News

FilmSharks has bowed the first trailer for “Death of a Comedian” (“La Muerte de un Comediante”), the directorial debut of Argentine actor Diego Peretti. The film, which Peretti also wrote and headlines, wrapped post-production last week and is now headed to market with worldwide sales handled by FilmSharks.

It would be normal to list producers but this project has 10,190, individual investors brought together by the Orsai Community. It makes “Death of a Comedian” as one of the more novel Argentine productions in recent memory. The film is produced by author, journalist and cultural entrepreneur Hernán Casciari’s Orsai, which finances all its projects through its massive community-driven crowdfunding model totalling over 15,000 micro investors.

The film follows Juan Debré (Peretti), an actor who’s spent a lifetime playing the hero in a TV series while remaining detached from his own identity. When diagnosed with a terminal illness, he embarks on a surreal journey to Belgium,...

Scheduled for release in 2025, “Death of a Comedian” (“La Muerte de un Comediante”), renowned Argentine actor Diego Peretti’s first feature film as director, has been acquired for world sales by FilmSharks.

Breaking out in TV series “The Pretenders” (2001-04), directed by Damián Szifrón, Peretti won most immediate notice for comedy, such as “It’s Not You, But Me,” though he can be highly effective in drama or Lucía Puenzo’s “The German Doctor” or humour-laced thrillers like “The Heist of the Century.”

Peretti has directed alongside Javier Beltramino, a respected figure on Argentina’s animation scene (“Rice and Matchsticks”) and a former Telefonica Studios production manager.

Now in post-production, the film stars Peretti as Juan Debré, an actor who has played the hero of a TV series for his entire career, oblivious to his true self. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, he flees to Belgium, the land of his...

South America’s economic crisis, aggravated by the pandemic, has spawned an unorthodox crowd-funded Argentine film project, “La Uruguaya” (“The Woman from Uruguay”), which is set to start shooting in the Fall.

Project leader-author Hernan Casciari has modeled the financing strategy on his own publishing house Editorial Orsai, which depends on readers to fund the publishing of its books and house magazine. In just two months, Casciari managed to enlist 2,000 people to invest in the dramedy.

Each one of the investors, who contributed a minimum of $100 – one is said to have invested as much as $20,000 – receive an equity share in the film as well as an associate producer credit.

But these are not passive investors, according to one of its producers, former Telefonica Studios production manager Javier Beltramino (“Neruda”), who admits he was skeptical about the scheme at first. “They actively participate in the production through an app created especially...