San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum strikes a balance between supporting emerging talent and recognisng established filmmakers.
Seven of the projects at this year’s edition of the Co-Production Forum are either first or second films, representing half of the total 14 projects. The selected 14 projects are lead-produced by companies from Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Uruguay, Bolivia, Colombia , Mexico and Paraguay.
Five of the 14 projects come from Argentina—one less than last year. Notably, Uruguay, which will host the 2024 edition of Ventana Sur, is involved in six multi-country co-productions. France, a regular European co-production partner for Latin American films, is a partner on six of the projects. Six films are directed by men, eight by women.
Screen profiles six projects with international potential beint showcased in the Co-Pro Forum.
Animal Print (Argentina)
This feature by renowned director Santiago Loza is centres on a 50-year-old filmmaker trying to complete an unfinished project. He finds new inspiration from a young systems analyst whom he meets online. The project is a co-production between Argentina’s Murillo Cine , Brazil’s Vulcana Cinema and Uruguay’s Montelona Cine. Loza rose to prominence with Strange, which won the Tiger award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2003.
Rambler (Mexico)
Mexican directing duo Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero won the Dramatic World Cinema Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival this year for the drug drama Sujo (pictured) which is also competing in this year’s Latin Horizons section at San Sebastian. They are reteam for this drama which intertwines the lives of three people teetering on the edge of the abyss, blurring the line between fiction and reality. Producers are Mexico’s Corpulenta and En Aguas Cine.
She, Crocodile (Brazil)
Brazil’s South and Portugal’s Oublaum are co-producing the third feature by Gabriela Amaral, following Friendly Beast and The Father’s Shadow. As with her first two films, Amaral explores genre film territory in She, Crocodile, described as a “horror melodrama” about a young woman suffering from severe back pain. She turns to a doctor specialising in hypnosis, which leads to a radical transformation. Vitrine is already on board as the distributor for Brazil and Spain.
Solo El Amor Existe (Mexico)
The second film to be directed by Bolivian-Mexican filmmaker Natalia López Gallardo portrays a woman working as a ‘camgirl,’ offering intimate online services to clients across the globe. It is being made as a Mexico- US-France co-production between Fernanda de la Peza’s Lobo En Medio De Los Lobos, Sacha Ben Harroche’s Nousnous and Marie-Pierre Macia’s MPM Premium. Gallardo’s first film, Robe Of Gems, won the jury prize at the Berlinale in 2022.
The Spirit Of The Law (Argentina)
Natalia Meta’s third feature is about a woman officer who battles a divided government to try to pass a key law aimed at combating gender violence. Daniel Hendler is co-writing the script alongside Meta and Leonel D’Agostino. The producers are Argentina’s Rei Cine and Picnic Producciones. Meta’s previous films were The Intruder, which screened in competition at the 2020 Berlinale, and Death In Buenos Aires, Argentina’s Oscar submission in 2021.
The Strange Woman (Bolivia)
Celebrated Bolivian filmmaker Martín Boulocq is directing this feature set in a near-future Bolivia where a Quechua mother and her daughter struggle to survive in a country ravaged by war while grappling with their own fraught relationship. The producers are Andrea Camponovo’s of Bolivia’s CQ Films and Hernán Musaluppi of Uruguay’s Cimarron.
No comments yet