Marcelo Martinessi: Last News

Holly Jones Prestige French distribution house Dulac Distribution has closed rights to France on “1976,” one of the most awaited of films to come out of Chile this year, which will world premiere next month at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The buzzed up title represents the first feature from young Chilean actor-turned-director Manuela Martelli, star of Andrés Wood’s “Machuca” and Alicia Scherson’s “Il Futuro.”  Worldwide sales rights on “1976” are represented by Paris-based Luxbox, adding to its lengthening list of high profile pick-ups from Latin America which include Nathalie Alvarez Mesén’s “Clara Sola,” Alejandra Márquez’s “The Good Girls,” Marcelo Martinessi’s “The Heiresses” and Benjamín Naishtat’s “Rojo.” The acquisition in a key territory for non English-language art films comes just weeks after “1976” walked off with three of the biggest awards at the Toulouse Latin American Festival’s Films in Progress, including the pix-in-post competition’s Grand Prix and Cine Plus Award from French pay TV giant Canal Plus.   In a statement, producer Michel Zana, head of distribution for Dulac relayed he was “very proud to distribute Manuela Martelli’s first film! Through its main character’s intimate evolution, in an impressionistic way, ‘1976’ offers a subtle and contemporary look on one of the darkest times of Chile’s recent history.”The film mixes humanity, radical empathy and reinvention as our protagonist Carmen, played by Aline Kuppenheim (“Fugitives”), cares for a young man branded a political extremist, harbored by the priest of a small beachside town.

Anna Marie de la Fuente Argentina’s Nahuel Pérez Biscayart (“120 BPM”) and Spain’s Mona Martínez (“Adios”) play pivotal roles in the international co-production, “Narciso” by Paraguay’s Marcelo Martinessi, whose feature debut “The Heiresses,” (“Las Herederas”) took home two Silver Bears and a Fipresci award at the 2018 Berlinale. Originally titled “Who Killed Narciso?,” Martinessi’s second feature was presented at the San Sebastian Film Festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum in 2020.