Luxbox and Amore Cine board Melina León's Portrait Huaco
France's Luxbox and Spain's Amore Cine have boarded Melina León's Peruvian drama 'Portrait Huaco' ('Huaco retrato') as co-producers. The attachment was reported by Variety on Oct. 14. It gives León's second feature formal production partners in France and Spain. A co-producer shares financing and production responsibility, rather than simply buying a finished film.
The film is directed by León. Her debut feature was 'Song Without a Name' ('Canción sin nombre'). 'Portrait Huaco' is based on the autobiographical novel of the same name by Peruvian author Gabriela Wiener. An autobiographical novel uses the author's own life as its starting material. The adaptation moves that literary story to the screen.
Luxbox will do two jobs at once. It is credited as co-producer and as international sales agent. A sales agent licenses a film to distributors territory by territory. That work decides where a film can open in cinemas or on platforms outside its home country. That sales function matters.
The Peruvian production core remains. Mano de Obra Cine, led by producer Melissa Cordero, is attached as a producing partner. La Vida Misma Films is also on board. They now sit alongside Luxbox and Amore Cine. The result is a four-company team across Peru, France and Spain. Each partner brings its own funding routes and contacts.
Amore Cine joins from Spain. The company was co-founded by Paz Lázaro alongside Edson Sidonie and Juan Pablo Felix. A co-founder is one of the people who starts a company and sets its direction. Their credit places a Spanish production entity directly inside a Peruvian-led project. That cross-border mix is the point of a co-production.
The next stop is market. 'Portrait Huaco' is selected for the 8th Proyecta Co-Production Forum at Ventana Sur. A co-production forum is a curated market where selected projects meet potential financiers, sales companies and festival programmers. This year's Ventana Sur runs Nov. 30 to Dec. 4 in Montevideo, Uruguay. Forums do not book releases. They build the deals that allow shoots to go ahead.
León arrives with a festival track record. Her 'Song Without a Name' world premiered in Directors' Fortnight in 2019. Directors' Fortnight is a parallel section that runs alongside the Cannes Film Festival in France, with its own selection. A world premiere means the first public screening anywhere. For a second feature, that history helps introduce the new title to buyers.
