Amazon’s Prime Video Direct Unveils New Titles from Latin America (EXCLUSIVE)

By Anna Marie de la Fuente

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Prime Video Direct (PVD), Amazon’s self-service program for studios, distributors, and content creators, has unveiled more than two dozen titles picked up from the 2018 Guadalajara Int’l Film Festival (FICG) where it launched its Film Festival Stars program (FFS) in the Latino market for the first time.

Introduced at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, the FFS program offers cash bonuses and royalties to festival films seeking to self-distribute on Amazon Prime.

Prime Video Direct’s Film Festival Stars program addresses the fact that few festival films ever manage to secure full service distribution deals (theatrical, TVOD/DVD, SVOD, etc.). The program gives them an opportunity to reach a broader premium audience.

Starting Monday Oct. 15, these 27 titles will be available on Prime Video in Mexico, including FICG Jury Prize winner for Ibero-American Narrative Feature, Spanish dramedy “Vivir y Otras Ficciones” (“Living and other Fictions”) and FICG Jury Prize Ibero-American doc winner, “El Espanto” (“The Dread”) from Argentina.

Around 17 of these titles will also be streaming in the U.S., including “Vivir…” and the Peruvian entry to the Foreign-Language Oscar race, “Wiñaypacha” (“Eternity”), which took home FICG’s Mayahuel for Best Cinematography and Best First Feature in the Iberoamerican film category.

Other key titles include 2017 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight entry from Colombia, Natalia Santa’s debut feature “The Dragon Defense,” a taut comedy about three old friends in Bogota, Colombia who meet regularly to play chess as they take stock of their rather stagnant lives; Bolivian Martin Boulocq’s assured third feature “Eugenia” about a divorcee struggling with the challenges of womanhood in Bolivia, a FICG Mayahuel best screenplay winner; and Mexico’s “Cria Puercos” (“Esmeralda’s Twilight”) by Ehecatl Garcia about a lonely widow who finds new meaning in life when she starts caring for a pig.

“Bringing more high-quality content for customers in Mexico is good for our customers and great for the amazing talent we have in Mexico,” said Marco Nobili, director of Prime Video Mexico.

Prime members will be able to stream the films via the Prime Video app for compatible TVs, connected devices including Fire TV, mobile devices, and online via its website.