Cannes: RT Features Boards Sotomayor’s ‘Too Late’

CANNES — Rodrigo Teixeira’s RT Features, an “Indignation” and “Little Men” producer and Martin Scorsese co-producer on Josh and Benny Sadie’s “Uncut Gems,” has boarded “Late To Die Young,” from Dominga Sotomayor, a double Rotterdam Tiger winner with “Thursday Till Sunday,” her debut, and “The Island,” which she co-directed.

Deal came at Cannes as Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures inked North America on another Chilean movie, Fernando Lavanderos’ “No North.”

Produced by Sotomayor’s Santiago de Chile-based Cinestacion and RT Features, and set for a first-half 2017 shoot, the Sundance and Rotterdam Hubert Bals Fund-backed “Too Late” is a coming of age tale about three adolescents, set in an isolated rural community in the context of Chile’s return to democracy, Sotomayor told Variety.

She added:“The alliance allows us to shoot soon; also, I admire the films RT Features is producing, its involvement, for example, in the next Kiarostami.”

“RT Features has become a leading brand for works outside Brazil – both in Latin America, the U.S. and France. Working with Chile further enhances our reach with international productions,” Teixera added.

As Latin America ever more finances and produces U.S. movies – think Gaston Pavlovich’s financing Scorsese’s “The Irishman” – rather than relying just on Europe, Latin America filmmakers are increasingly also co-producing among themselves.

“It’s interesting how new possibilities are opening up for co-production in Latin America, which determines new languages and new possibilities for communication and visibility across the region,” Sotomayor commented.

Indeed, presenting at Cannes more than 70 movies – in development, production and post-pro – Chilean producers struck a striking range of deals, in terms of film types and geography. The major new thrust, however, is strategic, and Latin-American focused, as the Chilean government and producers drove into co-production across the region, Chile’s Arts and Audiovisual Industry Council (CNCA) launching new bilateral co-production fund with Argentina and Brazil. Inked with Brazil’s Ancine state-backed film-TV agency, latter sees one 2016 project receiving $100,000 in bilateral funding.

As significant international theatrical sales on foreign-language films contract for all but name directors and a clutch of breakout movies, often with higher production values (think “No,” “ Gloria” and this year’s Cannes Director Fortnight hit “Neruda“), co-production “broadens films’ financing possibilities, scales them up,” said Constanza Arena, exec director of CinemaChile, Chile’s international film promo org.

Also, on most films, co-production currently bring far more money to the table than licensing deals. At Cannes, CinemaChile organised producers’ co-pro meeting with Brazil, Croatia and Belgium’s Wallonie Bruxelles Image. Also, “Cinemachile is exploring a place for Chilean producers to meet their independent U.S producer counterparts. In the U.S., as Brazil and Italy, there’s more of a demand for Chilean films than offer,” Arena said.

Also in Chile’s business mix at the 2016 Cannes Film Market:

*Rolling off rave reviews at Cannes, Pablo Larrain’s “Neruda” closed U.S. rights with The Orchard, in one of the earliest U.S. deals to be announced at Cannes. Movie had already wracked up strong pre-sales before its Cannes world premiere.

*Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures acquired North American tights to Chilean Fernando Lavanderos’ “No North.” Deal was inked by Hudson and Luis Cifuentes at Lucho Films. “‘No North’ is a modern road movie, a story of love and a trip to Chile that isn’t often seen on the screen,” Hudson said.

*Cinestacion also closed a minority co-pro deal on “Die Monster Die,” lead-produced out of Argentina and Alejandro Fadel’s second feature after“The Wild Ones,” which scooped Cannes’ 2012 Critics’ Week ACID/CCAS Distribution Support Award.

*Italy inked with Chile on a joint co-pro co-development fund.

*Also closed at Cannes, Cinestacion will put up minority equity on “El Hombre de la Mancha, the second feature from Costa Rican Neto Villalobos (“All About the Feathers”).

*Storyboard Media clinched French co-production from Les Films Figures Libres on Sergio Castro’s “The Hidden Man,” a docu-feature on Chile’s most famed communist hitman, responsible for the assassination of multiple military officials associated with Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Storyboard’s “Tila: Fragments of a Psychopath,” directed by Alejandro Torres, and Jorge Yacoman’s “Fragments of Lucia” were also acquired for distribution in Mexico by Vendo Cine.

*Portugal’s Terratreme Films will co-produce “Petit Frere,” from Chile’s Araucaria Cine, about a Haitian immigrant in Chile.

*Latido Films rolled out sales on Pepa San Martin’s “Rara,” a Grand Prize winner at Berlin’s Generation KPlus, which has closed 10 international sales deals, with further licensing pacts under negotiation.

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