World
Netflix’s Diego Ávalos Pitches Accessibility and Flexibility to Emerging Spanish Talent at Málaga
Netflix’s Diego Ávalos used a Málaga Talent appearance on Tuesday not only to explain how the streamer sources, develops and finances projects in Spain, but also to send a broader message to the local business: Netflix wants to be seen as accessible, flexible and closely connected to the creative community it hopes to work with.
Speaking to a packed room at the UNIA Puerto venue in conversation with Silvia Iturbe, an executive at Mafiz – Málaga Festival Industry Zone, Ávalos — Netflix’s VP of Content for Spain, Portugal and Turkey — offered a public snapshot of the company’s Spanish commissioning logic: multiple entry points for projects, varied deal structures and a strategy driven less by algorithm than by audience connection.
What gave the session its edge, however, was the way Ávalos handled the room. Relaxed and articulate, he moved easily between broad strategy and the practical mechanics of development. For a room full of emerging creators, many of whom likely view streamers as distant gatekeepers, the presentation suggested something more open, more personal and more plugged into the day-to-day realities of Spain’s production sector.
“There is no single moment to speak with us,” Ávalos said, stressing that projects can reach Netflix in many forms — as a bible, a script package, a rights-based pitch or a more advanced production already carrying broadcaster support or public funding.
He cited TV3 series “Génesis” as one example of a title where Netflix came in after regional financing had already been assembled, taking the series for Spain, Latin America, the U.S., Canada and much of the EU. “The Asunta Case,” by contrast, was described as a project that grew out of Netflix’s prior relationship with Madrid-based Bambú Producciones, moving from an initial idea into bible, pilot and eventual greenlight.
That contrast underlined one of Ávalos’ key points: Netflix is not operating with a single development template. Some projects arrive highly packaged. Others begin with an idea, a rights hook or an early creative conversation. The priority, he said, is less the format than whether the material clearly communicates the story, its creative vision and its audience potential.
The session also offered a revealing glimpse into the scale of Netflix’s Spanish pipeline. Ávalos said the company receives between 1,500 and 2,500 projects a year and reads all of them, adding that the team aims to respond to every submission. He also stressed the breadth of Netflix’s production relationships, noting that over the last seven years the company has worked with more than 60 Spanish production companies.
Netflix, he suggested, is not operating through a narrow circle of repeat suppliers or a single model of engagement. The company can work directly with producers, writers and directors and, when needed, help connect emerging creators with more established production partners if a project requires stronger industrial packaging.
Ávalos also praised the strength of Spain’s production sector, told the young audience that the future of the industry rests with them and treated the session less as a formal corporate appearance than as a genuine exchange. His rapport with the room reinforced the image of a Netflix executive closely plugged into the local business and alert to the ambitions of rising talent.
He also pushed back firmly on the notion that Netflix commissions by algorithm, describing data instead as a compass rather than a blueprint. That distinction sits at the center of Netflix’s local pitch. Ávalos pointed to broad local comedies, thrillers, character-driven dramas and action titles as categories that have worked especially well for the company in Spain, while acknowledging that breakout exceptions such as “Nowhere” and “The Platform” show the limits of rigid rule-making.
One of the session’s most notable clarifications concerned ownership. Of the more than 1,000 Spanish titles Netflix has launched over the last seven years, Ávalos said, the company holds the IP on less than 25%, with the vast majority structured as acquisitions or other partner-led models in which rights remain with producers, creators or writers.
That point fed into a wider argument about Netflix’s role. In Ávalos’ telling, the streamer does not replace the independent sector so much as work through it. Netflix executives do not take producer credits, he said, because the creative and industrial heavy lifting belongs to third-party producers, writers and directors.
Festivals, meanwhile, remain an important part of that system, both as launchpads for titles and as spaces where executives can identify new voices, fresh formats and shifts in creative energy. Ávalos also noted that short films remain a useful talent-discovery tool, even if short-form distribution is not central to Netflix’s local strategy. For the Málaga Talent audience, Ávalos made the case that Netflix wants to be seen not just as a buyer or commissioner, but as a partner that listens on Spain’s broader creative landscape.
World
Prosecutors say singer D4vd stabbed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez to death to silence her
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Prosecutors said Wednesday that singer D4vd killed 14-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez by stabbing her multiple times then dismembered her body using chain saws in his garage.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office shared what they said the evidence in the case would show in a court filing that provided the first detailed allegations of the killing and efforts to cut apart Rivas Hernandez’s body and get rid of evidence.
The court filing said D4vd, whose legal name is David Burke, met Rivas Hernandez when she was 11, began sexually abusing her when she was 13 and he was 18, and killed her when she threatened to reveal their inappropriate relationship.
“Knowing he had to silence the victim before she ruined his music career as she had threatened, very soon after her arrival at his home, defendant stabbed the victim to death multiple times and stood by while she bled out,” the filing said.
Burke has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and other counts. His lawyers have said he is innocent and did not cause Rivas Hernandez’s death.
Her body was found decomposing in a Tesla towed from the Hollywood Hills in September of last year.
Prosecutors said they had obtained text messages that showed their sexual relationship, including child sexual abuse images of her on his phone.
“The messages reveal the victim’s jealousy over defendant’s relationships with other women, as defendant led her to believe they had a future together,” the document says. “She became extremely upset and threatened to disclose damaging information about her relationship with defendant to end his career and destroy his life.”
The filing said he sent a rideshare car to pick her up on the night of April 23, 2025, from her hometown of Lake Elsinore some 80 miles (129 km) outside of Los Angeles. The two exchanged messages until she arrived at his Hollywood home, after which her phone went silent permanently.
They allege he sent her a late-night message asking where she was in an attempt to cover up the killing.
The court filing is intended to outline the evidence that prosecutors plan to present at a preliminary evidentiary hearing beginning May 26, when a judge will determine whether there is probable cause to go to trial. The defense has not publicly provided its version of events.
The document says Burke bought two chain saws online used them to cut apart her body in an inflatable pool in his garage, where the girl’s DNA was later found.
“Defendant took horrifying measures to destroy and discard the victim’s body,” prosecutors said in the brief.
Burke drove to Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County about 110 miles (177 kilometers) northwest of his home to get rid of evidence three times, the document alleges. Her passport was found there in January.
On April 24, the day after her death, he gave a radio interview and had a record-release party promoting his debut full-length album, “Withered,” which was released the following day, prosecutors said in the filing.
Prosecutors allege he kept her body in his Tesla, and lied to friends and business associates who asked about the smell.
The body of Rivas Hernandez had so degraded that examiners couldn’t even determine her eye color. She had braces at the time of her death, and a tattoo that read “Shhh ….” on the inside of a finger as well as his name, according to the report. Two fingers were missing — as were parts of her arms and legs.
Prosecutors had not previously described how they believed Rivas Hernandez was killed or given details on their relationship. An autopsy report said she was killed by penetrating wounds.
Prosecutors said the parents of Rivas Hernandez reported her missing from her home in Lake Elsinore in February 2024. After the February report, Riverside County Sheriff’s detectives contacted Burke, but he told them he had only met her once and did not know she was a minor.
After she returned home that February, her parents took away her cellphone but Burke drove to her hometown and paid a friend of Rivas Hernandez $1,000 to give her a phone so they could communicate.
She was reported missing again in April 2024. The document said that year, she spent much of her time at Burke’s home in the Hollywood Hills and traveled with him to Las Vegas, London, and Texas to meet his family.
The defense attorneys asked Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo at a hearing Wednesday to seal the document, but she declined. They had no comment outside court.
Burke was arrested on April 16 and pleaded to first-degree murder, lewd and lascivious acts with a person under 14 and mutilating a dead body. He is eligible for the death penalty, but prosecutors said they have not decided whether to seek it.
The singer began making music for YouTube videos he created of the video game Fortnite when he was a teenager.
The songs he wrote and recorded on his phone were a blend of indie rock, R&B and lo-fi pop. The music made him a phenomenon on TikTok, Instagram, Soundcloud and Spotify, where his top songs, including his 2022 breakthrough “Romantic Homicide,” have more than a billion plays. In 2023, he released two EPs and opened for SZA on tour.
He performed at last year’s Coachella music festival just a few weeks before prosecutors said Rivas Hernandez was killed and his album was released. He was on tour promoting it in September when the body was discovered and his name became publicly attached to the case. It would be seven months before he was arrested.
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Sanctioned tankers disguised as Iraqi vessels are moving hundreds of millions of dollars in Iranian crude as President Donald Trump doubled down on the port blockade to squeeze Tehran’s oil lifeline, according to maritime intelligence.
Windward AI claimed Wednesday that a group of U.S.-sanctioned tankers are falsifying their location data to come off as anchored off Iraq while secretly loading Iranian oil at Iranian ports.
“Among the tankers spoofing their location in the area identified by Windward are four VLCCs (very large crude carriers): Alicia (IMO 9281695), RHN (IMO 9208215), Star Forest (9237632) and Aqua (IMO 9248473), using various flags, including fraudulent registries from Curacao and Malawi,” the firm told Fox News Digital.
“For the four VLCCs, each VLCC can hold about 2 million barrels, so four of them would hold 8 million barrels worth about $800 million at $100 per barrel,” Windward said.
TRUMP CASTS MADURO’S OUSTER AS ‘SMART’ MOVE AS RUSSIA, CHINA ENTER THE FRAY
A cargo ship sails in the Persian Gulf toward the Strait of Hormuz April 22, 2026. (AP Photo)
This came as Trump said Wednesday he will keep Iran under a naval blockade until it agrees to a deal addressing U.S. concerns about its nuclear program.
The U.S. administration has demanded that Iran dismantle its uranium enrichment program, while Tehran maintains that enrichment is a sovereign right and nonnegotiable, leaving little room for compromise.
Windward AI noted a “cluster” of sanctioned tankers spoofing locations and seen to the West of the Strait of Hormuz.
“A cluster of 10 Iran-trading, U.S.-sanctioned tankers is now spoofing its AIS location to falsely appear at anchorages off Basrah, Iraq, as the blockade continues to constrict Iranian ports,” Windward explained.
“The vessels identified by Windward Multi-Source Intelligence are manipulating their signals to create a digital alibi,” the intelligence firm claimed.
“By broadcasting fake destination messages to Iraqi ports, the tankers appear to be in Iraqi waters while covertly sailing to Iran to load sanctioned oil.
US AND UKRAINE TARGET 1,000-VESSEL ‘DARK FLEET’ SMUGGLING SANCTIONED OIL WORLDWIDE
“Once loaded, the vessels re-emerge on AIS to suggest a legitimate Iraqi origin for the cargo.”
The U.S. blockade on Iranian ports began April 13 as part of a broader effort to pressure Iran into renegotiating limits on its nuclear program.
The blockade has unfolded in stages, starting with naval deployments and restricted maritime enforcement to limit Iran’s oil exports and economic activity.
Windward said more than two dozen tankers are confined west of Hormuz as of Wednesday, with the blockade cutting Iranian oil loadings and exports by more than half.
“This deceptive practice is under intensified scrutiny as the vessels are part of a larger group of more than two dozen tankers currently confined west of Hormuz,” the firm said.
“The handysize tanker Paola and Long Range One tanker Adena, both signaling ‘Iraqi owner’ but linked to a sanctioned network.”
TRUMP DECLARES ‘VENEZUELAN REGIME’ A FOREIGN TERRORIST ORGANIZATION, ORDERS OIL TANKER BLOCKADE
President Donald Trump weighs a potential attack on Iran’s oil hub at Kharg Island amid expert predictions of market chaos. (Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto)
The firm claimed three medium-range tankers, including Aqualis, Kush and Charminar, and the LPG carrier Royal H (IMO 9155341), which was newly sanctioned in February, are displaying “erratic voyage trails to suggest a loading at the Iraqi port of Khor Al Zubair.”
“The tell-tale spoofing signs, including erratic patterns and fake port signals, highlight the shifting tactics used by the dark fleet as the blockade more than halves Iranian oil loadings and exports,” the firm said.
Meanwhile. Iran’s Mohammad Ghalibaf slammed U.S. policymakers Wednesday, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, over the impact of the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.
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The parliamentary speaker cited “junk advice” and blamed the Treasury for pushing up oil prices.
“Three days in, no well exploded,” Ghalibaf said in a post shared on X.
Iran’s speaker ridicules Trump’s blockade, economic pressure campaign as oil prices surge and standoff in the Strait of Hormuz continues.
Published On 30 Apr 2026
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