Paris-based outfit Luxbox – one of Europe’s biggest sales agents and sometimes producers – of higher-profile Spanish-language art house fare, has swooped on international rights to “Reas,” a prison musical in which ex female cons process their experiences, which was confirmed last week as one of the first eight films selected for Berlin’s Forum section.
The second film by Argentine playwright and writer Lola Arias (“Theater of War”), and winner of the Head Pitchings du Réel Award at Visions du Réel in 2020, “Reas” was also selected by San Sebastian Film Festival for its 2023 Wip Latam.
It will world premiere at the Forum, a section focusing on boundary-breaking titles that challenge aesthetic and narrative norms.
“We feel extremely honored to represent the second feature by artist and filmmaker Lola Arias, whom we discovered at San Sebastian Work In Progress,” Luxbox CEO Fiorella Moretti told Variety.
An international co-production between Gema Juárez and Clarisa Oliveri,...
The second film by Argentine playwright and writer Lola Arias (“Theater of War”), and winner of the Head Pitchings du Réel Award at Visions du Réel in 2020, “Reas” was also selected by San Sebastian Film Festival for its 2023 Wip Latam.
It will world premiere at the Forum, a section focusing on boundary-breaking titles that challenge aesthetic and narrative norms.
“We feel extremely honored to represent the second feature by artist and filmmaker Lola Arias, whom we discovered at San Sebastian Work In Progress,” Luxbox CEO Fiorella Moretti told Variety.
An international co-production between Gema Juárez and Clarisa Oliveri,...
- 12/19/2023
- by Holly Jones
- Variety Film + TV
Anti-colonialist western will receive North American premiere at TIFF.
Felipe Gálvez’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Fipresci winner The Settlers has been selected as Chile’s Oscar submission.
‘The Settlers’: Cannes Review
The anti-colonialist western will receive its North American premiere at TIFF next month and will play in the Main Slate at New York Film Festival.
The Settlers takes place in Chile at the start of the 20th century as a wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark the perimeter of his property and open a path across Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition, comprising a young Chilean mestizo,...
Felipe Gálvez’s Cannes Un Certain Regard Fipresci winner The Settlers has been selected as Chile’s Oscar submission.
‘The Settlers’: Cannes Review
The anti-colonialist western will receive its North American premiere at TIFF next month and will play in the Main Slate at New York Film Festival.
The Settlers takes place in Chile at the start of the 20th century as a wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark the perimeter of his property and open a path across Patagonia to the Atlantic Ocean. The expedition, comprising a young Chilean mestizo,...
- 8/23/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Chile on Wednesday named the anti-colonialist Western The Settlers from first-time feature filmmaker Felipe Gálvez as its official entry for Best International Feature at the 2024 Academy Awards.
The film coming off a Fipresci Prize win at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it played in Un Certain Regard, joins a list of entrants that includes Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Estonia), The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany), Concrete Utopia (South Korea) and Thunder (Switzerland), as previously announced.
Following forthcoming screenings at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, the pic will be released theatrically in North America by Mubi, which also holds distribution rights for the UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, and India, and will unveil further details as to its release plans at a later date.
Written by Gálvez and Antonia Girardi, in collaboration with Mariano Llinás, The Settler is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century,...
The film coming off a Fipresci Prize win at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, where it played in Un Certain Regard, joins a list of entrants that includes Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Estonia), The Teachers’ Lounge (Germany), Concrete Utopia (South Korea) and Thunder (Switzerland), as previously announced.
Following forthcoming screenings at the Toronto Film Festival and the New York Film Festival, the pic will be released theatrically in North America by Mubi, which also holds distribution rights for the UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, and India, and will unveil further details as to its release plans at a later date.
Written by Gálvez and Antonia Girardi, in collaboration with Mariano Llinás, The Settler is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century,...
- 8/23/2023
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
After starring in Mona Achache’s “Little Girl Blue” which played at Cannes, Marion Cotillard will work with another daring French female auteur, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, on her next film “La tour de glace.”
The long-gestated film marks the first collaboration between Hadzihalilovic and Muriel Merlin, producer at 3B Productions. Hadzihalilovic’s follow up to “Earwig,” which won the jury prize at San Sebastian, “La Tour de glace” is expected to be the director’s most accessible and ambitious film to date. The movie will reteam Hadzihalilovic with Cotillard who had starred in her 2004 film “Innocence.”
Co-written by Geoff Cox, “La tour de glace” is set in the 1970s and follows Jeanne, a teenage girl who runs away from her orphanage located in a mountain village. She flees to Paris with big dreams to fulfill and finds shelter in a warehouse which turns out to be used as a studio where...
The long-gestated film marks the first collaboration between Hadzihalilovic and Muriel Merlin, producer at 3B Productions. Hadzihalilovic’s follow up to “Earwig,” which won the jury prize at San Sebastian, “La Tour de glace” is expected to be the director’s most accessible and ambitious film to date. The movie will reteam Hadzihalilovic with Cotillard who had starred in her 2004 film “Innocence.”
Co-written by Geoff Cox, “La tour de glace” is set in the 1970s and follows Jeanne, a teenage girl who runs away from her orphanage located in a mountain village. She flees to Paris with big dreams to fulfill and finds shelter in a warehouse which turns out to be used as a studio where...
- 7/5/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Global distributor, streamer and production company Mubi has acquired Felipe Gálvez’ “The Settlers,” which bowed on Tuesday at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section.
Mubi has acquired the film for North America, U.K., Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India. Mubi will release the film theatrically in the U.S., U.K., and additional territories with release plans to be revealed soon.
“The Settlers” is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century. A wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a ‘civilizing’ raid.
“If something is controversial, it’s a good sign. It means it’s interesting. I am trying to provoke with my film,...
Mubi has acquired the film for North America, U.K., Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India. Mubi will release the film theatrically in the U.S., U.K., and additional territories with release plans to be revealed soon.
“The Settlers” is set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century. A wealthy landowner hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a ‘civilizing’ raid.
“If something is controversial, it’s a good sign. It means it’s interesting. I am trying to provoke with my film,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
It is the feature debut of Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez.
Distributor and streaming platform Mubi has acquired Felipe Gálvez’ Cannes Un Certain Regard title The Settlers for North America, UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India from mk2 Films.
It will be released theatrically in the US and UK, with additional territories with release plans to be announced soon.
Gálvez’s feature debut is an English-language western that unfolds around a rich landowner in 1901 Chile who hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia.
Distributor and streaming platform Mubi has acquired Felipe Gálvez’ Cannes Un Certain Regard title The Settlers for North America, UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux and India from mk2 Films.
It will be released theatrically in the US and UK, with additional territories with release plans to be announced soon.
Gálvez’s feature debut is an English-language western that unfolds around a rich landowner in 1901 Chile who hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia.
- 5/24/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Mubi has picked The Settlers, the latest pic from Chilean filmmaker Felipe Gálvez for North America, the UK, Latin America, Turkey, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Benelux, and India.
The pic debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section last night. Mubi has said it will release the film theatrically in the U.S., UK, and additional territories with release plans to be announced.
Set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century, The Settlers follows a wealthy landowner who hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a “civilizing” raid.
The deal was negotiated with mk2. Producers include Giancarlo Nasi, Benjamín Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Emily Morgan, Thierry Lenouvel,...
The pic debuted in the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard section last night. Mubi has said it will release the film theatrically in the U.S., UK, and additional territories with release plans to be announced.
Set in Chile at the beginning of the 20th century, The Settlers follows a wealthy landowner who hires three horsemen to mark out the perimeter of his extensive property and open a route to the Atlantic Ocean across vast Patagonia. The expedition, composed of a young Chilean mestizo, an American mercenary, and led by a reckless British lieutenant, soon turns into a “civilizing” raid.
The deal was negotiated with mk2. Producers include Giancarlo Nasi, Benjamín Domenech, Santiago Gallelli, Matías Roveda, Emily Morgan, Thierry Lenouvel,...
- 5/24/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
28 projects selected from over 150 submissions.
New features from Mexican director Amat Escalante and Mexican-San Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo are among the 28 feature projects selected for the fifth edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (Ewip), the industry pitching event held from October 17-19 in the run-up to Film Festival Cologne.
Escalante will pitch Lost In The Night, about a man searching for those responsible for his mother’s disappearance, who encounters an incompetent justice system.
The Mexico-Germany-Netherlands-Denmark co-production is produced by Nicolas Celis and Fernanda de la Peza for Tres Tunas Cine. Escalante has previously directed four features including Venice and Toronto 2016 horror The Untamed.
New features from Mexican director Amat Escalante and Mexican-San Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo are among the 28 feature projects selected for the fifth edition of European Work in Progress Cologne (Ewip), the industry pitching event held from October 17-19 in the run-up to Film Festival Cologne.
Escalante will pitch Lost In The Night, about a man searching for those responsible for his mother’s disappearance, who encounters an incompetent justice system.
The Mexico-Germany-Netherlands-Denmark co-production is produced by Nicolas Celis and Fernanda de la Peza for Tres Tunas Cine. Escalante has previously directed four features including Venice and Toronto 2016 horror The Untamed.
- 10/11/2022
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
In today’s TV news roundup, Netflix released the official trailer for Steve Carell’s new comedy series, “Space Force,” and Variety obtained an exclusive first look at Season 3 of Twitch’s interactive sci-fi series “Artificial.”
Dates
Comedy Central has announced Esther Povitsky’s debut standup special, “Hot For My Name,” is premiering on June 5 at 10 p.m. In it, Povitsky goes home to Skokie, Ill. to understand why her unique relationship with her parents motivated her to become a comedian. Documentary footage is intercut with Povitsky’s stand-up, giving audiences a look into her origin story. The special also includes cameos by Christine Taylor, Andrew Friedman and Priscilla Barnes.
First Looks
Netflix has released the trailer for “Space Force.” The series centers around decorated pilot and four-star general Mark R. Naird, who has dreamed of running the Air Force, but instead finds himself tasked with leading the newly formed Space Force.
Dates
Comedy Central has announced Esther Povitsky’s debut standup special, “Hot For My Name,” is premiering on June 5 at 10 p.m. In it, Povitsky goes home to Skokie, Ill. to understand why her unique relationship with her parents motivated her to become a comedian. Documentary footage is intercut with Povitsky’s stand-up, giving audiences a look into her origin story. The special also includes cameos by Christine Taylor, Andrew Friedman and Priscilla Barnes.
First Looks
Netflix has released the trailer for “Space Force.” The series centers around decorated pilot and four-star general Mark R. Naird, who has dreamed of running the Air Force, but instead finds himself tasked with leading the newly formed Space Force.
- 5/19/2020
- by Klaritza Rico
- Variety Film + TV
Yung Chang's This Is Not a Movie is playing on Mubi from April 18 - May 17, 2020 in the Canada Now series.Greetings cinephiles and seekers of truth! I’m thrilled to be presenting my latest film, This Is Not a Movie, with our collaboration with Mubi. This Is Not a Movie is the first feature documentary that I’ve made since my collaborations with Montreal’s EyeSteelFilm. How do you tell a story that spans 40 years of journalism? By assembling a team of creators from producers Anita Lee (Nfb), Allyson Luchak, Nelofer Pazira, and Ingmar Trost to cinematographer Duraid Munajim to editor Mike Munn to my composers Ohad Benchetrit and Justin Small.When I first started researching the film, I imagined that Robert Fisk would be a very somber, brooding, morose character. I thought he would be intimidating. Here’s a dinosaur of journalism, a part of a “lost generation” of reporters,...
- 4/13/2020
- MUBI
Mexico’s Piano, which is the producer of Abel Ferrara’s “Siberia” and upcoming films from Leos Carax, Mia Hansen-Love and Apichatpong Weerasethakul, is expanding into Germany and Colombia, incorporating Diana Bustamante and Ingmar Trost as producer partners.
Julio Chavezmontes heads Piano.
Piano’s initial focus will be to establish itself as a creator of premium television content for international audiences, and as a provider of top-level production services in all three countries, said Chavezmontes. It was also continue to make high-profile, auteur-driven, festival-winning movies.
Both Bustamante and Trost are well-known figures on the international production scene. Bustamante — whose credits include “The Wind Journeys,” “Crab Trap” and Cannes Camera d’Or and Critics’ Week winner “Land and Shade” — will head up Piano Colombia.
Trost, producer of Ilian Metev’s Locarno Golden Leopard winner “3/4,” Benjamin Naishtat’s San Sebastian-prized “Rojo” and Kristi Jacobson’s News & Documentary Emmy-winning “Solitary,” will run Piano’s German office in Cologne,...
Julio Chavezmontes heads Piano.
Piano’s initial focus will be to establish itself as a creator of premium television content for international audiences, and as a provider of top-level production services in all three countries, said Chavezmontes. It was also continue to make high-profile, auteur-driven, festival-winning movies.
Both Bustamante and Trost are well-known figures on the international production scene. Bustamante — whose credits include “The Wind Journeys,” “Crab Trap” and Cannes Camera d’Or and Critics’ Week winner “Land and Shade” — will head up Piano Colombia.
Trost, producer of Ilian Metev’s Locarno Golden Leopard winner “3/4,” Benjamin Naishtat’s San Sebastian-prized “Rojo” and Kristi Jacobson’s News & Documentary Emmy-winning “Solitary,” will run Piano’s German office in Cologne,...
- 2/22/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Amsterdam-based producers network will hold annual meeting in UK for the first-time in Edinburgh event supported by Screen Scotland.
Ace producers has unveiled the 18 producers who have been selected to participate in 29th edition of its Ace Session training programme and join the Ace Network.
A total of 15 territories are represented in the selection, comprising Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK, as well as, for the first time, Georgia and Lithuania.
The participants will attend the programme, running across 2019 to 2020, with a feature project in development.
The fresh intake...
Ace producers has unveiled the 18 producers who have been selected to participate in 29th edition of its Ace Session training programme and join the Ace Network.
A total of 15 territories are represented in the selection, comprising Belgium, Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the UK, as well as, for the first time, Georgia and Lithuania.
The participants will attend the programme, running across 2019 to 2020, with a feature project in development.
The fresh intake...
- 9/16/2019
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- ScreenDaily
Cannes — August Diehl, star of Terrence Malick’s Cannes competition player “Hidden Life,” acquired by Fox Searchlight during the festival, will head the cast of Tom Schreiber’s upcoming “Beautiful Souls” (“Schöne Seelen”).
Lead produced by Ingmar Trost at Sutor Kolonko in Germany, and structured as a domestic co-production with Maze Pictures, “Beautiful Souls” has just been set up as an international co-production with Spain’s Fasten Films and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands.
At an initial financing stage – though the prospect of an international sales agent boarding early on look good – “Beautiful Souls” is scheduled to go into production in late summer 2020.
Described as a goofy drama set in the pop trash of the 1990s,“Beautiful Souls” portrays the impact of macro historical change on a motley German community of inveterate individualists seeking happiness down on Spain’s Costa Brava coast.
It turns on Freddy, a perpetual juvenile chancer...
Lead produced by Ingmar Trost at Sutor Kolonko in Germany, and structured as a domestic co-production with Maze Pictures, “Beautiful Souls” has just been set up as an international co-production with Spain’s Fasten Films and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands.
At an initial financing stage – though the prospect of an international sales agent boarding early on look good – “Beautiful Souls” is scheduled to go into production in late summer 2020.
Described as a goofy drama set in the pop trash of the 1990s,“Beautiful Souls” portrays the impact of macro historical change on a motley German community of inveterate individualists seeking happiness down on Spain’s Costa Brava coast.
It turns on Freddy, a perpetual juvenile chancer...
- 5/23/2019
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
“Rojo,” a noirish retro drama-thriller by fast-rising Argentinean helmer Benjamin Naishtat, has closed a number of territories, including France and China, after scooping three prizes at the San Sebastian Film Festival following its Toronto world premiere. The distribution pacts sold by Paris-based sales agent Luxbox are for Benelux (September); Brazil (Vitrine Film); China (Time Vision); France (Condor); Greece (Spentzos); Switzerland (Filmcoop); and the U.K. (New Wave). Primer Plano will distribute in Argentina. Discussions are ongoing in Spain and other key territories. Described by Variety in its review as “a witheringly provocative examination of temporary moral eclipse becoming permanent moral apocalypse,” “Rojo” features a star-studded Latin American lineup, including Argentina’s Dario Grandinetti, and Chile’s Alfredo Castro, a favorite thesp of compatriot Pablo Larrain. Unspooling in a rustic province in 1975, the film is set against an ominous backdrop of mounting political violence that foreshadows Argentina’s approaching coup and Dirty War.
- 10/19/2018
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
I caught up with Argentine producer Gema Juarez Allen at the Panama Film Festival. Since seeing (and falling in love with) the Argentine road movie “Road to La Paz”/ “Camino a La Paz in Guadalajara and interviewing its director, Francisco Varone, I was interested in meeting her as well, even more so because her other film, the Colombian drama “Oscuro Animal” which premiered in Rotterdam and won four prizes at Mexico’s Guadalajara International Film Festival in March 2016, for Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Cinematography and has been sold to seven territories. “Oscuro Animal” is about three women fleeing armed conflict in Colombia. It was directed by Colombia’s Felipe Guerrero, an editor on “La Playa DC,” “Perro come perro” and “El Paramo”. It received funding from the Hubert Bals Fund and World Cinema Fund.
In Panama Gema was quite busy, not only with “Road to La Paz” but participating on the panel, Your Project in Motion: Coproduction and Financing along with Panamanian producers and directors, Delfina Vidal (“Caja 25”), Annie Canavaggio (“Breaking the Wave”) and Abner Benaim (“Invasion”) who also happens to be Gema’s partner.
As one of Latin America’s most active producers, Gema’s extensive experience international coproduction was invaluable and she shared it freely at the panel. Her participation in workshops in Europe, such as the Eave Producers Workshop and Eurodoc, has played a key role in establishing her international connections. While at Eave, she met Greek Boo Productions and Germany’s Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko who came on board to coproduce “Oscuro Animal”.
“Road to La Paz” director, Francisco Varone said,
"In 2012 we submitted the project to Visions Sud Est in Switzerland. I was almost working by myself on the film at this time and then started working with a larger Argentinean production company, Concreto Films, owned by Juan Taratuto, a big film director who was directing TV commercials and said he’d help. They had a tough time finding investors so he introduced me to Gema Juarez Allen (whose recent film “Invasion” is the story of the U.S. invasion of Panama in the 1980s). She is a well-known documentary producer with experience in coproductions who knows how to find money and understands the value of going to festivals. She said she would do it as her first fiction film and went to San Sebastian Film Festival’s Foro de Coproduccion in 2013. There she had lots of one-on-one meetings and met Julius Ponten our Dutch coproducer who got funding from the Netherlands Film Fonds and Gunter Hanfgarn (“Bad Hair”) who applied to Ezef, an Evangelistic Fund for films from the south (one of the backers of “Timbuktu”). “
Read more on “Road to La Paz” here.
Gema continued this story when we spoke:
Juan liked the project but it was not in his domain so he sought me out. I read the script about two men and one car and thought, “This is easy”. But of course it was not. A road movie is the most difficult of all genres, and with animals, and covering two countries! Working with Pancho (Francisco Varone), he is the kind of director I like. I find the shooting is usually more important than the people, but with Pancho, the crew is important and he balanced the people and the shoot, so after all, it was ‘easy’.
The film is being sold internationally by FiGa. It is doing well in Argentina with 35,000 admissions, 20 copies and now in its fourth month in the cinemas. It is a ‘word of mouth’ film.
Sl: What are you working on now?
Gema Juarez Allen: I am now filming “Mapa Mudo”/ “Silent Map”.
A doc project by Felipe Guerrero, Nicolás Rincón and Jorge Caballero, based on video letters of three Colombian filmmakers who left their home country in the late 90s.
And I am developing a new project with the directors of our breakthough film from 2011, “Revenge of the Antipodes”/ “¡Vivan las antípodas!“ which screened in Venice. It’s called “Cro-goo-fant” and is a documentary for children, a funny story about animals. The director, Victor Kossokovsky, did a short doc for kids before.
I am also working with Andres di Tella, the most important documentary filmmaker and founder of Bafici in Argentina. It’s a very personal story about the avant garde art Institute lead by his father, the Instituto Di Tella.
And I am working on “Veterans” about the Falkland Islands War. Bertha Fund is backing it. Lola Arias is directing this documentary feature about the unexpected consequences of war on its protagonists, about the way memory is turned into fiction. I am looking for coproducers now. It is a different look at United Kingdom and Argentina vets that is at the same time both serious and humorous. We are creating a film around a theater play which will open in London this May. It began with the London International Theater Festival along with the Royal Court House Theater. It is not filmic; Lola Arias’ language is so refreshing; she is from the theater.
A winner of the 2015 Berlinale Co-production Market Pitch, Abner Benaim’s “Plaza catedral,” is also in the works. It is a tangled false friendship drama with thriller elements, set against the background of Panama’s social divide.
And I am currently producing Benaim’s doc, “My Name is Not Ruben Blades” with Ruben Blades.
Also in the works: the next film from Manuel Abramovich (“La Reina”), a Mar del Plata 2014 Works in Progress winner for “Solar” – a small but remarkable heart-warming doc-feature whose power struggle between director and subject adds unusually honest depths to a bio-portrait of someone who claims to come from the sun.
Sl: You are so prolific! How did you get started in this?
I studied anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Rio de Janeiro but didn’t like academia and so I studied film at the National Film School and thought I would combine the two. In England I studied Visual Anthropology and worked as a P.A. and as a researcher for the BBC for a “Discovery Channel” type of channel and then I returned to Argentina.
Between 2003 to 2008 I worked at Cine Ojo the oldest doc company in Argentina and at Habitación 1520 Producciones (“Imagen Final”, “Criada”, “Los Jóvenes Muertos”, “Dulce Espera”) before creating my own company Gema Films in 2009.
Sl: You were coordinator of DocBuenos Aires until 2003, a training initiative as well.
Gema Juarez Allen: I have produced 17 films with lots of help.
I was a Sundance Documentary Fund grantee on two films. My projects have been supported by Visions Sud Est, Tribeca Film Institute, Hubert Bals Fund, Idfa Fund, Cinereach, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, DocStation Berlin, et al. I received the Arte/Bal Award in 2008 for Upcoming Producers at Bafici.
I coproduce with Wg Film (Sweden), Majade FilmProduktion (Germany), Gebrüder Beetz (Germany), Lemming Film (Netherlands) and Producciones Aplaplac (Chile).
I have received awards at Berlinale, Bafici, Roma, Guadalajara, Silverdocs, among many others. Gema is part of EuroDoc since 2010 and is a member of the Board of Adn, the Argentinean Documentary Filmmakers Network.
Sl: What advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Gema Juarez Allen: First find a good project. It is very competitive and you must have an original perspective on the subject. There are so many ideas everywhere, it must be good.
Producers should be highly-organized. Be sure to fully develop projects before presenting them to partners and funding decision makers. The key elements to present when the project is fully conceived are an overview, a synopsis, a director’s statement, a brief treatment, a financial plan, a budget, a production timetable and bio-filmographies.
Find a producer with experience. I’m always interested in new directors and new voices.
The best opportunities to find partners are at festivals, markets and above all workshops. These are good places to find colleagues and mentors to give you great feedback. Diana Elbaum is my mentor from Eave and she is always looking at what I’m doing. And most of my coproduction partners came from the Eave and Eurodoc workshops.
Beyond Eave and Eurodoc, which are very open to Latin American projects, other good workshops are Docmontevideo, Guadalajara, Typa, Cinergia Lab, Idfa Summer Academy, Chiledoc, Berlin Talent Campus, Documentary Campus, Morelia Lab among others.
Good international funding sources are Ibermedia and also the “Plus” schemes associated to funds such as Creative Europe, World Cinema Fund, Hubert Bals Fund and the Idfa Bertha fund. Other funds are Fonds d’Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Sundance documentary fund, Visions Sud Est, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Doha Film Institute and Sorfond, for co-productions with Norway.
In terms of leading international markets, Cannes, Rotterdam’s Cinemart, Berlin’s European Film Market, Ventana Sur and Guadalajara – and for documentaries – starting with Idfa Forum and Hotdocs, followed by Meetmarket Sheffield and Docmontevideo.
It is also important to choose the right festival to premiere a project since it’s virtually impossible to premiere a picture in a small festival and then get a larger fest to screen the film. It’s also important to explore the work-in-progress sidebars that now exist at most Latin American festivals, including Iff Panama’s Primera Mirada competition.
State funding sources in Latin America include Dicine, in Panama, Incaa in Argentina, Proimagenes in Colombia, Brazil’s Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual, the Fondo Audiovisual in Chile, and Imcine in Mexico. The selection criteria used by these national funds varies considerably. Proimagenes in Colombia, which only finances around 14 films per year last year had three pictures at Cannes.
Over the last three or four years many national funds have created specific lines of funding for co-productions, through bilateral agreements, such as that between Brazil’s Ancine and Argentina’s Incaa, which grants $250,000 per pic supported. As a result of such bilateral agreements Brazil, for example, is now a key partner for all of Latin America.
“I’d like to make the second or third films of my directors. They’ve all been such good experience. We’ve grown together,” Juarez Allen told Variety at the Mar del Plata Festival.
In Panama Gema was quite busy, not only with “Road to La Paz” but participating on the panel, Your Project in Motion: Coproduction and Financing along with Panamanian producers and directors, Delfina Vidal (“Caja 25”), Annie Canavaggio (“Breaking the Wave”) and Abner Benaim (“Invasion”) who also happens to be Gema’s partner.
As one of Latin America’s most active producers, Gema’s extensive experience international coproduction was invaluable and she shared it freely at the panel. Her participation in workshops in Europe, such as the Eave Producers Workshop and Eurodoc, has played a key role in establishing her international connections. While at Eave, she met Greek Boo Productions and Germany’s Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko who came on board to coproduce “Oscuro Animal”.
“Road to La Paz” director, Francisco Varone said,
"In 2012 we submitted the project to Visions Sud Est in Switzerland. I was almost working by myself on the film at this time and then started working with a larger Argentinean production company, Concreto Films, owned by Juan Taratuto, a big film director who was directing TV commercials and said he’d help. They had a tough time finding investors so he introduced me to Gema Juarez Allen (whose recent film “Invasion” is the story of the U.S. invasion of Panama in the 1980s). She is a well-known documentary producer with experience in coproductions who knows how to find money and understands the value of going to festivals. She said she would do it as her first fiction film and went to San Sebastian Film Festival’s Foro de Coproduccion in 2013. There she had lots of one-on-one meetings and met Julius Ponten our Dutch coproducer who got funding from the Netherlands Film Fonds and Gunter Hanfgarn (“Bad Hair”) who applied to Ezef, an Evangelistic Fund for films from the south (one of the backers of “Timbuktu”). “
Read more on “Road to La Paz” here.
Gema continued this story when we spoke:
Juan liked the project but it was not in his domain so he sought me out. I read the script about two men and one car and thought, “This is easy”. But of course it was not. A road movie is the most difficult of all genres, and with animals, and covering two countries! Working with Pancho (Francisco Varone), he is the kind of director I like. I find the shooting is usually more important than the people, but with Pancho, the crew is important and he balanced the people and the shoot, so after all, it was ‘easy’.
The film is being sold internationally by FiGa. It is doing well in Argentina with 35,000 admissions, 20 copies and now in its fourth month in the cinemas. It is a ‘word of mouth’ film.
Sl: What are you working on now?
Gema Juarez Allen: I am now filming “Mapa Mudo”/ “Silent Map”.
A doc project by Felipe Guerrero, Nicolás Rincón and Jorge Caballero, based on video letters of three Colombian filmmakers who left their home country in the late 90s.
And I am developing a new project with the directors of our breakthough film from 2011, “Revenge of the Antipodes”/ “¡Vivan las antípodas!“ which screened in Venice. It’s called “Cro-goo-fant” and is a documentary for children, a funny story about animals. The director, Victor Kossokovsky, did a short doc for kids before.
I am also working with Andres di Tella, the most important documentary filmmaker and founder of Bafici in Argentina. It’s a very personal story about the avant garde art Institute lead by his father, the Instituto Di Tella.
And I am working on “Veterans” about the Falkland Islands War. Bertha Fund is backing it. Lola Arias is directing this documentary feature about the unexpected consequences of war on its protagonists, about the way memory is turned into fiction. I am looking for coproducers now. It is a different look at United Kingdom and Argentina vets that is at the same time both serious and humorous. We are creating a film around a theater play which will open in London this May. It began with the London International Theater Festival along with the Royal Court House Theater. It is not filmic; Lola Arias’ language is so refreshing; she is from the theater.
A winner of the 2015 Berlinale Co-production Market Pitch, Abner Benaim’s “Plaza catedral,” is also in the works. It is a tangled false friendship drama with thriller elements, set against the background of Panama’s social divide.
And I am currently producing Benaim’s doc, “My Name is Not Ruben Blades” with Ruben Blades.
Also in the works: the next film from Manuel Abramovich (“La Reina”), a Mar del Plata 2014 Works in Progress winner for “Solar” – a small but remarkable heart-warming doc-feature whose power struggle between director and subject adds unusually honest depths to a bio-portrait of someone who claims to come from the sun.
Sl: You are so prolific! How did you get started in this?
I studied anthropology at the University of Buenos Aires and the University of Rio de Janeiro but didn’t like academia and so I studied film at the National Film School and thought I would combine the two. In England I studied Visual Anthropology and worked as a P.A. and as a researcher for the BBC for a “Discovery Channel” type of channel and then I returned to Argentina.
Between 2003 to 2008 I worked at Cine Ojo the oldest doc company in Argentina and at Habitación 1520 Producciones (“Imagen Final”, “Criada”, “Los Jóvenes Muertos”, “Dulce Espera”) before creating my own company Gema Films in 2009.
Sl: You were coordinator of DocBuenos Aires until 2003, a training initiative as well.
Gema Juarez Allen: I have produced 17 films with lots of help.
I was a Sundance Documentary Fund grantee on two films. My projects have been supported by Visions Sud Est, Tribeca Film Institute, Hubert Bals Fund, Idfa Fund, Cinereach, Fondo Nacional de las Artes, DocStation Berlin, et al. I received the Arte/Bal Award in 2008 for Upcoming Producers at Bafici.
I coproduce with Wg Film (Sweden), Majade FilmProduktion (Germany), Gebrüder Beetz (Germany), Lemming Film (Netherlands) and Producciones Aplaplac (Chile).
I have received awards at Berlinale, Bafici, Roma, Guadalajara, Silverdocs, among many others. Gema is part of EuroDoc since 2010 and is a member of the Board of Adn, the Argentinean Documentary Filmmakers Network.
Sl: What advice do you have for young filmmakers?
Gema Juarez Allen: First find a good project. It is very competitive and you must have an original perspective on the subject. There are so many ideas everywhere, it must be good.
Producers should be highly-organized. Be sure to fully develop projects before presenting them to partners and funding decision makers. The key elements to present when the project is fully conceived are an overview, a synopsis, a director’s statement, a brief treatment, a financial plan, a budget, a production timetable and bio-filmographies.
Find a producer with experience. I’m always interested in new directors and new voices.
The best opportunities to find partners are at festivals, markets and above all workshops. These are good places to find colleagues and mentors to give you great feedback. Diana Elbaum is my mentor from Eave and she is always looking at what I’m doing. And most of my coproduction partners came from the Eave and Eurodoc workshops.
Beyond Eave and Eurodoc, which are very open to Latin American projects, other good workshops are Docmontevideo, Guadalajara, Typa, Cinergia Lab, Idfa Summer Academy, Chiledoc, Berlin Talent Campus, Documentary Campus, Morelia Lab among others.
Good international funding sources are Ibermedia and also the “Plus” schemes associated to funds such as Creative Europe, World Cinema Fund, Hubert Bals Fund and the Idfa Bertha fund. Other funds are Fonds d’Aide aux Cinémas du Monde, the Sundance documentary fund, Visions Sud Est, the Tribeca Film Institute, the Doha Film Institute and Sorfond, for co-productions with Norway.
In terms of leading international markets, Cannes, Rotterdam’s Cinemart, Berlin’s European Film Market, Ventana Sur and Guadalajara – and for documentaries – starting with Idfa Forum and Hotdocs, followed by Meetmarket Sheffield and Docmontevideo.
It is also important to choose the right festival to premiere a project since it’s virtually impossible to premiere a picture in a small festival and then get a larger fest to screen the film. It’s also important to explore the work-in-progress sidebars that now exist at most Latin American festivals, including Iff Panama’s Primera Mirada competition.
State funding sources in Latin America include Dicine, in Panama, Incaa in Argentina, Proimagenes in Colombia, Brazil’s Fundo Setorial do Audiovisual, the Fondo Audiovisual in Chile, and Imcine in Mexico. The selection criteria used by these national funds varies considerably. Proimagenes in Colombia, which only finances around 14 films per year last year had three pictures at Cannes.
Over the last three or four years many national funds have created specific lines of funding for co-productions, through bilateral agreements, such as that between Brazil’s Ancine and Argentina’s Incaa, which grants $250,000 per pic supported. As a result of such bilateral agreements Brazil, for example, is now a key partner for all of Latin America.
“I’d like to make the second or third films of my directors. They’ve all been such good experience. We’ve grown together,” Juarez Allen told Variety at the Mar del Plata Festival.
- 4/26/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Denmark’s Katja Adomeit and Germany’s Ingmar Trost among upcoming European producers set to be showcased at Cannes.Scroll down for full list
European Film Promotion (Efp) has selected 20 emerging young European producers for the 16th edition of its Producers on the Move networking initiative, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival from May 15-18.
The 2014 selection includes Danish producer Katja Adomeit, who produced and co-directed the hybrid film Not At Home with the Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat as well as co-producing Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure as a freelancer for the Copenhagen office of Philippe Bober’s The Coproduction Office.
Cologne-based Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko has also been selected. His credits include Ilian Metev’s award-winniıng documentary Sofıa’s Last Ambulance, Latvian director Juris Kursietis’ Modrıs and Ingo Haeb’s The Chambermaid Lynn, and he has just completed production of his third feature, Isabelle Stever’s The Weather Inside.
Lithuania will be...
European Film Promotion (Efp) has selected 20 emerging young European producers for the 16th edition of its Producers on the Move networking initiative, which will be held during the upcoming Cannes Film Festival from May 15-18.
The 2014 selection includes Danish producer Katja Adomeit, who produced and co-directed the hybrid film Not At Home with the Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat as well as co-producing Ruben Östlund’s Force Majeure as a freelancer for the Copenhagen office of Philippe Bober’s The Coproduction Office.
Cologne-based Ingmar Trost of Sutor Kolonko has also been selected. His credits include Ilian Metev’s award-winniıng documentary Sofıa’s Last Ambulance, Latvian director Juris Kursietis’ Modrıs and Ingo Haeb’s The Chambermaid Lynn, and he has just completed production of his third feature, Isabelle Stever’s The Weather Inside.
Lithuania will be...
- 4/21/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
The Tribeca Film Institute (Tfi) have unveiled the 11 2014 Tfi Documentary Fund grantees who collectively will receive $175,000.
Tfi also announced winners of the second annual Tfi/Espn Prize and of the inaugural Influence Award stemming from its partnership with the Europe-based Influence Film Foundation.
The Tfi Documentary Fund grantees are:
A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson D George and produced by Leslie Norville
Aquarela directed by Victor Kossakovsky and produced by Aimara Reques
Diamond, Silver & Gold directed and produced by Jason Kohn and produced by Jared Goldman and Amanda Branson Gill.
Nuts directed and produced by Penny Lane, who also received a Tfi Documentary Fund in 2012.
Pride directed and produced by Taa and Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund alumnus Mohammed Naqvi and Jared Ian Goldman
Tea Time written and directed by Tfi Latin Fund Bloomberg Fellow Maite Alberdi and produced by Clara Taricco
The Sensitives(pictured) directed by Drew Xanthopoulos and produced by David Hartstein
The Wolfpack Project...
Tfi also announced winners of the second annual Tfi/Espn Prize and of the inaugural Influence Award stemming from its partnership with the Europe-based Influence Film Foundation.
The Tfi Documentary Fund grantees are:
A Ballerina’s Tale directed by Nelson D George and produced by Leslie Norville
Aquarela directed by Victor Kossakovsky and produced by Aimara Reques
Diamond, Silver & Gold directed and produced by Jason Kohn and produced by Jared Goldman and Amanda Branson Gill.
Nuts directed and produced by Penny Lane, who also received a Tfi Documentary Fund in 2012.
Pride directed and produced by Taa and Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund alumnus Mohammed Naqvi and Jared Ian Goldman
Tea Time written and directed by Tfi Latin Fund Bloomberg Fellow Maite Alberdi and produced by Clara Taricco
The Sensitives(pictured) directed by Drew Xanthopoulos and produced by David Hartstein
The Wolfpack Project...
- 1/13/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Central and Eastern European filmmakers presented 19 projects at various stages of production at Karlovy Vary’s annual Works in Progress initiative.
The popular industry programme at Kviff is in its ninth year, and past films shown as Works In Progress include I Am, Lunacy, Katyn, Tricks, Alois Nebel and My Dog Killer, among many others.
This year’s selection included a standout pitch for The Disobedient [pictured], a Serbian coming-of-age road movie about two 24-year-olds from Tilva Ros producers Mina Djukic (who will direct) and Nikola Lezaic.The film is now in post for autumn delivery after wrapping its shoot in September 2012.
Another promising Serbian title, of a very different flavour, was the crowdpleasing dark comedy Monument to Michael Jackson (working title). The film will be ready to launch this autumn and the footage shown got the day’s only laughs out of the industry-heavy crowd. The film is a co-production with Macedonia and Germany.
Among the Czech...
The popular industry programme at Kviff is in its ninth year, and past films shown as Works In Progress include I Am, Lunacy, Katyn, Tricks, Alois Nebel and My Dog Killer, among many others.
This year’s selection included a standout pitch for The Disobedient [pictured], a Serbian coming-of-age road movie about two 24-year-olds from Tilva Ros producers Mina Djukic (who will direct) and Nikola Lezaic.The film is now in post for autumn delivery after wrapping its shoot in September 2012.
Another promising Serbian title, of a very different flavour, was the crowdpleasing dark comedy Monument to Michael Jackson (working title). The film will be ready to launch this autumn and the footage shown got the day’s only laughs out of the industry-heavy crowd. The film is a co-production with Macedonia and Germany.
Among the Czech...
- 7/1/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
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