Marie De-La-Fuente Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

Anna Marie de la Fuente After a series of talks, upstart Madrid-based international sales agency Feel Sales has nabbed all worldwide rights, with the exception of Chile, to “Allanamiento” (“Breaking and Entering”), the investigative police thriller in official competition at the 19th Santiago Int’l Film Festival (Sanfic). Feel Sales Acquisitions head Yvette de los Santos closed the deal with producer Camila Rodó Carvallo of Pira Films. Directed by Tomás Gonzales Matos, the drama first participated at Sanfic’s Works in Progress section and was later presented at the Cannes Marché du Films last year.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Netflix is toasting Mexico’s National Day of Cinema on Aug. 15 with a slew of projects, many of them tapping the country’s wealth of literary classics and original storytellers. Working with some of the most prominent local filmmakers, the streaming giant is also reaffirming its $300 million commitment to Mexican cinema and series and its #QueMéxicoSeVea (“Let Mexico Be Seen”) initiative.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In what marks the most ambitious film from Peru’s leading producer Tondero and, most likely, Peruvian cinema in recent times, Pedro Almodóvar’s El Deseo, Infinity Hill (“Argentina 1985”) and Tondero have joined forces to co-produce a drama based on the hostage crisis that took place at the Japanese embassy in Lima in 1996. El Deseo executive producer Esther Garcia and Infinity Hill co-founder/chief creative officer Axel Kuschevatzky were in Lima to attend Tondero’s 15th anniversary festivities and for Garcia to receive a tribute from the ongoing 27th Lima Film Festival, which runs Aug.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Now on its fourth year, the Santiago Film Festival’s Morbido-Sanfic Lab features an ever more diverse selection from Ibero-America. As Morbido founder-CEO Pablo Guisa said of this year’s edition: “It has projects from multiple countries, several produced or directed by women as well as one LGBTQ-themed project and, for the first time, a documentary.” Vampire creatures abound in this crop.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Unfolding alongside Chile’s Santiago International Film Festival (SANFIC), Sanfic Industria runs August 20-26, promising a busy schedule that includes Iberoamerican Works in Progress (WIP) and a variety of labs that encompass fiction, documentaries, genre films, sustainable development, series, women producers’ projects, XR etc. Some of the 11 sections will be in a hybrid or online format.  At its July 19 press conference, Sanfic Industria head Gabriela Sandoval will highlight the premiere of two hotly anticipated Chilean series that will screen at the annual event.  Both shows are expected to debut later this year on Chilean television before passing on to streaming platforms. Recipients of the Chilean National Television fund, both deal with women’s themes in distinct genres. 

Anna Marie de la Fuente Execs from Amazon Studios, TelevisaUnivision and Televisa debated on the current state of the telenovela and the impact AI will have on it in the not-so-distant future.  Among the multiple events at Conecta Fiction, the panel titled ‘Mexico: Broadcasters & Platforms’ saw Ángel Inzunza, development executive of original content at Amazon Studios in Mexico, Vanesa Rosas, VP of streaming partnerships and business operations at TelevisaUnivision, and Guillermo Quesada, script and content advisor for Televisa, debate on how the telenovela has been impacted by the advent of streamers. Moderator Alejandro Palma of Mestizo Lab played devil’s advocate, asking probing questions to tease their views on the current television landscape in Mexico.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sometimes dreams do come true. When Disney legend Andreas Deja was 11 years old, “The Jungle Book” played at his hometown in Germany and after watching it, he was hooked. He remembers how it cast a spell on him and how he knew right there and then that he wanted to take part in the Disney magic. With the help of his English teacher, he wrote to the Mouse House and to his surprise received a reply. Deja relates: “It basically said that if I was serious about the animation done at Disney, I first had to become an artist in my own right.” From that day on, he began his deep dive into the world of animation, poring over magazines, newspapers and books and later enrolling in art school. While at school, he wrote to Eric Larson, one of the legendary Nine Old Men of Disney lore, who after looking at Deja’s work said he thought he “had what it took.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Speaking for nearly an hour at his master class, one of the key highlights of the Annecy Animation Festival this week, maestro filmmaker Guillermo del Toro kept his packed-to-the rafters audience enthralled – and in stitches – as he extolled the virtues of stop-motion animation and of embracing flaws. Having just won a best animated feature film Oscar for his long-gestating stop-motion version of the classic tale “Pinocchio” gave his talk even more heft.   “Stop-motion is, in my opinion, the most beautiful of all the forms of animation because it’s the most intimate, and is quite literally a connection between the animator and a physical model,” he said, adding: “It’s is the closest thing to playing with your toys.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente A Blue Demon Jr. Lucha Libre Universe is in the works. Candle Media’s Exile Content Studio and L.A.-based film company Moxie 88 have joined forces to produce a range of content based on Mexican wrestling icon, Blue Demon Jr. The new 360-degree pact aims to expand the use of Blue Demon Jr.’s likeness in the areas of film, television, animation and merchandising on a worldwide scale. As the adopted son of Blue Demon, the legendary 1950s Mexican wrestling (Lucha Libre) icon who inspired hundreds of comic books and nearly 30 feature films, Blue Demon Jr. has continued the noble tradition, stamping his own style on the wildly popular sport. He became the first Mexican and second masked wrestler to claim the prestigious NWA World Heavyweight Championship and has sold out shows at Madison Square Garden.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” fresh from its triumphant world premiere at the Cannes fest, opens the 38th Guadalajara Film Festival (FICG) which touts new sections this year, including a branded series showcase and midnight screenings of Italian fright maestro Dario Argento’s horror films. Eva Longoria’s feature directorial debut, “Flamin’ Hot,” which had its West Coast premiere at the LA Latino Film Festival (LALIFF) May 31, marks its Mexican debut at the fest. The Series Showcase includes Patricia Martinez’s fact-based “La Narcosatánica,” which will stream on the rebranded Max, and Maite Alberdi’s “Libre de reir,” a Gato Grande production, which centers on inmates in a Mexican prison who enroll in a stand-up comedy workshop. Alberdi’s Sundance-winning docu “The Eternal Memory” also vies for a prize in the festival’s documentary sidebar.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Sonora, among the top podcast platforms in Spain, has tapped leading Chilean scribes Enrique Videla and Paula del Fierro to write a couple of serial podcasts for it. Their credits include Amazon Original “La Jauria” (“The Pack”), showrun by Lucía Puenzo (“The German Doctor”) and produced by Pablo and Juan de Dios Larrain’s Fabula. Both are also co-writers of Movistar’s “Los Prisioneros” and Chilean-German co-production, “Dignidad.” “We’re delighted to add Chilean creative talent to Sonora. The original content that Del Fierro and Videla will write for our platform will join one of our most outstanding fiction creations, ‘Retornados,’ a science fiction thriller written and directed by Chilean scriptwriter, Julio Rojas,” said Gabriel Sáenz de Buruaga, CEO and founding partner of Sonora. Rojas is also one of the writers on “La Jauria” and the scribe of Spotify’s most successful Spanish-language podcast, “Case 63.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente With the writers’ strike dragging on, unscripted content is expected to dominate programming grids. A panel organized by C21 Media at the L.A. Screenings Independents on the format’s outlook in Latin America could not have been more timely. Rising costs, shifting consumer tastes, the advent of streaming platforms and the sway of social media have indeed posed new challenges, even to such mainstays as Banijay’s “Big Brother.” One of Banijay’s biggest reality shows, it first broadcast in 1999 in the Netherlands and was syndicated to more than 60 countries worldwide. “It was a gigantic challenge when we decided to produce ‘Big Brother’ again after 10 years had passed since the last edition,” said Guillermo Pendino, VP content and programming, FTA Brands, Latam Sur, Paramount (Argentina-Chile). “It was no longer the same world, there were the platforms, the social networks and you had to speak to a new audience, an audience that didn’t even know what ‘Big Brother’ was because they were still very young the last time it was broadcast,” he noted. “From Paramount we see the unscripted format as a great opportunity, especially at Telefe Argentina and Chilevisión,” he said.

Anna Marie de la Fuente LA Screenings Independents hosted a panel of leading U.S.-based Latino producers who held forth on the challenges of creating Latino projects from the heart of Hollywood. Organized by C21 Media, the panel kicked off with Axel Kuschevatzky, director-owner of Infinity Hill, a producer of the Oscar-shortlisted “Argentina 1985,” who pointed out the asymmetry of the Latino experience in the U.S. entertainment biz, a persistent conundrum where 19% of the U.S. population is Latino, contributing an estimated $3.2 trillion to the economy, but where its representation on TV, streaming and theatrical hovers between 3%.and 5%. “We’re earning a lot of money for a lot of people but we’re not reclaiming the business that comes along with it,” Kuschevatzky asserted.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Elevated genre has just been turbo charged by a new strategic alliance between Globalgate Entertainment and Morbido Group, the fast expanding horror conglomerate in Ibero-America. Co-founded in 2016 by former Pantelion Films CEO Paul Presburger, Globalgate Entertainment is a local-language film & TV production and co-financing consortium formed by Lionsgate and 14 other prominent international entertainment companies, including key players in major markets. The strategic partnership, dubbed MorbidoGate, aims to develop elevated genre content by generating and acquiring IP while fostering emerging talent in key markets worldwide.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Colombian-Mexican filmmaker Rodrigo García has wrapped his first Spanish-language feature, “Familia,” which was shot in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico for Netflix. García, who has directed such acclaimed films as “Mother and Child” and “Albert Nobbs,” and whose TV credits include “Six Feet Under,” “Big Love” and “In Treatment,” said: “Shooting ‘Familia’ has been a great experience.” He added: “Great producers, collaborators, several of my favorite Mexican actors and actresses and Netflix’s full support have made this project an unforgettable trip back home.” This is the first time García, who is the son of Colombian Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Marquez, has directed a film in Mexico. He’s an executive producer in Netflix’s upcoming adaptation of his father’s literary classic “100 Years of Solitude,” which will be shooting in Colombia.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spurred by modest state funds, growing TV support and co-production pacts, filmmaking in Peru is on the rise and with it, it’s seeing sometimes a rousing presence on the international stage. Peruvian pics snagged six awards at March’s Malaga Film Festival and industry component MAFIZ, an unprecedented haul for the event’s country guest of honor. Plaudits went to Mauricio Frey’s “Estados generales,” Francesca Canepa’s “La otra orilla,” Ximena Valdivia’s “4eber,” documentary “Hatun Phaqcha” by Delia Ackerman and Leonardo Barbuy’s “Diogenes.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Big changes are afoot in Peru, thanks to Paramount’s mega-budgeted “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts,” which shot there in 2021, literally saving hundreds of jobs badly hit by a six-month pan- demic lockdown. With street protests now a distant memory, talks are underway to address concerns that will make Peru a more attractive location shoot, including such measures as launching a film commission, introducing fiscal incentives, improving equipment availability as well as more training and support for the local audiovisual industry. The need for these filming incentives were driven pain- fully home when the producers behind the “Paddington in Peru,” the third film in the hit “Paddington” series, opted to shoot in Colombia because of its coveted rebates. While some second-unit filming will be done in Peru, the bulk will be shot in Colombia and London.

Anna Marie de la Fuente CinemaChile’s newly appointed executive director Ximena Baeza makes her Cannes debut as the promotional org presents its annual catalog at the Marché and a sizeable contingent of 27 Chilean production companies present their titles. Baeza, who was selected after a two-month headhunting process in which more than 160 applicants for the position were interviewed, comes armed with nearly 20 years of experience in the marketing and communications field. She was previously director of marketing and content at Imagen de Chile, a country brand agency. Her experience in the entertainment industry runs deep. She worked at Televisión Nacional de Chile (TVN) for 15 years, where she was assistant manager of marketing and communications. She also held similar posts at Universal Music Chile, Telefónica CTC Chile and MusimundoChile.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Tomás Yankelevich, EVP and chief content officer of general entertainment for Latin America and U.S. Hispanic at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), has opted to leave the company by the end of June to “pursue new professional endeavors.” Fernando Medin, president of WBD Latin America and U.S. Hispanic, has tapped industry vet Mariano Cesar to replace him. Cesar, who joined the pay TV industry some 30 years ago, was at the helm of such renowned brands as Uniseries, Retro, I.Sat, Space, TNT, TNT Series and Warner Channel. He was named head of programming and strategic content at HBO Max when it launched in 2021, adding the HBO channel portfolio and, more recently, Discovery+ to his duties.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Co-productions are increasingly the norm in Chile where state funds remain scant in a market of a mere 19.5 million inhabitants. Its new president’s campaign pledge last year to more than double the state’s contribution to the arts is not quite a reality, with a 16% increase noted so far. On the bright side, there has been an uptick in private funding, with some 50% of a film’s budget covered by private investors. To date, the audiovisual sector has seen a 31.5% increase in state funding this year compared to 2022. Chilean filmmakers are also exploring new genres, straying from traditional dramas. More often than not — as in Maite Alberdi’s Sundance win for 2023’s “The Eternal Memory” — Chilean cinema has triumphed at one major festival or awards event after another.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Parrot Analytics, the leading global entertainment analytics company, has tapped former Whip Media/RightsTrade exec Jaime Otero as its new VP of Partnerships. Otero joins Parrot Analytics to help drive growth, expand strategic partnerships and spur the global roll-out of the company’s new content valuation system, launched in November 2022. Said Wared Seger, CEO of Parrot Analytics: “Jaime’s appointment signifies our commitment to expanding our global footprint; we are confident that his expertise will enable us to further solidify our position as the industry leader in global entertainment analytics.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Animayo, Spain’s leading animation festival, is celebrating its 18th edition with the help of Disney legend Andreas Deja who will be presenting his independently-produced short, “Mushka.” “Having Deja choose Animayo to debut his film in Spain is the greatest honor,” said Damian Perea, founder-director of the festival, which unspools May 3-6 on the island of Gran Canaria. A hand-drawn 2D animated story about an unlikely friendship between a young girl and a Siberian tiger in 1970s’ Soviet Union, “Mushka” is Deja’s directorial debut. His lauded Walt Disney Animation Studio credits include “The Lion King,” “Aladdin,” “Beauty and the Beast” and “Who Framed Roger Rabbit.”

Anna Marie de la Fuente Anime legends, producer Masao Maruyama and director Gisaburō Sugii, as well as U.S. animation producer and distributor Gkids, have joined global multimedia company N Lite and N Lite Japan to produce “Mfinda,” a first Afro-anime film which will be the subject of an in-depth first look at June’s Annecy Int’l Animation Film Festival.  Selected amongst the pitches this year at Annecy’s MIFA market in the feature film category, the N Lite original was created by Congolese-American artist Patience Lekien and Christiano Terry, founder-CEO of N Lite. “Mfinda” follows a 12-year-old Congolese girl who is taken to the mfinda, a primordial forest teeming with spirits, gods and ancestors. There she meets up with another young girl from a different time and together they set out to find the magical Nkisi, vessels that hold ancestral spirits as well as empowering materials or medicines, that will help her find her way home.

Anna Marie de la Fuente After 25 years, Susana Gimenez, Argentina’s celebrated TV host, actress, model and entrepreneur, is set to make her hotly anticipated return to the big screen in a new Diego Kaplan (“2+2,” “My Boyfriend’s Meds”) comedy.  The still untitled film, penned by Kaplan and Pablo Minces, centers on a preeminent child psychologist who has her own struggles with her 43-year-old son who is reluctant to leave home. Principal photography is slated for October in Buenos Aires. “I can’t believe I’m making a movie after all these years; I certainly wasn’t planning for it,” said Gimenez. “But Diego is a force of nature and a visionary. When he pitched the project to me, I just couldn’t resist it and jumped right in,” she added. Aside from starring in a host of film and TV series, Gimenez hosted a top-rated talk show likened to that of Oprah Winfrey or Italy’s Raffaella Carrà.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Paramount+ has bowed the trailer and key art of Colombian actor-producer Manolo Cardona’s directorial debut, “Death’s Roulette” (“Uno para morir”) ahead of its May 5 launch. The Spanish-language suspense thriller will stream on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and Latin America. It will also be available to stream in Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and South Korea. Based on the original script “La Terminal” by Frank Ariza, “Death’s Roulette” is written by Julieta Steinberg, Gavo Amiel and Cardona. The story revolves around seven kidnapped strangers who wake up in an isolated mansion to find that they are part of a deadly game. They are given 60 minutes to select one person to die but he or she has to agree to be sacrificed. The grim alternative is for all of them to lose their lives. As the clock winds down, their darkest secrets are revealed and they realize they are all somehow connected to a shadowy past.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Miami, home to the two leading U.S. Hispanic networks — TelevisaUnivision and Telemundo — as well as a host of smaller television companies, studio outposts, recording artists and independent entertainment companies, has long been the cultural epicenter of both Latin America and the U.S. Hispanic population. “It is not just the geographic location that makes Miami a hub: In so many ways, the city is also representative of the cultural diversity across Latin America and among all U.S. Hispanics,” says Karen Barroeta, executive VP, production and development, Telemundo Global Studios, NBCUniversal Telemundo Enterprises.  “On top of its rich cultural diversity, Miami is a world-class city in which to make television, with the highest quality production studios and a skillful workforce including incredible talent, from production teams to writers and actors,” she says.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Leading Spanish indie Plano a Plano has snagged TV adaptation rights to “Lejos de Luisiana” by Luz Gabás, last year’s winner of Spain’s prestigious Planeta Award. Plano a Plano acquired the rights from Book & Film Rights, the Editorial Planeta division which oversees local and international audiovisual adaptation deals as well as translation rights in international markets. Since 1952, Planeta has bestowed an annual reward to outstanding unpublished Spanish-language works with the largest endowment worldwide, one million Euros. Gabás’ acclaimed debut novel “Palm Trees in the Snow” (“Palmeras en la nieve”) was successfully adapted to the screen in 2015, winning two Goya, translated to multiple languages and grossing $18.3 million in Spain.

Anna Marie de la Fuente TelevisaUnivision has enlisted key players across Ibero-America to produce original projects for its two-tiered streaming platform, ViX. During the first quarter of this year, 11 series and movies are kicking off production, among them from the likes of Mexico’s Argos Contenido, Lemon Films, Alazraki and Edge Films, Argentina’s FAM Contenidos, and Colombia’s 11:11 Films & TV and Spain’s Morena Films, as well as Miami-based BTF Media and W Studios. “By announcing these 11 new productions, we’re not only reaffirming our commitment to genuinely reflect the rich and diverse stories of our Hispanic community but also leading the charge in delivering the best-in-class content,” said Rodrigo Mazón, EVP & chief content officer, ViX.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In a bid to give more opportunities to women directors and boost the romcom genre, Sony Pictures International has teamed up with Maria Ripoll’s Cahuenga Filmmakers and transatlantic production shingle El Estudio to launch The Love Collection, a series of romantic comedy features to be written and helmed by women. Ripoll, best known for her romcom “Ahora o nunca,” the highest-grossing femme-directed film in Spain, will serve as executive producer on all the titles, and will direct the first in the collection, “Yo no soy esa,” (roughly translated to “I’m Not That One” or “I’m Not Her”) starring Verónica Echegui (“Trust,” “You’re Killing Me, Susana”). El Estudio’s Enrique López Lavigne will serve as producer on all the titles.

Anna Marie de la Fuente In what marks a first for Chile’s Storyboard Media, Baremo Films of Mexico has boarded its psychological thriller “Quizas es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras” (“Maybe It’s True What They’re Saying About Us”), which has been shooting in Santiago since Feb. 1 and will wrap later this month.  Written and directed by Sofía Gomez (“Trastornos del sueño”) and Camilo Becerra (“Perro muerto”), the co-production also involves Chile’s La Jauria Cine as well as Argentina’s Murillo Cine and HDArgentina. “We’re delighted to have our first co-production with Mexico, which is such an important market, given its relevance in terms of promotion and visibility in our region,” said Storyboard Media’s Gabriela Sandoval and Carlos Núñez.