News

Huge winners roster marks close of 13th edition which ran November 29-December 3 in Buenos Aires and online.

Fernando Babuy de la Torre’s Peru-Colombia-France family drama Diogenes took the Cine+ Club Award for films in post-production as the hybrid 2021 Ventana Sur came to a close in Buenos Aires.

The award was one of many in a huge awards roster announced on Friday (December 3) that marked the end of the market’s 13th edition and included the Cine + Club Award in Copia Final for Mariano Biasin’s Sublime from Argentina, which like Diogenes means the French distributor that acquires the film...

As new Covid protocols bedeviled travel to the U.K. and other parts of Europe, 3,000 lucky souls, including several hundred execs from Europe, were able to enjoy summer sun and post-lockdown reunions at Buenos Aires’ Ventana Sur. Latin America’s biggest film and TV market and forum, it wrapped Friday Dec. 3 with an humungous, though thankfully rapid, awards ceremony. Following, 10 takeaways from the hybrid event:

The Way the Market’s Going

Is this the shape of things to come? At least in the short-term?Big films and deals were announced at or during Ventana Sur: Vis revealed it’s teaming with El Estudio and Infinity Hill on the Rob Schneider-directed “Love Is Love,” now a Paramount Plus Original; Pantelion Films unveiled its “most ambitious undertaking to date,” “Usurpadora, the Musical,” a modern movie adaptation of the Televisa classic; FilmSharks confirmed deals with Netflix and HBO Max on Veronica Chen’s “High Tide.

Argentina’s “Ayelén and the Forest Shadow,” Uruguay’s “The Eagle Heist,” Mexico’s “Journey to the Land of the Tarahumara,” Brazil’s “Berg’s Books”and Spain’s “Upiro” proved top winners at a Ventana Sur prize ceremony which in its very form stressed just how much the biggest film-tv market in Latin America has expanded.

Prior to the pandemic, prize winners were allowed acceptance speeches. This year, with more awards than ever to doll out, recipients just got to pose for a photo. Prizes – mostly in kind from service companies or invitations to festivals, markets and other awards ceremonies – ranged widely. Some winners and awards stood out, however.

There was large curiosity, for instance, to see which series would receive the first ever Netflix Award at Ventana Sur, an Incentive for Argentine Women Creators. The cash endowment for further development went to “Ayelén and the Forest Shadow.” A...