Seen from the 14th floor of its Radisson Hotel, Montevideo’s skyline, bristling with white marble high-rises and monuments, looks like a very different scenario for Ventana Sur, Latin America’s foremost film-TV co-pro forum and market, relocated from its chic Buenos Aires setting for the first time since 2009.
Yet in many ways, this is the same Ventana Sur, playing to its strengths and galvanized by its context, Uruguay, one of Latin America’s fastest-growing film-TV hubs, both as a big-shoot locale and home-grown movie industry.
Ten takes, as producers and sales agents began to arrive at the Radisson for this year’s edition, hosted by Cannes Marché du Film and Uruguay’s public-sector film agency, Agencia del Cine y Audiovisual (ACAU), and running Dec. 2-6 in the Uruguayan capital:
Attendance Holds
As of Saturday night, attendance had just passed 2,000 delegates, tracking to hit that number of jobbing professionals by market end, on a par with Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur, said Guillaume Esmiol, Cannes Marché du Film executive director and Ventana Sur co-director. A quick scroll down sales agents shows nearly all companies with a strong line in Spanish-language or Brazilian titles. “Response among sales agents and buyers to the new edition was often very quick, with many committing as early as September,” Esmiol tells Variety.
Ventana Sur Industry Stars
Uruguay’s Fede Álvarez will talk about his Hollywood journey from “Evil Dead” to “Don’t Breath” and now “Alien: Romulus,” which he wrote and directed. Other illustrious internationally based Uruguayans will deliver masterclasses: Oscar-winning producer Mariela Besiuevsky (“The Secret in Their Eyes”) and Alvaro Brechner, described by Variety as “one of the leading South American screen talents to emerge in the last decade.”
Daniel Dreifuss, an Academy Award-winning producer for “All Quiet on the Western Front,” will deliver advice via a talk, On the Road to the Oscars: Keys to the Campaign. Malaga Fest director Juan Antonio Vigar will reveal projects at 2025’s MAFF, one of Spain’s most significant co-production and financing forums.
Ventana Sur Classic Sections Remain
Ventana Sur is not looking to get rid of its baby with the bath water. From 2009’s very first Ventana Sur – whose pix in post strand Primer Corte featured “Leap Year,” which went on to win Cannes’s best first feature Camera d’Or – Ventana Sur has built up a nucleus of centerpiece sections, led by WIP strands Primer Corte/Copia Final and Blood Window and Animation! Latin America’s foremost genre and animation showcases, which have been carried over to Montevideo. “Primer Corte and Copia Final are always highly anticipated. They identify projects that then play at A-list festivals,” says Esmiol. One priority was to make sure these programs kept the same quality.”
Some Top Titles
The biggest market heat will most likely be generated by select pix in post and projects. Backed by Stacy Perskie’s Redrum (“Narcos: Mexico,” Rodrigo Prieto’s “Pedro Paramo”) ’80-set Mexico women’s story “Vainilla” is generating good buzz in Primer Corte, as is “The Condor Daughter,” a Quechua mother-daughter tale, in Copia Final. Slightly artier – set in glorious firsts but shot in B&W, “The Reserve” swept Morelia’s industry awards. In Animation! Chilean Oscar nominee Hugo Covarrubias (“Beast”) presents his first feature “Baptism” (pictured below), while Pablo Aguëro – director of upcoming “Saint-E,” starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Louis Garrel – unveils his first animation movie, “Gravityland.”
Baptism
The Name of Uruguay’s Ventana Sur Game: Amiability
“Uruguay has good movies, cineastes, DPs, actors, journalists, critics. We’d like to demonstrate with this year’s Ventana Sur that Uruguay, sandwiched between two giants, Brazil and Argentina, is also capable of organizing world-class market/industry events,” ACAU President Facundo Ponce de León told Variety. What can Uruguay bring to the table, Variety asked? “Closeness, amiability and transparency,” Ponce de León answered. “Uruguay has just 3 million inhabitants, less than a São Paulo ‘hood. We’re nobody, and that’s a value in this day’s world. The human scale to things is important,” he added. There are far worse qualities to bring to a market. First signs are that Uruguay’s hosts are going an extra five miles to be helpful. Information on sections is consistently detailed. And everything’s delivered with a smile.
What Else Uruguay Will Bring to the Table
Uruguay can bring much more to the table, however. It hosts arguably Latin America’s fastest-growing film industry. That cuts two ways: Production shoots on big international shoots; burgeoning homegrown production, up to 38 feature bows in 2023, galvanized by shoot revenues and public-sector incentives, Ponce de León observes. The aim now isn’t to make more features but to help them reach audiences with good festival and theatrical runs, he adds. The audiovisual sector also looks like a priority for Yamandú Orsi center-left Frente Amplio, which won general elections on Nov. 24.
A New Sandpit for the Cannes Marché
Logistics, not deals, dominated much market conversation at two testing AFMs. A novel country setting gives Cannes Marché a new sandpit to play in and a range of options AFM organizer IFTA would die for. Ground zero this Ventana Sur is Montevideo’s Radisson Hotel skyscraper. Around it are the market venues, all within five-minute walking distance: Screenings at the Cinemateca, with a delightful café; a conference strand at the Teatro Solis next door; another and the market proper’s exhibition booths at a nearby Sodre theater. Primer Corte/Copia Final screenings are more bunched affording time between them, however, for networking and lunches, Esmiol noted. Networking and 1:1 sessions allow pitching producers/directors to cross over to other sections.
Uruguay: the Way Forward
Ventana Sur can put Uruguay on the radar as a content player, says Diego Robino, a co-founder of Latin America’s Cimarrón, a Mediapro Studio company, which has serviced “Amsterdam” for HBO, “Cometierra” for Prime Video and “Las Maldiciones” for Netflix. Further growth may come various ways. One’s a step-up in the ambitions of international co-productions, leveraging Uruguay’s shoot incentives and ever more major name talent. There’s also a “big opportunity” for Uruguayan talent to serve as directors and screenwriters on international shoots if they can be brought to Uruguay,” Robino adds. Also, there looks to be the possibility of a growing influx of ever more American shoots, often more modestly budgeted, fleeing post-strike production costs in the U.S., adds fellow Cimarrón co-founder Santiago López.
And More Buzz Titles
Jô Serfaty’s “Beyond the Edge,” Jorge Cadena’s “Tropical Malaise” and Ignacio Lasierra’s “Perseidas,” headlined by “La Mesías’” Macarena García, look like potential standouts in Ventana Sur project section Proyecta. Of films screening at Ventana Sur, Variety called “Riefenstahl” a “valuable and arresting piece of work,” “U are the Universe” a “sparkling romance,” and Paulina García starrer “Beloved Tropic” a “tender drama.” From Spain, the Screenings feature “La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortes,” a stunning and moving flamenco musical from Antón Álvarez, better known as songwriter-singer C. Tangana, and “Rita,” “Spanglish” star Paz Vega’s helming feature debut where she demonstrates her directorial chops.
Tropical Malaise
More Renewal
The Latam TV Market now boasts a workshop, run by 3Pas Studios’ Leonardo Zimbrón, but also a project platform including “Expediente Letelier,” from Felipe Carmona (“Prison in the Andes”), a hybrid doc series helmed by Rafael Valdeavellano (“Chicago Boys”) and Nicolás Acuña (“Besieged”). Ventana Docs, also renamed, likewise has a tighter market focus, highlighting just 12 titles, including “Quinografía,” a portrait of the famously timid Mafalda cartoonist Quino, and “Habana Libre,” a take on rebellious youth in Cuba. Screenplay showcase Entre Guiones no longer requires literary IP-based projects, Esmiol observed.
