LaZona Pictures Secures Spain on ‘Chopin, Chopin!’ From Playtime

LaZona Pictures, the distribution label of Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson’s Madrid-based LaZona group, has acquired Spanish rights to lavish Polish biopic “Chopin, Chopin!” (“Chopin, a Sonata in Paris”), handled for international sales by Paris’ Playtime.

Michał Kwieciński’s $17.5 million budget biopic of Frédéric Chopin, produced by Poland’s Akson Studio (“Katyń,” “Warsaw 44”), stars Eryk Kulm (“Filip”) as the prodigious pianist-composer, with Lambert Wilson (“The Matrix Resurrections”) as King Louis-Philippe.

The 19th-century-set drama tracks Chopin’s arrival in Paris at the age of 21 and his rapid ascent as the city’s romantic idol, before illness refocuses his obsession on composition. 

The film boasts high-end craft talent including cinematographer Michał Sobociński (“The New Look”), production designer Katarzyna Sobańska (“Cold War”) and writer Bartosz Janiszewski (“Wataha”). 

Shot largely in France with roughly 80% of the dialogue in French, the feature squarely targets upscale audiences and classical-music aficionados while courting broader crossover play via its sweeping, baroque aesthetic.

Having produced since 2003 Spanish top hits such as Enrique Urbizu’s thriller “No Rest for the Wicked” and Emilio Martínez Lázaro’s comedy “Spanish Affair,” the highest-grossing Spanish film ever in Spain, in 2023 LaZona broadened its horizons launching a new film distribution operation, LaZona Pictures, led from 2024 by former Latido Films executive Óscar Alonso.

“For us ‘Chopin, Chopin!’ is the first true European ‘super-production’ on the slate — a statement of intent to keep growing, step by step, but also to take bolder swings at films with wider audience potential,”  Alonso said at Valladolid’s Seminci, where LaZona’s co-production “Subsuelo,” by Fernando Franco, world premiered as part of the festival’s main competition.

Positioning “Chopin, Chopin” as a “rock-star portrait of the Romantic era,” Alonso advances that the Spanish release, scheduled for next year’s first quarter, will activate partnerships with opera houses, conservatories and music schools to extend reach beyond core arthouse circuits.

LaZona Pictures has been ramping up since last year with a curated line of arthouse and crossover titles. With “Chopin Chopin,” the company has begun early conversations with platforms and broadcasters to complement a planned theatrical rollout. 

“Chopin, Chopin” has already scored top-tier festival exposure and is lining up further key berths, underscoring its positioning as a prestige event title. 

“It’s the kind of ambitious European cinema that doesn’t come along every year,” he said. “We’re confident it can resonate with classical-music lovers and a much wider audience drawn to grand, emotionally charged storytelling.”

Closing Film at Seville European Film Festival

The film will screen out of competition as the closing night gala title at the upcoming edition of the Seville European Film Festival, which runs Nov. 7-15.

One of LaZona’s biggest hits to date as an indie distributor has been “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” a Venice Silver Lion and San Sebastian Audience Award winner.

Co-distributed in Spain with Caramel Films, Tunisian Kaouther Ben Hania’s film, one of the year’s most celebrated international titles, also screened at Valladolid as part of the Constellations sidebar.