San Sebastian Co-Production Forum: Line-up Highlights

‘She, Crocodile’, Victoria Galardi ‘Hedgehogs’ and ‘Rambler’ by Brazil’s Gabriela Amaral Almeida by Astrid Rondero and Fernanda Valadez of Mexico are among the 14 projects to be launched during the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in San Sebastián.

Other titles are from admired established names – Argentina’s Santiago Loza, Bolivia’s Martin Boulocq – or fast-rising directors such as Cuba’s Rosa Maria Rodríguez, Argentina’s Natalia Meta, Paraguay’s Pablo Lamar and Mexico’s Natalia López Gallardo.

The showcase, one of the strongest line-ups in years, is made possible by the allure of the largest Latin American co-production event in Europe, the need to use co-production to cope with rising costs and the more specific difficult situation of the Argentine film industry.

“She, Crocodile” marks the first feature film from New York City and São Paulo-based South, the new production company launched by ‘Queen of the South’ lead Alice Braga and ‘3%’ star Bianca Comparato. It is directed by one of Latin America’s leading genre authors, Amaral Almeida, who burst onto the scene in 2017 with ‘Friendly Beast’.

“The Hedgehogs” represents a return to filmmaking for Galardi, 11 years after “I Thought It Was a Party” built a reputation for energetic, dramatic looks at loneliness and family with “Lovely Loneliness” and “Mount Bayo.” ”

“Rambler” sees Rondero and Valadez leave central Mexico and the borders of their first two features for a three-period story that reflects the “chaos, violence and dizziness” of Mexico City.

Four short shots of the line-up and profiles of titles:

It’s time for togetherness

Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo “Her Lightness” is produced not only by Armando Capó, but also by Cristina Gallego and Martha Orozco. Hernan Rosselli’s “Hard-Boiled School” now has seven international production partners. Twelve of the fourteen titles ended up on the Co-Production Forum, which already included international co-producers. The name of the game, however, is to involve a whole range of partners, to compensate for the increasingly lower minimum guarantees paid by sales agents to foreign companies.

Argentina: Challenges bring opportunities

Five of the fourteen Forum titles come from Argentina. That is making a virtue of necessity. A perfect storm of inflation and Javier Milei’s government has decimated film financing. And there’s no real end in sight. But as Argentina turns to multilateral co-production to offset meager state funding, it opens up the opportunity to collaborate with some of the best filmmaking talent in Latin America: directors and producers. The cliché that challenges provide opportunities is a cliché because it is very often true.

Uruguay emerges

Together with Uruguay, five Forum titles are produced, almost as many as France (six). As financing problems mount for Latin America’s national film industries – not just Argentina but also Mexico of key territories – Uruguay is emerging as an increasingly powerful film power, with a pro-film government seizing the opportunity to take Ventana Sur, a well-deserved continent, to house. -wide reputation in the field of production standards – it is not without reason that The Mediator Studio bought Cimarron – and a cosmopolitan sector with a tradition of looking beyond borders.

Author genre Fillip

Over the course of two decades, Latin America’s high-art, minimalist, and sometimes radical arthouse has moved into the mainstream, giving rise to several derivatives: event arthouse and auteur genre films are just two. Both are being swallowed up by foreign markets. So ‘She, Crocodile’ or ‘Hard-Boiled School’ or ‘The Strange Woman’ look like three of the most popular packages in the lineup in market terms.

And the setup:

“Animals de Desierto,” (aka ‘Animal Print’, Santiago Loza, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay)

Set at Argentina’s Murillo Cine, a new departure for Loza who broke out with the Rotterdam Tiger-winning ‘Strange’, admired for the Rotterdam Tiger-winning ‘Strange’ (2003) and ‘4 Women, Barefoot’ (2005) before becoming a home run with Cannes 2010 Un Certain Regard player “The Lips.” Here, in the vastness of the desert, in a pre-colonial past, Nube, Ari, Valen and Lara walk, dragging a cart, to take revenge, according to a Murillo description.

“Another garden,” (“Otro jardín”, Mariana Gil Ríos, Colombia, France)

With the short version “Uli”, Gil Ríos received a special mention during the Generation Kplus of the Berlinale this year. The story, produced by Daniela Echeverri at Movimiento Cine in Medellín, in co-production France, focuses on 8-year-old Amanda. While spending holidays at her enigmatic grandfather’s house, she meets Miguel, a wild boy who lives in the garden, with whom he will discover hidden truths about his family.

“The Hedgehogs,” (“Los Erizos”, Victoria Galardi, Argentina, Uruguay)

A couple separates after ten years of marriage and goes on holiday at the seaside with their son for the last time. Galardi writes together with Fabian Casas; Argentina’s Juan Pablo Miller, winner of the Cannes Camera d’Or at Tarea Fina, and Uruguayan director-producer Federico Veiroj (“The Moneychanger”) are producing – a powerful combination. Pic will show “how painful it is to break up, how long it takes to unravel the bond that has connected two people for years,” Galardi promises.

“Hard-boiled school”, (“La escuela pesada”, Hernán Rosselli, Argentina, Austria, Uruguay, Brazil, Portugal, France, Chile, Peru)

A man is released from prison after serving a ten-year sentence for armed robbery and discovers he is now responsible for a former partner’s daughter. Through the meticulous planning and execution of a bank robbery committed by a gang of retired thieves, ‘Hard-Boiled School’ recreates the life and work of real-life legendary heist maestro Pedro Palomar. Rosselli’s follow-up to the well-received ‘Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed’.

“Her lightness,” (“La Levedad de Ella”, Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, Cuba, Mexico, Colombia)

A highlight during this week’s Locarno Open Doors. When her cancer returns, Nora (Lola Amores, “Wild Woman”) distances herself from her family, moves to an impoverished neighborhood and decides to determine her own destiny. Produced by a true trio – Armando Capó, Cristina Gallego and Martha Orozco – the first feature film by a figure at the cutting edge of Cuban cinema, mixing gender issues and building intimate fantasy.

“Mar de Leva,” (Mariana Saffon, Colombia, France)

Elena prepares for her father’s impending death and is confronted with a desire she never thought about: becoming a mother. The debut of Saffon, whose ‘Between You and Milagros’ became the best short film at the Venice Orizzonti 2020. Director-producer Franco Lolli (“Gente de bien”, “Litigante”) and Capucine Mahé at the Colombian Evidencia Films are the main producers .

“Rambler,” (Astrid Rondero, Fernanda Valadez, Mexico)

After winning the Sundance Dramatic World Cinema Grand Jury Prize with the drug cartel drama ‘Sujo’ – which is going global via multiple distribution deals signed by Alpha Violet – the hit Mexican duo is developing ‘Rambler’, which depicts the experiences of three people on the margins of a disaster in Mexico City. The project, produced by duo label Corpulenta and Enaguas Cine, has received grants from Mexico’s Sistema Nacional de Creadores.

“Remanso,” (Pablo Lamar, Paraguay, Brazil, Uruguay, France)

A story set during the Stroessner dictatorship in Paraguay, it follows Carmen, a woman who discovers that a girl has been raped and murdered in the neighboring home of an influential military officer. Lamar (“Noche adentro,” “Oigo tu grito”) produces with Gabriela Sabaté (“Paraguyan Hammock”), this broad co-production alliance weighing in on a five-person co-pro, usually a promising sign in a Latin American production.

‘She, Crocodile,’ (Gabriela Amaral Almeida, Brazil, Portugal)

Starring Bianca Comparato (“Avenida Brasil”), a young and sole heiress to a luxury real estate brokerage in Rio de Janeiro gradually turns into a hungry and deadly crocodile. “’She, Crocodile’ came from my need to portray violence from the perspective of capitalism and women’s issues. The film is my declaration of love for body horror, David Cronenberg and Douglas Sirk. Blood, guts and heart,” says director Amaral. Comparato produces together with Yana Chang; Alice Braga and Amaral are executive producers.

“Solo el Amor Existe,” (Natalia López Gallardo, Mexico, USA, France)

After ‘Robe of Gems’, winner of the Berlin Silver Bear Jury Prize, which also won best director with Morelia, the second feature of the celebrated Mexican-Bolivian editor López Gallardo, head of the Mexican postal facility Splendor Omdia. Produced by Lobo and Medio de Lobos.

“The Spirit of the Law” (“El espiritu de la ley, Natalia Meta, Argentina)

Seen at Cinemart 2024 and produced by two Argentinian prestige players, both behind ‘Zama’, Picnic Productions who made ‘Las Acacias’ and Rei Pictures ‘The Settlers’. Meta’s follow-up to the Berlin competition entry ‘The Intruder’, here a congresswoman at the height of her career, advocates for the passage of a crucial law she has fought for all her life. Then she faces an accusation that causes her to reconsider the true spirit of her political vocation.

“The Strange Woman,” (“La Mujer Extraña”, Martin Boulocq, Bolivia, Uruguay)

During the lithium war in future Bolivia, a Quechua teenager decides to become a surrogate to escape poverty. She faces her mother’s wrath and unleashes a family conflict amid social turbulence, the synopsis reads. As the neocolonialist critique of ‘Criminal Body’ plays out at Sanfic’s WIP, Boulocq’s second feature film capturing the global forces shaping Bolivia and the world, with Latin American powerhouse Cimarrón on board as co-producers with CQ Films.

“Tropical malaise,” (“Malestar Tropical”, Jorge Cadena, Switzerland, France)

A group of queer activists are working with indigenous communities near Colombia’s largest open-pit coal mine. Co-writers include Jacques Toulemonde, co-author of Ciro Guerra’s “El abrazo de la serpiente,” and the Colombian-born and Swiss-educated Cadena, whose short “Flores del Otro Patio” won a special jury prize at the SXSW Film Festival from 2023. . Starring produced by Gabriela Bussmann and Yan Decoppet at GoldenEggProduction in Geneva.

“The Two Landscapes,” (“Los dos paisajes”, Francisco Lezama, Argentina, Brazil)

During an institutional crisis within the Catholic Church as Catholics convert to evangelism, Mercedes, a devout sixty-year-old Catholic, is forced to host the deceased tenant’s girlfriend and unrecognized daughter in her home. Produced by Pioneer Cine, developing projects by Lezama and Ignacio Ceroi, a “melancholic comedy” about religious and family tensions, says Lezama.