Chile Selected as the Venice Production Bridge 2025 Focus Country (EXCLUSIVE)

Making good on a recent slew of awards at Venice for Chilean films, Chile will be the Venice Production Bridge’s Focus Country in 2025.

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The announcement will be made Thursday from the Venice Film Festival by Carolina Arredondo, Chile’s Minister of Culture, Arts, and Heritage as Chilean director Pablo Larraín’s “María,” starring Angelina Jolie as the legendary opera singer Maria Callas, world premieres on Venice’s Lido.

“This is a significant achievement for our creators, who have found in Venice a crucial platform to internationalize their projects,” Arredondo underscored. “Being the Focus Country will allow us to strengthen Chile’s audiovisual industry and attract new opportunities for co-production and global promotion.”

The honor comes after a decade or more, broadly dating back to Larraín’s 2012 “NO,” starring Gael García Bernal, when Chile has punched way above its weight as an international film force. Chilean films’ Academy Award tally – two wins and seven nomination since 2012 – is the best tally of any country in South America.

While Larrain’s “El Conde” scooped best screenplay at Venice last year, its Festival prize count since 2021 also underscores Chile’s depth of talent extending beyond Pablo Larraín, Sebastián Lelio and Maite Alberdi to emerging talent.

Tana Gilbert’s “Malqueridas” took three awards in Venice Critics’ Week last year while Fernando Guzzoni’s “Blanquita” nabbed screenplay in Venice Horizons, which prized “Los Huesos” by León & Cociña as best short film award in 2021; Theo Court’s “White on White” won best director at Venice Horizons in 2019.

A relatively small country, with a domestic market of $127.3 million box office gross in 2023, Chile has habitually looked to international co-production before its became the production model of choice.

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Produced by Juan de Dios Larraín, Lorenzo Mieli and Jonas Dornbach for Italy’s The Apartment, a Fremantle Company, the Larraín’s label Fabula, Germany’s Komplizen and Fremantle, as part of a Fremantle-Fabula first-look deal, “María” is an “example of cinematic cooperation,” said Arredondo, adding that it “clearly contributes to the global projection of Chilean cinema.”

Chile’s presence at the Venice Festival and Production Bridge also takes in Argentinian Luis Ortega’s “Kill the Jockey,” starring Nahuel Perez Biscayart and Úrsula Corberó, and co-starring Chile’s Mariana di Girolamo (“Ema”).

Persistent Chilean international co-production ensures a significant presence at the Production Bridge. This in turn reflects “a diversity in genres and their blending, as well as names recognized in Italy, such as director Theo Court, or with extensive co-production experience there, like 17 Films,” said Alexandra Galvis, general co-coordinator of promotion org CinemaChile, which teams with Chile’s Ministry of Culture and ProChile to maximise Chile’s impact at Venice.

This year, for example, at the Production Bridge Court will present allegorical murder mystery “Three Dark Nights,” starring Alfredo Castro, from Chile’s Quijote Films, which also has at Venice’s Production Bridge “To Die on Your Feet,” by María Paz González.

Seasoned Chilean production company 17 Films attends with “Ugly Man,” directed by Italian Cosimo Gómez. Chilean filmmaker Stjepan Ostoic unveils Chilean desert-set “Dysphoria,” Clara Films Chilean Shawn Garry gated-community-set “Now They’re Coming For Us.”

Chile’s recognition as the Focus Country at the Venice Production Bridge 2025 not only increases the visibility of national cinema but also boosts the local economy, encouraging investment and cultural tourism — a key objective of President Gabriel Boric’s government.

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