Alumni’s Production Company Fidelio Films Strikes Deal With Editorial Planeta

Fidelio Films, a production company co-founded by alumni David Figueroa García '13, Mauricio Leiva Cock '13 and Mauro Mueller '13, has signed a development and co-production deal with Stories, the film and TV subsidiary of Spain-based publishing giant Editorial Planeta. 

The first film to be produced under the new deal will be Noche Sin Fortuna, directed by Leiva Cock himself. The story is based on the unfinished novel Noche Sin Fortuna by the late Andrés Caicedo from 1976, however, the film will be brought into present-day Cali. Noche Sin Fortuna is an one-day urban road movie about a teenager who, on his way to a girl’s quinceañera party, ends up in the hands of his best friend’s girlfriend who is a cannibal.

According to Variety, “Fidelio’s deal sees it parlaying the extraordinary recent writing and directing record of partners Leiva Cock and David Figueroa García into strategic alliances with companies eager to expand into the Spanish-language TV scene.”

Fidelio Films is an independent production company based in Bogotá, Mexico City, Toronto and Zurich. Its approach to storytelling, focused on modern day cross-cultural narratives, has taken its projects to audiences worldwide. Focussing on the development of original and innovative content, as well as in fostering relationships with like-minded organizations and individuals, Fidelio Films co-produces, gap finances, develops and script-doctors projects in all languages, anywhere on Earth. In combination with creators from Latin American, North American and European, Fidelio Films builds original series from scratch with a unique perspective. The company has co-produced and co-developed content alongside companies such as Netflix, Dynamo, Imperative, Story House, Telemundo, Unscrypt and Amazon. In addition, Fidelio Films has produced a number of acclaimed short films, winning twice in a row in the Student Academy Awards with Under in 2012 and A World for Raúl in 2013. Their first feature film, Copenhagen, was theatrically released in North America in 2014.

David Figueroa García is a writer-director from Mexico City. His work has been seen in festivals around the world and has won him prestigious awards from the Directors Guild of America and Brooklyn Arts Council, among others. He is currently based out of Brooklyn, New York. Figueroa’s first short film Ratitas premiered at the Morelia International Film Festival and went on to win the award for best short film in the Brooklyn Film Festival, best Mexican short in the Monterrey International Film Festival, and Best Actor for Kristyan Ferrer at the Short Shorts Film Festival Mexico (SSFFM). In 2013, Figueroa’s short fiction film Perfidia won the Latino category from the Directors Guild of America, and was part of the Official Selection of the 12th Morelia Film Festival. It has gone on to win several awards and grants including the Best Short Film at the Guanajuato International Film Festival (GIFF), and funding from the Jerome Foundation New York Film and Video grant. 

Mauricio Leiva Cock is a Colombian independent narrative filmmaker. He currently resides in Colombia. Leiva Cock’s work has participated in festivals and artistic residences worldwide such as the Toronto International Film Festival Talent Lab, Tribeca All Access, Buenos Aires Talents, Morelia, Beijing, Biarritz, São Paulo, San Sebastian and Huesca. He is currently in production of the IDARTES Fund winner short documentary Tomada and the Colombian Film Fund winning short Tsuki. Leiva Cock’s feature-length script, Aquí Vivió y Murió Espiritu Perdomo was selected for the Cine Qua Non Lab Screenwriting Residence in Morelia, Mexico, the Buenos Aires Talents Development Workshop, the Bolivia Lab Screenwriting Lab in Cochabamba, Bolivia and the Ibermedia Cinefilia Lab in Colombia. The project was a Quarterfinalist at the 2013 Academy Nicholl Fellowship in Screenwriting, won the Script Development Award from Promimagenes Colombia in 2014 and received the Tribeca Film Institute Latin America Fund in 2016. 

Mauro Mueller is a Mexican-Swiss filmmaker based in Mexico City, Zurich, and Los Angeles. He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences (AMPAS). His film Un Mundo Para Raul won a Student Academy Award (Oscar®) in 2013. His projects have received support from Tribeca, Sundance and IFP. He is a recipient of the IFP Marcie Bloom Fellowship and the prestigious Mexican FONCA Young Creators Grant. His script A Few Days In The Sun was selected to Ibermedia’s Ibero-American Film Projects Development Course, a grant from the Carolina Foundation, to the Gabriel Figueroa Film Fund at the Los Cabos Film Festival, IFP no borders in New York and also received the IMCINE Development Grant. Mueller produced the award winning features Copenhagen, A Quintet, In Times of Rain, The Night of The Beast, The Invented Biography, and The Cosmic Dawn.