Weekly: How Amazon Studios is tapping into Lat Am’s potential

As remits go, few executives in the world cover more square miles than Javiera Balmaceda. Not only does the Amazon Studios head of local originals look after Australia and Canada – a combined total of around 7 million square miles – she is also responsible for the hugely diverse Latin America, stretching from Argentina in the south to Mexico in the north.

“It’s such a huge area and the countries have such storied histories,” she tells Broadcast International via video call from Miami. And while there are commonalities among the region’s viewers, each country has a specific set of requirements when it comes to what audiences want to watch.

Such diversity probably explains why Balmaceda is talking to me sitting in front of a large whiteboard on which a stream of colourful (but indecipherable) notes are scrawled. It has the look of multiple ‘to do’ lists for someone who gets a lot of things done.

Amazon’s Prime Video streaming platform has been involved in local originals across Latin America for years. Indeed, one of its earliest experiments was a 2018 Mexican adaptation of Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Japanese format Documental, remade as LOL: Last One Laughing Mexico, which entered its seventh season in December.

“There’s a fallacy that because you’re doing something in Spanish, it will work across the whole region. That’s just not true”

The format’s success in Mexico has also provided the impetus for Amazon Studios to invest in numerous other local remakes, with Banijay Mexico & US Hispanic wrapping production on two seasons of LOL: Last One Laughing Argentina earlier this year.

It is also a neat indicator of the balance that Balmaceda needs, as she looks to deliver shows that appeal to local sensibilities – particularly if they have a comedy beat.

Organic hits

“Our remit is country by country, but there’s a fallacy that because you’re doing something in Spanish, it will work across the whole region,” she explains.

“Of course, that’s just not true. Mexican comedy is very different to Argentine comedy. Sensibilities are different [across the region].”

Balmaceda points to the numerous Argentine films that are remade in Mexico with local casts, to better engage a local audience. “It means that when we’re finding those hits that work across Latin America, they really have to be organic.”

While Balmaceda’s remit is broad, inevitably it is the largest markets that provide the greatest returns and, in some ways, allow Prime Video the most creative freedom.

“Mexico and Brazil are the biggest [markets] so we have more flexibility to take swings there and we can look at specific audiences too,” she explains. “In Mexico, we’ve had the opportunity to do projects that will bring in a younger audience with more of a female skew, for example, and that has been really helpful in growing our base there.”

True crime remains a key genre – more of that later – but Prime Video has also been looking to hit high scripted notes in Mexico with recent commissions Mentiras, based on the musical, and high school drama No One Will Miss Us.

The latter is produced by Fremantle-owned The Immigrant, while Mentiras taps into the strong domestic demand for talent by featuring Mexican stars Belinda and Luis Gerardo Méndez (Narcos).

Broad remit

In Argentina, Chile and Colombia, because of the size of those markets, Prime Video normally goes “as broad as possible”, Balmaceda says, “and we have had some real success in that with finding those big headline-making stories that will bring in the biggest possible audience.”

But there is also room for shows that may be able to “transcend” their origins. Perhaps the most notable example is the adaptation of Isabel Allende’s The House Of The Spirits, set in an unnamed Latin American country, which tracks the turbulent lives of a family across the course of three generations.

The eight-parter, which was adapted into a film in 1993, has Allende and Eva Longoria attached as exec producers, along with showrunners Francisca Alegría, Fernanda Urrejola and Andrés Wood. Star power is on display with talent such as Alfonso Herrera (Ozark), Dolores Fonzi (Blondi) and Nicole Wallace (Culpa Mía), while FilmNation produces, supported by Fabula.

Prime Video has taken global rights for the drama, which underscores Balmaceda’s strategy to take bigger swings on shows that can draw in viewers across the region by offering relevant touch points.

Recent Argentine film Nahir, a true crime drama about a teenager who murders her boyfriend, and Cromañón, the true story of the 2004 fire at a Buenos Aires nightclub that killed almost 200 people, are also looking to make the jump.

“Cromañón has been driving conversations and huge numbers in Argentina, and I hope this level of storytelling will transcend,” she says, with the About Entertainment-produced show again offering elements with broad appeal. “We’re looking for those uniquely local stories that have human truths,” Balmaceda adds.

Bringing back Betty

Prime Video also recently ordered a second season of its reboot of Colombian telenovela Yo Soy Betty, La Fea, which was adapted in almost 30 countries, including the US, where it was known as Ugly Betty. The new story picks up 20 years on from when the telenovela ended, with Betty considering divorce and looking to rebuild her relationship with daughter Mila.

While Prime Video is by no means alone in tapping into daily dramas – both Netflix and Disney+ are testing out similar shows in Europe – Balmaceda says the opportunity to update the show while attaching the original cast drove the commission, rather than any focus on telenovelas.

“Korean soaps are doing really well, Turkish soaps have done really well and we [in Latin America] are the best at it – even the original Betty was a 240-episode telenovela. For us, though, it is about finding the right story and working out how we get it to customers, so this isn’t an active strategy we’re choosing right now.”

Balmaceda’s scripted arsenal also includes Prime Video’s US commissions – ranging from Citadel and The Boys franchise to The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power – but some of her biggest hits are regional unscripted shows, with true crime performing well.

“We launched The Park Maniac in Brazil, which is a documentary about a serial killer, and that’s done gangbusters,” Balmaceda says. The show explores the disturbing tale of a São Paulo-based motorcycle courier who was convicted of murdering 10 women in the 1990s.

Others include Emporium Productions’ documentary Operation Hope: The Children Lost In The Amazon, and Balmaceda says her door is open to filmmakers. “If it is the right idea, if it’s accompanying a scripted or film piece, or if it’s newsworthy, then we are definitely looking into that documentary space.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the success of LOL, Balmaceda is also open to formats, with remakes of Banijay’s Temptation Island in Mexico, Brazil and a combined Argentina/Chile version recently launching on Prime Video.

“The Argentina/Chile show was wildly successful. It wasn’t quite the same for Mexico but we do like to explore the format space – with proven shows and paper formats. We’re chasing the shiny floor, music space – we’re definitely keen to explore ideas there.”

There are also increasing opportunities emerging elsewhere across Balmaceda’s remit. In Canada, Blumhouse Television’s darkly comedic scripted tale The Sticky has performed well and she is keen for more shows that are “uniquely Canadian”. The streamer also recently took rights to games from the National Hockey League (NHL).

A similar desire for local ideas permeates her thinking in Australia, where Prime Video recently extended Deadloch into a second run and launched a local remake of The Office. It has also been behind The Narrow Road To The Deep North, a five-part drama based on Richard Flanagan’s novel about a man’s brief love affair with a woman during World War II.

“As things get more expensive and harder to make, you do look for the right partner to share rights”

The show is produced by Curio Pictures and sold by Sony Pictures Television, with Prime Video taking rights in Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Such a scenario is not uncommon, with the streamer increasingly pragmatic about its rights positioning.

“A lot of our shows are wholly owned and we have full rights, but we can be flexible,” says Balmaceda. “I’m looking for the right co-production opportunities. We do them with [streamer] ViX and [Colombian broadcaster] RCN. As things get more expensive and harder to make, you do look for the right partner to share rights.”

Rich storytelling

Indeed, ask Balmaceda what we should expect from the industry over the next few years and partnerships come top of the list.“We’ll see more openness and going back to sharing different windows – what I was doing in the 1990s,” she says. “There’s going to be a shift into advertising too, which is somewhere we’re finding success – seeking opportunities with advertisers who can take that creative swing with you.”

Above all, though, Balmaceda wants the next few years to deliver a new wave of Latin American shows to the world, aside from narco dramas, “poverty porn and chasing the American dream series”.

“Right now, we have 100 Years Of Solitude on Netflix, there’s Max with Like Water For Chocolate and we have The House Of The Spirits,” she says, underlining the richness of storytelling that Latin America offers. And with a remit covering millions of square miles, there’s little doubt that more will follow.