EXCLUSIVE: Latin American pay-TV network Moviecity has signed on as presenting sponsor of the 11th edition of Miami International Film Festival (MIFF)’s post-production development programme.

Moviecity will provide a $35,000 grand prize and an exclusive four-year pay-TV deal with the winner selected by a jury for Latin America and Caribbean territories (excluding Brazil).

Miami Encuentros will run during the festival’s Mar 7-16 2014 dates and will provide a $35,000 grand prize.

“We are very happy to be working with Moviecity to give some of the year’s top-quality projects a platform and opportunity for a significant and substantial pre-sale, to successfully position their films for maximum success,” said MIFF executive director Jaie Laplante. “MIFF continues our commitment to support the filmmakers who will be providing us with the great art of tomorrow.”

“At Moviecity, we are committed to the Latin American film industry by encouraging and fostering productions and filmmakers from across the region to continue producing and investing in local cinema,” said president and CEO Edgar Spielmann.

MIFF’s 2013 Encuentros winner All About The Feathers (Por Las Plumas) (pictured) by Costa Rican first-time director Neto Villalobos, received $10,000 in completion funds and gets its world premiere in Toronto next month. Urban Distribution International represents world rights.

Five projects will be selected to take part in Miami Encuentros 2014 and will be announced in late February. The programme is open to features produced partially or entirely by Latin-American-based production companies or from US Hispanic filmmakers, that are currently in post-production and will not be completed by March 2014.

Projects must between 60 and 120 minutes in Spanish and have at a minimum temporary subtitles in English for the Encuentros screening or, in the case of US Hispanic films that are in English, have at a minimum temporary subtitles in Spanish for the Encuentros screening.

Brazilian and Portuguese films in Portuguese are eligible to compete if the producers commit to covering the cost of subtitling the film in Spanish for final delivery to Moviecity should they be awarded the grand prize. They must also provide a dialogue list for electronic subtitling to MIFF in addition to having at a minimum temporary subtitles in English for the Encuentros screening.

Projects must be submitted by Jan 10, 2014.

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