Netflix Showcases New and Returning International Series and Films

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That was Bela Bajaria’s, Netflix Chief Content Officer, message at the company’s first International Showcase on Monday.

Joined by Minyoung Kim (Vice President of Content, APAC), Paco Ramos (Vice President of Content, LATAM), Monika Shergill (Vice President of Content, India) and Larry Tanz (Vice President of Content, EMEA), the executives underscored Netflix’s commitment to commissioning local language programming and building deep partnerships with over 1,000 producers from more than 50 countries outside the US.  

While debuting footage from some of Netflix’s upcoming non-English language titles, Ramos shared that they are all focused on “creating stories that make audiences press play and stay. A show or a movie they love so much they can’t wait to finish it and recommend it to their friends.”

Programming highlights included never-before-seen clips from series One Hundred Years of Solitude (Colombia), The Leopard (Italy), Last Samurai Standing (Japan), The Empress S2 (Germany), El Refugio Atómico (Spain), Senna (Brazil), Alice in Borderland S3 (Japan), and films Revelations (Korea) and Un fantasma en la Batalla (Spain). 

At the event the creative executives explained why they commissioned these titles and how they reflect their local cultures. Diego Avalos, VP of Content for Spain, remarked that “we’ve always focused on letting Spanish idiosyncrasy be reflected in our stories. We are producing in every region of Spain, which is a bit like if you made a TV show in all 50 states in the US.” Tinny Andreatta, VP of Content for Italy, spoke about how The Leopard “was the first project that I really wanted to produce because of its scope and ambition. The Leopard captures an iconic moment in Italian history.” 

“People like the authenticity of local stories,” Bajaria explained and reinforced that there’s no such thing as making a global show. “When you try to make something that appeals to everyone, you just end up making something that appeals to no one.” It’s why Bajaria encourages her teams to be ambitious and support the vision of creators with the “goal to make shows and films that resonate in their home country first.”  

The quality of Netflix’s non-English language programming is one of the reasons that these shows and films are growing in popularity. But it’s also because of Netflix’s best in class recommendations, subtitles and dubbing that make it possible for people around the world to discover titles from countries other than their own. In fact, Kim shared that “over 80% of Netflix members around the world watch K-content.”