Guadalajara fest likes 'Company'

Mexican drama wins first TV Espanola Prize

By MICHAEL O'BOYLE

GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- Mexican drama "The 4th Company" won the first Television Espanola Prize at the Guadalajara Film Festival's pitching market.

Feature, based on a script by Vanessa Arreola, is helmer Amir Galvan Cervera's first. Galvan is producing with Tita Lombardo and Marco Antonio Salgado.

Film follows a prison soccer team whose members rob banks and cars, giving a cut to corrupt authorities.

The prize was created this year by Spanish pubcaster RTVE and offers a minimum guarantee for Spanish TV rights of at least €150,000 ($200,340).

Twenty-two projects from 11 countries were presented to more than 50 producers during the fest's Ibero-American Film Co-Production Meeting.

Among other market deals, Buena Onda's Don Ranvaud will co-produce low-budget Guatemalan pic "Gasolina," a first feature by Luis Hernandez Condon. Pic has coin from Cinergia, a central American film fund in Costa Rica.

During last year's pitching market, Ranvaud joined "Cochochi," one of the first films from Canana, the production shingle of Mexican thesps Gael Garcia Bernal and Diego Luna.