Chile’s Storyboard Media is making its first foray into series production by joining forces with Chilean actor-producer Pablo Díaz del Rio of Río Estudios and Argentina’s Juan Pablo Gugliotta of MagmaCine to co-produce a historical fiction series, “Habitación 205” (“Box 205”).
The deal with MagmaCine was closed during the Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria on Oct. 3.
Created by Díaz del Rio and written by Mateo Iribarren, the four-episode series is inspired by the 20-year-long judicial investigation into the death of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who died in an allegedly botched medical procedure. It will also be adapted into a 120-minute feature film.
“We are elated that our maiden venture into series-making begins with “Habitacion 205” and judging from the responses we received at the San Sebastian Festival and now Iberseries, it looks like it would appeal to both our local and international audiences,” said Gabriela Sandoval who co-founded and...
The deal with MagmaCine was closed during the Madrid forum Iberseries & Platino Industria on Oct. 3.
Created by Díaz del Rio and written by Mateo Iribarren, the four-episode series is inspired by the 20-year-long judicial investigation into the death of former Chilean President Eduardo Frei Montalva, who died in an allegedly botched medical procedure. It will also be adapted into a 120-minute feature film.
“We are elated that our maiden venture into series-making begins with “Habitacion 205” and judging from the responses we received at the San Sebastian Festival and now Iberseries, it looks like it would appeal to both our local and international audiences,” said Gabriela Sandoval who co-founded and...
- 10/4/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Co-productions are increasingly the norm in Chile where state funds remain scant in a market of a mere 19.5 million inhabitants. Its new president’s campaign pledge last year to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts is not quite a reality, with a 16% increase noted so far. On the bright side, there has been an uptick in private funding, with some 50% of a film’s budget covered by private investors. To date, the audiovisual sector has seen a 31.5% increase in state funding this year compared to 2022.
Chilean filmmakers are also exploring new genres, straying from traditional dramas. More often than not — as in Maite Alberdi’s Sundance win for 2023’s “The Eternal Memory” — Chilean cinema has triumphed at one major festival or awards event after another.
Topping it all, Chile’s Pedro Pascal, whose star has continued its meteoric rise with “The Mandalorian” and “The Last of Us,...
Chilean filmmakers are also exploring new genres, straying from traditional dramas. More often than not — as in Maite Alberdi’s Sundance win for 2023’s “The Eternal Memory” — Chilean cinema has triumphed at one major festival or awards event after another.
Topping it all, Chile’s Pedro Pascal, whose star has continued its meteoric rise with “The Mandalorian” and “The Last of Us,...
- 5/16/2023
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Fast emerging as a go-to company for high-profile Chilean and women director titles, Buenos Aires boutique agency Meikincine has swooped on “My Brothers Dream Awake,” ahead of its world premiere at Switzerland’s Locarno Festival on Saturday.
Competing in Cineasti del Presente, a section reserved for emerging filmmakers from around the world, “My Brothers Dream Awake” marks the second feature outing for young Chilean Mapuche cineaste Claudia Huaiquimilla, who burst onto the scene with 2016’s “Bad Influence,” establishing herself as a voice of abused minorities.
Written by Huaiquimilla and Pablo Greene, the film shares this sensibility. Dedicated – at least in a rough cut seen at Ventana Sur – to the 1,313 inmates who have died at youth detention centers in Chile, the film earliest stretches turn on Angel and younger brother Franco, incarcerated in a youth penitentiary for a year, pending trial. They now have friends, Angel even a puppy love attachment to a girl inmate,...
Competing in Cineasti del Presente, a section reserved for emerging filmmakers from around the world, “My Brothers Dream Awake” marks the second feature outing for young Chilean Mapuche cineaste Claudia Huaiquimilla, who burst onto the scene with 2016’s “Bad Influence,” establishing herself as a voice of abused minorities.
Written by Huaiquimilla and Pablo Greene, the film shares this sensibility. Dedicated – at least in a rough cut seen at Ventana Sur – to the 1,313 inmates who have died at youth detention centers in Chile, the film earliest stretches turn on Angel and younger brother Franco, incarcerated in a youth penitentiary for a year, pending trial. They now have friends, Angel even a puppy love attachment to a girl inmate,...
- 8/6/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Giovani Borba’s “Empty House,” Mar Pescio’s “That Weekend” and Martin Desalvo’s “El Ciego, Border With Death” will feature in a notable Sanfic Goes to Cannes pix-in-post showcase at July’s Marché du Film.
Two further films, both psychological dramas, bring large breath to the selection: Flavio Botelho’s tragic but ultimately life-celebratory “The Life That’s Left”; and “Patient(ly),” a searing critique of Chile’s healthcare system.
A new talent springboard, Sanfic Goes to Cannes is the first time Sanfic has made the Marché’s Goes to Cannes films-at-rough-cut strand. That marks just the latest expansive move for Sanfic, Chile’s Santiago Intl. Film Festival. Framing five titles which all screened at Sanfic Industria’s Work in Progress in March, the Cannes lineup also marks fruit of a bold, counter-intuitive move by Sanfic Industria.
As other festivals pushed back to later in 2021, Sanfic’s industry arm moved into the breach,...
Two further films, both psychological dramas, bring large breath to the selection: Flavio Botelho’s tragic but ultimately life-celebratory “The Life That’s Left”; and “Patient(ly),” a searing critique of Chile’s healthcare system.
A new talent springboard, Sanfic Goes to Cannes is the first time Sanfic has made the Marché’s Goes to Cannes films-at-rough-cut strand. That marks just the latest expansive move for Sanfic, Chile’s Santiago Intl. Film Festival. Framing five titles which all screened at Sanfic Industria’s Work in Progress in March, the Cannes lineup also marks fruit of a bold, counter-intuitive move by Sanfic Industria.
As other festivals pushed back to later in 2021, Sanfic’s industry arm moved into the breach,...
- 7/9/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Chile is starting its own big restart. Few national industries will have a larger online presence at this year’s Cannes Film Market. Big name news has broken in early market plays as well.
After features with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams (“Disobedience”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”), Academy Award winner Sebastián Lelio, (“A Fantastic Woman”) will associate produce “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” a doc feature that captures the trauma of some of the 460 protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean police during massive demonstrations that erupted in October 2019.
Set up at Storyboard Media, “Porvenir” is directed by distinguished Chilean doc filmmaker Cristián Leighton.
Even while gearing up to direct Joaquin Phoenix in A24’s “Disappointment Blvd.,” Ari Aster has signed on to executive produce Chilean stop-motion short “The Bones,” directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) with a soundtrack composed by acclaimed U.S. violinist Tim Fain,...
After features with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams (“Disobedience”) and Julianne Moore (“Gloria Bell”), Academy Award winner Sebastián Lelio, (“A Fantastic Woman”) will associate produce “El Porvenir de la Mirada,” a doc feature that captures the trauma of some of the 460 protesters shot in the eyes by Chilean police during massive demonstrations that erupted in October 2019.
Set up at Storyboard Media, “Porvenir” is directed by distinguished Chilean doc filmmaker Cristián Leighton.
Even while gearing up to direct Joaquin Phoenix in A24’s “Disappointment Blvd.,” Ari Aster has signed on to executive produce Chilean stop-motion short “The Bones,” directed by Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) with a soundtrack composed by acclaimed U.S. violinist Tim Fain,...
- 7/8/2021
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Following Chile’s most successful theatrical release of 2020 and high-profile streaming premieres in Latin America and the U.S. as an Amazon Prime Video Exclusive, Argentina’s Meikincine, sales agents on this year’s Argentine Oscar submission “The Sleepwalkers,” has sold Chilean political thriller “Jailbreak Pact” to Swift Productions in France and Sbs in Australia.
Recent deals struck following Meikincine’s summer sales push, including June’s virtual Marché du Film, which achieved sales to Movement Pictures in South Korea and Av-Jet International Media in Taiwan.
In September, the company shared with Variety that negotiations are in the final stages for deals in the U.K. and Ireland and offers are being considered from theatrical distributors in China, Canada and India, among others.
“Jailbreak Pact” was released theatrically in Chile in January by Fox, and quickly pulled the highest box office for a domestic film in more than two years...
Recent deals struck following Meikincine’s summer sales push, including June’s virtual Marché du Film, which achieved sales to Movement Pictures in South Korea and Av-Jet International Media in Taiwan.
In September, the company shared with Variety that negotiations are in the final stages for deals in the U.K. and Ireland and offers are being considered from theatrical distributors in China, Canada and India, among others.
“Jailbreak Pact” was released theatrically in Chile in January by Fox, and quickly pulled the highest box office for a domestic film in more than two years...
- 12/1/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Chile’s Storyboard Media and Cine Matriz are teaming with Colombia’s Romeo on documentary feature “Still Stares,” the debut feature of director Patricia Correa. Gabriela Sandoval and Carlos Núñez will executive produce for Storyboard Media, with Consuelo Castillo filling the role on behalf of her company Romeo.
Storyboard’s latest doc “The Sky Is Red” is playing in the main competition at IDFA, continuing to solidify the company’s position as one of Chile and Latin America’s leading independent producers. The company’s most recent success, “Jailbreak Pact,” has been an international sales hit for agent Meikincine following a local release in January, which pulled in the highest box office for a Chilean film in more than two years.
Romeo was founded by Castillo in 2018 and is in post-production on Gisela Rosario’s “Perfume de Gardenias,” a Puerto Rico co-production and recipient of the Cinematographic Development Fund in Colombia,...
Storyboard’s latest doc “The Sky Is Red” is playing in the main competition at IDFA, continuing to solidify the company’s position as one of Chile and Latin America’s leading independent producers. The company’s most recent success, “Jailbreak Pact,” has been an international sales hit for agent Meikincine following a local release in January, which pulled in the highest box office for a Chilean film in more than two years.
Romeo was founded by Castillo in 2018 and is in post-production on Gisela Rosario’s “Perfume de Gardenias,” a Puerto Rico co-production and recipient of the Cinematographic Development Fund in Colombia,...
- 11/23/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
After successful streaming premieres in Latin America and the U.S. as an Amazon Prime Video Exclusive, Argentina’s Meikincine, one of Latin America’s leading sales agents for independent, festival fare, has sold Chilean political thriller “Jailbreak Pact” in South Korea and Taiwan, and is in advanced negotiations in several other key territories.
Shopping the film at this summer’s major film markets, Meikincine has closed deals with Movement Pictures in South Korea and Av-Jet International Media in Taiwan. Additionally, the company shared with Variety that negotiations are in the final stages for deals in the U.K. and Ireland and offers are being considered from theatrical distributors in China, Canada, France and India, among others.
“Jailbreak Pact” was released theatrically in Chile in January by Fox, and quickly pulled the highest box office for a domestic film in more than two years before its international premier at the...
Shopping the film at this summer’s major film markets, Meikincine has closed deals with Movement Pictures in South Korea and Av-Jet International Media in Taiwan. Additionally, the company shared with Variety that negotiations are in the final stages for deals in the U.K. and Ireland and offers are being considered from theatrical distributors in China, Canada, France and India, among others.
“Jailbreak Pact” was released theatrically in Chile in January by Fox, and quickly pulled the highest box office for a domestic film in more than two years before its international premier at the...
- 9/18/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
On May 11, Uruguay became the first country in Latin America to resume shooting following shutdowns. Several international productions relocated to the country where revenues from commercial shoots have already surpassed 2019’s, says Roberto Blatt, director of Uruguay’s Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual.
Hernán Musaluppi, producer at Cimarrón, confirms its first production service begins Sept. 21. A month later, the company will roll on two new original shows and initiate production services on an unnamed project for a major international platform.
Shooting has also resumed in the Dominican Republic, with the first international production kicking off Aug. 17 and two more scheduled in September. Local producer-director Jose Maria Cabral (“Woodpeckers”) pointed out that with a 25% transferable tax credit for international shoots and no caps on cast fees, the country’s financial appeal for international shoots is “second to none.”
In Colombia, shooting has resumed regionally, with local governments establishing health and safety protocols.
Hernán Musaluppi, producer at Cimarrón, confirms its first production service begins Sept. 21. A month later, the company will roll on two new original shows and initiate production services on an unnamed project for a major international platform.
Shooting has also resumed in the Dominican Republic, with the first international production kicking off Aug. 17 and two more scheduled in September. Local producer-director Jose Maria Cabral (“Woodpeckers”) pointed out that with a 25% transferable tax credit for international shoots and no caps on cast fees, the country’s financial appeal for international shoots is “second to none.”
In Colombia, shooting has resumed regionally, with local governments establishing health and safety protocols.
- 9/9/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Amazon Prime Video has clinched U.S. and Latin American rights to Pacto de Fuga” (“Jailbreak Pact”), the biggest Chilean smash-hit at domestic cinemas in Chile over the last few years.
Negotiated by “Jailbreak Pact’s” sales agent, Buenos Aires-based Meikincine, the rights deal was struck during the Marché du Film Online, said sales agent Lucía Meik.
The fiction feature debut of David Albala, produced by Calibre 71, Storyboard Media, Enlazo Capital Films and Tora Investments, the thriller is based on real-life events which led to Chile’s most celebrated prison escape on Jan. 29, 1990, at the tail-end of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. During it, 49 prisoners, some members of the anti-Pinochet armed resistance group Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, managed to escape from a penitentiary on Santiago de Chile through a series of tunnels dug over 18 months using spoons, screwdrivers and other rudimentary tools.
A symbolic victory over Pinochet, the film...
Negotiated by “Jailbreak Pact’s” sales agent, Buenos Aires-based Meikincine, the rights deal was struck during the Marché du Film Online, said sales agent Lucía Meik.
The fiction feature debut of David Albala, produced by Calibre 71, Storyboard Media, Enlazo Capital Films and Tora Investments, the thriller is based on real-life events which led to Chile’s most celebrated prison escape on Jan. 29, 1990, at the tail-end of Augusto Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. During it, 49 prisoners, some members of the anti-Pinochet armed resistance group Frente Patriótico Manuel Rodríguez, managed to escape from a penitentiary on Santiago de Chile through a series of tunnels dug over 18 months using spoons, screwdrivers and other rudimentary tools.
A symbolic victory over Pinochet, the film...
- 6/29/2020
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Women are dominating the Chilean film industry more than ever, replicating what is happening across most of Latin America. In Bolivia, 85% of the producers are said to be women and in Mexico, nearly half of the audiovisual workforce is female. Of the 10 key Chilean titles participating at the Marché du Film Online Producers Network Spotlight this year, eight are produced by women.
Films made by this ever-growing generation of female producers are “ever more robust, of a larger caliber, with big casts, and made in international co-production, not small films made with just Chilean funding,” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chilean film-tv promotion board CinemaChile. She cites Florencia Larrea’s “My Tender Matador,” Macarena Lopez’s “La Felicidad,” Gabriela Sandoval’s “Jailbreak Pact” and Karina Jury’s “Vera de Verdad,” co-produced with Italy and selected for the Marché du Film’s Frontières genre showcase.
“The whole industry is evolving...
Films made by this ever-growing generation of female producers are “ever more robust, of a larger caliber, with big casts, and made in international co-production, not small films made with just Chilean funding,” says Constanza Arena, executive director of Chilean film-tv promotion board CinemaChile. She cites Florencia Larrea’s “My Tender Matador,” Macarena Lopez’s “La Felicidad,” Gabriela Sandoval’s “Jailbreak Pact” and Karina Jury’s “Vera de Verdad,” co-produced with Italy and selected for the Marché du Film’s Frontières genre showcase.
“The whole industry is evolving...
- 6/22/2020
- by Shalini Dore
- Variety Film + TV
Chile’s Forastero has shared with Variety the first trailer for it is highly anticipated, pan-Latin American co-production “My Tender Matador,” staring the country’s most prolific lead actor Alfredo Castro “The Club”).
Co-produced by Forestero in Chile, Tornado in Argentina, Caponeto in Mexico and Zapik Films in Chile, the feature is directed by Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa and based on the the novel by celebrated Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel, a figure decades ahead of his time is his advocacy of gender issues, in an archly conservative Chile under and after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Turning on an intimate friendship, the 1986-set feature tells the story of an impoverished, elderly, cross-dresser known as the Queen of the Corner (Castro). After falling in love with a charming guerrilla, the character gets swept up in a covert anti-Pinochet operation.
In the trailer we see the first encounter between the two, and the...
Co-produced by Forestero in Chile, Tornado in Argentina, Caponeto in Mexico and Zapik Films in Chile, the feature is directed by Rodrigo Sepúlveda Urzúa and based on the the novel by celebrated Chilean writer Pedro Lemebel, a figure decades ahead of his time is his advocacy of gender issues, in an archly conservative Chile under and after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Turning on an intimate friendship, the 1986-set feature tells the story of an impoverished, elderly, cross-dresser known as the Queen of the Corner (Castro). After falling in love with a charming guerrilla, the character gets swept up in a covert anti-Pinochet operation.
In the trailer we see the first encounter between the two, and the...
- 6/19/2020
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Chilean producers to track, who will be forming part of the Berlinale’s 2020 Country in Focus dedicated to Chile. Five are well-known, another five on the rise :
Up-and-coming
María José Díaz
Dos Be Producciones
An executive producer and investigative journalist for TV series and doc-features, Diaz is an executive producer at Dos Be Prods. and founder of Galgo Storytelling, a transmedia content producer. Projects in development: Doc “Haganse la Luz,” Ignacia Merino and Isabel Reyes’ debuts, and docu series “Nepen” about Chile’s indigenous Mapuches.
Yeniffer Fasciani
Niebla Producciones
A 2015 Berlinale Talents participant, Fasciani is a partner/co-founder of Niebla Prods. In 2016 she produced TV series “Martin, Man and Legend” for La Santé Films and was executive director of Dci, a Chilean film distributor. Upcoming projects: Carola Quezada’s “Perros sin Cola,” Chilean-Japanese co-production “Green Grass” by Ignacio Ruiz, and pregnant boxer drama “A La Deriva.”
Cynthia García
Cyan Prods
Founder of Cyan Prods.
Up-and-coming
María José Díaz
Dos Be Producciones
An executive producer and investigative journalist for TV series and doc-features, Diaz is an executive producer at Dos Be Prods. and founder of Galgo Storytelling, a transmedia content producer. Projects in development: Doc “Haganse la Luz,” Ignacia Merino and Isabel Reyes’ debuts, and docu series “Nepen” about Chile’s indigenous Mapuches.
Yeniffer Fasciani
Niebla Producciones
A 2015 Berlinale Talents participant, Fasciani is a partner/co-founder of Niebla Prods. In 2016 she produced TV series “Martin, Man and Legend” for La Santé Films and was executive director of Dci, a Chilean film distributor. Upcoming projects: Carola Quezada’s “Perros sin Cola,” Chilean-Japanese co-production “Green Grass” by Ignacio Ruiz, and pregnant boxer drama “A La Deriva.”
Cynthia García
Cyan Prods
Founder of Cyan Prods.
- 2/20/2020
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
Leading Argentine sales agent Meikincine has signed on to sell David Albala’s highly anticipated fiction debut “Jailbreak Pact,” (“Pacto de fuga”) on the international market.
Chile’s Storyboard Media produces the feature, with co-founders Carlos Núnez and Gabriela Sandoval executive producing and Calibre 71 and Enlazo Capital Films co-producing out of Chile and Colombia respectively.
Fox will distribute theatrically in Chile starting in 2020.
The political thriller is a 130-minute nail-biter based on the real-life events which proceeded one of Chile and the world’s greatest prison escapes on Jan. 29, 1990. At the tail-end of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship, 49 prisoners managed to escape their incarceration in Santiago de Chile through a series of tunnels dug using spoons, screwdrivers and other rudimentary tools.
Albala says that the practical aspects of the story impressed him most, and he felt compelled to show how a group of political prisoners were engineered to dig a tunnel more than 60 meters long,...
Chile’s Storyboard Media produces the feature, with co-founders Carlos Núnez and Gabriela Sandoval executive producing and Calibre 71 and Enlazo Capital Films co-producing out of Chile and Colombia respectively.
Fox will distribute theatrically in Chile starting in 2020.
The political thriller is a 130-minute nail-biter based on the real-life events which proceeded one of Chile and the world’s greatest prison escapes on Jan. 29, 1990. At the tail-end of Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship, 49 prisoners managed to escape their incarceration in Santiago de Chile through a series of tunnels dug using spoons, screwdrivers and other rudimentary tools.
Albala says that the practical aspects of the story impressed him most, and he felt compelled to show how a group of political prisoners were engineered to dig a tunnel more than 60 meters long,...
- 12/5/2019
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
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