Ventana Sur Announces 16 Projects for Second Proyecta Showcase
By Jamie Lang
LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Last year, Argentina’s Ventana Sur film and TV market and co-production forum launched its inaugural Proyecta feature project showcase.
Co-organized by and the San Sebastian Film Festival, Proyecta was established to aid in facilitation of international co-productions between Europe and Latin America.
16 feature film projects will participate this year, four of which come from the Basque co-founder, one from Taller Eave Puentes-Europe Latin America Co-Production Workshop and the final title from Brasil CineMundi. The others were selected by Paulo Roberto de Carvalho, Esperanza Luffiego and Clara Massot for Ventana Sur.
From the 16 projects, nine are first or second features interspersed with established, multi-award-winning filmmakers such as Lucía Puenzo, director of 2007’s Cannes Critics’ Week, Golden Rail, ACID and Regards Jeunes Prize-winner “XXY,” and who is fresh off Fabula’s Daniela Vega-starred series “The Pack.” Puenzo will be pitching “Los Impactados,” written by her friend Lorena Ventimiglia, about a girl who wakes from a six-week coma after being struck by lightning.
Julio Hernández Cordón, a San Sebastián mainstay with films such as “I Promise You Anarchy,” “Cómprame un revolver” and “Gasolina,” which took the Horizontes Latinos Award in 2008, is keeping himself busy. His latest film “The Haunt of the Howl” is in post-production and just screened as work in progress version at Morelia Intl. Film Festival in October. He now brings the impressively titled “The Day is Long and Dark (My Friends are Vampires)” to Ventana Sur.
“A House in the Country” comes from on-the-rise Brazilian Davi Pretto, whose 2016 feature “Rifle” took best film at the Brazilia Festival of Brazilian Cinema. The Brazil-Argentina co-production is produced by jis label, Tokyo Filmes, and backed by Cinema do Brazil. Igor Verde co-writes.
“Pepe” is the second fiction feature from Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, whose 2017 debut “Cocote” won prizes at Locarno, Mar del Plata and Cartagena, and earned him the honor of being the first Dominican filmmaker to ever take up residence at Berlin’s DAAD program of the German Academic Exchange Service. Previous residents include Steve McQueen, Andrei Tarkovsky and Bela Tarr.
Alexandra Latishev Salazar is another former Horizontes Latinos competitor with his 2017 debut “Madea.” He brings his latest “Delirium” to Proyecta, having pitched at Chile’s Australab 3 Puertos Cine section. The Chile-Costa Rica co-production is led by “Madea” producers Linterna Films.
Floras Dias and Juruna Mallon team up once again, having previously co-directed 2013’s Mar Del Plata best Latin American film nominee “The Sun Against My Eyes.” This time, the two are pitching “The Intrusion,” a story taking place at Brazil’s largest airport, operated on indigenous land. Enquadramento Produçoes heads this Brazil-France co-production.
Marta García and Sol Infante’s “Puta Historia” is produced by Uruguay’s Cordón Films, producers on recent films such as Daniel Hendler’s “El Candidato” and Gonzalo Delgado and Verónica Perrota’s Toronto competition player “Dolphins Go East.”
San Sebastian Intl. Film Festival sends four titles from its October co-production forum.
“Almamula,” Juan Sebastián’s Eurimage Prize-winner about a 12-year-old boy, bullied for being gay, who attempts to summon a mystical creature. Asier Altuna, a San Sebastian official competitor with his 2015 feature “Amama,” brings his next project “Karmele,” a multi-generational look at Spain’s 20th century through the perspective of one family.
“The Judges,” from Guatemala’s Cesar Díaz – whose Cannes Critics’ Week player “Our Mothers” won this year’s Cannes Camera d’Or – turns on a family in a rough neighborhood who take justice into their own hands when official channels leave them wanting. And lastly, Daniel Gil Suárez’s debut feature “Ana Doesn’t Sleep,” produced by brothers César and José Esteban Alenda at Solita Films, portrays the heroic efforts of an Argentine mother to retrieve her daughter from a prostitution racket in Spain.
Ventana Sur’s Proyecta showcase takes place on Dec. 4 Buenos Aires.
SELECTED PROJECTS
“A House in the Country,” (Davi Pretto, Brazil, Argentina)
“Delirium,” (Alexandra Latishev Salazar, Costa Rica, Chile)
“The Anniversary,” (Florencia Percia, Argentina)
“The Day of the Fish,” (Miguel Ángel Moulet Morales, Peru, Dominican Republic)
“The Day is Long and Dark (My Friends are Vampires),” (Julio Hernández Cordón, Mexico, France)
“Los impactados,” (Lucía Puenzo, Argentina, Chile, France)
“Summer Night,” (Christian Nawrath, Chile, Bolivia)
“The Intrusion,” (Floras Días, Juruna Mallon, Brazil, France)
“Pepe,” (Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic, France, Colombia)
“Puta Historia,” (Marta García, Sol Infante, Uruguay)
VIII EUROPE-LATIN AMERICA COPRODUCTION FORUM – SAN SEBASTIÁN FILM FESTIVAL
“Almamula,” (Juan Sebastián Torales, France, Argentina, Luxembourg)
“Sleepless Ana,” (Daniel Gil Suárez, Spain, Argentina)
“Karmele,” (Asier Altuna, Spain, France)
“The Judges,” (César Díaz, Belgium)
TALLER EAVE PUENTES-EUROPE / LATIN AMERICA CO-PRODUCTION WORKSHOP
“Streets of Gloria,” (Felipe Sholl, Brazil, France)
BRASIL CINEMUNDI
“Zion,” (Bruno Ribeiro, Brazil)
