There has been near unanimity among buyers and sellers engaging on sales titles and works-in-progress at the 17th edition of Ventana Sur in Buenos Aires – they want to be entertained.
“Buyers are looking for fantasy, science fiction, thrillers, action, high-end productions or films with recognised auteurs,” Antonio Saura of Latido said ahead of the market’s final day on Friday (December 5). “What they’re not looking for is drama.”
Saura has been selling Uruguayan filmmaker Gustavo Hernández’s (The Silent House) The Whisper as part of a genre-packed catalogue that includes Homo Argentum, a hit comedy starring Guillermo Francella from The Clan that has reached two million admissions in Argentina.
“Look at how far people are running away from dramas,” noted one international seller. “I’ve removed the word ‘drama’ from my dramatic titles in the catalogue, because buyers see the label and turn the page without reading on.” Another seller remarked with a mix of amusement and alarm that a German distributor had told them: “Show me everything you have that’s ‘no-thinking’.”
“Audiences are above all looking for genre, and without too many frills. We are coming out of a tough pandemic and we’re in an uncertain period. People want genre, entertainment – and they want comedy as well,” Adolfo Blanco, CEO of Spain’s A Contracorriente Films, said. Coming up on his slate this Christmas – Cohn and Duprat’s Homo Argentum.
Pablo Guisa Koestinger, founder and CEO of distributor Grupo Morbido and the executive director at Cannes’ Fantastic Pavilion, underlined the specific theatrical strength of genre in Mexico. “Genre is what is securing audiences in Mexico. Last year, 75 horror titles were released – more than one new film every week – and people want to see them in cinemas, together,” he said.
“Buyers need to pursue radical innovation, either within genre or by using genre elements more boldly. The market is saturated; we need fresher content,” Guido Rud of Argentina’s FilmSharks said, adding: “Thrillers should strive for more impact and originality, and arthouse for a more authentic tone, though that’s becoming increasingly hard to achieve.”
Buzz projects
The VS Fantastic! Showcase presented 13 projects this year. Two standouts in the five-title works-in-progress strand have been Mexico-Argentina selection The Muglur by first-timer Lucila De Las Heras, and Gonzalo Calzada’s Argentina-Spain project The Braid (La Trenza, pictured). Three projects from the Lab sidebar have drawn particular attention: Paul Urkijo’s The Escape from Spain, Tamae Garateguy’s Brazilian project Match, and Julia Sofía Vega’s I Need To Be Loved from Argentina.
From Primer Corte, Costa Rica–Spain–Argentina–Brazil–Norway co-production Awaiting Birds by Sofía Quirós has created buzz. Her debut feature Land Of Ashes was the first film by a Costa Rican director to compete in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019. Also attracting interest was Colombia–Canada–Norway co-production Donde Comienza El Río by Colombian-Canadian filmmaker Juan Andrés Arango, whose La Playa D.C. was Colombia’s Oscar submission and premiered in Cannes in 2012.
Two more buzzy titles, this time in the Proyecta strand for first and second features, have been the comedy God’s Favourite Girl by Ecuadorian director Diego Ulloa, and Culebra Cut by Panama’s multidisciplinary artist Ana Elena Tejera.
VS Animation! Pitching Sessions 2025 showcased seven projects across its TV and feature strands. Erick Ricco’s Brazilian stop-motion fairy tale The March Of The Sunflowers from Cup Filmes, Coala Filmes and Tubz Studio, and Colombia’s Noa, directed by Diego Gaviria and produced by 3N+1, proved to be standouts.
Traditionally a strong territory for Ventana Sur, animation also benefits from a works-in-progress selection curated by Annecy Festival. In the five-title line-up, Wesley Rodrigues’s Brazil-France selection The Bird Kingdom (O Reino Dos Pássaros) and Toxic: Miracle Of The Jungle (Intoxidante), a Peru-Spain entry from brothers César and José Zelada, were two of the highlights.
Paul Hudson of US-based distributor Outsider Pictures noted: “More and more, I’m looking for films that have a niche I can market to in the US. That niche could be a country like Mexico, or it could be a subject matter such as the Camino De Santiago, or a genre, for example a horror film. What is getting harder to distribute are dramas and coming-of-age stories.”
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