Nativity, by Chilean filmmaker Francisca Alegría and produced by Quijote Films and Madre Content, has won the Screen International ECAM Forum Award, which highlights a project with international co-production and festival scope.
The project was selected by Screen at the ECAM Forum industry gathering in Madrid, which runs June 10-13.
Nativity, a magical realist tale about trauma, violence and redemption, is Alegría’s second feature after The Cow Who Sang A Song Into The Future which premiered at Sundance in 2022.
It was one of the international projects welcomed at the second edition of the ECAM Forum pitching sessions, which are designed to widen the international reach of Spanish productions and encourage co-productions with local talent.
A total of 15 projects were pitched in the Films To Come section for films in development and financing stages. The Chilean-led Nativity was one of them and the Forum has helped in reaching out to potential co-producing partners. An agreement is in advanced stages with a Spanish production company.
The film’s producer, Giancarlo Nasi of Quijote Films, said: “Of the 25 films I have produced, 24 are international co-productions. I am very familiar with the financing systems of a lot of countries. ECAM Forum has given us the chance to pitch the project for the first time and work on the bond with a Spanish partner. Spain has big funding possibilities and it’s good to start here.”
In anticipation of closing the Spanish production company deal, Nasi said that the week in Madrid had offered the chance to have “very interesting talks with other potential partners”, from regions in Spain and other countries in Europe, including some Quijote Films has not worked with yet, such as Austria and Switzerland. “The meetings have also been very helpful in terms of feedback from potential partners,” he added.
Nasi, who is based in Los Angeles, said “coming to Madrid has also been an excellent chance to come back to earth” after the successes Quijote Films has had this year with The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo, by Diego Céspedes, which won the Un Certain Regard prize in Cannes, and The Blue Trail by Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaró – where Quijote was a minority co-producer – which won Berlin’s Silver Bear grand jury prize award.
Development process
Quijote started developing Nativity with Alegría a year ago, receiving Chilean development funding. The plan is now to close all co-production deals by the end of 2025, raise the financing in 2026 and go into production at the start of 2027 in the Chilean summer. They are aiming for a $2m budget, with a cast likely to be international.
The film is the redemption story of a fisherman, Cristian, who abuses his partner, Lorna, and struggles with alcoholism. After discovering a cave with blinding light while diving, he disappears for months, presumed dead. When he returns, Lorna is gone and he starts working as a gatekeeper for a reclusive woman, a former dancer who hides the wounds of her face behind a mask.
Alegría, a writer, director and co-producer through her company Madre Content, said that the challenge in Nativity is exploring “the theme of violence, and violence against women, which is something many of us experience or have experienced. I have a big sense of responsibility.”
Asked about the magic realism aspects of the film, she said: “It is a literary genre that is difficult to apply to films, but that said, it’s probably what best describes the Latin American tradition of the way metaphysical and surreal events are taken as natural and as important in the eyes of the characters as we take reality or what we think reality is.”
Alegría was inspired to write the story after meeting a fisherman in northern Chile and will keep on developing the screenplay once her work is completed on upcoming Prime Video series The House Of The Spirits, based on Isabel Allende’s best-selling novel. Alegría has been working as a writer, director and showrunner on the series alongside Fernanda Urrejola and Andrés Wood; Allende and Eva Longoria are executive producers alongside FilmNation Entertainment.
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