Through her shingle Pretty Matches Productions, Sarah Jessica Parker is executive producing Kim A. Snyder’s “The Librarians,” one of 91 films in Sundance’s 2025 Premieres lineup. The feature documentary follows a group of librarians, dubbed FReadom Fighters, who have resisted book bans in Texas, Florida and beyond. It is produced by Snyder, Jana Edelbaum and […]

Having conquered Bollywood before moving to Hollywood in the mid-2010s, Priyanka Chopra Jonas now has her sights on new challenges. In October 2024, she hired veteran producer Anne Carey as president of film and TV of her shingle, Purple Pebble Pictures. Attending the Red Sea Film Festival for a special tribute – which will be […]

Brazilian writer, director and animator Carlos Saldanha has boarded Carla Melo Gampert’s Oscar-qualified Colombian animated short “La Perra” to accompany the film through its upcoming awards season run. “La Perra” is largely inspired by Melo’s own life and tells the story of a young woman who leaves her family home in Bogota, a domineering mother […]

Latin American super-producer Daniel Dreifuss was in his father’s hometown of Montevideo this week to speak to the Ventana Sur film market about how to craft an awards season campaign. It’s clear why the market would want to host Dreifuss as he’s a qualified authority on the subject, having backed Oscar-nominated fare such as Pablo […]

Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to Venezuela’s 2024 International Feature Oscar submission “The Shadow of the Sun” by director Miguel Angel Ferrer. “The Shadow of the Sun” is the story of Alex, a young deaf man who asks his older brother Leo to accompany him in a musical competition. With the […]

Hollywood heavyweight director Fede Alvarez returned to his home country of Uruguay this week to host a masterclass at the Ventana Sur market, held in Montevideo for the first time this year. Eliciting loads of laughs and several enthusiastic rounds of applause, Alvarez reflected on his personal journey from a teenage filmmaker shooting superhero movies […]

Global indie animation powerhouse Miyu Distribution has acquired Mexican Aria Covamonas’ buzzy debut feature, “The Great History of Western Philosophy,” sure to be a key player on the 2025 animation festival circuit. Featuring digital cutout animation, the meta comedy turns on a cosmic animator hired by the Central Committee of the People’s Republic to create […]

Spain’s Latido Films has acquired Eva Libertad’s upcoming feature “Sorda,” adapted from her 2023 Spanish Academy Goya Award-nominated short of the same name. “Sorda,” which translates to “deaf” in English, tells the story of Angela, a pregnant deaf woman, and Hector, her hearing partner. Pregnancy brings to the surface her fears about motherhood and how […]

Outsider Pictures has struck a deal with Berlin-based international sales agent Picture Tree International for U.S. distribution rights to a pair of Scandinavian dramas, “Stormskerry Maja” and “The Missile.” Both films will get limited theatrical runs next spring. Outsider Pictures, founded and headed by Paul Hudson, has found success with several Scandinavian films in the […]

Filmmaker Pablo Pérez Lombardini cut his teeth working with leading Latin American directors, including Alonso Ruizpalacios (“A Cop Movie”), Rodrigo Plá and Laura Santullo (“The Other Tom”). Now, Pérez is making his solo directing debut with the environmental thriller “The Reserve,” participating at this year’s Copia Final section of Ventana Sur. Based on real testimonies […]

With an eye on indigenous communities and the women that dutifully anchor them, Bolivian multi-hyphenate Álvaro Olmos Torrico brings his introspective second feature, “The Condor Daughter” (“La hija cóndor”), to Montevideo for Ventana Sur’s Copia Final showcase, touting the fiction prodction at this year’s market, which runs Dec. 2-6. Via Bolivia’s Empatia Cine (“The Visitor”), […]

Silvina Schnicer’s debut solo feature, “The Cottage,” screens in competition this week at Morocco’s Marrakech Film Festival. The film follows an upper-middle-class family in Argentina as they visit their vacation home in a rural neighborhood, only to find that squatters have been using the building and left it in an unpleasant state. The family patriarch, […]

Upstart production house Catalyst Studios will digitally release its first feature, Colombian auteur Ana Maria Hermida’s all-star-laden magical realist drama “Alix,” on Dec. 25. A U.S. theatrical premiere for “Alix” will be held at the historic TCL Chinese Theater on Dec. 5, with Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, the founder of the Art of Living, […]

U.K. genre specialist distributor has sold “The Witch Game,” an Argentine “Harry Potter” inspired horror feature from director Fabian Forte, to Miracle Media in North America and the U.K. The supernatural thriller will be released in the territories in the first quarter of 2025. Originally shot in Spanish, the film also has an English-language dubbed […]

Barcelona’s Animation BCN wrapped this afternoon after three days of working groups, roundtables and networking events focused on ways that the region’s animation industry can weather a “global animation crisis.” This year’s third edition gathered 90 delegates from 60 European industry organizations in 24 countries to address the key themes and topics faced by the […]

Big Hollywood and international film and TV shoots have been held in Spain for decades, from “El Cid,” “Lawrence of Arabia” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” to more recent standouts such as “The Crown,” “Game of Thrones,” “Venom: The Last Dance” and “Kaos.” While filmmakers often have the final say in where […]

Ignacio Lasierra Pinto’s debut feature “Perseidas,” set to pitch at Ventana Sur’s upcoming Proyecta sidebar for feature projects, has nailed down an all-star Spanish cast, led by Spanish Academy Goya-winning actor Macarena García (“Blancanieves,” “La mesías”). Joining García are Feroz and Forqué best actress winner Elena Irureta (“Patria”), Feroz award winner Itziar Aizpuru (“Flowers”) and […]

French production company Srab Films will co-produce “Name and Surname,” the upcoming drama feature from Colombian director Duván Duque Vargas, produced by Evidencia Films and Continente Pictures. In the film, 16-year-old Fer tries everything he can to escape his father and stepmother’s house, a home in crisis that compares unfavorably to those of his upper-class […]

Spanish producers Batiak Films and Elora Posthouse have boarded Maria Paz Barragán’s immigration horror feature “Tenants” as co-producers. The Madrid-set feature will be pitched at this year’s Ventana Sur Proyecta sidebar by its Peruvian lead producer, Final Abierto. An example of Latin America’s maturing and constantly diversifying genre scene and the region’s increasingly strong industry […]