Manuel Ruiz Montealegre: Celebs Rumors

Anna Marie de la Fuente Some of Colombia’s most prominent producers have banded together to form PI, a new association of independent producers led by Cristina Gallego, behind Oscar-nominated “Embrace of the Serpent” and “Birds of Passage,” who is an official jury member at this year’s 71stSan Sebastian Film Festival. “Colombia has become a production destination for major companies due to its tax benefits, which has led to growth, experience, and job opportunities within the sector,” Gallego told Variety. “However, members of PI view with particular concern the need for attention, updates, and the evolution of national and departmental policies that support the continued production of Colombian cinema, its voices, its artists, and its filmmakers,” said Gallego who will preside over the association along with director-producer Franco Lolli (“Gente de Bien”) as vice president while Diana María Bustamante (“Memoria,” “Land & Shade”) and Manuel Ruiz Montealegre (“Amparo”) serve as legal representatives.

Emiliano Granada Playing Directors’ Fortnight, Fabián Hernández’s “A Male” (“Un Varón”) underscores just how much Colombian cinema has evolved in recent years, in both technique and kind of storytelling. A meditation on manhood sold by Dubai-based Cercamon and seen at San Sebastian’s WIP Latin last year, it turns on 16-year-old Carlos (Dylan Felipe Ramírez Espitia), glimpses of his deep turmoil shining through a stoic facade. His mother in jail, his sister on the game,Carlos lives in a central Bogotá homeless shelter in central Bogotá.Over Christmas, he wanders his local streets, dominated by the ideal of the alpha male and an eye-for-an eye vengeance. Sensitivity is conspicuous by its absence.

Christopher Vourlias Dubai-based sales agent Cercamon will handle international sales on Fabian Hernández’s “Un Varón” (A Male), which has its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.“Un Varón” tells the story of Carlos, who lives in a youth shelter in the center of Bogotá – a refuge meant to help mitigate the harshness of daily life. He longs to spend Christmas Day with his family, but as he leaves the shelter, he’s confronted with the brutality of his neighborhood, which is ruled by the law of the strongest and dominated by the ideal of the alpha male.