Ciro Guerra Executive-Producing Netflix’s First Colombian Original Series

Posted on November 23, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Ciro Guerra is (net)flixing out about a Colombian first…

The 36-year-old Colombian filmmaker and screenwriter is set to executive produce Netflix’s first Colombian original series.

Guerra, who received an Oscar nomination for his film Embrace of the Serpent, will work with Narcos producer Dynamo on the project, which will debut worldwide in 2019.

Written by Carlos Contreras, the as-yet untitled series will follow a young detective and her partner deep into the Amazon, on the border of Brazil and Colombia, to investigate a series of bizarre murders. They soon realize that there’s more mystery to the jungle than the deaths, as they encounter an enigmatic indigenous tribe with an incredible secret that they will take great risks to protect.

Composed of eight hour-long episodes and shot entirely in 4K, the series will showcase the country’s geographic diversity and magnificent landscapes, as well as the region’s complex social and environmental climate.

“We are thrilled to be launching our first Colombian original, featuring great Colombian filmmakers and producers,” said Erik Barmack, Vice President of International Originals. “From 2011, we have been committed to providing a great service in Colombia, and this show, with local talent, will add to our incredible slate of originals throughout Latin America.”

“This is a great opportunity to expand the reach of our local stories and share them with global audiences. Netflix is an extraordinary platform that we are thrilled to collaborate with, and we think this new show will be a great first step in that direction,” added Guerra.

The new series joins a growing slate of original productions being filmed in Latin America, including Ingobernable, Club de Cuervos, La Casa de las Flores, Edha, Narcos, Samantha!, O Mecanismo, O Matador, 3% and Coisa Mais Linda, among others.

Production is slated to begin summer 2018.

Celis Producing First TV Series, “Monstruos Perfectos”

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Nicolas Celis is ready for the small screen…

The 30-year old Mexican film producer is preparing for his first television series, Monstruos Perfectos, which recently received development support from the Mexican Film Institute (IMCINE) under the new TV series support scheme launched in late 2016.

Meanwhile, Celis’ Pimienta Films, one of Mexico’s leading production outfits, is completing production on Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” his first picture lensed in Mexico since “Y Tu Mama Tambien,” and “Birds of Passage,” from Colombia’s Oscar nominated Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”).

Monstruos Perfectos is set in Mexico and will be produced by Pimienta, with external producers Marion d’Ornato and Enrique M. Rizo. Rizo has worked with Celis as second assistant director on Semana Santa, and as production manager on Tempestad, Soy Nero and The Untamed.

“This will be my first experience in TV,” Celis revealed to Variety, although he refrained from outlining the story. “I’m really happy to jump aboard. For me this is completely new world. I really love that IMCINE is exploring new content opportunities. We want to make a TV series that’s much more cinematic, than TV series produced in Mexico so far.”

Celis said that it’s been great to work with Cuaron on Roma, having previously worked with his brother, Carlos, on “Rudo y Cursi,” early in his career, and having been one of the producers on the 2015 pic Desierto, by his son, Jonas.

“Roma” chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s and is produced by Cuaron, Celis, Gabriela Rodriguez (“Gravity”), and exec produced by Participant Media.

Roma is Celis’ first period movie. Its 1970s setting was prior to his own birth – in 1986 – which he says provoked some wisecracks during the shoot. “For me it’s been my most challenging and interesting project so far. I’m a big fan of Alfonso’s work since a kid and I loved that he wanted me to work on his new film.”

Guerra’s Birds of Passage is also set in the 1970s and is produced by Colombia’s Ciudad Lunar (Cristina Gallego and Katrin Pors), as well as Celis and Argentine producers MC Productions and Buffalo Films, with Colombia’s Caracol TV also on board.

Celis previously worked with Pors on The Untamed. “Working with Katrin has been a great discovery,” said Celis. “We’re trying to work with her on our next projects.”

Guerra to Direct Film Adaptation of J.M. Coetzee’s Award-Winning Book “Waiting For The Barbarians”

Posted on October 15, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Ciro Guerra isn’t Waiting for his Hollywood crossover…

The 35-year-old Colombian film director and screenwriter is partnering with actor Mark Rylance and producer Michael Fitzgerald to adapt J.M. Coetzee’s award-winning book Waiting For The Barbarians for the big screen.

Coetzee, a Nobel Prize winner for literature, adapted the novel, which the Nobel Prize committee called “a political thriller in the tradition of Joseph Conrad, in which the idealist’s naiveté opens the gates to horror.”

Waiting For The Barbarians, which first was published in 1980 and quickly amassed honors, follows a magistrate (to be played by the Oscar-winning Rylance) of a far-flung border outpost as the reckless behavior of the “Empire” he serves threatens to trigger a Barbarian invasion. He begins to question imperialism when he saves a young ‘barbarian’ (one of the indigenous people in the country) and realizes that all is not what it appears to be. After mounting a harrowing escape, he is arrested by his own people and thrown in jail only to escape and eventually become an inspiration and leader to others.

The book, which is considered Coetzee’s master work, won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction. It has been brought to the stage before (Phillip Glass composed a two-act opera for it) but never to the big screen. Coetzee, who is South African but lives in Australia, is one of the most respected authors of this century.

Fitzgerald is the one who pulled the prestigious project together with Rylance and Guerra.

Guerra is currently in pre-production on Birds of Passage which is in pre-production to shoot in the deserts of Colombia in January. The film is the follow-up to his award-winning film Embrace of the Serpent.

Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent” Sweeps Platino Ibero-American Film Awards

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Ciro Guerra continues to slither his way to the awards stage…

The 35-year-old film director and screenwriter’s critically acclaimed Embrace of the Serpent, which earned an Academy Award nomination, swept the 3rd Platino Ibero-American Film Awards on Sunday night in Uruguay, taking home seven of the eight categories for which it was nominated.

Although the awards had no clear favorite, Embrace of the Serpent, with Ixcanul, had scored the most nominations and its plaudit sweep did not seem to surprise many.

Shot in widescreen in 35 mm and in black and white Serpent claimed best picture, director, editing (Etienne Boussac, Cristina Gallego), art direction (Angélica Perea), original music (Nascuy Linares), cinematography (the film was shot by David Gallego) and sound (Carlos García, Marco Salavarría).

The story of Karamakate, a shaman who is the last survivor of his tribe and asked, 30 years apart, by two explorers – based on the figures of Theodor Koch-Gruenberg and Richard Evans Schultes – to help them discover the yakuna plant, Embrace of the Serpent charts the devastation of the Amazon by colonial powers, whether Colombian rubber companies or a crazed Spanish priest, but more particularly the loss of indigenous knowledge as whole peoples disappeared under the influx of invasion.

“The ravages of colonialism cast a dark pall over the stunning South American landscape in Embrace of the Serpent, he latest visual astonishment from the gifted Colombian writer-director Ciro Guerra,” Variety wrote in its Cannes Film Festival review.

Ciro Guerre’s third movie has won a string of significant festival, Academy and pan Latin American awards, including a Mexican Silver Ariel, Fénix Film Awards, and plaudits at the Mar del Plata and Palm Springs fests, among others.

Platino acting awards went to two Argentine talents who most certainly deserve wider recognition, Dolores Fonzi, star of Santiago Mitre’s Cannes Critics’ Week winner Paulina, who plays a young lawyer who refuses to compromise her principles when raped while working as a rural teacher, and Guillermo Francella, who portrays a real-life family patriarch and psychopath in Pablo Trapero’s The Clan, who continues for personal profit Argentina’s Dirty War practice of kidnapping and murder after the fall of Argentina’s military junta.

A third Argentine actor, Ricardo Darin, took the Platino Lifetime Achievement Award.

“We have the talent. We just need to have confidence in ourselves,” Darin said on stage, receiving the plaudit. ”That’s why we and Ibero-America need these awards,” he added.

A searing but crafted indictment of the tribulations of a young pregnant and unmarried girl in rural Guatemala, Berlin Silver Bear winner Ixcanul, the feature debut of Jayro Bustamante, once more confirmed its audience appeal, at least with the who have seen it, taking the Platinos’ Audience Award, plus best first feature.

BEST PICTURE
“Embrace of the Serpent,” (Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela)

BEST DIRECTOR
Ciro Guerra (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

BEST ACTOR
Guillermo Francella (“The Clan,” Argentina, Spain)

BEST ACTRESS
Dolores Fonzi (“Paulina,” Argentina)

ORIGINAL MUSIC
Nascuy Linares (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

BEST ANIMATION MOVIE
“Capture the Flag,” (Enrique Gato, Spain)

BEST DOCU FEATURE
“The Pearl Button,” (Patricio Guzmán, Chile, Spain)

BEST SCREENPLAY
Pablo Larraín, Guillermo Calderón, Daniel Villalobos (“The Club”)

FIRST FEATURE
“Ixcanul” (Jayro Bustamante, Guatemala, France)

EDITING
Etienne Boussac, Cristina Gallego (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

ART DIRECTION
Angélica Perea (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
David Gallego (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

SOUND
Carlos García, Marco Salavarría (“Embrace of the Serpent”)

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Ricardo Darín

PLATINO AWARD FOR FILM AND EDUCATION IN VALUES
“The Second Mother,” (Anna Muylaert, Brazil)

AUDIENCE AWARDS

FEATURE
“Ixcanul,” (Guatemala, France)

ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz (“Ma ma,” Spain)

ACTOR
Ricardo Darín (“Truman,” Spain, Argentina)

Ferrera Among 683 Stars Invited to Become Members of The Academy

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

America Ferrera is joining the Academy…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited a record 683 people to joins its ranks, including the 32-year-old Honduran American actress, more than double last year’s 322 invitees.

Best known for her Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild Award and Emmy-winning role on ABC’s Ugly Betty, Ferrera has also starred in several acclaimed films including Real Women Have Curves, Under the Same Moon, End of Watch, Cesar Chavez and Lords of Dogtown.

The Academy was careful to include a breakdown by gender and race, with the new list comprising of 46% women, including Girl in Progess star Eva Mendes and Fast & Furious star Michelle Rodriguez, and 41% people of color, including Luis Guzman, Oscar Isaac and Spanish director J.A. Bayona.

“We’re proud to welcome these new members to the Academy and know they view this as an opportunity and not just an invitation — a mission and not just a membership,” Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said in a statement. “This class continues our long-term commitment to welcoming extraordinary talent reflective of those working in film today. We encourage the larger creative community to open its doors wider and create opportunities for anyone interested in working in this incredible and storied industry.”

The new invitees include 28 Oscar winners, range in age from 24 to 91 and represent 59 countries.

Other Latinos invited to join AMPAS include Enrique Castillo, Sal Lopez, Marisa Paredes, Jacob Vargas, Daphne Zuniga, Ciro Guerra and Nicole Garcia.

Check out the complete list here.

Pablos’ “Las Elegidas” Picks Up Five Ariel Awards

Posted on May 29, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

David Pablos is the chosen one…

The 32-year-old Mexican filmmaker’s Las Elegidas, a drama about a teenage girl forced into prostitution, proved to be the big winner at the 58th Ariel Awards, Mexico’s version of the Oscars.

Produced by Canana Films, Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna’s production company, Las Elegidas earned Pablos the Best Director and Best Original Screenplay awards.

The film, which had its world premiere last year in the Cannes Film Festival‘s Un Certain Regard, was also named Best Picture.

In all, writer-director Pablos’ film won five Ariels on Saturday night in Mexico City, including cinematography and breakthrough performance for actress Nancy Talamantes.

Also winning five awards was Gloria, Christian Keller‘s biopic about controversial Mexican pop icon Gloria Trevi. Gloria won best actor and actress for performances by Marco Perez (Amores Perros) and Sofia Espinosa.

Best Ibero-American picture went to Ciro Guerra‘s Amazon jungle-set Embrace of the Serpent, which made history last year when it became Colombia’s first film to ever receive an Oscar nomination.

Lifetime achievement awards were handed to veteran filmmaker Paul Leduc and Rosita Quintana, an actress known for her work during Mexico’s golden age of cinema.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Best Picture: Las Elegidas
Director: David Pablos (Las Elegidas)
Actor: Marco Perez (Gloria)
Actress: Sofia Espinosa (Gloria)
Supporting Actor: Noe Hernandez (600 Millas)
Supporting Actress: Adriana Paz (Hilda)
Breakthrough Performance (Actor): Martin Castro (El Jeremias)
Breakthrough Performance (Actress): Nancy Talamantes (Las Elegidas)
Cinematography: Las Elegidas
Original Screenplay: Las Elegidas
Adapted Screenplay: Un Monstruo de Mil Cabezas
Ibero-American Picture: El Abrazo de la Serpiente
Documentary: El Hombre Que Vio Demasiado
Animated Picture: La Increible Historia del Nino de Piedra
First Work: 600 Millas
Production Design: Mexican Gangster
Costume Design: Mexican Gangster
Makeup: Gloria
Original Score: El Hombre Que Vio Demasiado
Sound: Gloria
Editing: Gloria
Special Effects: Mexican Gangster
Visual Effects: Mexican Gangster
Short Fiction Film: Tremulo
Short Documentary: Ausencias
Short Animated Film: Zimbo

Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent” Wins Best Film at Mar del Plata Film Fest

Posted on November 8, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Ciro Guerra continues his winning ways…

The 34-year-old Colombian film director and screenwriter ‘s latest film Embrace of the Serpent took the Astor award for best film at the 30th edition of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Mar del Plata, which officially closed on Saturday night.

Earlier this year, the Colombian-Venezuelan-Argentine co-production topped the Director’s Fortnight at the last edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and was selected by the Colombian Film Academy as the country’s submission for the Oscars in the best foreign-language film category.

The best actor award was delivered to the entire male cast of Pablo Larrain‘s The Club: Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farias, Jaime Vadell and Alejandro Goic.

The film, Chile’s Oscar candidate, also grabbed best screenplay for writers Guillermo Calderon, Daniel Villalobos and Pablo Larrain.

The best actress award went to Erica Rivas (Wild Tales), for Ariel Rotter‘s Incident Light.

In the Latin American competition, the jury formed by Valdivia film fest director Raul Camargo Borquez, Jang Byungwon, and Andrea Picard selected Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias‘ Santa Teresa & Other Stories as best film, and Natural Arpajou‘s Princesas for best short.

Benjamin Naishtat‘s Locarno entry El movimiento won best film in the local competition.

The best director award went to Fernando Salem for How Most Things Work.

The only A class festival in Latin America, Mar del Plata runs October 30 to Novenber 7.

Here’s a look at the main awards:

International Competition
Best Film: Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
Best Director: Ivan Ostrochovsky, for Koza.
Best Actor: the male cast of The Club – Alfredo Castro, Roberto Farías, Jaime Vadell and Alejandro Goic.
Best Actress: Erica Rivas (Incident Light)
Best Screenplay: The Club – Guillermo Calderon, Daniel Villalobos and Pablo Larrain.

Latin American Competition
Best Film: Santa Teresa & Other Stories (Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias)
Best Short Film: Princesas (Natural Arpajou)

Argentine Competition
Best Film: El movimiento (Benjamin Naishtat)
Special Mention: Docile Bodies (Matias Scarvaci and Diego Gachassin)
Best Director: Fernando Salem, for How Most Things Work.
Best Short Film: Fantastico (Matias Sposato)
Best Short Film Director: Pablo Camaiti, for Gomorra.
DAC Award for Best Argentine Film in All Competitions: Docile Bodies

Other Awards
FIPRESCI Award: Incident Light (Ariel Rotter)
Best Work in Progress: The Corroborators (Luis Bernardez)
Jury Prize Work in Progress: La helada negra (Maximiliano Schonfeld)
Alfredo Alcon Award: Guillermo Francella

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Celebrating the Latino Influence

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