The combo will be a 50/50 partnership between Morales on one hand and Armendariz and his wife Puy Oria on the other.

Wanda Produccion has yet to announce its first projects, but they are likely to follow the upscale, quality line of both Wanda Films as a distributor and producer – it invested in Arturo Ripstein's Divine and Manoel de Oliveira's Anxiety –and Armendariz as a director: Secretos was an art film which proved a cross-over potential. 

Many of the projects look set to involve young Spanish directing talent: "One of the outstanding challenges of the Spanish cinema is to export its films," Morales told Moving Pictures. Armendariz teaches at Madrid's Eccam film school.

Jose Maria Morales now has the makings of a mini art-film major with a production outfit and distribution operation Wanda Distribucion, which is a joint venture with Spain's biggest exhibitor, Ricardo Evole. JH