This new production company, based in Medellín, aims to turn the country into the largest audiovisual production center in South America.
They have a clear common goal, and they’ve teamed up to make it a reality. The Colombian company Imaginer Films, after 11 years of experience in the audiovisual industry, has joined forces with two renowned Colombian names in film and TV production and direction, Simón Brand and Daniel Eilemberg, to create Clover Studios and make Colombia the most important production center in South America.
“I’ve long wanted to create something of my own in Colombia,” director Simón Brand, best known for the film Paraiso Travel and his recent stint directing episodes of Law & Order: Organized Crime, told EL COLOMBIANO. “I’ve been abroad for a long time, and I always felt that Colombia was experiencing exponential growth in the production field.”
Simón had known Daniel since high school, and had worked on several projects with Laura Franco and Julio César Gaviria, the founders of Imaginer Films. “With Laura and Julio, I had an excellent experience, not only as professionals but also as human beings, and for me that’s one of the most important aspects, because in this type of marriage, what’s most important isn’t just experience or the ability to respond to the needs of any project, but also the human touch.”
Another important point in this “marriage,” as Simón calls it, is Medellín. “Medellín is one of the few cities in the world that has managed to change its narrative over the years in an impressive way, and having our base here, the infrastructure we have with Imaginer, has happened naturally,” the director reiterates.
LOCAL GROWTH
Julio César Gaviria recalls the city’s turning point in audiovisual production. It was nearly 12 years ago with the video for Medellín’s bid for the Youth Olympic Games , directed by Brad Furman. It was the first major international project and also brought in the aerial cameraman from Christopher Nolan’s Batman: The Dark Knight. “That project sparked the development of that industry. Then came Netflix’s Narcos and then Tom Cruise’s American Made, all projects with many people from Bogotá and technicians from outside the country.”
But there was talent and desire here, also thanks to those pioneers of the local audiovisual industry like Víctor Gaviria, and after American Made, more projects began to arrive with larger productions for Netflix, Prime Video, and even films from Israel and Poland.
“We were the first to produce directly for Netflix in Medellín; we began to break new ground,” explains Laura Franco, who also points out that this difference between what they began doing more than a decade ago and what they have done today is also marked by changes in the country’s film laws.
Film Law 1556 of 2012 allowed foreign productions to come to Colombia, “and in that same sense, we had a transfer of knowledge for people here, because in Narcos, for example, they had to bring a lot of people, many department heads, even many technicians, because we didn’t have enough staff,” Laura says.
The experience gained over these years has not only trained local staff to meet these international standards but also helped them understand the dynamics of film production at that level.
“Whenever I came to film in Colombia, not just Medellín, but Colombia, you had to bring people from other places, and that’s no longer necessary,” explains Simón, who adds that they recently did a project in the city in which 98% of the crew (technicians and workers needed for a shoot) were from Medellín.
“Last year we shot two films, one in Río Claro and the other in Guatapé, which had around 300 and 120 people, respectively, of which 95% of the crew were from Medellín, and this is thanks to everything that’s been happening,” Julio reiterates.
CHALLENGES AND PROJECTS
To make Colombia the most important production center in South America, we must continue working. Daniel reiterates that there are still infrastructure limitations, “which is something we are evaluating in terms of investment. There has been a lot of progress in training, but we still need to continue training people who see this as a potential career, providing technical courses and opportunities for people to take the first steps, which are often the most difficult, to enter an industry. There’s a certain path to be built there. And finally, I think it’s about bringing bigger, more ambitious projects. We need to go out and educate the world about all the possibilities available in Colombia and compete for those projects that perhaps today are going to Bulgaria, even Mexico, and how we can go out and tell Colombia’s story, showcase the country, and make people understand and see it as a possibility. We believe Colombia has the potential to become the most important production hub in Latin America.”
Clover is already moving forward. “We’re developing and producing projects, not only nationally, in cities like Cartagena, Nariño, Medellín, and Bogotá, but also in other countries. Currently, we’re in Brazil, the United States, and Spain. We’re national and international,” says Julio.
And he adds that they’re currently in pre-production on a series that will premiere in 2026, “and we’ll start filming in a month. It’s directed by Simón. It’s for a very important platform, a series that will undoubtedly be historic in the country. I can tell you that much.” Clover Studios’ journey to growth in the local audiovisual industry has already begun.
WHY IS IT CALLED CLOVER STUDIO?
Clover translates the word clover into Spanish. Julio César Gaviria explains that a four-leaf clover is the perfect symbol to represent this union, but without forgetting that they are a very established group: “There are almost twenty people behind us working at the base of the company. We definitely understood that we needed to reenergize the brand, find a word that would be easy to pronounce in both Spanish and English, and it seemed very contemporary and modern to us.”