Profiles: Paola Pérez Nieto | Proimágenes Colombia

Cali, Colombia. With several years of experience, she boasts years of experience across various production roles in some of Colombia's most significant recent films. She was the producer of La Tierra y la Sombra (The Land and the Shadow, Camera d'Or, Cannes 2015) and Horizonte (Horizon) by César Augusto Acevedo, as well as Los Iniciados 2 (The Initiates 2) by Carlos Moreno and Mi Bestia (My Beast) by Camila Beltrán, both of which are currently in post-production. She served as the line producer of Memoria (2021) by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Los Iniciados (2023) for Amazon Prime. Since 2017, she has led Inercia Películas, with which she co-produced Los Zuluagas (Los Imperdibles Award at the Festival dei Popoli, 2021), a feature film directed by Italian Flavia Montini. This film is set for a November 2023 release in Colombian theaters, thanks to Interior XIII.

After graduating from Universidad del Valle with a Social Communication and Journalism degree, she furthered her Executive Field Production studies at the San Antonio de los Baños International Film and Television School in Cuba (EICTV) in 2009. Perez Nieto has participated in Talents Buenos Aires 2015, SANFIC Producers NET 2021, Bridges EAVE 2021, Atlantic Film Accelerator 2022 of the Canary Islands Audiovisual Cluster, and LATC Global Film & TV Program in Los Angeles during the American Film Market (AFM) 2023.

Her first feature film as a producer, La Tierra y la Sombra, was awarded the Camera d'Or; the Le Grand Rail D'Or (Golden Rail) award by the audience of the members of the French railway association Ceux du Rail; the SACD Award, given by the Society of Authors to one of the seven films in competition; and finally the France 4 Visionary Award, given to an emerging director for exceptional creativity and innovation.

She later produced Violencia (Violence) by Jorge Forero (2015), a feature film that premiered in the Forum section of the Berlin Film Festival 2015; Lázaro by José Alejandro González, a participant of the Cali International Film Festival 2019; and the feature films in post-production Los Iniciados 2 by Carlos Moreno (AG Studios Colombia production for Prime Video), Mi Bestia by Camila Beltrán and Horizonte by César Augusto Acevedo, all to be released in 2024. Additionally, she is the producer of the series Turbia, directed by Óscar Ruiz Navia, Carlos Moreno, William Vega, César Augusto Acevedo, Santiago Lozano, and Jorge Navas. Turbia won the Award for Best Latin American Fiction Series and the Design the Future Award at the TAL Awards 2021 and is available on Vix+.

As an executive producer, she participated in the feature film Somos Calentura (We are Hot) by Jorge Navas (2018), produced by Mon Amur Producciones headed by Steven Grisales, which premiered at the Warsaw Film Festival, and Memento Mori by Fernando López Cardona (2023), as well as the Canadian comedy Sundowners by Pavan Moondy (2016). She has also participated as a co-producer in Refugiado (Refugee) by Diego Lerman (2015), a Colombian-Argentine film selected in the Directors' Fortnight at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival; Jesús by Fernando Guzzoni (2017), a Colombian-Chilean co-production selected in the Official Competition at the 2016 San Sebastian Festival; Cuban director Marcel Beltrán's La Opción Cero (The Zero Option), which had its European premiere at IDFA Luminous (2020) and its North American premiere at Hot Docs (2021); the Colombian-Italian feature Los Zuluagas (2023); and Tumbadores directed by Panamanian María Isabel Burnes (2024).

She worked as a line producer on the film Los Iniciados, produced by AG Studios Colombia for Amazon Prime Video (2023), and on the feature film Memoria by Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival (2021). She was also production manager on Gente de Bien (Good People) by Franco Lolli, a feature film that was part of the Critics' Week at the Cannes Film Festival (2014); on Los Hongos (Mushrooms), the second feature film by Óscar Ruiz Navia, winner of the Special Jury Prize Cineastas del Presente at the Locarno Film Festival 2014; Pariente (Relative, 2016) by Iván D. Gaona, a feature film that had its world premiere at Venice-Days; Oscuro animal (Dark Animal) by Felipe Guerrero, which premiered at the International Film Festival Rotterdam 2016; and Nacimiento (Birth, 2015) by Martín Mejía.  Perez Nieto was the production manager and post-production coordinator for La Playa D.C. (The Beach D.C.) by Juan Andrés Arango, which participated in the Un Certain Regard section of the 2012 Cannes Film Festival; and La Sirga (The Towrope) by William Vega, which was part of the Directors' Fortnight in 2012 and received various international awards and incentives.

In 2010, she was part of Contravía Films as distribution coordinator of the feature film El Vuelco del Cangrejo (Crab Trap), the debut feature of Óscar Ruiz Navia. This film debuted at the Toronto Film Festival (2009), won the FRIPRESCI Award at the 2010 Berlinale, and she also worked as a field producer on this project. In 2018, with Ciudad Lunar, she contributed as associate development producer for Los Reyes del Mundo (The Kings of the World) and as release coordinator for Yo no me Llamo Rubén Blades (I'm not Rubén Blades), Wajib and Demonios tus Ojos (Sister of Mine).

Regarding short films, her experience extends to the production of La Campana (The Nell, FDC, 2012) and Los Pasos del Agua (The Water Steps), both written and directed by César Acevedo; Sara (FDC, 2013) and Ingrid Pérez's Adentro (Inside, FDC, 2013). She was also executive producer of the short films Sin Decir Nada (Without Saying Anything) by Diana Montenegro and Escondite (Hideout) by Marcela Gómez, and production manager of Magnolia by Diana Montenegro, Flores (Flowers) by Marcela Gómez, and Solecito (Little Sun, Directors' Fortnight, Cannes, 2013) by Óscar Ruiz Navia.
 
At Inercia Películas, she contributed to the post-production of the feature films Horizonte and Mi Bestia. She is currently developing the feature films Donde Comienza el río (Where the River Begins) by Juan Andrés Arango —a participant in Cine Qua Non Lab (2020) and selected in BAM Stories 2020, winner of the DALE! Award at the 10th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (2021), winner of the Artistic Production Grant awarded by the Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Québec - CALQ, a beneficiary of the FDC in the Feature Film Production category (2021) and participant in the Sørfond Pitch Forum (2021)—; La canícula (The Heatwave) by Rodney Llaverías in co-production with the Dominican Republic; the fiction short film Delirio (Delirium) by Fernardo Iriarte, a beneficiary of the FDC (2023) in the Short Filmmaking category; and the feature documentary Memorias de un Copiloto (Memories of a Copilot) by Diego García-Moreno, beneficiary of the Idartes Research and Writing Grant for Documentary Feature Film Project (2022) and of the FDC's writing and production incentives for documentary feature films (2012 and 2023, respectively).

Finally, she was the general producer of the Cartagena de Indias International Film Festival (FICCI) during its 2017 and 2018 editions, as well as a workshop leader in different academic programs of the #TengoUnaPelícula workshops and regional project advisor for Proimágenes Colombia. She is a selector of the Experimental Competition of the Bogotá Short Film Festival / Festival de Cortos de Bogotá - BOGOSHORTS, of which she was the general producer in 2020 and 2021.