email print share on Facebook share on Twitter share on LinkedIn share on reddit pin on Pinterest

EDEN: Union is strength

by 

- In just two years, the network of European distributors and practitioners has become one of the most interesting options to get closer to the emerging market of auteur cinema from Latin America for audiences who would not otherwise have access to it

EDEN, the European network of distributors and practitioners, was founded in September 2011, overseen by CinémaLab and coordinated by ARCALT, the organisation behind the Toulouse Latin American Film Festival  ever since its inception 25 years ago. In its efforts to bring Spanish speaking films to the old continent, between 2011 and 2012, the network managed to enable Kino PasakaPaseo FilmsKino Valli and the French Academy at Villa Medici in Rome to distribute Las marimbas del infierno by Guatemalan Julio Hernández Cordón (winner this year in Toulouse with Polvo [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) in Lithuania, Spain, Croatia and Italy. As for 2013, EDEN has already enabled Hungarian Cirko Film to obtain rights for Chilean Violeta se fue a los cielos and Argentinian Historias, which were distributed respectively on 7 and 14 March. It has also facilitated De jueves a domingo (photo) to travel to Spain with Paseo Films on April 19 and to Croatia with Kino Valli/Pula Film Festival in October.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

The case of De jueves a domingo is paradigmatic. In order to make his first feature film, Chilean Dominga Sotomayor (27 years-old) initially relied on support from Los Angeles-based sales agency Figa Films, which has already supported his shorts, including Noviembre, Debajo and Videojuego. The Tiger award for best film at the Rotterdam festival (read the news story) was the first of many honours to transform De jueves a domingo into the most awarded Chilean film of 2012(in coproduction with Dutch Circe Film). Similarly to what had already happened with Las marimbas del infierno, which rights for Europe were bought by Figa Films, EDEN was used as a link between international sales agencies focusing on artistic cinema and European professionals eager to touch the general public through alternative means than national distribution circuits and other traditional means, which are becoming more and more restrictive. Representatives from Figa as well as Kino Valli (which has started working on distribution since EDEN’s inception) and Paseo Films (distribution without actual cinemas, born directly from the network’s creation) told Cineuropa that these projects would not have been possible without EDEN.

After winning the golden Alhambra at the Granada Festival, and after Casa de América in Madrid organised a sneak preview of it in February attended by the director, De jueves a domingo will finally be released in Madrid at the Artistic Metropol on April 19. Paseo Films is planning on exporting the film to other countries still.

De jueves a domingo will come out in Chile on April 4. The distribution company affiliated with newly founded British Day for Night will distribute it the following day in Britain.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Did you enjoy reading this article? Please subscribe to our newsletter to receive more stories like this directly in your inbox.

See also

Privacy Policy