Last year was a busy one for The Mediapro Studio, and it looks set to be a repeat in 2025, with a significant number of projects completed or in production ready to jump into the international market.
With major titles in a wide variety of genres, The Mediapro Studio expects 2025 to maintain the spectacular momentum it gained over the past year, with major partnership announcements and important productions on the way.
“2024 was an excellent year for The Mediapro Studio in Latin America,” commented Javier Esteban, Director of International at The Mediapro Studio. “Excellent quality fiction is being made in Latin America and we are proud to keep contributing to this with series that have achieved great international impact.”
How was 2024 for content production in Latin America?
Last year was excellent for The Mediapro Studio in Latin America. In the series section, three of our main productions have released their second seasons: Iosi, el espía arrepentido, an original for Prime Video created and directed by Daniel Burman, released worldwide, which has also repeated its nomination for the International Emmy Awards for Best Drama Series; Consuelo, a co-production of The Mediapro Studio and ViX, which has triumphed on this platform with a proposal to update the melodrama, and the sitcom Primate, created and starring Colombian actor Christian Tappan, on Prime Video.
Last year we have also boosted feature film production in the region with the premiere on ViX of Intercambiadas, made in co-production with this platform, and Mesa de regalos, which hits theaters in Mexico on January 16 and will later premiere on Disney+. Mesa de regalos is a co-production with Pampa Films.
In addition, Cimarrón, the Uruguayan production company integrated in the Studio since 2023, has participated in the shooting of the American production that will premiere at the Sundance Festival The Kiss of the Spider Woman, produced by Artists Equity, the production company of Ben Affleck and Matt Damon and, among other titles, has also premiered the second season of Barrabrava on Prime Video, a series that won the Platinum Award for Best Drama Series in 2024.
During this year, shooting and post-production of premieres that we will see in 2025 have also taken place, such as Cometierra, the series adaptation of the novel by Dolores Reyes, adapted by Daniel Burman for Prime Video, or Las Maldiciones, also a series by Burman for Netflix.
What are new productions would you highlight for the first half of 2025? Which of these titles are you be presenting in Miami?
At Content Americas we are presenting the best content from The Mediapro Studio Distribution worldwide, some of them with upcoming premieres in 2025, such as the series El mal invisible, which will premiere soon on the Catalan platform 3Cat and later on Disney+.
In addition, we include other very relevant series such as Celeste, co-produced with Movistar Plus+, which has been one of the best premieres of the season on the Spanish platform; the third season of The Head, airing since December on Max in Latin America, USA, Spain and Portugal, the closing of the Studio’s most important international franchise; Los Cinco, the adaptation of the famous young adult novels by Enid Blyton, which we co-produced with the BBC; the horror series Tales from the Void, an anthology of some of the best horror stories from the Reedit/NoSleep page with more than 18 million followers.
In non-fiction, a new addition to our catalog is the documentary series Real Madrid como no te voy a querer, a look inside one of the most important soccer clubs in the world.
Regarding cinema, highlights include El 47, the film directed by Marcel Barrena that has broken box office records in Spain with more than half a million euros in box office takings and more than three million viewers, nominated for 14 Goya awards; Transmitzvah, the film that has returned Daniel Burman to cinema as a director, released in theaters in Argentina and streaming on Netflix; and, among other titles, the psychological thriller Pensamiento Lateral, with Itziar Ituño and Alberto Amman.
How do you think Latin American fiction complements the rich offer that also comes from the US, Spain and other territories?
Excellent quality fiction is being made in Latin America and we are proud to contribute to it with series that have achieved a great international impact such as Iosi, el espía arrepentido, an espionage thriller developed from a real event that took place in Argentina. It is a good example that shows how a plot that starts from a local fact, suddenly reaches international interest, even reaching two consecutive years at the International Emmy Awards.
We are at a time when the public is completely open to see content from everywhere. The key is to make sure they are stories that catch their attention and to always maintain the highest quality standards. Latin America has great creators, with whom we are lucky to work. This is the case of Daniel Burman, Juan Carlos Aparicio or Carlos Algarra, who are part of the Studio, or creators with whom we collaborate such as Gastón Duprat and Mariano Cohn, with whom we have made films such as Competencia Oficial, Mi obra maestra or 4X4. Also the work of companies such as Cimarron, whose prestige has broken frontiers with their participation in La sociedad de la nieve or in the aforementioned The Kiss of the Spider Woman, are generating enormous interest at an international level.
Celeste was one of the great novelties presented in Cancun. How was the reception for this series from Latin American buyers?
The series is being very well received by all the clients to whom we presented it. It has many elements to be liked, because it poses an intrigue. Here the heroine is a tax inspector on the verge of retirement, but she reveals herself as a relentless investigator, who will not hesitate to use her badge (and other means) to achieve her goal. Carmen Machi gives a superlative interpretation of this character, supported by the brilliant writing of Diego San José, creator of the series.
Las Bravas is one of the most interesting titles for the region. How has the second season worked? What do you expect from this title in the international market?
Las Bravas, which we made in co-production with Warner Discovery, has been a success since its premiere and thanks to this it has been renewed with the second season premiered this fall, which has continued to be among the preferences of viewers. The series tells a story of redemption, set in the unique context of women’s soccer. The increase in notoriety that women’s soccer has experienced in the last two years has been almost parallel to the life cycle of the two seasons of the series. Therefore, I believe that both the central theme, a story of adaptation and improvement represented by the character of the coach, played by the actor Mauricio Ochmann, and the presence of women’s soccer as another protagonist, make it very attractive at an international level.
What are your latest developments in non-fiction?
Uncripted content is a very important part of The Mediapro Studio’s production. This year, in Latin America, one of the most outstanding novelties is the premiere on TelevisaUnivision of the contest Cash, the adaptation of one of the Studio’s original entertainment formats, Crush, which has arrived for the first time in Latin America on Canal de las Estrellas in Mexico.
In addition, The Mediapro Studio has premiered this year new non-fiction content such as 59 Segundos, on RTVE; two new formats with the presence of comedian Berto Romero: Ovejas eléctricas, a space that addresses in a fresh and original way how literature is reflected in popular culture, broadcast on RTVE’s La2, and El consultorio de Berto, a very new format for Movistar Plus+, where Berto Romero answers questions as earthly as they are unbelievable. Also new this year was the adventure reality show O Salvaxe, a new contest produced for the Galician regional channel TVG, and among the Studio’s classic non-fiction titles, hits such as El Conquistador, the most extreme and successful reality show in Spanish television with 20 seasons on ETB; Atrápame si puedes, a format that has been on the air for ten years and has eleven adaptations for as many regional channels in Spain, or 400, a social format for the Valencian regional channel À Punt.
