Colombia Doubles for Mexico in Presburger's 'Belleza'
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- Miércoles Entertainment, co-founded by Paul Presburger with former Pantelion/Pantaya partners Edward Allen, Jim McNamara, and Jacqueline Jimenez, chose Colombia over Mexico to shoot its debut feature "Belleza," citing smoother production and film incentives.
- "Belleza" was filmed entirely in Bogotá across roughly half a dozen locations in May, with the city's urban texture standing in for Mexico City, and was completed in four weeks on schedule and on budget, per Secuoya Studios Latin America CEO Daniel Hernández.
- Secuoya Studios handled both production services and financing, cash-flowing the project by capitalizing distribution agreements with HBO, Cinépolis, and other partners to fund the film upfront — a multi-layer role Presburger called "key."
- The film stars Maite Perroni and Fernanda Castillo and follows five women navigating body image, social pressure, and identity at different life stages, under Mexican director Nadia Ayala with a mainly Colombian crew.
- Lionsgate will distribute "Belleza" across international TV platforms outside the U.S. — including SVOD, cable, AVOD, FAST channels, and its own global networks — launching a new slate of Miércoles films.
- Cinépolis will theatrically release the film in Mexico and also invested in the production, while the deal follows Miércoles's October partnership with Hulu to deliver U.S. Hispanic-targeted Spanish-language and bilingual content.
Why it matters: Miércoles Entertainment plans two to three films and several series per year, and "Belleza" is the first test of its U.S. Hispanic-targeted slate for Hulu and Lionsgate's international networks. Secuoya's willingness to cash-flow the project by fronting future distribution revenue positions it as a full-stack production-finance partner, which could lower barriers for future Latin American co-productions aiming at bilingual audiences.
