Montelona is a company focused on generating audiovisual works that have something to say and an interesting point of view. It’s located in Montevideo, Uruguay, and it’s run for Isabel García and Pancho Magnou Arnábal.
The company works with conviction and dedication the projects in which it is involved, considering each film as a unique teamwork experience. With particular care in the processes that lead to an original work, we intend to create films that make us feel and make sense.
Producers
Pancho Magnou Arnábal studied sociology in the University of the Republic. He took part in the management and design of different programs and investigations in the cultural area. He made an incursion in the audiovisual field with a short film. He studies in both national and international courses and workshops and he teaches Executive Production classes in the Uruguayan Cinema School.
Isabel García has a degree in Communication Sciences from the University of the Republic and graduated as an Audiovisual Production Technician from ORT University. She worked in the communication area and management of different artistic and cultural projects from national programs and institutions. Since 2008 she has been exclusively working in the audiovisual area.
Director
Montevideo, 1982. Director, script writer and cinema professor, together with Guillermo Madeiro, he directed his first feature film Clever (fiction, 2015), Coral Award to Unpublished Script in the La Habana Festival, premiered in the Busan International Film Festival, selected by almost thirty festivals like Stockholm, Warsaw, Chicago and La Habana, obtaining more than twenty awards, and The champion of the world (Documentary, 2019), premiered in DocMontevideo, awarded by the Cinema Critics Association of Uruguay as the Best Documentary 2019, selected by BAFICI, Guadalajara, Malaga, Krakow and BBC Long Shot Film Festival.
Director
Montevideo, 1984. Script writer, director and editor. Together with Federico Borgia he has written and directed two films. Clever (fiction, 2015), Coral Award to Unpublished Script in the La Habana Festival, premiered in the International Cinema Festival of Busan, selected by almost thirty festivals like Stockholm, Warsaw, Chicago and La Habana, obtaining more than twenty acknowledgements, and The Champion of the World (Documentary, 2019), premiered in DocMontevideo, awarded by the Cinema Critics Association of Uruguay as the Best Documentary 2019, selected by BAFICI, Guadalajara, Malaga, Krakow and BBC Long Shot Film Festival. Fashion Avenue (non-fiction, 14’, 2020) is his first piece directed by himself only.
Directora
Montevideo, 1986. Script writer, director and editor. She wrote and directed her directorial debut The Sharks (fiction, 2019). She was awarded the Cinema in Construction in the San Sebastian Festival 2018, and it premiered in World Cinema Dramatic in the Sundance Festival 2019, where Lucía received the award for Best Direction. The movie has had a prominent international journey; it has been selected in more than 50 festivals and has obtained more than ten international awards, such as: Best Director at Sundance; Best Script, Best Actress and Special Award at the Guadalajara Festival; Grand Prix Coup de Coeur at the Toulouse Festival; Special Award at the International competition at BAFICI; Best Movie and Best Actress at the Milan Festival, among others.
Directora
Sofía Betarte was born in Sweden in 1982, in a Colombian-Uruguayan family. She spent part of her childhood in Stockholm and returned with her family to settle down in the small town of San José de Mayo in Uruguay. She travelled back and forth between Stockholm and Montevideo during her youth. She studied Audiovisual Communications in Montevideo and later continued her studies at the EICTV of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba.
She works as a freelancer and is currently wrapping her debut film, the feature documentary “By the yoke”, which earned her the recognition of the ICAU 2014 Production Fund and the Montevideo Socio Audiovisual 2016. The film was also selected to be included in DocMontevideo´s 2017 Documentary Week.
