Ventana Sur Goes to Cannes Reveals First 5 Features to Track

What kind of movies are the new generation of filmmakers in Latin America and Spain making?

One answer is expected in May. cannes film festival Includes a showcase, Marche du Film‘S south window Cannes – Head to Río de la Plata and highlight five first features. Among them are the energetic Uruguayan drama “When I Exist,” the Spanish supernatural thriller “The Mantis” and the Brazilian-Mexican animated Aztec action adventure “Mark of the Jaguar.”

The showcase’s five titles, all in post-production, include two top-ranked films from Ventana Sur: ‘The Grass’, screened at the 2024 Proyecta Project Showcase, and ‘The Way You See Me’, screened at Punto Género at the 2022 Meet-Market.

Excerpts from Cannes show that all five films are currently in post-production and are scheduled to appear at the festival later this year.

“When I Exist” is a lively, feel-good second-chance drama-comedy. “This is a story of reinvention built around the things that truly matter,” says producer Federico Cetta of El Cielo Cine in Uruguay, who produces with David Matamoros at Doce Entertainment in Spain.

Didac Gimeno’s supernatural adult thriller “The Mantises,” a highlight of Locarno’s Spain preview last August, deeply imbibes the great tradition of Spanish auteur genre cinema. Think “The Orphanage” and (“REC”).

The animation “The Mark of the Jaguar: The Awakening of Fire” delivers an ambitious revisionist look at Latin American history. “Latin American children and their families will discover that the story of our mixed heritage is different from anything they have ever known,” said writer-director Victor Mayorga. manifold.

Director Ivana Galdeano introduces ‘The Grass’, a ‘poetic realist’ film that tells the story of Carina, a single mother, raising her children in the humble neighborhood of Arguello, Córdoba, Argentina. “The Way You See Me,” an LGBTQ identity documentary that won the Lacau Color & Postproduction Prize and the Usheru Audience Award at Ventana Sur in December, documents the social confrontation sparked by the director’s decision to abandon her female identity.

“Ventana Sur Goes to Cannes demonstrates the strength and diversity of Latin American cinema today. The selection spans fiction, documentary, animation and genres and reflects the richness of our voices and Ventana Sur’s role as a platform that connects our stories with the world,” said Gisella Previtalli, President of Uruguay. ACAU Film TV agency.

The diversity also reflects the scope of Ventana Sur itself. In 2009, it began highlighting arthouse photography in post-production in its Primer Corte showcase, which is still in the center. “Leap Year,” selected by Pyramide, won the Camera d’Or at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. In a pioneering move, Ventana Sur launched the genre platform Blood Window, followed by Animation!, which would soon become the leading forum for Latin American media. A showcase of document features followed.

ACAU will organize the Cannes Film Festival showcase together with the Marché du Film, and the two partner teams will host it on-site at Ventana Sur – Río de la Plata together with INCAA, Argentina, in late 2026. The competition will be held by ACAU in Montevideo for the second time, after a smaller, more efficient event in the Uruguayan capital in 2024.

The Goes to Cannes series, organized by the Marché du Film, showcases seven works from festivals and markets around the world and is offering two new awards in 2026. One is the OCS+ Award of €15,000 ($17.6 million) to the French distributor of the Goes to Cannes project, and the other is the AH Media Production Award of €10,000 ($11,700) in cash. This prize joins the well-known Sidereal Cinema Award, which has a minimum guarantee of €10,000 for one of its projects.

Take a closer look at the title Ventana Sur Goes to Cannes – Río de la Plata.

“grass,” (Ivana Galdeano, “El Pasto”, Inimaginaria Producciones, Eliana Campos and Brava Cine, Argentina, Los Besos SERVICIOs Uruguay)

Carina, a single mother, lives in a rudimentary cabin in a rustic part of Córdoba, Argentina. “What mothers actually do in working-class neighborhoods goes largely unnoticed. In the movies, it seems like everything is magically done,” says Galdeano. manifold. Through “intimate moments and shared silence,” “The Grass” seeks to “reveal the profound beauty of everyday acts of care: a mother’s early morning walk to school, her patient kneading of bread, her gentle brushing of her children’s hair,” she adds.

“mantis” (“Las Mantis”, Didac Gimeno, Mgc, El Médano, Wild Lemon, DarkStudios in Spain;
Cinema Scooter in Argentina)

Gimeno, who is part of a new wave of fantasy films embracing the visual and the symbolic as their primary narrative language, said: manifold. Filmed on Super16mm, “The Mantises” tells the story of 14-year-old Aitana, who spends the summer at her uncle’s house after her mother’s death. The forest and animals near my uncle’s house are the gateway to the afterlife. Produced by Spain’s MGC and Argentina’s Motoneta Cine, the film is “about grief, but also boldly explores the mysticism, the forbidden and the supernatural as a way of healing,” says Gimeno.

<재규어의 표식: 불의 각성> (“Mark of the Jaguar, Awakening of Fire”, Victor Mayorga, Origem Content, Brazil, Ocelotl Company, Mexico)

Annecy 2021 Contrechamp Players “My Uncle Jose” by Origem and Ocelotl is a fantasy action-adventure with drama based on archaeological and anthropological records. Set in the Aztec world, Silactzin, a young Mexican warrior accused of stealing sacred bones, travels to the underworld of Mictlan to battle the dark goddess Yitzpapalotl to retrieve them. “A strong sense of identity, tenderness and a real connection to Latin American culture,” says Ducca Rios, Executive Producer at Origem.

“The way you look at me,” (“As if you are looking at me”, M Untitled, Valovento Cine, Mexico, Argentina)

“The Way You See Me,” a mix of documentary and drama, comes from “the director’s personal experiment based on her decision to give up the expectations placed on me as a woman,” says M Untitled. M Untitled adds, “The film turns to the viewer and shows how society manages and perpetuates the rigid binary norms that shape who we are and how we can resist them.” It was sold abroad by Paula Portela’s Buenos Aires and Montevideo-based Compañía de Cine.

“When I exist” (“When I Was”, Alejandro Damiani, Martin Avdolov, El Cielo Cine, Uruguay, Doce Entertainment (Spain), Metropolis Films (Uruguay)

Silvio Berlusconi, declared dead, cannot receive a pension and is so caught up in bureaucracy that he will do anything to prove he is alive. Along the way, he reconnects with old friends, the life he left behind, the life he could have had, including his wife and daughter, and realizes that he doesn’t need a piece of paper to feel alive. Fronted by César Troncoso, the star of Oscar-nominated César Charlone’s “The Pope’s Toilet,” and sometimes shot in high-style, his DP is “Society of the Snow” camera operator Manuel Branaa.

‘When I Exist’ – Provided by Marché du Film