Mexico's Madrefoca Cine Boards Giorgio Giampà's Debut 'Isabel Hernández' Ahead of San Sebastián Co-Production Forum
Mexico's Madrefoca Cine has boarded Giorgio Giampà's feature debut Isabel Hernández, joining Italy's Zoe Films and LaDoc and Mexico's Fiasco on the Italy-Mexico co-production (Variety).
The project is one of 15 selected for the 2026 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, a pitching and networking event that runs September 21-23 as part of the 74th San Sebastián Film Festival (September 18-26). The forum pairs European and Latin American producers seeking financing partners — a co-production, in this context, means two or more production companies from different countries share the budget and, in return, split the rights to distribute the finished film in their respective territories. Eight of the fifteen selected projects are first or second features (San Sebastián Film Festival). The forum's top prize carries EUR 30,000, awarded to the majority producer of the winning project (San Sebastián Film Festival).
Isabel Hernández was written by Giampà with Melissa Nocetti. It follows a young agronomist living in the Guatemalan jungle who recognises the father who abandoned her as a child in a documentary about Latin American migrants in the United States. The story grew out of seven years of research: Giampà lived with forest communities in Guatemala, spending time with Mayan survivors of the genocidal massacres of the 1980s, former guerrillas, and people deported from the U.S. by ICE (Variety).
Shooting is planned for autumn 2027. Before landing at San Sebastián, the project moved through two of Europe's most respected development labs: the EAVE Producers Workshop in 2025 and TorinoFilmLab's FeatureLab in 2026. It has also received development support from the Film Commission Regione Campania in Italy.
Madrefoca Cine was co-founded in 2023 by producer Alejandro Saevich, who joins the Isabel Hernández production team alongside Zoe Films' Lorenzo Cioffi and Giampà himself, and Fiasco's Elena Fortes. Madrefoca's slate includes Nathalia Acevedo's Salón de Belleza, selected for competition at Venice Days. Zoe Films, also founded in 2023, brings its own festival momentum: Ali Asgari's A Bit of Light is in competition at the Venice Film Festival this year, and Shawn Garry's After Elena, starring Alfredo Castro, is heading to Toronto's Centrepiece section. Zoe's previous credits include Asgari's Divine Comedy (Venice Horizons 2025) and Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman's Vittoria (Venice Horizons Extra 2024).
The short-film slate at Zoe Films already includes work from both of Isabel Hernández's screenwriters: Giampà's Astronauta, selected for Clermont-Ferrand's 2026 International Competition, and Nocetti's I Used to Call That Man Home, which played Rotterdam.
What gives Isabel Hernández its weight at San Sebastián is the combination of a deeply researched story and a production team that knows how to navigate festival pathways. The forum is a marketplace — producers pitch to distributors, broadcasters and public funders — and a project arriving with development lab credentials and producers whose recent films are screening at Venice and Toronto is positioned to attract exactly the kind of partners that move a film from script to screen.
