Running April 4-7, the Iff Panama brings to this year’s edition a rich mix of standout director driven titles from Europe, the Spanish-speaking world and beyond, spangled by highlights from Central America, including Panama:
“Bila Burba,” (Duiren Wagua, Panama)
Documentary. Wagua’s debut feature. The Gunadule nation’s ties with the Panamanian government were fraught with territorial and cultural disputes. In 1925, leaders Simral Colman and Nele Kantule, inspired by their warrior ancestors, joined forces to unite their communities in the ‘Dule Revolution’ against police brutality. Today, their descendants honor this legacy through street theater, transforming community streets into stages to commemorate their ancestors’ struggle.
Bila Burba
“Brown,” (Ricardo Aguilar, Panama)
Penned by Aguilar’s regular collaborator, Manolito Rodríguez, the story centers on Teófilo Alfonso, also known as “Panamá Al” Brown, the first Latin American World Boxing Champion. After a fixed fight costs him his title, he retires to Paris.
“Bila Burba,” (Duiren Wagua, Panama)
Documentary. Wagua’s debut feature. The Gunadule nation’s ties with the Panamanian government were fraught with territorial and cultural disputes. In 1925, leaders Simral Colman and Nele Kantule, inspired by their warrior ancestors, joined forces to unite their communities in the ‘Dule Revolution’ against police brutality. Today, their descendants honor this legacy through street theater, transforming community streets into stages to commemorate their ancestors’ struggle.
Bila Burba
“Brown,” (Ricardo Aguilar, Panama)
Penned by Aguilar’s regular collaborator, Manolito Rodríguez, the story centers on Teófilo Alfonso, also known as “Panamá Al” Brown, the first Latin American World Boxing Champion. After a fixed fight costs him his title, he retires to Paris.
- 4/3/2024
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Backed by the Cannes Film Market and Argentina’s Incaa film agency, the 15th Ventana Sur and its much anticipated works in progress sections, Primer Corte and Copia Final, unspool over Nov. 27-Dec. 1 in Buenos Aires.
This year’s crop of films, either in post-production or completed, make scant reference to the region’s brutal historical past, perhaps with the exception of “Pepe” by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, which begins with the capture of drug lord Pablo Escobar who sowed terror and chaos for years in Colombia, or José María Cabral’s “Tiguere,” set in a ‘90s Dominican Republic.
In contrast, they focus more on human interest stories as in the territorial dispute in “El Casero”; family clashes in “November” and “Una casa con dos perros” – also a reference to Argentina’s economic crisis – as well as issues of identity and intergenerational relationships.
In Mexican filmmaker Rigoberto Perezcano’s poignant black-and-white drama,...
This year’s crop of films, either in post-production or completed, make scant reference to the region’s brutal historical past, perhaps with the exception of “Pepe” by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias, which begins with the capture of drug lord Pablo Escobar who sowed terror and chaos for years in Colombia, or José María Cabral’s “Tiguere,” set in a ‘90s Dominican Republic.
In contrast, they focus more on human interest stories as in the territorial dispute in “El Casero”; family clashes in “November” and “Una casa con dos perros” – also a reference to Argentina’s economic crisis – as well as issues of identity and intergenerational relationships.
In Mexican filmmaker Rigoberto Perezcano’s poignant black-and-white drama,...
- 11/14/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
“Yo no moriré de amor,” the feature debut of theatre actress Marta Matute, among the five titles selected by the Madrid Film School’s Ecam incubator program, has been boarded by Elastica Films,
whose credits include Berlinale Golden Bear prize winner “Alcarràs” and “Creatura,” Elena Martin’s best European film winner at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The family drama is lead produced by José Esteban Alenda and César Esteban Alenda’s Solita Films, which saw their first international co-production, “El despertar de las hormigas,” by Costa Rican Antonella Sudasassi, world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum and become the first Central American film to be nominated for a Spanish Goya.
Executive producer Cecilia Rivas of Solita Films told Variety she is hoping to close a European co-production deal for “Yo no moriré de amor” in San Sebastian.
“Elastica Films makes an ideal partner as we share the same vision,” she noted, adding...
whose credits include Berlinale Golden Bear prize winner “Alcarràs” and “Creatura,” Elena Martin’s best European film winner at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
The family drama is lead produced by José Esteban Alenda and César Esteban Alenda’s Solita Films, which saw their first international co-production, “El despertar de las hormigas,” by Costa Rican Antonella Sudasassi, world premiere at Berlinale’s Forum and become the first Central American film to be nominated for a Spanish Goya.
Executive producer Cecilia Rivas of Solita Films told Variety she is hoping to close a European co-production deal for “Yo no moriré de amor” in San Sebastian.
“Elastica Films makes an ideal partner as we share the same vision,” she noted, adding...
- 9/25/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Spain has found a place on the global film industry’s radar as an attractive market for co-producing projects, boosted by its bigger-than-ever-public-sector funding.
The trend comes in a moment of maturity for its audiovisual industry, with competitive tax incentives and the emergence of fresh talent, often female, whether directors or producers. Unlike U.S. indie producers, hard hit by streamers pulling back, European counterparts still have public sector financing.
But to make movies of any artistic ambition, which might justify that funding and break out to foreign sales and a theatrical release, producers are looking overseas more and to other parts of Spain for production partners.
Co-production is booming. Only last year, Spain co-produced 70 films, beating its average production for the period 2018-2022 of 256 titles, according to Spanish film agency Icaa.
Icaa’s selective aid for movie production reached €20 million (21.48 million). Of that, a minimum 5 went to support minority co-productions.
The trend comes in a moment of maturity for its audiovisual industry, with competitive tax incentives and the emergence of fresh talent, often female, whether directors or producers. Unlike U.S. indie producers, hard hit by streamers pulling back, European counterparts still have public sector financing.
But to make movies of any artistic ambition, which might justify that funding and break out to foreign sales and a theatrical release, producers are looking overseas more and to other parts of Spain for production partners.
Co-production is booming. Only last year, Spain co-produced 70 films, beating its average production for the period 2018-2022 of 256 titles, according to Spanish film agency Icaa.
Icaa’s selective aid for movie production reached €20 million (21.48 million). Of that, a minimum 5 went to support minority co-productions.
- 2/17/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
Spain’s Solita Films and Auna Producciones, and Puerto Rico’s Canica Films, the production team behind Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition entry “La Pecera” (“The Fishbowl”), by Glorimar Marrero Sánchez, is joining again for the Puerto Rican filmmaker’s new feature, “El Grito de la Trinitaria.”
Written and directed by Marrero Sánchez, “El Grito de la Trinitaria” (a working title) follows a Dominican woman searching for her own space in the world and the elderly woman in whose house she lives, when they are about to lose the apartment they have shared for years.
The project replicates “La Pecera’s” Spain-Puerto Rico production partnership, with Solita co-founder José Esteban Alenda, Auna’s Amaya Izquierdo and Canica’s Marrero Sánchez serving as producers.
“The search for my own space rolls off my interest, as a Puerto Rican, to address the human need for self-determination,” Marrero told Variety.
“This time,...
Written and directed by Marrero Sánchez, “El Grito de la Trinitaria” (a working title) follows a Dominican woman searching for her own space in the world and the elderly woman in whose house she lives, when they are about to lose the apartment they have shared for years.
The project replicates “La Pecera’s” Spain-Puerto Rico production partnership, with Solita co-founder José Esteban Alenda, Auna’s Amaya Izquierdo and Canica’s Marrero Sánchez serving as producers.
“The search for my own space rolls off my interest, as a Puerto Rican, to address the human need for self-determination,” Marrero told Variety.
“This time,...
- 1/21/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos
- Variety Film + TV
The 10th Panama Int’l Film Festival wrapped Sunday, Dec. 5 with Michel Franco’s Acapulco-set drama “Sundown” closing the event.
Winners of the rough-cut sidebar Primera Mirada were announced at closing night, which took place at festival venue, La Manzana de Santa Ana. Costa Rican entries took home the top prizes this year, indicative of the tiny Central American nation’s outsized filmmaking talent.
The Primera Mirada jury, led by Diana Sánchez, Marcelo Quesada and Paula Gastaud, bestowed the top prize to Costa Rican supernatural drama “Domingo and the Mist” by Ariel Escalante who took home the $10,000 cash prize; Mauricio Morales of El Salvador won the second cash prize of $5,000 for his docu “Milo, Breaking Frontiers.”
“I’m enormously thankful to Iff Panama for having not only supported ‘Domingo and the Mist,’ both in Primera Mirada as well as in the Panama Film Match a year and a half ago,...
Winners of the rough-cut sidebar Primera Mirada were announced at closing night, which took place at festival venue, La Manzana de Santa Ana. Costa Rican entries took home the top prizes this year, indicative of the tiny Central American nation’s outsized filmmaking talent.
The Primera Mirada jury, led by Diana Sánchez, Marcelo Quesada and Paula Gastaud, bestowed the top prize to Costa Rican supernatural drama “Domingo and the Mist” by Ariel Escalante who took home the $10,000 cash prize; Mauricio Morales of El Salvador won the second cash prize of $5,000 for his docu “Milo, Breaking Frontiers.”
“I’m enormously thankful to Iff Panama for having not only supported ‘Domingo and the Mist,’ both in Primera Mirada as well as in the Panama Film Match a year and a half ago,...
- 12/6/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
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