The Chilean catalog of Prime Video continues its expansion. After the release of the movie 31 Minutos: Calurosa Navidad and the series based on The House of the Spirits, the streaming platform has a new handful of projects that will be released between this year and next year.
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The main person within the company responsible for deciding which productions are made and which are not is Javiera Balmaceda. As Head of International Originals for Latin America, Canada, and Australia at Amazon MGM Studios, the Chilean develops and drives the company’s new projects on this side of the world.
This Thursday she participated in the company’s biggest announcement in the region to date: it will invest more than US$ 2 billion in Latin America between 2027 and 2030. Its plans specifically cover Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Chile, and include new seasons of Menem, The Office, Tremembé, and Porno y helado.
“We are quite large. We have an enviable offer for the region,” Balmaceda tells Culto, minutes after the Prime Video Presents Latin America, the first regional event of this kind, ended.
One of the local titles that excites her the most is Rojo corazón. Directed by Uruguayan filmmaker Nacho Álvarez and produced by Fábula, it is a comedy that “captures Chilean adolescence very, very well.”
The film revolves around Lorenza (Octavia Bernasconi), a popular young woman from the upper class who loses everything after suffering a viral public shaming. Humiliated and with nothing to lose, she teams up with the most dangerous young man in her circle (Clemente Rodríguez) to mount her revenge.
The fiction is her first original project made in Chile that decisively seeks to seduce the youth audience, a segment that Prime Video globally has conquered with titles like The Summer I Turned Pretty, Off Campus, and the films based on the successful trilogy Culpables, by Mercedes Ron.
“It is a highly sought-after audience. You want that audience because they are fans, they are obsessive. If they like it, they share it on social media, very organically and sincerely,” she states. In her opinion, Rojo corazón “will transcend, because there are themes that run through all adolescence. And there is something I can’t spoil, but they will really like it, not only young people, Chilean teenagers, but Chilean parents will laugh.”
After its adaptation of Isabel Allende’s most famous book, the platform will premiere Catedrales on September 16. Composed of six episodes, it is based on the novel of the same name by Claudia Piñeiro. And, in an earlier phase, is La señora, a series inspired by “a notorious Chilean criminal case” and starring an arrogant upper-middle-class woman who becomes the main suspect in the attempted murder of several members of her own family.
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The executive explains that both literary adaptations and productions based on real events are a great tool to win over the audience in a “very competitive” moment in the industry. From her perspective, in the first case there is already a fan base and in the second, it generates that viewers investigate the details of the case on the internet.
“But that does not limit seeking and generating original ideas. Rojo corazón is a totally original idea,” she concludes. The other project that meets that premise is Lo único que te pido, a film starring Montserrat Ballarín and Fernando Godoy, and directed by Diego Rougier.
And could there be a new feature film with the characters from 31 Minutos? Balmaceda answers: “Let’s hope so. We are seeing with the creators if there is more desire to keep growing and telling another story. They are very successful with theater and their things off-screen, but we keep trying and working.”
Menem, the satire based on the former Argentine president, prepares its second season. Prime Video will not only have actors Leonardo Sbaraglia and Juan Minujín back as Carlos Menem and Olegario, respectively, but will add new characters to narrate his second (and last) term in the Casa Rosada.
One of the main novelties will be Cecilia Bolocco, who met the politician in 1999 – during the final year of his term – and married him in La Rioja in 2001 in a memorable wedding.
Balmaceda details to Culto that the new batch of episodes, besides narrating his second term in the presidency, will end a few years later. “We are doing all the 90s and the early 2000s. Cecilia has to be there, she is part of popular culture,” she points out.
That said, the name of the actress chosen to portray the Chilean television figure is something that, she assures, is not completely defined at the moment.
“Who will be Cecilia? How will Cecilia appear? I still have no idea, because (the creators) are still writing and making the decision,” she says.
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And she closes: “We have not approved anything yet.”
