The Toronto International Film Festival will celebrate its 2019 edition from September 5th to the 15th, and Chile will make itself present with a delegation of professionals backed on-location by ProChile subsidiary CinemaChile. National films will be presented in the competition, while projects in development will participate in different market instances, offering connections and networking with international film industry professionals.
Chilean participation in Toronto includes the arrival of four national producers that will attend thanks to backing by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage through its Support Program for International Market Participation, belonging to the Council of Art and the Audiovisual Industry (CAIA). They are Omar Zúñiga from Cinestación, Rocío Jadue from Fábula, Francisco Hervé from Panchito Films, and Giancarlo Nasi from Quijote Films.
Zúñiga is a producer and director at Cinestación, a creative platform for emerging filmmakers in Latin America. The production company boasts broad experience with diverse authors, cultivating new talents and presenting their work to an international audience. Its productions have been recognized by festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Toronto, Locarno, and Valdivia.
Among the projects he’s taking to Toronto are Los Fuertes, a film he also directed, which participated in Works in Progress at the 2016 San Sebastián Film Festival, and is currently seeking festivals; 1976, directed by Manuela Martelli, a project in development in search of financing; and Penal Cordillera by Felipe Carmona, which requires co-producers.
Meanwhile, Jadue will arrive in North America in representation of Fábula, Chilean production company founded by Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín in 2004. Fábula’s work includes film, television, advertising, and production services, and it has acquired international recognition for films like No (2012), Neruda (2016), A Fantastic Woman (2017), and Gloria Bell (2018). Jadue will attend with two projects in development: Los Brujos by Christopher Murray, in need of financing, and La Tierra de los Salvajes by Fernando Guzzoni, in search of co-producers.
Hervé will attend with Panchito Films, a production company that proposes to tell stories that help us understand human fragility, with a sense of humor, representing humankind’s contradictions. The projects he’s taking are Anacoreta by Francisco Bermejo, currently in post-production and seeking a world premiere after having participated in Rotterdam Lab 2019 and Doc Corner at Marché du Film; Gran Avenida by Moisés Sepúlveda, in post-production with sights set on finding distribution; and Immersion by Nicolás Postiglione, in development and in search of co-producers.
