Click here to read the full article.
Class war bloodbath “The Eastman,” Latino procedural “Rookies,” queer drama “Mesopotamia” and the exquisite 2D tyke parable “The March of the Sunflowers” look like potential highlights at a 16th Bogotá Audiovisual Market
which looks set to underscore Colombia’s status not only as a big shoot location but one of Latin America’s still building production powers.
This year’s BAM runs July 6-10.
Fresh off an Urban Factory pick-up, announced at Cannes, “The Eastman,” the latest movie from Mauricio Leiva-Cock weighs in as one of the potentially standout genre movies in Latin America’s hopper, a Sanfic Mórbido Lab which snagged 13 awards at last year’s BAM Production Meetings.
One of BAM’s notable TV plays, “Rookies” is headed by “Narcos” star Damián Alcazar and Christian Tappán (“La Reina del Sur”) and directed by José Luis Rugeles, at Cannes Un Certain Regard with “Alias María,” and set up at top Colombian production house Rhayuela Films (“Rebellion,” “Páramo”).
Brazil’s Druzina Content, behind BAM project “Mesopotamia” made “Five Types of Fear,” a best film winner at Gramado Fest, which was boarded by Viola Davis’ Ashé as executive producers.
Of the 10 fiction movie projects at BAM, eight are first features. 75% of the 16 production companies which gave Variety their dates of creation launched in the last decade.
Buzz fiction debuts takes in “Eighteen,” the awaited fiction feature debut of multi-prized Benítez, helmer of notable doc feature “El Pantera,” produced by Diana C. Patiño Martínez, behind Cannes Palme d’Or winning short “Leidi,” and Venice Horizons best short winner “Between You and Milagros.” There’s also good word on “The Internal Enemy,” Claudia Pedraza’s solo feature debut after helming 120 episodes of smash hit “La Reina del Sur,” starring Kate del Castillo, and “Killing My Mother,” which looks set to announce shortly major cast news.
Though unspooling over only four days, BAM provides a snapshot of production in Colombia and a broader Latin America.
Brazil is building, and its stars looking for larger markets, leveraging its film industry’s sudden explosion onto the international film scene.
BAM opened Monday 10 days after France’s Annecy Festival, the biggest animation meet in the world, announced Colombia as its 2027 Country of Honor.
Thos year’s roster at BAM includes “Transparents,” the latest from Colombia’s Smith and Smith, behind acclaimed Sitges winner “The Other Shape.” The country’s animation no longer turns on the net efforts of valiant but isolated auteurs: It’s a building film-TV phenomenon and demonstrating considerable breadth, ranging from the quaintly observant and quietly upbeat intimacy of Carlos Osuna’s “The Man Who Wanted to Be Better” to pre-school (“Papoupi”) and the playfully supernatural (“Fran) to “Noa,” from Diego Gaviria, who turned heads at last year’s Annecy with “Crystal Iris,” a 2D anime-influenced fantasy short.
Ever more directors are embracing genre, its tropes of its sub-genres. “The Internal Enemy,” for example, is described by producer Gerson Aguilar as a “social drama infused with the tension of a thriller.”
“We believe genre is not an escape from reality, but a way of looking at it more deeply — a way to blur the line between arthouse and genre cinema, and to explore the world with a different set of eyes,” says Mauricio Leiva Cock, showrunner and writer behind Amazon MGM Studios “The Head of Joaquin Murrieta” and Netflix’s “Frontera Verde.”
Animation and genre, moreover, are no separate silos: Showcased at BMA, project “Noe” is an animated feature but also fantasy psychological horror thriller,” says director Daniel Gaviria.
Most projects at BAM, moreover, have social point. Some is large, and urgent. “Where We Belong,” for example, is produced by Barranquilla-based Primera Persona, focused on auteur-driven fiction that reimagines the Colombian Caribbean through Afro-descendant protagonists, women’s perspectives and stories shaped by memory, displacement and belonging.
That social consciousness is shared by Latin America at large.
“‘The March of the Sunflowers’ will be the first stop-motion feature ever produced in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais,” says producer Ivan Melo. “It is also among the very few Brazilian animated features created specifically for young children. Inspired by the landscapes, folklore and traditional craftsmanship of the sertão of Minas Gerais, the film introduces an authentic Brazilian heroine while celebrating one of Brazil’s richest yet least represented cultural regions.”
A closer look ago at BAM’s projects this year:
“A Breath Away,” (“El aire que se escapa”)
Director: Daniel Abril.
Producer: Sugarmind Films and Arts
Two teenagers from a humble Bogotá neighborhood are drawn to each other. When they explore their feelings, they are brutally caught in the act and flee. Abril’s debut feature, a “personal, intimate film about sexual awakening and first love in a macho and violent world,” he says.
“Los Eastman,” (Colombia,Mexico)
Director: Mauricio Leiva-Cock
Producer: Cuatro Ojos
Early fruit from new Colonbian genre label Cuatro Ojos, a “social gore” movie and exposé of toxic class struggle, focusing on a housekeeper as a deadly pandemic rages, is enslaved by her wealthy employers, unleashing a brutal revenge. “Horror allows us to look directly at what we often prefer to soften: the intimate, everyday, and structural violence that hides behind good manners,” Leiva-Cock tells Variety.
“Eighteen,” (“Doeciocho,” Colombia)
Director: Franck Benítez
Producer: La Productora Cine, Planeador Films
As Colombia braces for the divisive 2016 peace referendum, Daniel, an introverted teenager, comes of age while struggling with family hardship, unrequited first love, and the pressures of proving his masculinity. A reckless lie forces him to rebuild hs identity. Billed as a political coming of age tale, “Eighteen” posits “the personal and the political in constant dialogue, each shaping and permeating the other,” producer Diana C. Patiño Martínez observes.
“The Internal Enemy,” (Colombia, Mexico)
Director: Claudia Pedraza
Producer: Agata Azul Films, CBDC Producciones, Mexico
“The lives of Amanda, a mother searching for her missing daughter; Sepúlveda, a farmer fighting to reclaim his land; and Lucía, a schoolteacher whose commitment extends far beyond the classroom. “My interest as a director stems from an urgent need to give a human face to the abstract statistics of forced disappearance and dispossession in Colombia,” says Pedraza.
“Killing My Mother,” (“Matando a Mi Madre”)
Director: Rossana Montoya
Producer: Querida Productora, El Navegante Cine (Colombia); Plate Filmes (Brazil)
Single mother Rosario discovers she’s pregnant as mother Shaio, a once celebrated Brazilian actress, suffers a heart attack. Rosario accompanies her mother towards death while deciding whether to bring a new life into the world. The first feature from Montoya, whose “Mi Demonio” won best short film at the 2024 Sony Future Filmmaker Awards.
“Mesopotamia,” (Brazil)
Director: Andy Malafaia
Producer: Druzina Content, Plano B Filmes (Brazil), Persona Non Grata Pictures (Portugal)
Potentially, one of the most powerful projects at BAM, with an eye-catching cast and resonant drama, set in 1974 rural Brazil under military dictatorship, the fragile balance of couple Jorge and Mariângela, facing expropriation for the construction of a hydroelectric dam, is shaken by the unexpected intimacy between Mariângela and Jorge’s sister. A Projeto Paradiso award winner and “intimate, sensorial and emotionally devastating cinematic experience,” says producer Luciana Druzina.
“The Noise of Long Distances,” (“El ruido de las largas distancias”)
Director: Leinad Pájaro De la Hoz
Producer: Bølier Films (Colombia)
Leticia, a solitary elderly woman, is informed her missing son has been seen transformed into a caiman near the Magdalena
River. Se determines to seek hm out. “What interests me is not the monster itself, but the human experience that gives birth to a myth,” Pájaro de la Hoz tells Variety.
“Old Solitude,” (“Sin Soledad,” Chile, Canada)
Director: Valentina Arango
Producer: Charita Films (Chile), Strike Pictures (Canada)
Werner, an elderly widower and Teresa, his lifelong live-in housekeeper, must learn to care for each other or lose their home and perhaps lives. The feature debut of Chilean writer Arango (“Gaucho Americano”), a Sanfic Industria Mafiz Award winner that “challenges the notion of aging as decline, embracing the need for human connection as an act of resistance against invisibility,” says Arango.
“Red Sand,” (“Areia Vermelha”)
Director: Gil Baroni
Producer: Beija Flor Filmes
From Curitiba-based Beija Flor and writer Rodrigo de Vasconcellos (“Bola Pra Frente”), a “queer summer dramedy,” say its makers, set in Summer 1999, Northeast Brazil. After the patriarch’s death, the whole Rabello family comes out. “Red Sand” “blends queer dramedy, tropical melodrama and coming-of-age to explore how the collapse of patriarchal expectations can open the door to desire, freedom and reinvention,” says Baroni.
“Stubborn Girls,” (”Necias,” Colombia)
Director: Luisa Muñoz Carvajal
Producer: La Productora Cine, Mala-Testa (Colombia)
A coming of age road movie: three teen girls flee their local town machismo seeking human connection and freedom. “Stubborn Girls” “portrays tenderness as a radical form of resistance and friendship as a political force capable of transforming the future,” says Muñoz Carvajal. From La Productora, behind Simón Mesa Soto’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning short “Leidi.”
“Tulio,” (Argentina)
Director: Manuela Irene
Producer: Corte a Cine, Cine Provincia
Having explored death from various perspectives in “Xibalba Monster,” a 2024 Edinburgh Fest Sean Connery Prize contender, Irene now focuses on love. Set across different times and landscapes of Argentina and Uruguay, Tulio, a young vampire, hopelessly seeks the one thing out of reach: love. “A reinterpretation of the vampire genre moving towards intimate drama delving into different approaches to the idea of love,” says Irene.
“Of Oranges and Demons,” (“De Naranjas y Otros Demonios,” Colombia
Director: Agamenón Quintero
Producer: Malintzin 14
A dramedy set in Colombia’s Caribbean in 1978. José, 17, shoots a horror short film with his friends in the local cemetery sparking rumours of a satanic cult, which build to collective hysteria. “Across Colombia’s Caribbean coast, the absurd and the fantastical coexist as part of everyday life, and of the way a community transforms simple events into stories charged with fear, myth, and imagination,” says Quintero.
“Where We Belong,” (“Aqui me quedo,” Colombia-Brazil)
Director: Obeida Benavides
Producer: Primera Persona
“After killing the man who murdered her son, a Black peasant woman flees with her daughter to a Caribbean port city. The threat of eviction forces them to choose between fleeing once again or fighting for the place they now call home. “Through the story of a displaced mother and daughter, I wanted to explore how violence reshapes intimacy, and how staying can become the most radical act of love,” Benavides tells Variety.
TV Series
“Artificial Paradises,” (“Paraísos Artificiales,” Colombia)
Director: Paula Lugo Hernández.
Producer: Próxima Films
In a near future where emotional care is entrusted to AI, two strangers bound by personal loss find unexpected connection through an AI-powered therapy device – until they discover the device can manipulate memories. Healing may cost something deeper: the loss of any real human connection. The series “blends the emotional intimacy of a love story with the visual language of soft science fiction,” notes Lugo Hernandez.
“Drugs, Guns and Lyrics,” (“Drogas, Pistolas y Letras,” Colombia, Puerto Rico)
Director: Cristina Villar Rosa
Producer: Perrenque Media Lab (Colombia), Ítoko Media, (Puerto Rico/U.S.)
After the death by fentanyl overdose of Pablo Villar Rosa, an unpublished urban poet sister producer-director Cristina Villar Rosa(“Espasmo”) at Perrenque and brother Javier visit the territories that shaped his life: Mexico, Colombia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Every episode creates a track from lyrics, letters, notebooks and audio archive. “A musical investigation into the relationship between lyrics, street life, addiction, violence, market value and belonging,” says Cristina Villar Rosa whose Perrenque production house provided production services on John Swab’s “Long Gone Heroes.”
“The Locksmith,” (“El Cerrajeo,” Colombia
Producer: Trópico Creativo
A conspiracy crime thriller created by Jhon Guerrero (“Love Motel”), with solitary locksmith Pedro is forced to work for a criminal organization planning to assassinate a Caribbean head of state. His newly discovered daughter held hostage, Pedro hesitates at bringing the truth to light. “The Locksmith” is about “ordinary people caught up in conflicts they never sought and never saw coming,” says Guerrero.
“Misfortune,” (“Flores malditas”)
Creators: Ana Prado, Andrés Mossos
Producer: Perro de Anteojos – Ciclopx
A comedy-laced family drama set in 1999 Cali as its drug scene implodes. The children of Inés, owner of a famous hair salon, carry out her last wishes, uncovering a double life they never imagined. The series “connects with the family sorrows showing that life is much more hilarious than we can imagine,” say its creators.
“Rookies,” (“Oficina de detectives,” Colombia)
Director: José Luis Rugeles
Producer: Rhayuela Films
A prize winner at May’s Conecta Magaluf-Mallorca and the latest from Rugeles, behind “Alias María, “Rebellion” and current sales hit “The Awakening.” Here two half-brothers inherit a detective agency, discover their father didn’t die of old age, but because he knew too much. And now they know too much too. With elements of a more Latin and popular noir style, the cases in Oficina de detectives are solved through mistakes, clumsiness, and the strength of a chosen family,” says Rugeles.
“Tourette,” (Colombia, Spain)
Writer: Camilo Fonseca
Producer: La Guapa Media
A big winner at 2025’s Conecta Fiction, Spaniard Salva feigns Tourette’s syndrome after an outburst at a feminist colleague, and begins to rise at his company. During a psychiatric visit, he meets Lucía, an OCD sufferer, changing his course forever. “Can we be completely honest in a society so concerned witgh appearances rather than true intentions?! Fonseca asks.
“Unpacking,” (Colombia)
Director: Carlos Millán, Svitlana Topor
Producer: Echando Globos
Bea (29), a wanna-be singer, and Yomari (56) an immigrant suffering existential crisis, worse together as house movers. Help other people into another chapter of their lives, their own wounds and unfulfilled dreams begin to surface. A feel good series “helping to answer if it’s better to change your life or stay where you are, Millán and Topor tell Variety.
Animation
“From the Border Within,” (“De la frontera hacia el interior,” Colombia, Panama)
Director: Andrés Tudela
Producer: Orion Films (Colombia), Hello October (Panama)
From Bogotá-based Orion Films (“Fura”), Paulina, 12, explores her grandmother’s house, discovering a concrete wall where memory becomes a space, revealing why her grandmother abandoned her own daughter. The feature “combines different 2D techniques to turn the domestic space into an emotional territory, where the house, the objects and the memories also tell the story,” says Tudela.
“The Man Who Wanted to Be Better,” (“El hombre que quiso ser mejor,” Colombia)
Director: Carlos Osuna
Producer: Cambio de ojos
Osuna once more uses a minimalist 2D technique to focus on one single subjective perspective, a larger intimacy and step-by-step positive change. Gonzalo, 70, suddenly loses his wife and son, is left with just the family dog, the bond with which deepening. “It is a film about the extraordinary restorative power of time, and about how the quiet momentum of life, together with affection, enables us to find our way back to joy,” says Osuna.
“The March of the Sunflowers,” (“A Marcha dos Girassóis,”Brazil, France, Portugal)
Director: Erick Ricco
Producer: Tubz Studio, Ricco Filmes and Cup Filmes (Brazil), Autour de Minuit (France), Spamflix (Portugal)
A heartwarming stop-motion animated fantasy adventure for children aged 6–9 and family audiences, turning on Marialice, aged 9, whose father is forced to cook the farm’s only rooster. With no rooster to sing in a new day, Marialice begins a journey in endless night to find the sleeping sun, accompanied by tiny chick Little. A buzz project at Ventana Sur’s Animation! Last December and now a high-profile international co-production.
“Noa,” (Colombia)
Director: Diego Gaviria
Producer: 3N+1 Studio
A tween-to-teen 2D suspense thriller, centred on Not who turns to painkillers after injury ends her career as a dancer, plunging her in dreamlike visions on Mita, a sinister entity feeding on her pain. “Through a fantasy thriller, the film seeks to create an emotional experience in which beauty and unease coexist until they become inseparable,” Gaviria tells Variety.
“Papoupi,” (Colombia)
Director: Alicia Molina
Producer: Silverwolf Studios, Pomperipossa Studio
Created by Karla Chiriboga, with six pilot episodes completed and broadcast in Colombian TV channels, a comedic fantasy preschool adventure series turning on siblings Emma and Will who struggle to adapt to a new and strict children’s home. Until they meet Flick, a mischievous attic creature transforming their emotions into magical adventures. “We believe childhood must be lived with freedom and joy,” say Molina and Chiriboga. Produced by Silverwolf, a 2022 Intl. Emmy nominee for “Dapinty, A Musicolor Adventure.”
“Paranormal Fran Subscribe,” (“Paranormal Subcríbite,” Colombia)
Director: Manuel Londoño
Producer: La Mar Media
Manuel, 9, a paranormal streamer, investigates each and every room of his aunt’s country house, identified on various websites as a site of inexplicable phenomena. The series “responds to current kids consumer trends: a serial story, empathetic characters and a balance of suspense and playfulness,” says producer Mari Escobar, creator of Kids Discovery hit “Ana Pirata.”
“A Piece of Peace,” (“Un pedazo de paz,” Colombia)
An animated short film anthology,
Director: Carlos Zerpa, Jacobo Albán
Producer: Mecha, Lardux Films, Nocroma Studio
Eight short films, three now produced, that “chronicle” the rocky path to peace in Colombia through intimate testimonies.” The omnibus focuses “not only on the various ways people were affected, but also on how they heal their wounds and choose to contribute their own piece to building real peace,” Albán notes.
“Transparents,” (“Transparentes,” Colombia)
Director: Carlos Eduardo Smith Rovira, Libia Stella Gómez
Producer: Smith & Smith Ltda.
Iris, a Colombian painter raised in Europe after her mother’s disappearance during Colombia’s armed conflict, embarks on a journey to uncover her family’s past. “‘Transparents’ is a film about the invisible consequences of exile. It explores the generations who inherited silence, fragmented memories and unanswered questions,” Smith Rovira tells Variety.
