The production company, which aims to work with Spanish and Latin American talent to produce content in Spanish for the world, was officially presented at Content Americas.
iZen, the Spanish group led by Sara Fernández Velasco and Jose Velasco and in turn integrated into the Newen group (TF1), joins Non Stop, the great production and services company of producer Patricio Rabuffetti.
The objective of the new company, Cacao & Cia, will be to create and produce content in Spanish for the Latin American market with global ambitions.
The joint venture combines the creation and production capacity of the iZen group in Spain, recognized for titles such as the blockbuster El Cid (Amazon Prime Video), the first reality show for Netflix Insiders, or the successful daily Centro Médico (TVE), among others, with that of the Non Stop Group in Latin America, which stands out for its successes for Disney like Soy Luna, Violetta, Santa Evita, and Tierra Incognita, among many others.
This alliance was born with the vocation of proposing to the market a shared risk model with issuers and platforms, looking for new operating models that provide creative solutions to the financing and efficiency challenges facing the sector.
The distribution and financing capacity of Newen Connect, iZen’s partner, completes the capabilities of this association for the Latino market, granting the new entity privileged access to its extensive catalog of fiction and entertainment content, generated from the production companies of the Newen group and the TF1 television channels.
Pedro Dávila, until now responsible for Non Stop content, will lead the new company will have a creative team with his own hallmark. Juliana Barrera will give support in the development of projects and the production of content from iZen Spain, to which she has recently joined.
Non Stop also has a growing track record in content production, with the most innovative production infrastructure in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia and Spain, with more than 70,000m2 of facilities spread over more than 20 studios. In addition, it has been the producing arm of Disney Latin America for more than 25 years.
iZen thus expands its international presence, adding the Latin market to its establishment in the English market, both in fiction and in entertainment, through the production companies Chalkboard, Clapperboard and Storyboard Studios, which have produced numerous fiction series and programs for the main operators in the UK. This international presence, together with the association with Newen, will allow Cacao y Cía. to turn their projects into global successes.
Pedro Dávila CEO of Cacao & Cia explains: “Under this new entity we will seek to support local talent and stories. We want to work with studios, but also with independent creators. We have the experience and resources to enter into co-production agreements and we It is exciting to work creating new models and offering production and distribution support in Latam or Europe”.
The new production company will have offices in Mexico City and Madrid, and will promote creation, talent and content in Spanish. They are already working on their first projects, including the acquisition of the rights for a biopic of the famous car racer Juan Manuel Fangio and another of the singer-songwriter Chavela Vargas, based on the book Las verdades de Chavela de María
