Ventana Sur Proyecta 2026: A Powerhouse New Generation Lineup Backed by Some of Latin America’s Finest Producers

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Packed to its entirety by first and second-time directors, the 12 projects at this year’s Ventana Sur Proyecta co-production forum delivers a new generation snapshot backed by some of Latin America’s finest producers which delivers a searing portrait of the contemporary realities.

In key casting Brazil’s Maeve Jinkings, renowned for her pivotal role in Walter Salles’ Oscar-winning “I’m Still Here,” is set to star in “Cabildo 71.” Natalia Oreiro (“Yosi, the Regretful Spy”) in “The Other Mountain.”

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Of project confirmed Tuesday by the San Sebastián Oil. Festival, which partners on Proyecta with Cannes Festival’s Marché du Film and Ventana Sur, “Give Me Shelter” marks one of the latest projects from Rei Pictures. Based in Argentina, Mexico and Spain, it is behind Lucrecia Martel’s Venice Selected “Our Land,” Argentine Oscar submission “Kill the Jockey” and Cannes Un Certain Regard winner “The Settlers” of just recent films.

“Give Me Shelter” will mark Nicolás Pérez Veiga’s feature debut after an prize-laden adversing career, including seven Cannes Lions, an International Emmy nomination for “Out There” and directing “Ringo, Glory and Death.”

Set up at Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step workshop, “The Absence” is produced by Julio Chavezmontes’ famed Piano, a Mexico City-based producer and co-producer on movies from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ruben Östlund, Lucrecia Martel and Leos Carax.

“Rabbits” marks the first new Colombian director title from Colombia-based Ocúltimo, co-founded by Simón Mesa Soto, director of acclaimed “A Poet,” a Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. Ocúltimo aims “to become a platform for new generations of Colombian filmmakers with bold, director-driven films,” Mesa Soto told Variety.

“Los Mejores Días” is set up at Juan Pablo Miller’s Tarea Fina, a bastion of Argentine arthouse cinema, behind such standouts as Cannes Camera d’Or winner Las acacias,” “Incident Light” and “Sleepwalkers.”

Boarded by France’s Luxbox Spain’s Amore Cine, Ventana Sur Proyecta Co-Production Forum Title “Portrait Huaco” weighs as the second feature from Melina León, whose “Song Without a Name” (“Canción sin nombre”) world premiered at the 2019 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

A closer look at the 12 film projects at this year’s Proyecta lineup:

“The Absence,” (“La Ausencia,” Jorge Sistos Moreno, Mexico)

The feature debut of Sistos Moreno, whose “The Darkness was selected for Cannes Critics’ Week in 2022. In 18th century Morelia, a mestizo woman, the lady of an estate, invokes an ancestral deity in search for a for her husband’s syphilis, passed on to her. “This film speaks to a wound that remains open even today: racism, and the inability to accept ourselves and our heritage because of the forces and paradigms imposed upon us,” says Sistos Moreno.

“Cabildo 71,” (Victoria “Pitoka” Pena, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Spain)

A sophomore outing for Victoria “Pitoka” Pena, whose debut feature, “Delia”, won the Silver Biznaga for Best Director at the Málaga Film Festival, “Cabildo 71” is based on real-life events about the women imprisoned in Cabildo — a prison-convent run by the nuns of the Good Shepherd. An intimate take on the biggest women’s jail break in history. Boarded by Una Presencia (Argentina) and Vitrine Filmes (Brazil/Spain), lead produced by Monarca Films of Uruguay and co-producer Boulevard Filmes, Brazil.

“Dirty Face” (“Cara sucia,” Ignacio Acconcia, Spain)

Acconcia draws on a decade working with people with intellectual disabilities for his fiction feature debut. Led by Ayhe Productions alongside Kabiria Films and Barcelona-based Contraria Media, behind Berlinale VFF Talent Highlight Award winner “March 14th,” the drama follows a Black teenager with vitiligo who finds acceptance while performing community service at a disability care home. Ayhe’s David Aymerich says the film aims to bring underrepresented communities to the screen.

“Give Me Shelter,” (“Un Lugar Seguro,” Nicolás Pérez Veiga, Argentina, Mexico)

“A true facts-based thriller, 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, doctor Gustavo Vaca Narvaja returns to his family and decides to risk everything on a desperate escape. “There’s only one problem: they are twenty six, and none can be left behind.”

“Isabel Hernández” (Giorgio Giampà, Italy-Mexico)

Italy’s Zoe Films, behind Venice competition entry “A Bit of Light,” leads Giampà’s feature debut alongside LaDoc and Mexico’s Fiasco and Madrefoca. Set in Guatemala, the drama follows a young agronomist investigating her long-absent father amid the migration crisis. With established Italian arthouse distributor Teodora Film on board, the project participated in TorinoFilmLab’s FeatureLab 2026. “I was immediately drawn to the depth and complexity of its characters and its careful exploration of how trauma translates across generations,” says Fiasco’s Elena Fortes.

“Los Mejores Días,” (Maria Zanetti, Argentina)

The second feature from María Zanetti, a 2025 Argentina AMPAS best first feature for debut “Alemania.” Set over three timelines and straddling Argentina and Spain, a potentially powerful portrait of young love and an enduring passion, despite a darker side, an “exploration of love with no adornment nor emphases,” says Zanetti.

“The Other Mountain” (“La otra montaña,” Horacio Reyes Páez, Uruguay-Argentina)

Natalia Oreiro (“Wakolda”) is attached to star in a new take on the 1972 Andes plane crash, told from the perspective of a mother awaiting news of her missing son. Reyes Páez, her real-life grandson, calls it “the intimate, invisible battle of a mother, far from the snow and the wreckage.” Uruguay’s U Films and Sueño Cine produce alongside Argentina’s FAM Contenidos.

“The Place and the Hope,” (“El lugar y la esperanza,” Ariagna Fajardo Nuviola, Cuba-France)

Nuviola revisits the impact of a community filmmaking initiative launched 30 years ago in her native Sierra Maestra. Produced by Julio Raúl Vega Garcés’ Torrente Films, the feature documentary draws on family archives to explore cinema’s power to preserve collective memory. Backed by Cuba’s Film Promotion Fund, it won a Eurodoc special mention at Montreal’s RIDM Forum.

“Portrait Huaco,” (“Huaco Retrato,” Melina León, Peru, France, Spain)

An awaited adaptation of Peruvian author Gabriela Wiener’s autobiographical novel “Portrait Huaco.” Gabriela returns to Lima after her father dies. Back home, she discovers a book by her great-great-grandfather, Austrian explorer Charles Wiener. Her search into the family past becomes a reckoning with the lingering 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 behind “Song Without a Name.”

“Rabbits,” (“Conejos,” Sara Nanclares, Colombia, Chile, Germany, France)

A powerful high-caliber Latin-America-Europe co-production that revisits a social experiment in birth control carried out in Colombia for over 30 years. “With a sharp script and a witty, outspoken protagonist who refuses to be defined by her circumstances, the film challenges conventional views of teenage pregnancy, bringing to light the desires and contradictions that lie beneath it,” says Nanclares.

“Salamanca,” (Juan Sebastian Torales, Argentina, France)

The second feature from Torales whose “Almamula,” a coming-of-age drama , rooted in the legends and folklore of the Argentine countryside, played Berlín’s 2023 Generation 14Plus. Set up at Lorena Quevedo Argentina’s Twin Latin Films (“Venezia”), who co-produced Torales’ debut.

“Unfit Mother,” (“Mala madre,” Manuela Espiñeira, Chile)

Chilean outfit Pinda Producciones, behind Berlinale players “Skin in Spring” and “The Nature of Invisible Things,” teams with Espiñeira’s MoveShot on her feature debut. Actress and co-scribe Nicole Rubio stars as a progressive politician whose baby dies after she accidentally leaves him in her car, triggering a devastating personal and public reckoning. “The Movie Teller” actress Sara Becker co-stars. It explores how a woman is judged “not only for what happened, but for the way she has worked, loved and mothered,” Espiñeira says.