Netflix has signaled its strong commitment to Latin American television content by teaming up with the region’s most important confab, Ventana Sur, on its TV strand, SoloSeries.
For the first time, Ventana Sur and Netflix have joined forces to provide more impetus to women creators with a cash incentive of $5,000 (500,000 Argentine Pesos). This will be awarded to one project selected out of five SoloSeries participating projects in development by Argentine women creators. In addition, Carolina Leconte, Netflix director of original series for Latin America, will be mentoring on the participating projects.
Among the five projects is absurdist comedy “My Queen” by Marlene Grinberg, which tackles the issues of motherhood, children, sex and Judaism. It also participates in Ventana Sur’s pitching sessions.
SoloSeries aims to gather the most notable series and microseries in Latin America and serves as a networking hub for showrunners, screenwriters and producers.
The event will include conferences and roundtables with leading execs of the world’s top TV companies.
This year, in collaboration with the Spanish production company EsSpotlight, a call was made to present projects in development for fiction and documentary series.
EsSpotlight will select 10 projects that will participate in SoloSeries Pitching Sessions, and will award three major prizes at the end of the market.
Digital platform Flixxo will select five to eight microseries projects in development that are participating in MicroSeries pitching sessions, and will award a bitcoin prize valued at $1,000.
Launched in 2009 as a joint initiative of the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film and Argentina’s National Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute, Ventana Sur has been an appointment event for the past 12 years. While last year’s event was completely online, this year, Ventana Sur will run a hybrid edition from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4 at its new venue in central Buenos Aires, the Centro Cultural Kirchner.
Netflix incentive projects by Argentine women creators:
“Ayelen and the Forest Shadow,” Luz Rapport, Celeste Lambert and Sofía Sauval.
“Fed Up, in a Far Away Defense,” Julia Zarate and Nara Carreira. Producer: Dalmira María Tobal, Dalmira Films
“The Girls of the Fog,” Milagros Tucci Layus. Producer: Jorge Luján Corsi
“My Queen,” Marlene Grinberg. Producer: Mario E. Levit, Cruz del Sur Cine
“Sugar. Handicapped. Reckless, Not that Sweet,” Lucrecia Gómez Boschetti and Ana de Pascuale. Producer: Hernán Tchira, Nah Contenidos