Amazing Cat wins Primer Corte prize

The fourth Ventana Sur market in Buenos Aires has named The Amazing Cat Fish (Los Insólitos Peces Gato) winner of its Primer Corte section for films still in post production. This year Georges Goldestern, director of the Cannes Film Festival’s CineFondation, was the curator of the selection for the first time.

The Mexican film was awarded with post production services and support for its release by European sponsors. Directed by Claudia Sainte-Luce, the film is the story of a lonely young woman who makes an unexpected connection with another woman’s children.

The award includes $15,000 for the French company that acquires the film and a financial bonus to European distributors. The film will also benefit from post production services at Titra TVS of France, a €2,000 prize offered by the Eye on Film global network of film professionals and an advertising campaign for its premiere in Argentina through Film Suez.

Other hot titles in the Primer Corte included Dust on the Tongue (Tierra en la Lengua), a drama from Colombia directed by Ruben Mendoza. The film’s award includes a two-week sound mix in a 5.1 studio at Tauro Digital Sound and sound services at José Luis Díaz Sound Postproduction Studio.

Also popular at the four-day Ventana were some of the Latin American entries for this year’s best foreign language film Oscar, among them Selton Mello’s The Clown (Brazil), Pablo Larraín’s No (Chile), Michel Franco’s After Lucia (Mexico) and Hernán Jabes’ Stone, Paper or Scissors (Venezuela).

Jose Campanella, best known for his 2010 foreign language Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes, generated buzz with some footage from his new production Foosball. The 3D animated film about a boy fascinated by foosball has been acquired Universal Pictures for distribution in Latin America and Spain. “The film has already been sold to 40 countries,” said Campanella.

This year Ventana Sur attracted 2,114 participants, up from 1,728 last year. There were 1,045 Argentinians, 613 participants from other Latin American countries and 456 from the rest of the world. A total of 55 countries were represented and 423 films were screened.

“We noted a strong increase of presence of Latin American attendees from outside of Argentina. The most represented countries were Brazil, with 155 professionals, and Chile with 131”, said Ventana co-director of Jérôme Paillard.

The goal of Ventana was stated by Bernardo Bergeret, who co-directs the market with Paillard: “There has been a real need to build a space in which Latin American cinema is the centre of attention. This initiative has given influential names in international distribution and exhibition the chance to approach the production of the region. Ventana Sur is a unique opportunity to achieve new businesses, unthinkable for Latin American cinema before 2009,” Bergeret added.