Latin American market blossoms

BUENOS AIRES -- A powerful 3rd Ventana Sur demonstrated a metaphor for Latin America's film biz in particular. Wrapping Monday evening, the Latin American mart saw remarkable attendance hikes, unthinkable in additional mature marketplaces.Buying and selling trends, meanwhile, underscored a ocean-alternation in distribution worldwide. Opening Friday, Ventana Sur participants jumped 42% versus. this past year to at least one,740. Entirely-flight growth, Versus is catching fire like a regional event: Latin American participants from outdoors Argentina jumped 54% to 405. South america, Chile and Mexico drove that spike.In kudos, Uruguayan Guillermo Rocamora's dead-pan humored mid-existence crisis drama "Solo" required the Haciendo Cine publish-production prize at VS's primary industry draw, Primer Corte, a films-in-postproduction showcase.Set on Colombia's stunning but war-ravaged high flatlands, Juan Carlos Melo's coming-of-age tale, "Area of Amapolas," won its Copia award.By finish-of-play Monday, sales people were circling multiple game titles, most particularly VS's greatest hit, Argentine Benjamin Avila's sincere Dirty War childhood drama, "Infancia clandestina," heartily congratulated in rough-cut in a private screening. "Help You, Father," from Mexico's Lucia Carreras, Chilean Alvaro Viguera's "Perez," Andres Wood's "Violeta Visited Paradise" and Brazilian Luciano Moura's "Father's Chair" -- Sundance-bound like "Violeta" -- also came telemarketer interest.But foreign marketers, not sales people, made the running only at that year's Ventana Sur. Deals sealed or closing, up in number on 2010, show marketplaces in rapid, sometimes turbulent, transition.FilmSharks offered "Saving Private Perez" to Maywin for Russia, and "All-inclusiveInch and "A Boyfriend for My Spouse,Inch to Dalmation, as Russia buys more and more mainstream game titles.Seeking local content and highly competitive, Latin American pay TV operators wield ever-greater clout.Ernesto Munoz p Cote, at Atlanta-based Lap TV, stated he'd finish up purchasing around 10 game titles from Ventana Sur. In a single indicative deal, L.A. based FiGa shipped five game titles to Silvia Cruz's Vitrine Filmes. Films will have six Brazilian metropolitan areas for any week, segueing to cable, stated FiGa's Sandro Fiorin.Based on Udi's Eric Schnedecker, on Latin American photos, a pan-Latin American paybox deal has become worth just like a purchase to France.Versus sales dedicated to accessible art or genre photos: "My First Wedding," a Seventh Art Delivering The United States pick-up "Juan from the Dead," closing a U.S. purchase and M-Appeal's "Hermano," Rezo's "Bonsai" and Udi's "Las Acacias," which all locked four-to-five territory sales.A lot more deals goes lower off Ventana Sur. But more compact or more dark Latin American movies progressively need alternative way of distribution, even just in Latin America itself. A pan-Latin America niche pic VOD service looks only dependent on time. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com