Carlos Pirovano, the recently appointed head of Argentina’s cash-strapped national film body INCAA is said to be considering a proposal to host the annual Ventana Sur market with Uruguay, as the arts funding crisis continues to rock the country’s entertainment sector.
According to a press release issued on Thursday by producers trade group CAIC [Camara Argentina De La Industria Cinematografica], who met with Pirovano on Wednesday, the INCAA president said he believed Ventana Sur should continue to exist and added he was evaluating the feasibility of alternating between Argentina and Uruguay each year.
It was unclear where in Uruguay Pirovano proposed the event might occur. Buenos Aires, where Ventana Sur has taken place since its inception 16 years ago, is less than one hour’s flight from the Uruguayan capital Montevideo across the La Plata River estuary.
Ventana Sur head working on 16th edition
The development comes after Ventana Sur director Bernardo Bergeret told Screen he had heard INCAA would not fund Ventana Sur as it has done in the past in partnership with the Marché du Cannes, although he had not been formally told this by the film body.
“We are working and defining the programme for the 16th edition [of Ventana Sur] that will be announced in May during the Marché,” said Bergeret. “For Ventana Sur nothing has changed so far.”
The CAIC release did not offer any indication by Pirovano on whether INCAA would fund the market beyond his broad support for the event.
CAIC said the INCAA head also expressed support for Mar del Plata – Latin America’s only Category A festival – through a public-private financing partnership, as well as the state-funded Gaumont Cinema in Buenos Aires, and the ENERC film school.
Pirovano also reportedly said he would pay money owed to Ibermedia and Eurimages.
It remained to be seen whether these declarations can translate into policies backed by state funds. Pirovano, appointed after his predecessor Nicolas Batlle resigned in protest in December when far-right president Javier Milei swept to power, has suspended funding INCAA for four months in order to stabilise the body’s finances.
INCAA head addresses deficit
Earlier this week Argentina’s ministry of human capital claimed the national body, which funds most of Argentina’s local productions, had run up a $4m deficit. This was borne out at Wednesday’s meeting between CAIC and Pirovano who, the producers trade group said, proposed to roughly halve INCAA’s annual expenses from $16m to between $8m and $10m.
CAIC called on the INCAA president to disburse funds earmarked for productions and review new applications.
The group reported Pirovano saying he regarded cinema as a core plank of Argentina’s cultural brand and one which needed state support. He also reportedly said he would review INCAA’s personnel structure. The body currently employs 640 people, of whom 550 are full-time. Last week Buenos Aires Herald reported Pirovano was planning to lay off around 100 part-time INCAA workers.
On Thursday Argentinian filmmaker coalition Cine Argentino Unido staged a protest against funding cuts and said Pirovano had imposed ”restrictive and regressive measures” without any long-term strategic plan for the national audiovisual industry.
INCAA had not responded to Screen’s request for a comment at time of writing.
Ventana Sur typically takes place in late November-early December and brings attendees mostly from South America, Spain and other parts of Europe, and the United States.
Los Angeles-based Paul Hudson of Outsider Pictures said, “I think Ventana Sur is an opportunity for filmmakers across all genres in Latin America to meet producers, sales agents and distributors that they wouldn’t usually get to meet (and vice versa).”
Hudson continued, “Relationships are formed, new films are discovered and business is done that wouldn’t happen in the normal course of the Berlin/Cannes/Toronto circuit, as these festivals tend to concentrate on the higher end art films, but not the rest of the business.”
Edward Noeltner of Cinema Management Group, who is also based in Los Angeles, places high value on the market’s Spotlight on Animation sidebar.
Noeltner said meetings with South American animation producers like Peru-based Tunche Films enabled him to structure co-productions with Katuni BV on Ainbo: Spirit Of The Amazon, which sold around the world and earned $13m, and with Spanish animation studio WeLove Animation on Kayara, which has pre-sold widely and is slated for delivery in the fourth quarter of this year.
No comments yet