Scroll down for full list of projects

Peter Webber’s $2m docu-drama One River (El Rio) and Miguel Urrutia’s English-language thriller Madness are among 33 film projects in development being presented this week at BAM (July 13-17).

Colombia’s biggest film market also features 18 screenings of films in an advanced state of development, alongside the regular BAM Projects category.  

Webber (The Girl With The Pearl Earring) attended BAM last year to promote his pickpocket drama Fresh and returns this year with One River.

The project is based on an international best-selling book by Canadian Wade Davis, charting Professor Richard Schultes’ journey through the Amazon in the 1940s and the author’s own travels into the same jungle 30 years later, living among the Indian tribes and searching for the origins of coca, the notorious source of cocaine.

Currently in development, the project is being produced by Colombian outfit 4 Direcciones in partnership with Canada’s Pimiento Films. They have secured 10% of the funding and are looking for further financing for the scriptwriting, currently in the hands of Diana Rico and Richard Decaillet. 

Madness

Colombian director Urrutia’s Madness is another stand-out project, also set in the Amazon and budgeted at an estimated $2m.

Based on a script by US writer Robert McKee, it is a dark thriller about husband and wife psychiatrists who find a cure for madness in the jungle, but then a disturbing incident forces them to confront their own discovery.

Proyeccion Films are producing the project, which is at the script stage and has already secured 50% of its budget.

“We are looking for strategic partners in Los Angeles who could help grow the project from a Colombian project to an international scale,” says Juan Pablo Solano, the films producer, who has already approached the likes of Ben Kingsley and Brian Cox to star in the film.

A total 204 applications were submitted for this year’s BAM projects, of which 33 films were selected by a team, including Cristina Garza, Executive Vice President of Mexico-based sales outfit Mundial, Uruguayan film editor Fernando Epstein and Stefan Laudyn, director of the Warsaw International Film Festival.

A further 12 TV projects were chosen.

Sock Mates

One of the other notable projects around the $2m budget mark is Juan Manuel Betancourt’s fantasy film Sock Mates, which combines animation and live-action, telling the story of socks looking for their perfect soul mates.

Gatoencerrado Films has already secured 20% of the budget and are now looking for international co-production partners.

Other projects include Federico Duran’s psychological revenge thriller Dark Room set in a high school, which is being produced by Rhayuela Cine, and Carlos Moreno’s Lost Wolves about two men involved in an accident that changes their lives. The film’s producers, 64-a Films have a strong track record of success (Dog Eat Dog).

Some international delegates in attendance will be looking to work with a South American company for the first time, such as Canadian producer Felize Frappier of Max Films Media.

Frappier told ScreenDaily: “I’ve come to BAM to get to know the South American market and hopefully find a co-production partner for my new project Sunbathing in Hell, which is similar in style to Thelma & Louise, set across Canada and Mexico, and will be directed by Guy Edoin (Wetlands).”

The film is only at the script stage and not an official project at BAM.

BAM PROJECTS 2015

Fiction

The Life & Death of Espiritu Perdomo
Dir Mauricio Leiva Cock, pro Mauricio Leiva Cock, Mauro Mueller and Juan Diego Villegas

Candelaria
Dir/pro Jhonny Hendrix

Clara Alone
Dir Nathalie Alvarez, pro Cristina Gallego, Katrin Pors, Nima Yousefi, Peter Krupenin

Dark Room
Dir Federico Durán, pro Diana Narvaez

Disobsession
Dir Jorge Navas, pro Diana Bustamante and Jorge Forero

The Wolf’s Breath
Dir Alfonso Acosta, pro Carolina Mosquera

The Contestant
Dir Carlos Osuna, pro Juan Mauricio Ruiz

The Ultra Violet Pattern
Dir Ruben Mendoza, pro Daniel Garcia

One River (El Rio)
Dir Peter Webber, pro Richard Décaillet, Diana Rico

Wet Matches
Dir Sebastián Duque, pro Lina Marcela Rizo

Hado
Dir Alejandro Ramirez, pro Angie Carolina Gomez

Strong Island
Dir/pro Juan Uribe

The Dragon Defense
Dir Natalia Santa, pro Ivette Liang

Lost Wolves
Dir Carlos Moreno, pro Diego Ramirez

Madness
Dir Miguel Urrutia, pro Juan Pablo Solano Vergara y Simón Beltrán Echeverri

MC Silencio
Dir Germán Arango Rendón, pro Ana María Muñoz Guzmán

Sock Mates
Dir/pro Juan Manuel Betancourt

Makira Torra
Dir Juan Pablo Daguer, pro Gabriel Jaime Pérez

I’d Rather Not
Dir Ivan D Gaona, pro Diana Pérez Mejia

Psychopaths In Love
Dir Felipe Martínez Amador, pro Salvador del Solar

Tailor
Dir Cesar Andres Heredia, pro Maria Fernanda Barrientos

Animation

Autobotika
dir María Arteaga, Juan Cortés, pro Lola Barreto

Kogui
dir Diego Fernando Rojas, pro Andres Felipe Valdez

Black Sun Adventure
dir/pro Oscar Andrade Medina

The MiniSonic Band
Dir Andrés Julián Manrique, pro Luis Fernando Calderon Castaño

Documentary

Osshun
Dir Harold Romo, Carlos Castaño, pro Carlos Castaño, Harold Romo, Wilmer Sotto

El Rey vs El Diablo
Dir/pro Néstor Oliveros

Into Medusa’s Heart
Dir Ricardo Restrepo, pro Patricia Ayala

Fait Vivir
Dir: Oscar Ruiz Navia, pro Gerylee Polanco / Oscar Ruiz Navia

Mister Tierra Bomba
Dir Josephine Landertinger Forero, pro Magnus Kossmann

Pilgrimage To The Gods
Dir Ricardo del Conde, Giuliano Cavalli, pro Giuliano Cavalli

Segovia
Dir Diana Bustamante, pro Jorge Forero/ Paola Andrea Pérez

Behind Bars
Dir Mónica Moya, pro Emmanuel Jaramillo