At NEM Dubrovnik 2026, the group is presenting the latest additions to its factual content offering, led by the documentaries The Last Footprints of the Neanderthals and Live is Life.
Produced by Luis Cabrera, from Croatia
Specializing in the distribution and marketing of high-quality documentary productions for the international market, Artico Distribution is present at this year’s NEM Dubrovnik in Croatia to forge new ties with the EEC region.
Represented by its CEO, Carlos Sevillano, the group is presenting its latest documentary offerings for the international market.
What has your experience been like here at NEM Dubrovnik?
The distribution company has been around for 10 years. We are a distributor exclusively dedicated to documentaries. In my experience in the industry, I have a long-standing relationship with some public broadcasters, mainly with cultural content in the region. During this time, I’ve noticed new opportunities and new clients with whom I had no prior relationship. That’s why, when I saw that Audiovisual From Spain was also attending for the first time, I decided to come along.
The truth is, the experience has been quite positive. Being a local market, you have the opportunity to meet with clients that you might not be able to at larger fairs. Here there’s more time, and more executives attend. It’s an opportunity to connect with buyers in this region.
What titles are you presenting?
Our catalog is primarily commercial documentaries, what I call commercial documentaries, meaning very clearly television-oriented genres. We don’t make auteur documentaries. The genres we work with that are more popular are nature, travel, science, history, archaeology, etc.
We’re bringing two new productions that we’re also presenting at this market. One is a seven-episode nature series called Así es la vida (Live is Life). In this series, what we’re going to see across seven episodes, using cutting-edge technology, is a spectacular display of imagery. Because ultimately, nature has to be very visual, the emotional aspect, telling stories that resonate with the audience. We show how different animal species manage to adapt to different environments, and how these adaptive abilities allow them to survive. It’s the struggle for survival. It’s a seven-episode, one-hour series.
Then there’s another one-off, a science special called The Last Footprints of the Neanderthal. This documentary presents a scientific investigation spanning more than three years, carried out by experts in paleontology and the study of human evolution. This study arose quite by accident. Two scientists from the Spanish National Research Council were walking along the beach in southern Spain when they suddenly found some footprints -or what looked like footprints- and were astonished. They tried to get the guide to do some tests, and indeed, they were fossilized footprints from the Neanderthal era. Following that discovery, a multidisciplinary team was formed to begin studying these footprints. They are beginning to uncover different theories about Neanderthals that were previously unknown, and how the southern Iberian Peninsula somehow became a natural refuge for these last Neanderthals, who came from the Ice Age, from Europe, and were produced in that process until they reached the south.
And what resources do you use for this documentary?
It’s also very visual, because archaeology and anthropology are very visual. Especially when we’re talking about history. There are no archives, apart from the scientists who naturally contribute that documentary value. Many computer-generated images are used, the use of artificial intelligence, to create what, for example, the animals that dominated the Iberian Peninsula looked like. These are recreations with artificial intelligence. And then there are also dramatizations of the characters who recreate Neanderthals to some extent, and they are also perfectly characterized. For this, the knowledge of experts was obviously used, but in the end, the documentary has to be based on something factual, on something demonstrable. The documentary is very visual, very impressive. It’s been very well received, actually.
Is there anything that caught your attention about any particular genre within the demand in this region?
Yes, but it’s not unique to this region. Generally, people always look for premium content, content with a certain quality that, of course, resonates with the viewer, that is visually appealing, that not only surprises but also entertains. Naturally, it’s a genre very much geared towards an adult audience. So, given that it’s a very specific audience, they’re not looking for anything too experimental. They want something well-made, visually captivating, stories that entertain and pique the viewer’s curiosity.
