Spanish Companies Gear Up for NATPE

MIAMI: Among the companies that will exhibit under the Audiovisual from Spain umbrella at NATPE are BRB Internacional, Imagina International Sales and Edebé Audiovisual Licensing.

A total of 14 Spanish companies will be on hand at NATPE with Audiovisual from Spain. This includes Boomerang Internacional, BRB Internacional, Edebé Audiovisual Licensing, Explora Films, Expressive Media Project, Errequerre, Filmax Internacional, Imagina International Sales, Imira Entertainment, Motion Pictures, Telecinco-Cuatro, Televisión Española, Veralia and Vértice Sales. The participation at the event is organized and coordinated by the Federation of Audiovisual Producers’ Associations of Spain (FAPAE) and supported by the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) in collaboration with the Commercial and Economical Office of Spain in Miami.

A number of animated series will be on offer, including Kambu from BRB, Four and a Half Friends from Edebé, Lucky Fred from Imira and Glumpers from Motion Pictures. In the way of nonfiction, Explora Films is presenting Milleniann Peru: The Unknown History, while Expressive Media Project highlights Sceptics and Vértice Sales has Wild Connection. Veralia is showcasing the entertainment format The Game of the Goose. Fiction is another top offering coming from Spain. Among the highlights are The Rambling House from Boomerang, The Red Band Society from Filmax, In the Heart of the Ocean from Imagina, The Scape from Telecinco-Cuatro and Isabel from Televisión Española. Errequerre is presenting the digital Audiovisual Content Platform.

Carlos Sevillano, the sales director of Explora Films, said: “It is very important for all of us to sell in America. The market is very competitive with their local production industry well developed. The producers and distributing companies are at top level. However, once you managed to place a product and it works at audience level, there is a very beneficiary halo effect when talking about business. This means that the sales in the region profit a lot from that. The product moves easily from one territory to another in the region, which in other continents is much more complicated. It is also much easier to create brand awareness for your company.”

María García Castrillón, the head sales and acquisitions for fiction at Group Boomerang, added: “…That is why this market is so important. We like to convince our Latin American partners that this is our natural market, that we have many things in common and that we should profit from that. That is why I believe that the adaptation of Física o Química by Telemundo is a big step that can help us to become known, that they learn from our stories, that they begin to see our fiction as a place where to find interesting and promising stories.”

Iván Díaz, the sales director of Filmax International, commented: “Internationally, Pulseras Rojas has already been sold in Latin America to TV Azteca, for Mexico, and to Vme for the U.S. Our intention at NATPE is to close the rest of Latin America. We sell the series as well as the format. For the latter, we already signed an option agreement for the format with ABC, which will produce an American version of it. For this project we count with very strong partners, taking into account that Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of Friends is responsible to write the script of the American version and for this management we are partners of DreamWorks TV.”