José Carlos Conde, Womack Group: So far, all the projects we are developing are our IP, with self-financing and pre-financing
The Spanish conglomerate Womack Group and its different communication, marketing and advertising, PR, events, and audiovisual production (fiction and nonfiction) companies with Womack Studios have had rapid growth that is consolidated thanks to the group’s philosophy, according to José Carlos Conde, its president. Not to mention that they also organize the South International Series Festival.
In content development, Conde commented that by having in-house specialists with a very global conception and mentality, they are achieving “a fairly powerful production factory capacity.” They are developing 17 productions (three films and four fiction series; the rest are non-fiction, between documentaries and factual.
He explained that another part of the philosophy is that so far, all the projects they are developing are their IP, with self-financing and pre-financing with different financial vehicles that they have within the group. For him, it is also part of the secret of success. “We promote a project from the beginning with IP and go to sale afterward.”
Regarding co-productions, they have a few production companies belonging to the same group. “Specializing in fiction, we have four production companies within the group and five for non-fiction.” They have co-produced with outsiders on a few occasions, for example, with Lolita Films, a Spanish historical fiction production company with 15 years in the market, they have made three films and co-producing the musical series Bajañí, Historia de una Guitarra, which will be filmed in New York during February and March 2024, and directed by Spanish director Fernando Trueba, “which would be his first series because he has always made films.”
However, they intend to co-produce projects in Latin America with countries such as Mexico, Argentina, and Colombia. With Miami, they currently have two co-productions. “We already have a network of projects in Latin America and the US.”
With the Dominican Republic, where they have offices, they worked on the documentary Elecciones en Pandemia, about how some countries moved forward with the elections in the middle of a pandemic. “It is a 100% Dominican project with the Dominican production company that is part of our group, where we have a service company and two production companies that are 100% Dominican, but that Womack acquired in recent years.”
Based on this project, they also want to make a series of 22 chapters on the history of the great presidents of democracy in Latin America with all countries. “We are working on a global project that tells the development of Ibero-America and how it became a superpower at all levels. Telling the stories of the moments of the political transition to the present, country by country.”
Likewise, a co-production with Mexico will “see the light” soon. “The majority are projects that seek to unite Latin America with Spain. We are producing a series with Spanish and Latin American actors and actresses. That is a strategy that we have in the group.”
In the Dominican Republic, they are currently filming, and in the rest of the countries, they will begin in mid-2024. The Miami office opened two years ago with their partner Enrique Rubio Dosamantes, is essential “due to Miami’s market projection.” For the company, this headquarters is the “business development headquarters.” It is not a production center. “We are not looking for studios there but rather business development because all the most important distribution players are in the US, and they need a union between this market, Latin America, and Spain.
From that office, they developed Quijote en Nueva York, the series Transmissions filmed in London and New York, working on Bajañí de Trueba series, and are carrying out the musical project Legacy, a tribute and career to the musician Paco de Lucía, which will be filmed in several key locations in New York between February 20 and 25, 2024 because they will also produce during those days the shows with Hispanic music performers who will pay tribute.
They are also making a feature-length documentary about the life of the Spanish director Carlos Saura, “as a great connoisseur and lover of dance,” filmed in 2023. “Saura did several projects about dance, and we go through his entire biography around his desire for dance.”
Plus, the series Duque by María Ripoll, La Masacre de Puerto Hurraco by Miguel Ángel Vivas, and Arropiero.
