With the support of the Uruguayan Cinema and Audiovisual Agency (ACAU) and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), U30, the training program dedicated to a new generation of film professionals, will be held for the first time in Latin America and will be part of our festival from 18th to 21st January.
U30 Latam is a unique opportunity to explore new ideas and dialogues in the Latin American and global film industry.
For the first time, JIIFF has forged this alliance with the Industry Academy from the Locarno Festival. This is a training program aimed at young professionals under 30 involved in international sales, marketing, traditional and online distribution, exhibition and film programming. Its collaborators, linked to different festivals and institutions throughout Latin America, reinforce the impact in the region and strengthen connections between the different players in the industry.
Six participants were selected to attend the program. Three of them from Latin American countries that have participated in one of the editions of Locarno Industry Academy for this region. The other three are Uruguayans who were selected through an open call.
All six of them will take part in this think tank, in which they will be active agents involved in sessions and conversations about the future of the film industry, looking for strategies to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead, working proactively.
Locarno Industry Academy in Latam began in 2015, and has flourished in 5 countries in the region with the support of leading partners. This nine-year commitment attests to the dedication to the development and empowerment of the next generation of film professionals in Latin America. U30 Latam, an evolution of the Industry Academy, expands opportunities for young people under 30, collaborating with prominent events such as JIIFF. It’s not limited exclusively to previous participants, but also opens its doors to talented Uruguayans. This program seeks to boost skills and build a solid international network, which is essential to stand out in the regional film industry.
Marion Klotz has 15 years of experience in the film industry. She has worked with Memento Films International, Arte France Cinema, Doha Film Institute, Rotterdam Film Festival. Since 2014, she collaborates with the Locarno Festival as director of the Locarno Industry Academy program, which has developed over the last 10 years in Latin America, the United States, the Middle East, Southeast Europe and southern Africa. Marion lives in Argentina since 2015.
Sofia Lena Monardo was born in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. She is an Image and Sound Designer by the University of Buenos Aires and in 2022 she completed her Master's Degree in Film Curating at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, San Sebastián, Spain. She works as an audiovisual producer and cultural consultant in programs such as the Young Art Biennial in Buenos Aires City. Since 2023 she has been producing Industry Academy together with Marion Klotz for the Latin American region.
Filmmaker, co-founder of the production company Cinestación and CCC. Her first feature film, De Jueves a domingo (2012) won the Tiger Award for Best Film at the Rotterdam Festival and with Tarde para morir joven (2018) she won the Leopard for Best Director at the Locarno Festival. In 2020 she co-directed Correspondencia with Carla Simón and in 2021 she premiered The year of the everlasting storm in the Official Selection of the Cannes Film Festival. From 2020 to 2023 she was a Professor in the Department of Art, Film and Visual Studies at Harvard University.
In 2003 he began working in Europe as a journalist specializing in the film industry, for media in Spain and England. In 2007 he founded LatAm cinema, a platform specialized in the Latin American film industry that offers news and research designed to promote projects, businesses and initiatives within the film industry. Throughout his career he has participated in round tables and given talks at the San Sebastián Co-production Forum, BrLab, Locarno Industry Academy, Ventana Sur and SANFIC, among other events.
Sandra Gómez Velásquez has solid experience in independent film acquisition and distribution, marketing, programming and exhibition, focusing on audience development. Founder of Interior XIII, a company for the promotion, distribution and production of Mexican and international auteur films. She was Director of RivieraLAB at the Riviera Maya Film Festival and in Locarno Industry Academy for Mexico and Panama. She works for MUBI as Marketing Director for Latin America.
He is the president and partner of Grupo Telefilms, which in recent years has become one of the most important film production and distribution companies in Latin America, if not the world. He is also President and partner of Sun Distribution Group (Uruguay) and Diamond Films (Latam).
Violeta Bava worked at BAFICI for 20 years, as a programmer and Co-Director of BAL. She has been a film consultant and production tutor for various funds, organizations and festivals in different parts of the world, and played a key role in the development of initiatives to support filmmakers and producers in Latam. She was a professor of Aesthetics and Ethics of Cinema. She founded Ruda Cine. She is a Programming Consultant at the Venice International Film Festival and its Market. Study Director of FeatureLab at the TorinoFilmLab and programming advisor at the NYFF. She works for Visions du Réel in industry and programming.
Daniela Salinas Manque is a filmmaker specialized in film production, programming and marketing. She is a part of the MUBI team in Chile. She was part of the programming team of the Chilean focus of the World Cinema Amsterdam festival, 2022. Selected for Latin America in the 19th version of The Arthouse Cinema Training & Mentoring Programme, within the framework of the Venice Film Festival. She took part in Locarno Industry Academy 2023, within the framework of FICUNAM.
He works in film production, programming, promotion and distribution. He is Artistic Director and co-founder of Tercer Cine. He is in charge of Production and Programs at the Flaherty Seminar in New York. He collaborated in production roles with different international organizations. He was a part of the Locarno IA Latam in Morelia (2022) and in the FICUNAM Public Seminar of the Future (2022). He is co-founder and editor of Corrientes, a trilingual digital platform that aims at expanding access through Latin American experimental cinema.
Publicist, producer and creator of film and television content. Since 2017, she co-directs the independent production company Kinísi. In 2021 she took part in Locarno-Sao Paulo IA. She was part of the UNESCO/EICTV transculture scholarship program and took the Audiovisual Distribution workshop (2021). In 2022, she taught a film appreciation workshop "Understanding the Seventh Art." She is host and executive producer in the digital film media “La Boca Fílmica” and “Vamos Viendo”.
He studied at ECU and works as a project development manager at G57 FILMS, a conglomerate of audiovisual companies (Tondero Colombia, G57, Biomanos). He takes part in coordination and creation, as well as in the distribution stage, contemplating the strategy and delivery of each project. He has a special relationship with the audience; his Youtube channel elCarbón, where he performs film analysis, is the film media with the most followers in Uruguay, with over 130 thousand subscribers.
Degree in Audiovisual Production, ORT University. Audiovisual Editor and Postproducer, BIOS Institute. Director and distributor for the New Film Festival, DETOUR. Fiction Production professor, ORT University. Content curator, FILMITY (Latam) and ONSTREAM (Arg). Critic and columnist, FILM Magazine.
Valentina was born in Uruguay and lives between Montevideo and Paris. She has been collaborating with various festivals for seven years, contributing to their programming from a political and social perspective. She works as a programmer at Cinemateca Uruguaya, at the Biarritz Amérique Latine Festival, and as a coordinator for the ArteKino European Film Festival, organized by Arte France. This year she was a jury at the Shorts International Film Festival in Trieste, Italy and at the Cineuropa Festival, in Santiago de Compostela.