The III edition of the Platino Ibero-American Cinema Awards will take place in Uruguay

In just two editions, it has become the most important event for the promotion of cinema in the 23 Ibero-American countries.

The new Punta del Este Convention Center in Uruguay will host the third edition of the Platino Ibero-American Cinema Awards in June 2016. As was the case in the first two editions, it will bring together the most prominent figures of the Ibero-American cultural industry and will have a television presence on all five continents.

Promoted by the Audiovisual Producers Rights Management Entity (EGEDA), in collaboration with the Ibero-American Federation of Cinematographic and Audiovisual Producers (FIPCA), and with the support of the Film Academies, Latin Artist, AISGE Foundation and the Film Institutes, the Awards have become the most important event of Ibero-American cinema.

Miguel Angel Benzal, general director of EGEDA and the Platino Awards, highlighted that the minimum economic impact of the gala exceeded, valued in a very conservative way, 30 million dollars, more than double the economic valuation of the first edition.

He explained that the gala was broadcast in more than 50 countries and that TVE broadcast it via satellite to all 5 continents. TNT broadcast the gala in Latin America and the Caribbean to its fifty million subscriber homes. More than one hundred thousand news items were generated about the awards. These data were supported by the report presented by Ricardo Vaca, president of Barlovento Comunicación, and by Kantar Media.

Miguel Angel Benzal expressed the difficulties in choosing this year's venue, since along with Uruguay and Spain, very competitive proposals from Guatemala, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and the United States of America have been considered.

800 films in competition

In this third edition, nearly 800 Ibero-American films released in 2015 will compete, many of which have been achieving great results at national and international festivals, exhibitions and film awards.

The event also revealed the creation of a new award within the Platino Awards, dedicated to cinema and education in values, and an ambitious program that, with this same theme, will be developed in Latin America, together with the FAD. This program in Spain has taken nearly 1.7 million primary and secondary students to movie theaters, with the aim of educating our young people in values ​​such as coexistence, tolerance, respect and integrity.

The opening of the event corresponded to Salvador Arriola, Secretary of Ibero-American Cooperation (SEGIB), who received an award from EGEDA as a tribute to this Institution, and was attended by the president of the Euroamérica Foundation, Benita Ferrero Waldner and the Mayor of Maldonado, Dina Fernández Chaves, where Punta del Este is located, a town that will host the awards in its third edition.

EGEDA has signed an alliance with CIEPE, the Argentine-Uruguayan company that manages the convention center that will be inaugurated with the Platino awards in June 2016, and with the Punto Ogilvy agency, which has, among many other achievements, having carried out the promotion of the Latin Grammys in the United States and Latin America.