Mariano Barroso steps down as movie strategy chief at Netflix Spain, Portugal

Spanish director Mariano Barroso, who joined Netflix in December 2022 as the platform’s director of movie strategy for Spain and Portugal, will leave his position this month.

Mariano Barroso

“After his great contribution to Netflix film projects in Spain and Portugal, Mariano Barroso will leave his position at Netflix in April to return to directing, his passion,” a company representative told C21.

Barroso has a long career as a director, screenwriter and producer with films such as Hormigas en la Boca, Lo mejor de Eva and Todas las Mujeres and series such as El día de mañana’ (Movistar Plus+), Criminal (Netflix) and La línea invisible (Movistar Plus+).

During his time at Netflix, his series Los Farad, created prior to his arrival at the platform, premiered on Amazon Prime Video.

Barroso also served as president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (2018-22).

In December 2022, Netflix surprised many by handing him the movie strategy role, reporting to Diego Ávalos, VP of Netflix Content in Spain and Portugal.

After Barroso’s departure, the Netflix content team in Spain is now led by Verónica Fernández as director of fiction series and Álvaro Diaz as director of non-fiction, documentaries and entertainment programmes in Spain and Portugal, both reporting to Diego Ávalos.

Netflix has not yet revealed how it plans to fill Barroso’s position, which will be overseen on an interim basis by director of fiction series Verónica Fernández.