City Sanfic Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Anna Marie de la Fuente When Chile’s preeminent documentarian, Patricio Guzman, receives a lifetime achievement award at the Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) on Aug. 16, he’ll also be marking his 81st birthday.Born on Aug. 11, 1941, Guzman has made more than 20 documentaries at an average of one every two to five years.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Work in Progress project “Patio de Chácales” (“A Yard of Jackals”) by Chilean editor-turned-director Diego Figueroa swept the 12thSanfic Industria awards Saturday where a slew of development prizes was doled out to multiple participants across the various sections of the forum. Equeco’s upcoming “Germain, the Black Angel” proved a big winner, grabbing three awards in the Santiago Lab – Fiction strand. Among the Santiago Lab – Documentary participants, “Mordaz” from Chile’s Cinespecie also took home three prizes.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Dusseldorf Germany-based Patra Spanou Film has snagged psychological suspense-thriller “Delirio” by Alexandra Latishev, a co-production between Chile’s Cyan Prods and Linterna Films of Costa Rica. Backed by Costa Rica’s El Fauno fund and the Ibermedia program, the drama turns on 11-year-old Masha who, with her mother Elisa, moves into her ailing grandmother’s house.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sisterly love ruled at Chile’s 19th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic), which wrapped on Aug. 27 where female directors and actors clinched the top prizes. Israeli-Ukrainian drama “Valeria is Getting Married” by Michal Vinik and Kattia Zuñiga’s “Sister & Sister” snagged the preeminent Chilean festival’s best film plaudits, adding to their trove of accolades since their respective world premieres.

Holly Jones Chilean filmmaker Cons Gallardo Vásquez, whose 2017 debut “In Transit” was awarded at BioBío Cine and Sanfic, is readying their next project, “La Búsqueda Del Otro” (“Searching For the Other”), featured at this week’s Sanfic Industria’s Works In Progress strand, one of the highest profile pix-in-post showcases in South America. Produced by Esteban Sandoval Carrasco, executive director at Pejeperro Films (“Bajo Sospecha: Zokunentu”), the project gives a tender nod to personas who are half-realized and a human being with intricate layers seen only for those who look below the surface.

The Eternal Memory,” from Fabula, scooped Sundance’s World Cinema Grand Prize; Andrés Wood’s “News of a Kidnapping” walked off with best series at the Platino Awards, the Spanish-speaking world’s nearest kudos fest to the Oscars. In all, according to a CinemaChile study released during Sanfic, one of South America’s most significant festival-industry events, Chilean films or filmmakers swept 103 prizes over the first six months of the year. That’s 128% up on same period 2022 when Chile’s was still gearing up from one of the longest COVID-19 confinement periods in the world, only lifted in February 2021.

Anna Marie de la Fuente After a series of talks, upstart Madrid-based international sales agency Feel Sales has nabbed all worldwide rights, with the exception of Chile, to “Allanamiento” (“Breaking and Entering”), the investigative police thriller in official competition at the 19th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic). Feel Sales Acquisitions head Yvette de los Santos closed the deal with producer Camila Rodó Carvallo of Pira Films. Directed by Tomás Gonzales Matos, the drama first participated at Sanfic’s Works in Progress section and was later presented at the Cannes Marché du Films last year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chilean indie Equeco, led by Pablo Calisto, is a triple threat at the 19th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic), with three projects participating in the annual event running August 20-27. Vying for the top prize in the official competition is Equeco’s “Historia y Geografia,” which debuts its teaser trailer exclusively on Variety. Equeco is also embarking on its most ambitious project, “Il Cileno” by Sergio Castro San Martín, a historical drama in co-production with Italy’s Dispàrte, a Rome-based independent production company founded in 2015 by Alessandro Amato and Luigi Chimienti.

Holly Jones Argentine director Martín Turnes, whose feature “Pichuco” snagged the Argentine Film Critic Association’s Silver Condor Award for best documentary in 2015, is bringing his first full-length fiction title, “El Agrónomo,” to Sanfic Industria’s Works In Progress. Filmed in Marcos Paz, Argentina with the support of Marcos Paz Film TV, the project is produced by Fernando Romanazzo of Buenos Aires-based Aqueronte alongside Zebra Films (“Manifesto”) and Haz Cooperativa Audiovisual.

Holly Jones Chilean editor-turned-filmmaker Diego Figueroa (“Los Vecinos”) is set to unveil his debut feature “Patio de Chacales”(“A Yard Of Jackals”) at Sanfic Industria’s prestige Works In Progress strand, offering a suspense-addled mindbender that pivots and retreats through the depths of its protagonists’ minds as atrocities unfurl close-to-home. Produced by Alejandro Ugarte at Santiago-based Infractor, which co-produced the Juan Cáceres Malaga-winning title “Perro Bomba” alongside Chile’s Pejeperro Films and France’s Promenades Films, “Patio de Chacales” toys with the medium to present a singular take on clandestine crime networks.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent Mexico’s El Relicario, whose “El rostro cubierto de besos” screened at Cannes Critics’ Week in its 2023 Morelia showcase, has boarded Ximena Valdivia’s Malaga Festival winner “4Eber,” a movie melding the modern teen dance scene in Cusco and ancient and contemporary fantasy and mythology. Written by Valdivia and Costa Rica’s Luisa Mora Fernández, a co-scribe on Mexican Kim Torres’ Cannes Festival-selected short “Luz Nocturna,” “4Eber” is now produced by Valdivia’s and El Relicario’s Mariano Rentería and Jorge Diez, in the first international feature co-production outing for the Morelia-based outfit.

Holly Jones Oh My Gómez! Films’ Ramiro Pavón, producer of Ana Katz’s Sundance title “El perro que no calla,” and Rocío Romero Quintana, behind 2016 Berlinale Generation 14+ winner “Las Plantas,” will both pitch their latest doc projects at this month’s Sanfic Industria, one of the biggest industry forums in South America. Another project at its Documentary Lab is sourced from Paula Zyngierman at Argentina’s MaravillaCine, which backed “That Weekend” and “Marilyn.” “This year we received a large number of applications from both directors and producers with large experience as well as projects by new talents,” Gabriela Sandoval, head of Sanfic Industria, told Variety, noting that some projects have been sourced from allied international industry platforms such as Industria Guadalajara, DocsMx, Fidba, Taller de productores de Panamá, Arca Residencia.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sanfic Industria, the industry component of Chile’s 19th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic), charges back in full in-person mode this year after three years online. This year’s selection, comprising 11 fiction and 10 documentaries, hails from Chile, Argentina, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Peru, Spain and Brazil.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Now on its fourth year, the Santiago Film Festival’s Morbido-Sanfic Lab features an ever more diverse selection from Ibero-America. As Morbido founder-CEO Pablo Guisa said of this year’s edition: “It has projects from multiple countries, several produced or directed by women as well as one LGBTQ-themed project and, for the first time, a documentary.” Vampire creatures abound in this crop.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Unfolding alongside Chile’s Santiago International Film Festival (SANFIC), Sanfic Industria runs August 20-26, promising a busy schedule that includes Iberoamerican Works in Progress (WIP) and a variety of labs that encompass fiction, documentaries, genre films, sustainable development, series, women producers’ projects, XR etc. Some of the 11 sections will be in a hybrid or online format.  At its July 19 press conference, Sanfic Industria head Gabriela Sandoval will highlight the premiere of two hotly anticipated Chilean series that will screen at the annual event.  Both shows are expected to debut later this year on Chilean television before passing on to streaming platforms. Recipients of the Chilean National Television fund, both deal with women’s themes in distinct genres. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic) celebrates its 19th edition with a vibrant lineup packed with works from first-time Chilean filmmakers, with six debut features out of nine contenders in the fully in-person festival running August 20-27.  “It was tough. We had at least 30 submissions to the Chilean film selection, which we narrowed down to these nine,” said artistic director Carlos Nuñez, who added that three of them are world premieres.  The selection touts five documentaries – a reflection of the boom in non-fiction filmmaking in recent years. Among them is the poetic “A Brief Space in Time” (“Breve espacio de un tiempo”), which world premieres at Sanfic and turns on a Mapuche couple living off their ancestral Wallmapu land. 

Holly Jones After its debut at  Sundance in January, where it earned the World Cinema Dramatic Competition award for directing, Ukrainian wartime drama “Klondike” nabbed top honors for best international film at the Chile’s 18th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic).“Klondike,” written, directed and edited by Ukrainian filmmaker Marina Er Gorbach (“Omar and Us”), tells the story of expectant couple Irina and Anatoly who live in the village of Grabove, near the Russia-Ukraine border during the high conflict that coincides with downed Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. The couple faces devastation up-close as Irina refuses to relocate, even as troops close in.Best director went to Chile’s Roberto Baeza for his documentary effort “Punto de Encuentro,” a gripping portrait of filmmakers striving to recreate the story of their fathers, tortured and imprisoned under the dictatorship.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s foremost industry forum Sanfic Industria wrapped Friday Aug. 19 with a wealth of prizes doled out to projects from across Latin America and Spain. Still reeling from the pandemic, the forum’s 11th year saw another hybrid edition but a definite upsurge in attendance.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In his feature debut, which has just proved the biggest winner at Sanfic Industria’s 2022 Work in Progress strand, Chilean writer-director Alberto Hayden explores what has been almost an obsession with him. Inspired by the musings of South Korean-born philosopher Byung-Chul Han and his French counterpart Deleuze, Hayden questions whether people continue to exist past their physical selves through people’s memories of them, their photos, the possessions they have left behind or in this digital age, their social media imprint. “Una Luz Negra” (“A Dark Light”) is among the 10 Work in Progress (WIP) titles participating at Chilean industry forum, Sanfic Industria.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Breaking Glass Pictures has snagged North American rights to “Blood-Red Ox,” the first genre pic by award-winning Bolivian director-producer Rodrigo Bellott, now playing at the 18th Santiago International Film Festival (Sanfic) sidebar Visions of the World.“A mind-bending trip into the depths of myth and madness, Bellott has crafted a haunting tale that pays homage to classic horror films while offering commentary on contemporary environmental and social issues,” said Scott Motisko, Breaking Glass VP of acquisitions, business development and sales, who together with Breaking Glass CEO Rich Wolff negotiated the pact with Ida Martins, CEO of Media Luna.“We have a longstanding business relationship with Breaking Glass Pictures and couldn’t think of a better outlet for “Blood-Red Ox,” said Martins, adding: “They have been doing an excellent job with all Media Luna previous titles, and we are honored to have one more title in their care.” Shot on location in Bolivia and upstate New York, “Blood-Red Ox” centers on Amir, a Lebanese American journalist, and his partner Amat. The two visit Amir’s environmentalist friend in the town of Tarija, which is being harassed by an oil company bent on exploiting the Bolivian rain forest.

Holly Jones The lives of a self-obsessed film star and a struggling filmmaker collide in Brazilian director-producer Diogo Leite’s first feature, “Monstro,” set to screen as a pic-in-post at the Ibero-American Work in Progress strand of this week’s Sanfic Industria.“Monstro” follows Magaiver, a young filmmaker who moonlights as an Internet technician in order to survive. His life takes a bittersweet turn as he’s hired to film a retrospective on ageing cinema star Laura.

Holly Jones With a delicately morose charm, Spanish actress-turned-director Liz Lobato is presenting her debut feature project, “Tierra de Nuestras Madres” as part of the 11th Fanfic Industria’s Ibero-American Work In Progress strand.The farcical fable scrutinizing globalization takes place in the village of La Mancha, where residents know each other thoroughly and tend to their routines like clockwork. There, beloved curmudgeon and central protagonist Rosario makes the rounds selling drug-laced fig salt to her neighbors as the town’s unknowingly sold out from under them by a bankrupt mayor.Shot in black and white, the film gives far more than it takes and absurdly relays the somber tale of corruption and a community bound to its roots so tightly its willing to sacrifice a soul or two to stay put, as futile an endeavor  as that may be.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentFollowing on “Huesera,” a double Tribeca winner, Mexico’s Machete, headed by Edher Campos, is returning to female filmmaker social issue genre with “Cachorra,” a darkly humoured horror thriller set on the Mexico-U.S. desert border.The feature debut of Madrid-based genre scribe and consultant Elisa Puerto Aubel, who penned Sitges Audience Award winner.  “La venganza de Jairo,” “Cachorra” is one of the newest additions to a five movie 2002-23 slate at Machete, producer of Cannes Festival winners “Leap Year” and “La Jaula de Oro.” It forms part of a robust lineup at this week’s Sanfic-Mórbido Lab, which packs many of Sanfic Industria’s most commercial propositions, All of Machete’s films, three now in post-production, carry social point.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Camila José Donoso (“Naomi Campbel”) is gearing up to shoot her fourth pic, “Antitropical,” with Roberto Doveris’ Niña Niño Films producing. The docu-fiction hybrid will be filmed much like a documentary over various months, starting late October, that will stretch into the next year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In one of the first deals struck at Chilean industry forum Sanfic Industria, local indie producers Matias de Bourguignon and Equeco have boarded the Venezuelan drama “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” (“Mutaré como animal del monte”), the feature debut of rising Venezuelan talent Hector Silva.Lead produced by Berlin-based Venezuelan producer Rodolfo Cova whose credits include Venice Golden Lion winner “From Afar” and Michel Franco’s Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “Las Hijas de Abril,” “I Will Mutate Like a Jungle Animal” is among the 28 titles in the Sanfic Industria Santiago Lab which supports Ibero-American projects in development.De Bourguignon and Equeco join international co-producers Pomme Hurlante Films (France), Artrupe Films (Brazil) and Abismo Cine (Ecuador) who were also drawn to the feature debut of Silva whose award-winning short films have played in prominent film festivals, including Cannes, Toronto and Tribeca. “Hector’s shorts deeply moved me.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentSpain’s Solita Films, the Madrid-based outfit of director-producer brothers José Esteban and César Esteban Alenda, has boarded “Her Ocean,” (“El Mar la Mar”), an addition to the growing canon of LGBTQ dramas now in Latin America. Written and directed by Julián Amaru Estrada and produced by María Paz Barragán at Lima-based Final Abierto, “Her Ocean” is one of the most memorable titles among seven works at this week’s Sanfic Industria Productoras Lab, a novel pitching program and training facility for emerging, first or second-feature women producers in Latin America.“Her Ocean” is also selected for this year’s LabGuion in Colombia and Sapcine in Cali.Now co-developed by Solita Films, the feature project is a LGBTQ coming-of-age drama which builds to a magic realist climax. It turns on Ray, 15, gay, who helps local fishermen in his small town on the coast of Perú until, drunk at a bonfire party on the beach, he kisses his friend Jesús.  Repudiated by his family and the townsfolk, Ray escapes to vibrant jungle city Iquitos, and there finds friends and even competes in the Miss Amazonas trans beauty pageant.

Holly Jones Screenwriter and director Ignacio Pavez and the team at Chile’s Gallo Negro Producciones (“Intiwawa”)  are readying to produce Pavez’s next feature, “Un Amputado” (“An Amputee”).Creative director at Gallo Negro, Pavez bows his second feature, “Vieja Viejo,” at Sanfic 18, the Santiago International Film Festival, which runs through Aug. 21 as a hybrid event.

Anna Marie de la Fuente The 18th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic) is paying tribute to Chile’s most internationally renowned and arguably hardest working actor, the peripatetic Alfredo Castro who will attend Sanfic’s inauguration Aug. 14 to receive his lifetime achievement award and kick off a retrospective of his films.Also a playwright and theater director, Castro has worked across Europe and Latin America, acting in French, Spanish, Portuguese and a number of accents and dialects from Latin America, including neutral Spanish.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentBuenos Aires-based Maravilla Cine, producer of 2018 Berlin Panorama player “Marilyn” and San Sebastian 2020 New Directors’ hit “That Weekend,” has boarded “Diamond” (“Diamante”), the first fiction feature from Bolivia’s Yashira Jordán which is shaping up as one of the standout titles at this year’s Locarno Open Doors.Maravilla Cine joins “Diamond” lead producer Empatia Cinema, rapidly consolidating as a production hub for Bolivian auteurs. Recent credits include Martín Boulocq’s “The Visitor” which premiered at June’s Tribeca Festival and Alejandro Quiroga’s Western “Los de abajo,” a Sanfic Industria pix-in-post winner in March 2021.Empatia Cinema and Maravilla Cine have jointly applied for a development grant from the Ibermedia regional film fund for Latin America, Spain and Portugal.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s Santiago Lab, the Santiago Film Festival’s industry initiative to support Ibero-American projects in development, has selected 28 titles, 14 fiction and 14 documentaries, culled out of hundreds of entries from across Latin America and Spain.Some of the titles were picked from other festivals’ industry events such as “Diamante,” from Malaga’s Mafiz; Constanza Figari’s “A Woman Wants to Die,” which Sanfic awarded at Industria Guadalajara this year, along with “MC Silencio,” a Colombian production from Medellin, an emerging audiovisual hub in Colombia, said Sanfic Industry head and festival co-founder, Gabriela Sandoval.The same goes for some of the documentaries such as “The Silence of a Patio” a gripping documentary about the dark history of the Casa de la Beneficencia of Castellón, Spain which was presented at Doc Valencia. Docu “Bloques Erraticos” is the first full-length feature doc of Thomas Woodroffe whose acclaimed shorts include “Austral Fever” and “Holding Desire.” Sanfic Industry leaned on its advisors for the selection.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“History of the Occult” director Cristian Ponce, “The Trace We Leave Behind” producer André Pereira and “Huesera” producer Edher Campos all have projects at the 3rd Sanfic Morbido Lab, Sanfic’s genre/fantastic film showcase which looks packed with riches.Also noticeable, three of the six projects are set to be directed by female genre auteurs –  Argentina’s Laura Sánchez Acosta, Spain’s Marta Medina del Valle and French-Spanish screenwriter Elisa Puerto Aubel – as women create an ever larger number of the most exciting elevated genre movies coming out of Spain and Latin America.Appropriately enough, given Sanfic takes place in Santiago de Chile, Chile accounts for two projects at the Lab, Daniel Aspillaga’s “Plasma,” a part body horror mockumentary, and Cristián Grez Donoso’s “Magic Word,” turning on an aged and crazed former amusement park actor. The potential impact of projects is underscored by recent events.

John Hopewell Chief International CorrespondentArgentina’s “FAN,” Colombia’s “Gloria and the Dragon” and Peru’s “Laureano” figure among seven titles at Sanfic Industria’s Productoras Lab, a novel pitching program and training facility for emerging, first or second-feature  women producers in Latin America. All three titles carry good word of mouth.The producers will attend tutorials on how to think from early development about film finance, distribution and boosting the international reach of their productions.“We received a lot of highly distinctive projects from all over Latin America.

Holly Jones Opening up to works from over the whole of Latin America, this year’s Sanfic Industria Series Lab will highlight series currently in development from Uruguay’s Fernando Epstein, Argentina’s Laura Farhi and Peru’s Paola Terán.Epstein’s “The Invisible Ink” proved one of the big winners at June’s Conecta Fiction, marking the first TV work from the renowned Uruguayan film producer (“Whisky,” ”Gigante”).Penned by Farhi, a writer on “Soy Tu Fan,” “Soy Luna” and “Intertwined,” “The Big Leap” won the Filmarket Hub 2022 International TV Pilots Contest.Terán, an assistant editor on Diego and Daniel Vega’s Locarno Fest winning “El Mudo,” will direct “Nobody Rests At Home.” The eight works selected for this year’s Series Lab will be announced during a PUC Film Festival Lima press conference on Monday.Agustina Lumi and Alejandra Marano co-ordinate the Sanfic Series Lab. 2022’s hybrid edition of Sanfic Industria runs over Aug.

Holly Jones Argentine production company Coruya Cine (“Nocturna: Side A”), led by Javier Díaz, has signed-on to co-produce “The Sugar Girl,” (“La Niña Del Azúcar”) alongside Peru’s AV Films (“Juego Siniestro”). The project, shooting in the remote and sprawling city of Iquitos, will utilize an Amazonian cine noir aesthetic to merge the suspenseful and metaphysical components of four parallel narratives.“The space is being given to tell the stories of others.

JD Linville Bernardo Quesney’s “History and Geography” and Tomás González Matos’ “Breaking and Entering” are two of the titles screening May 20 at Cannes’ Marché du Film showcase, Sanfic Industria Goes to Cannes. Two other films round out the selection; Andrew Sala’s “The Barbaric” from Argentina, and Esteban García’s Mexico-Columbia co-production “Back to the Sea of my Deseaced.”All four titles screened at Sanfic Industria’s Works in Progress. The 2022 Cannes slate showcases powerful themes of violence, identity and corruption.The Goes to Cannes sessions will run May 20-23 May.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Chile’s burgeoning Sanfic Industria is returning to its pre-pandemic August slot in the calendar year along with the Sanfic Film Festival, which runs Aug. 14-21.