’t want to just be seen as a production company but as a place where we can develop projects with artists. For us, quality is more important than quantity. We don’t want to make it bigger, but maybe better.”
