Today began the Chilean participation in the most important television market in the world, MIPCOM (October 12-16), which includes the presence of one of the strongest women in the national independent production: María Elena Wood. And this time, with his production house Maria Wood Producciones. “We are a boutique production company, we cherry-pick, therefore we are present with a unique, original portfolio and with Chilean and Latin American stories, but that fly far, far away,” she says with pride.

Journalist, producer and content creator, Wood has developed a successful career (both from Wood Producciones and Invercine & Wood), generating projects for all screens and, step by step, has opened a prominent space in the international market. An example of this is the Dignidad series, a co-production between Invercine & Wood, Amazon Prime Video, Mega (Chile) and Joyn (Germany) based on the horrors of the Colonia Dignidad sect led by Paul Schäfer in Chile, which will soon have its Latin American premiere on Amazon Prime, after its exhibition in Europe. Together with their partners from Invercine & Wood, Matías and Macarena Cardone and Patricio Pereira, they also continue the co-production of the highly anticipated series “Noticia de un secuestro”, for this 2021.

 These days, at MIPCOM, the production company is presenting two ideas that make her very happy and that, as she indicates, will open the doors of her boutique production company Maria Wood Producciones to fiction, to those stories that are told from comedy and hope. She also says that "this is a time to talk, to find partners, to develop and prepare for when we can shoot again." Wood believes that the budget increase that means shooting in the middle of a pandemic and the risks that this entails, implies looking for partners who really give peace of mind, a certain assurance that they will be present in difficult times because "production is a very risky chore ”.

 We spoke with María Elena and she disclosed some details of her new projects, the profile of the work she hopes to develop and also why she considers that she and her team are the ideal partners that many are looking for.

María Wood Producciones and new fiction content, what’s behind this turn?

I am a journalist and from journalism I jumped at some point to the documentary, it was at that moment that we created María Wood Producciones, 15 years ago. During all these years we have been developing documentary audiovisual works, we focused on that, and we developed fiction in conjunction with Wood Producciones and - for the last four or five years, with Invercine & Wood. Today the decision is to also bring fiction to María Wood Producciones and thus, no longer have this separation between documentary and fiction.

And what kind of stories do you want to tell?

María Wood Producciones has stood out on the issue of gender by making relevant Chilean women's stories and films. Now we also bring gender fiction and in that sense one of the projects that we want to show at MIPCOM is Big Women : the story of four women who are part of that generation that practically does not exist in fiction, which is between 50 and 60 years. Because we went from Sex and the city to the golden years. And where is the grown woman? From our perspective it is perhaps the moment of greatest freedom, the time to see if you have pending issues, to experience things that you always wanted and could not. In Big Women , these four women meet in the south of Chile, in a house in Pucón, and each one begins to have a process that leads them to stay in that place and finish the house where they are together. There begins the adventure of these great women. And at MIPCOM we are looking for partners to co-develop and co-produce this story.

The other project is a romantic comedy, no tragedies! It is a romantic comedy entitled A Perfect Summer . Who has not had unforgettable summers? That is what this story is about and it is also about how we want to make a format that allows us to tell a lot of unforgettable summers, family comedies. This year, in the midst of these tremendous challenges and difficulties that we are experiencing, we want to come up with bright stories.

You anticipated that the team behind Big Women lives up to the name of this serial dramedy ...

Yes, we are a very interesting triad because Big Women is a creation of Chilean screenwriter Barbara Zemelman (Soltera Otra Vez tv series), Argentinian director Natalia Smirnoff , notable for developing characters with great depth in her films; and me. So this mix between Barbara and Natalia is pure gold and brings the possibility of developing stories and characters that generate identification for the audience and that also lead us to connect with our own emotions.

Thinking about the current complex panorama of the audiovisual sector worldwide caused by the pandemic, how do you plan MIPCOM? 

The plan is to present María Wood Producciones, which has not yet had an international premiere. Until now we have been with Wood Producciones or Invecine & Wood and we continue to collaborate with them, with very interesting projects that were postponed. The other thing is that we are looking for partners who want to join us to co-develop and co-produce A Perfect Summer in particular , which already has a partner in the co-development: Media Pro Studio. We are working with tremendously talented people like Néstor Hernández, Daniel Burman, Juan Pablo Santo. We are not alone, we are very well accompanied by both great international producers and Latin American talent.

In general terms, what would you like to see happen with this new content?

That they reach the maximum possible audiences. That is a great challenge that we have been able to achieve in the past, because for example Ramona was a highly awarded series, but it was seen first in Chile and later in Latin America through Movistar.  Dignity premiered in Germany, then on HBO Europe, on HBO Nordic, in 12 European countries and now, in the first days of November, it will premiere on Amazon Latam and Mega, so we are expanding audiences. That is our desire, that people see, enjoy, entertain themselves and get excited by, and also learn with our content.

What do you consider to be your strengths as a producer and what have you been able to develop in your years of career that makes it interesting for others to work with you? 

Teamwork is rule number one. Collaboration and not competition. That is what throughout my career has given me the best results and the greatest professional satisfaction. On the other hand, mixing people with a lot of experience -such as the producer Patricio Pereira who has accompanied me in a large part of the audiovisual challenges-, with young people who want to learn and come with new energies and ideas. One of the things that I am most proud of in my career is the number of people who, being young, worked with me and who today are leading in a variety of fields, both in the media and in the creative industries.