Micah Green VRP

Los Cabos Film Festival Creates Exclusive Atmosphere for Dealmaking | Variety | November 16, 2015

The organizers of the Los Cabos Film Festival keep trying to come up with another way to describe the November event beyond “the Cannes of Latin America,” but the comparison fits so well, they just might have to give up.

The five-day festival at the tip of Baja California – just a two-hour flight from Los Angeles – has quickly become a relaxing place for Hollywood power players and their international colleagues to talk co-productions, acquistions and future partnerships after a hectic AFM.

TV is a major focus this year, with reps from Netflix, HBO, SundanceTV and others attending. Plus, Amazon Studios exec Scott Foundas served on one of the film juries. The TV execs have their eyes on finished series like Argentina’s “Chromo,” series in the works such as Canada’s “Merciful” as well as feature films for digital platforms.

With filmmakers also on the west coast for the AFI Festival last week, the charter flight from L.A. to Cabo is full of people catching up on scripts and planning upcoming shoots. Each year, CAA’s Micah Green brings a number of agents and producers to the fest. The American contingent included execs from Annapurna, A24, Fox Searchlight, the Weinstein Co., UTA, WME and dozens more companies.

Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Jared Leto and Alexander Skarsgard were among the actors who came to the festival, but the focus tends to be more on the art and the business of film than on celebrities.

“It’s so productive,” explains Canadian producer Nicole Irene Dyck, marveling that it took a trip to Mexico to bring together two Canadians for a meeting. “We had amazing meetings,” agrees “Picking Cotton” director Jessica Sanders.

The official Meet Your Neighbors and Discovery co-production forums yield fruitful talks – Dyck closed a production deal with Canada, for instance – but festival director Alonso Aguilar explains that “The real Los Cabos Film Festival happens behind the curtains.”

This year, many of the execs were holed up at the stunning, tranquil Marquis Los Cabos hotel. “That’s why we put these people together in the same hotels, we want them to socialize,” says Aguilar.

And with Latin American and especially Mexican filmmakers are increasingly in demand around the world, it’s also the place where talent is spotted and signed. Two years ago, Jose Manuel Cravioto was signed by Paradigm while at Cabo with “Mexico’s Most Wanted,” and then went to Sundance with “Reversal, “for example.

XYZ Films’ Nate Bolotin says that the key difference at Los Cabos is the way it has aligned with key industry executives and filmmakers, which enabled it to quickly make a serious name for itself. “The undeniably breathtaking setting” is also a big draw, Bolotin admits.

For Mexican producers, there’s huge potential in tapping into the massive Spanish-speaking U.S., and Aguilar says the fest can also help foster more commercial projects. “Instructions Not Included” actor Eugenio Derbez was there to talk about his new film, “How To Be a Latin Lover.” “Club de Cuervos” helmer Gaz Alazraki also used Los Cabos to announce his next, period comedy “Alomst Paradise.” Both projects are very high-end by Mexican standards.

“We need to find a key to open the Latin American market in the States,” Aguilar says.

The scenic coastline and high-powered execs aren’t the only thing Cabo has in common with Cannes. Just as it sometimes seems easier to schedule drinks with a contact at the Majestic Bar than all year long in Los Angeles, the same goes for Cabo. So several bizzers said they managed to find time to meet up with people from their own city who were harder to pin down at home.

Now, the challenge is to preserve the intimacy of the festival while carefully growing its stature. “We can invite more producers, financiers and agents and make this a really classy, industry pro festival,” says Fabrica Cine’s Gaston Pavlovich.

“There are so many seeds planted in Los Cabos,” says Aguilar. “They grow the whole year.”

CAA’s co-head of film finance and sales Micah Green was talked into going to the first Los Cabos Film Festival in Cabo San Lucas three years ago mostly as favor for an actor client who was working with the founders to try to make sure the first edition had a decent turnout.

Though Cabo is still recovering from the big hurricane Odile, with scaffolding everywhere and several major resorts still undergoing repairs, the festival continuing full-steam ahead with the hopeful hashtag #unstoppable much in evidence.Three years later, he’s such a convert that he’s brought a delegation of about 30 assorted agents, producers and financiers to the five-day long festival based in the Mexican resort town.

Discovering or meeting with the talent showcased at screenings of some 40 features is one major part of why Green is here; the other is his belief that it’s the ideal place to grow an industry event that’s as focused on high-level finance meetings as it is on gala screenings and parties.

“I became a complete believer in what could be created here,” says Green. With an easy direct flight from Los Angeles and hundreds of hotels at every price level, the beachside location has the infrastructure to handle a major event.

Festivals are focused on launching premieres for the press and public while markets are mainly about film sales. But how do those films get made in the first place? Green says the third thing that’s increasingly important is the interplay between financiers, producers and agents that often gets done over drinks in a festival setting — preferably with palm trees and an sea view. “It’s emerged as a fantastic addition to the landscape,” he says.

Execs also have the chance to work with up-and-coming actors and filmmakers while mingling at screenings and parties. At last year’s fest, “Miss Bala” director Gerardo Naranjo’s first English-language film was packaged with Dakota Fanning attached to star. Among the Hollywood contingent here this year are Basil Iwanyk and Trent Luckinbill and Thad Luckinbill, partners at Molly Smith’s Black Label, who are teaming on Mexico-set “Sicario” directed by Denis Villeneuve; “Lone Survivor” producer Spencer Silna and CAA co-head of film finance and sales Roeg Sutherland.

Festival head Alonso Aguilar says making successful deals starts from a human approach. When he became director, the fest remodeled the competition to focus on the North American triumvirate of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. “It allows us to have a place in the international arena,” says Aguilar.  And while American agents do business at high-end resorts, international producers along with 12 heads of national film funds are doing “speed dating” meetings which already have a strong track record, with three of the co-productions seeded last year ready to be announced at Cannes a few months later.

“We want to sharpen the industry tools,” he says.

It’s a very serious festival, says Green, with “really strong, informed cinematic programming.” Buyers are here too, including Magnolia, Goldwyn, Ray Strache of Fox Searchlight and sales companies like FilmNation and IM Global, along with reps from the other major talent agencies.

They’re looking not just for films to acquire, but to make contacts with talent, because while foreign language film is a small niche in the U.S., foreign directors are can be much bigger business.