- 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 "Too 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.
