K&S locks in Argentine filmmakers

Film unit to produce pics from Katz, Gaggero

By JOHN HOPEWELL

Argentina’s K&S Films, owned by Oscar Kramer and Hugo Sigman, will produce new films by Ana Katz (“Musical Chairs,” “A Wandering Bride”) and Jorge Gaggero (“Live-In Maid”), two of Argentina’s top young directors.

Films join a K&S slate, one of the strongest of any shingle in Argentina, which features Daniel Szifron’s sci-fi thriller “El extranjero,” and Lucrecia Martel’s “El eternauta.”

A co-production with Andrea Marotti’s Filmmaker in Italy and Pedro and Agustin Almodovar’s El Deseo in Spain, “El eternauta” is a high-end sci-fi project.

Katz’s yet-to-be-titled next feature focuses on a dysfunctional family, said Kramer. Katz is currently writing the screenplay.

Gaggero is penning a yet-to-be-titled film set at a children’s party, held to celebrate the end of their kindergaten schooling, that turns as much on the children’s parents as the kids, said Kramer.

Both projects will shoot in the second half 2009, he added.

A leadng light -- with Lucia Puenzo and Celina of the “second wave” of “New Argentine Cinema,” which boasts a bevy of distaff directors, Katz debuted in 2002 with “Chairs.” “Bride” played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 2007, winning best film kudos at Havana in 2007 from the Fipresci, the international critics association.

Gaggero was awarded a special jury prize at Sundance in 2005 for “Maid,” his debut feature.