Packed full of first- and second-time directors, the 12 projects on this year’s Ventana Sur Proyecta co-production platform backed by some of Latin America’s finest producers provide a snapshot of a new generation that offers an in-depth portrait of contemporary realities.
Brazil’s Maeve Jinkings, best known for her breakout role in Walter Salles’ Oscar-winning “I’m Still Here,” is set to star in “Cabildo 71.” Natalia Oreiro (“Yossi, the Regretful Spy”) in “The Other Mountain”.
The project was confirmed by San Sebastian Oil on Tuesday. The festival, which partners with the Cannes Festival’s Marché du Film and Ventana Sur on the project, “Give Me Shelter” is one of Re Pictures’ latest projects. Set in Argentina, Mexico and Spain, it follows Lucrecia Martel’s Venice-selected “Our Land,” Argentina’s Oscar submission “Kill the Jockey” and recent Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “The Settlers.”
“Give Me Shelter” will mark Nicolas Pérez Veiga’s feature debut following an award-laden adversarial career that has included seven Cannes Lions, an International Emmy nomination for “Out There” and directing “Ringo, Glory and Death.”
Set at the Cannes Critics Week Next Step Workshop, “The Absence” is produced by the renowned piano of Julio Chavezmontes, a Mexico City-based producer and co-producer of films starring Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ruben Östlund, Lucrecia Martel and Leos Carax.
“Rabbits” is the first new Colombian directorial title from Colombia-based Ocultimo, co-founded by Simon Mesa Soto, director of the acclaimed “A Poet,” the Cannes Un Certain Regard jury prize. Ocultimo aims to be “a platform for new generations of Colombian filmmakers with bold, director-driven films,” explained Mesa Soto. Diversity.
“Los Majoras Dias” is set in Juan Pablo Miller’s Taria Fina, a bastion of Argentine arthouse cinema, the man behind such standouts as Cannes Camera d’Or winner Las Acacias, “Incident Light” and “Sleepwalkers.”
Presented by France’s Luxbox, Spain’s Amore Cine, the Ventana sur Proyecta Forum co-production titled “Portrait Huaco” weighs in as the second feature from Melina Leon, whose “Song Without a Name” (“Cancion Sin Nombre”) had its world premiere at the 2019 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
A closer look at the 12 film projects from this year’s Proyekta lineup:
“absence,” (“La Ausania,” Jorge Sistos Moreno, Mexico)
The feature debut of Sistos Moreno, whose “The Darkness” was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week in 2022. Morelia, a mestizo woman in the 18th century, a woman of property, invokes an ancestral deity in the search for her husband’s syphilis, which was given to her. “This film talks about a wound that is still open today: racism, and the forces and paradigms imposed on ourselves and Our inability to accept our heritage,” says Sistos Moreno.
“Cabildo 71,” (Victoria “Pitoca” Pena, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Spain)
A sophomore outing for Victoria “Pitoca” Peña, whose debut film “Delia” won the Silver Biznaga for best director at the Málaga Film Festival, “Cabildo 71” is based on real-life events about women imprisoned in the Cabildo – a prison-convent run by the Nuns of the Good Shepherd. An intimate look at the largest female prison break in history. Produced by Una Presência (Argentina) and Vitrin Films (Brazil/Spain), with lead producer Monarca Films of Uruguay and co-producer Boulevard Films, Brazil.
“dirty face” (“Cara Susia,” Ignacio Aconcia, Spain)
Ekonsia has worked for a decade with people with intellectual disabilities for her fiction feature debut. Led by Ehe Productions with Kabiria Films and Barcelona-based Contraria Media, behind the Berlin VFF Talent Highlight Award winner “March 14,” the drama follows a black teen suffering from vitiligo who finds acceptance while performing community service at a disability care home. Ayhe’s David Eymerich says the film aims to bring underrepresented communities to the screen.
‘dirty face’
“Give me shelter,” (“Un Lugar Seguro,” Nicolás Pérez Veiga, Argentina, Mexico)
“A thriller based on true facts, set just days before Argentina’s 1976 military coup, a story of resilience and courage that almost
Nobody knows,” says Pérez Veiga. When his father is kidnapped by a paramilitary task force days before the coup, Dr. Gustavo Vaca Narvaza returns to his family and, in desperation, decides to risk everything. “There’s only one problem: they’re twenty-six, and no one can be left behind.”
“Isabel Hernandez” (Giorgio Giampa, Italy-Mexico)
Italy’s Zoe Films, behind Venice competition entry “A Bit of Light,” leads Giampa’s feature debut with Ladoc and Mexico’s Fiasco and Madrefocca. Set in Guatemala, the drama follows a young agronomist investigating his long-absent father amid a migration crisis. With established Italian arthouse distributor Teodora Film on board, the project participated in TorinoFilmLab’s FeatureLab 2026. Fiasco’s Elena Fortes says, “I was immediately drawn to the depth and complexity of its characters and its careful exploration of how trauma occurs across generations.”
““Los Majoras Dias,” (Maria Zanetti, Argentina)
Maria Zanetti’s second feature, 2025 Argentina AMPAS Best Debut Feature for “Alemannia”. Set across three timelines and spanning Argentina and Spain, it is, despite a dark side, a potentially powerful portrait of young love and enduring passion, “exploring love without embellishment nor emphasis”, says Zanetti.
““Second Mountain” (“La Otra Montana,” Horacio Reyes Páez, Uruguay-Argentina)
Natalia Oreiro (“Vakolda”) is attached to star in a new take on the 1972 Andes plane crash, told from the perspective of a mother waiting for news of her missing son. Reyes Paez, her real-life grandson, calls it “a mother’s intimate, invisible fight, away from the snow and debris.” Uruguay’s U Films and Sueño Cine produce in association with Argentina’s FAM Contenidos.
“Place and hope,” (“El Lugar y la Esperanza,” Ariagna Fajardo Nuviola, Cuba-France)
Nuviola revisits the impact of the community filmmaking initiative he started in his native Sierra Maestra 30 years ago. Produced by Julio Raúl Vega Garces’ Torrente Films, the feature documentary draws on family archives to explore the power of cinema to preserve collective memory. Supported by Cuba’s Film Promotion Fund, it won a Eurodoc Special Mention at the RIDM Forum in Montreal.
“Portrait happened,” (“Huaco Retrato,” Melina Leon, Peru, France, Spain)
The anticipated adaptation of Peruvian writer Gabriela Wiener’s autobiographical novel “Portrait Huaco.” After her father’s death Gabriela returned to Lima. Returning home, he finds a book by his great-grandfather, Austrian explorer Charles Wiener. Her exploration into the family past becomes a reckoning with the legacies of colonialism, internalized racism, and abandonment. Produced by Peru’s Mano de Obra Cine, led by Melissa Cordero, and La Vida Misma Films, both of which are behind “Song Without a Name.”
“Rabbit,” (“Conejos,” Sara Nanclares, Colombia, Chile, Germany, France)
A powerful high-potential Latin-America-Europe co-production that revisits a social experiment in birth control conducted in Colombia more than 30 years ago. Nanclares says, “With a sharp script and a witty, outspoken protagonist who refuses to be defined by her circumstances, the film challenges conventional views of teen pregnancy, bringing to light the hidden desires and contradictions behind it.”
“Salamanca,” (Juan Sebastian Torrales, Argentina, France)
Torrelles’ second feature, “Almamula,” a coming-of-age drama rooted in the legends and folklore of the Argentine countryside, played at Berlin’s 2023 Generation 14Plus. Lorena Quevedo founded Argentina’s Twin Latin Films (“Venezia”), who co-produced Torrales’ first film.