The number of films wholly or partly about the film industry and its colourful denizens is plentiful and filled with many gems. This makes perfect sense given the first lesson in Screenwriting 101 is usually “write what you know.” Think of Sunset Boulevard and The Bad and the Beautiful, from back in the day, to the more recent Judy, Hail Caesar!, Stan & Ollie, Hugo, La La Land and The Disaster Artist, not to mention various streaming TV productions such as The Offer about the making of The Godfather.

Official Competition

Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas in Official Competition. Photo © Manolo Pavón.

The title of this Spanish comedy signals its cinematic subject matter so craftily that flicking through the recent Spanish Film Festival program, where it premiered, I missed it on the first couple of flick-throughs, thinking the title was a reference to the movie’s own status on the festival circuit. (“Official Competition” is the tag appended to films competing for prizes in the biggest annual film festivals, especially Cannes, Venice and Berlin). 

The story is easy to summarise: a billionaire...