{"id":27829,"date":"2026-08-04T22:54:37","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:54:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27829"},"modified":"2026-08-04T22:54:37","modified_gmt":"2026-08-04T17:54:37","slug":"toronto-fest-bound-love-is-the-monster-a-bendita-film-sales-pick-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=27829","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Fest-Bound &#8216;Love Is the Monster&#8217; a Bendita Film Sales Pick-Up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tSpanish boutique sales outfit <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bendita-film-sales\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bendita-film-sales\" data-tag=\"bendita-film-sales\">Bendita Film Sales<\/a> has picked up worldwide rights to Neto Villalobos\u2019 \u201cLove is the Monster\u201d ahead of its world premiere at the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/toronto-film-festival\/\" id=\"auto-tag_toronto-film-festival\" data-tag=\"toronto-film-festival\">Toronto Film Festival<\/a> (<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/tiff\/\" id=\"auto-tag_tiff\" data-tag=\"tiff\">TIFF<\/a>)\u2019s Centrepiece global showcase program.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/global\/costa-rica-alcatraz-another-5-top-locations-1236820110\/\">Shot in Golfito, situated in Costa Rica\u2019s Southern Pacific coast, <\/a>the dystopian thriller stars Berlinale Silver Bear actress award winner Paulina Garcia who plays a grandmother who doesn\u2019t have long to live. Bent on making the most of what time she has left, she seeks out her seven-year-old granddaughter who lives in a gated community with her mother. When her granddaughter is kidnapped, she sets out to rescue her, whatever it takes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201c\u2019Love Is the Monster\u2019\u00a0immediately pulled us into its strange, threatening world. Neto Villalobos turns an intimate family story into a tense tropical dystopia that feels both unfamiliar and disturbingly close \u2014 a thriller in which love, fear and the instinct to protect begin to blur into something much more dangerous,\u201d said Luis Renart, CEO\/Sales &amp; Acquisitions at Bendita Film Sales.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe multi-country drama is produced by La Sucia Centroamericana (Costa Rica) in co-production with Cine Infinito (Peru), Expansiva Cine (Panama), Clara Films (Chile), Avalancha Studio (Mexico) and Liminal Estudio (Mexico).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIt feels especially meaningful to return to Toronto with\u00a0\u2018Love is the Monster.\u2019 Both Neto Villalobos and Paulina Garc\u00eda have previously premiered at TIFF, but this marks the first time they come together on a film. With Bendita Film Sales joining as our international sales agent, we\u2019re excited to use this premiere as the beginning of the film\u2019s journey toward audiences around the world,\u201d said producer Ana Lucia Arias of La Sucia Centroamericana.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cAs Neto\u2019s most broadly appealing film to date, we couldn\u2019t imagine a better place for this tropical dystopian thriller to begin that journey than TIFF\u2019s Centrepiece,\u201d\u00a0she added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cIn my third feature, I pursue a slow-burning, visceral approach to explore the moral dilemma of a grandmother willing to do whatever it takes to protect her granddaughter, regardless of the consequences,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/global\/neto-villalobos-paulina-garcia-liminal-estudio-iff-panama-1236711178\/\">Villalobos told <em>Variety<\/em> in a previous interview, adding that he wanted \u201cto explore how far a grandmother can go for love, in a world where tenderness and violence coexist under the same skin.\u201d\u00a0<\/a>His previous pics, \u201cAll About the Feathers\u201d and \u201cHelmet Heads,\u201d both premiered at TIFF.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe project\u2019s development trajectory included its participation in the San Sebastian Co-Production Forum, the Costa Rica Industry IFF, winning the Cinerent Award, Panama Film Match, Co-Production Forum Panama IFF, Cinema en Development, Cinelatino Toulouse IFF, the <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/costa-rica-media-market\/\" id=\"auto-tag_costa-rica-media-market\" data-tag=\"costa-rica-media-market\">Costa Rica Media Market<\/a> (Warner Bros and Press Award), Darkroom WIP Rotterdam IFF, Panama IFF WIP, Cura\u00e7ao IFF WIP (Atomica prize) and the ECAM Last Push WIP Madrid.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tIts crew includes two <em>Variety <\/em>Costa Rican Below-the-Line Talent to Track: <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2025\/film\/global\/costa-rica-below-the-line-talents-to-track-paddington-1236445416\/\">DP Nicolas Wong <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/global\/costa-rica-below-the-line-talents-to-track-1236817683\/\">production designer Mauricio Esquivel.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe 51<sup>st<\/sup> edition of the Toronto Intl. Film Festival  runs over Sept. 10-20.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Spanish boutique sales outfit Bendita Film Sales has picked up worldwide rights to Neto Villalobos\u2019 \u201cLove is the Monster\u201d ahead of its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival (TIFF)\u2019s Centrepiece global showcase program. Shot in Golfito, situated in Costa Rica\u2019s Southern Pacific coast, the dystopian thriller stars Berlinale Silver Bear actress award winner Paulina&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Love_Is_The_Monster_01_Bendita_Film_Sales.jpg?w=1000&h=563&crop=1","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}