J.A. Bayona’s “Society Of The Snow” Named Best Feature at This Year’s Platino Awards

Posted on April 21, 2024 by Tom Castaneda

J.A. Bayona’s most recent project is still picking up awards…

Society Of The Snow, the Spanish filmmaker’s survival drama for Netflix, dominated the top honors at the eleventh Platino Awards on Saturday evening.

Bayona’s Society Of The Snow closed last year’s Venice Film Festival. Based on the book of the same name by Pablo Vierci, first published in 2008, the film charts the story of the 45 people who, on October 13, 1972, boarded Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 from Montevideo to Chile. There were five crew members on board and 40 passengers, including 19 members of the Old Christians Club rugby team.

Tragedy struck when the pilot began his descent too early, crashing into the Andes and killing 12 immediately. The survivors clung to the belief that help was coming, but none did. After weeks of hunger, having exhausted everything in the plane’s hold, they were forced to do the unthinkable and eat the flesh of those who had died.

The story was told by Frank Marshall in the 1993 film Alive. The film was Spain’s pick for the Best International Feature Oscar race.

The Ibero-American award show took place this year at the El Gran Tlachco theater in Xcaret Park, Riviera Maya.

Bayona claimed the award for best director for Society Of The Snow, which won Best Feature.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the debut film by Basque filmmaker Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren won Best Screenplay and Best First Feature.

The film is set during a summer in a village house linked to beekeeping and follows an eight-year-old and her mother experiencing revelations that will change their lives forever.

Elsewhere, Robot Dreams won Best Animated Feature and Under Therapy by Gerardo Herrero took Best Comedy, capping off a good night for Spain in Mexico, with all main film awards bar Best Documentary (The Eternal Memory by Maite Alberdi of Chile) going to Spanish filmmakers.

Here’s the full list of 2024 Platinos winners:

Film
Best Fiction Film: Society of the Snow (Spain)
Best Fictional comedy: Bajo Terapia (Spain)
Best Director: J. A. Bayona (Spain)
Best Screenplay: Estibaliz Urresola for 20,000 Species of Bees (Spain)
Best original music: Alfonso de Vilallonga for Robot Dreams (Spain)
Best Male Performance: Enzo Vogrincic for Society of the Snow
Best Female Performance: Laia Costa for Un amor (Spain)
Best Supporting Male Performance: Jose Coronado for Cerrar los ojos (Spain)
Best Supporting Female Performance: Ana Gabarain for 20,000 Species of Bees (Spain)
Best Animated Film: Eagle and Jaguar: Robot Dreams (Spain)
Best documentary film: The Eternal Memory by Maite Alberdi (Chile)
Best Ibero-American first feature film: 20,000 Species Of Bees
Best Editing: Jaume Marti, Andres Gil for Society of the Snow (Spain)
Best Art Direction: Rodrigo Bazaes for El Conde (Chile)
Best Director of Photography: Pedro Luque for Society of the Snow (Spain)
Best Sound Direction: Oriol Tarragó, Marc Orts, Jorge Adrados for Society of the Snow (Spain)

Series
Best film miniseries or television series: Barrabrava
Best Male Performance: Andy Chango for El amor después del amor
Best female performance: Carmen Machi for Las Mesias
Best supporting male performance: Alfredo Castro for The Thousand Days of Allende
Best Supporting Female Performance: Lola Dueñas for Las Mesias
Best creator of a film miniseries or television series: Daniel Burman for Iosi, the Regretful Spy

Santiago Mitre’s “Argentina, 1985” Sweeps This Year’s Platino Awards

Posted on April 23, 2023 by Tom Castaneda

Santiago Mitre has picked up another award…

The 42-year-old Argentine film director and screenwriter’s Argentina, 1985 swept the top prizes for Best Picture on Saturday night at the 2023 Platino Awards.

News of a Kidnapping, created by Andrés Wood and Rodrigo García, is another top award winner.

One highlight of the ceremony, dedicated to films and television shows in the Spanish-speaking world, was Benicio del Toro’s acceptance speech of a honorary Platino in which he reflected on being typecast for many years in Hollywood as a Latino actor.

“If I had to play stereotypes, I tried to find the character’s humanity, a sense of complicity, so that audiences felt what my character felt and whilst they’re watching, don’t forget who I am and where I come from.,” he said. “What’s important is to share more than be divided,” he added.

Del Toro received a standing ovation by an audience made up of some of the best actors in Spain, which hung on his every word.

Directed by Mitre, who broke out to attention with The Student, then conquered Cannes with Paulina, the Academy Award-nominated “Argentina, 1985,” produced by Amazon Studios, Infinity Hill, Mitre’s label Unión de los Rios and star Ricardo Darín’s Kenya Films swept best picture, screenplay (Mitre, Mariano Llinás) actor (Darín), among five awards.

Commissioned by Prime Video in 2020, in the same funding round that included “Iosi, the Repentant Spy,” “News of a Kidnapping” scooped best series, creators (Wood, García), series actress (Cristina Umaña) and supporting actress (Majida Issa).

Stuart Ford’s AGC Studios and Chile’s Invercine & Wood produce.

It may or may not be a coincidence that both titles, as well as Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts, which swept four prizes including best director, talk about how individuals or institutions – the Colombian senator husband of an abduction victim in “News,” Darin’s crusading public prosecutor in “Argentina, 1985,” a French couple in deep Galicia in “The Beasts” – confront violence, whether the institutionalized torture and murder under Argentina’s Junta, endemic drug gang coercion in “News” and wounded machismo in “The Beasts.”

“Thank you to the thousands and thousands of Colombians who, silently, without any show, try to make peace and a country, despite all the obvious difficulties,” said Umana.

“Memory is important. We can’t allow violence to be the innate solution in any part of the world,” said Infinity Hill’s, Axel Kuschevatzky, a producer of “Argentina, 1985.”

In other Awards highlights, Spain’s Laia Costa and Susi Sánchez repeated their Goya plaudits taking best film actress and supporting actress as daughter and mother in “Lullaby.”

FILM

Best Feature
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina)

Director
Rodrigo Sorogoyen, “The Beasts”

Lead Performance
Laia Costa, “Lullaby”
Ricardo Darín, “Argentina, 1985”

Screenplay
Mariano Llinás, Santiago Mitre, “Argentina, 1985”

First Feature
“1976” (Chile, Argentina)

Best Feature Comedy
“Official Competition,” (Argentina, Spain)

Original Score
Sergio Prudencio, “Utama”

Supporting Role Performance
Susi Sanchez, “Lullaby” (Spain)
Luis Zahera, “The Beasts” (Spain, France)

Animated Feature
“The Eagle and the Jaguar: the Legendary Warriors” (Mexico)

Documentary Best Feature
“El Caso Padilla,” (Cuba, Spain)

Editing
Alberto del Campo, “The Beasts”

Art Direction
Micaela Saiegh, “Argentina, 1985)

Cinematography
Barbara Álvarez, “Utama”

Sound Direction
Aitor Berenguer, Fabiola Ordoyo, Yasmina Praderas, “The Beasts”

Film & Education In Values
“Argentina, 1985” (Argentina, U.S)

HONORARY AWARD
Benicio del Toro

Best Series Or Mini-Series
“News of a Kidnapping” (Colombia, Chile, U.S.)

Best Series Or Mini-Series Creator
Andrés Wood, Rodrigo García, “News of a Kidnapping”

Actor In A Series Or Mini-Series
Guillermo Francella, “The One in Charge”

Actress In A Series Or Mini-Series
Cristina Umaña, “News of a Kidnapping”

Supporting Actor In A Series Or Mini-Series
Alejandro Awada, “Iosi, The Regretful Spy”

Supporting Actress In A Series Or Mini-Series
Majida Issa, “News of a Kidnapping”

Diego Luna to Receive 2021 Platino Award of Honor

Posted on September 6, 2021 by Tom Castaneda

Diego Luna is being celebrated for his platinum career.

This year’s seventh edition of the Ibero-American Platino Awards (Premios Platinos) will honor the 41-year-old Mexican actor, director, producer and festival organizer with the Platino Award of Honor.

An itinerant award show by design, this year’s Platinos will be held on October 3 in Madrid.

Luna will be the youngest recipient of the career achievement honor, joining previous winners Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, often simply referred to as Raphael, one of Spain’s most iconic entertainers of the 20th century; Adriana Barraza, the Oscar nominated Spanish-English-language crossover star of Alejandro Iñárritu’s Babel and Amores Perros; Oscar and three time Primetime Emmy nominee Edward James Olmos (Stand and Deliver); Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas (Pain and Glory); and Primetime Emmy (The Burning Season) and BAFTA (“Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos) nominee Sonia Braga.

A child actor who excelled from an early age, Luna’s first film appearance was in Javier Bourges’ 1991 Mexican Academy Award-nominated short The Last New Year.” He appeared in several telenovelas throughout the ‘90s, joined on screen for the first time by his longtime collaborator and close friend Gael García Bernal in El abuelo y yo in 1992. Alternating between film and television over the next decade, his international breakout came with García Bernal and Spain’s Marbel Verdú in Alfonso Cuarón’s seminal coming-of-age road trip film “Y Tu Mamá También.”

Shortly after, Luna began his Hollywood career appearing alongside Bon Jovi in John Carpenter’s Vampires: Los Muertos and in Salma Hayek’s Oscar-winning biopic Frida.

In the decades since, Luna has continued to work on both Latin American and U.S. productions while also taking turns as a producer, writer and director. He also, again with García Bernal, launched the nomadic documentary film festival Ambulante, as well as their own production label, first Canana in 2005 and now La Corriente del Golfo.

Most recently, he created and hosts the Amazon Original conversation series Pan y Circo and is starring in the Disney+’s Andor, a spinoff series following his Rogue One: A Star Wars Story character Cassian Andor.

He was also recently confirmed as a voice actor for Netflix’s upcoming animated series Maya and the Three, where he will team with frequent collaborator Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life).

Last year’s ceremony was, like so many, forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this time around, the Platinos are planning an in-person event to celebrate the best offerings from the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American screen industries.

At 11 nominations each, the two standout titles are Fernando Trueba’s Colombian drama Memories of My Father and Jayro Bustamante’s Guatemalan thriller La Llorona.

The Platino Awards are promoted by EGEDA (Spain’s Entity for the Rights Management of Audiovisual Producers) and FIPCA (the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers) and have the support of the Ibero-American film academies and institutes as well as numerous sponsors in Europe and Latin America.

Sony Pictures Classics Acquires Lelio’s “A Fantastic Woman”

Posted on February 10, 2017 by Tom Castaneda

Sebastián Lelio’s latest project is expanding globally…

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired the North American, Australian and New Zealand rights to the 42-year-old Argentine-Chilean filmmaker’s A Fantastic Woman, ahead of its world premiere in competition Sunday at the Berlin Film Festival.

Written by Lelio and Gonzalo Maza, the Spanish-language film stars Daniela Vega as Marina, a waitress and singer, and Orlando (Francisco Reyes), an older man, who are in love and planning for the future. After Orlando suddenly falls ill and dies, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, and to fight again to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.

The Chile-U.S.-Germany-Spain co-production is produced by Fabula’s Juan de Dios Larraín and Pablo Larraín with German banner Komplizen Film.

Lelio’s previous film, Gloria, won Best Ibero-American Film at the 1st Platino Awards.

Darin to Receive Honorary Platino Award

Posted on June 17, 2016 by Tom Castaneda

Ricardo Darin will soon be shining as bright as platinum…

The 59-year-old Argentine actor will be honored at the third edition of the Platino Awards, the Latin America equivalent of the Oscars, which will be held on July 24 in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

Darin, who starred in Argentina’s 2009 best foreign-language film Oscar winner The Secret in Their Eyes and the Cannes Film Festival 2014 hit Wild Tales, is one of the most popular actors in Latin America and one of the very few who has box-office appeal across the region.

His popularity also reaches the Spanish market, where he recently starred in Cesc Gay‘s Goya winner Truman, a role for which he’s also nominated for a Platino in the best actor category.

Darin was recently confirmed as the star of La cordillera, the next movie from Argentina’s ascending indie filmmaker Santiago Mitre. The film is Mitre’s follow-up to Critics’ Week winner Paulina and was selected for Cannes’ L’Atelier de la Cinefondation program. La cordillera is set during a three-day presidential summit in the Andes Mountains, and Darin will play the Argentine head of state.

The Honorary Platino will praise “the honesty, talent and charisma with which he has engrossed some of the most renowned films made in the last three decades of Ibero-American cinema,” according to a press release Thursday from the Platino Awards organization, led by EGEDA and producers federation FIPCA.

Previous recipients of the Honorary Platino were also actors: Antonio Banderas was honored in 2015 and Brazilian legend Sonia Braga (Aquarius) in 2014.

Rodriguez’s “Marshland” Acquired by Todo Cine Latino & AZ Films

Posted on July 1, 2015 by Tom Castaneda

Alberto Rodriguez’s latest film, one of Spain’s most recent blockbusters, is ready to conquer North America.

Todo Cine Latino, the specialty label of Paul Hudson’s Outsider Pictures, has teamed with Canada’s AZ Films to acquire the North America rights to La Isla Minima.

The 44-year-old Spanish filmmaker’s fifth feature, titled Marshland in English is described as a noirish period cop thriller.

The film won 10 Spanish Film Academy Goya Awards, among them best picture, director and actor (for star Javier Gutierrez).

Produced by Atresmedia Cine, Sacromonte Films and Atipica Films, and a competition frontrunner at San Sebastian International Film Festival, where it world premiered on September 20, winning the jury prize and best actor (Gutierrez), Marshland went on to gross $8.4 million in Spain, a standout achievement for its distributor, Warner Bros. Entertainment España.

Marshland now figures with nine category recognitions as the leading contender for 2015’s Platino Awards, taking in movies from Spain, Latin America and Portugal, which takes place July 18 in Marbella.

Written by Rodriguez and his near-career-long co-scribe Rafael Cobos, and set in Spain’s deep South in 1980, Marshland begins in classic crime thriller style with two homicide detectives, one a Francoist hardliner, the other younger and more pliable with a bright future ahead of him in Madrid, being called in to investigate the disappearance of two teen girls on Seville’s flatlands, a sprawling marsh expanse of stunning natural beauty and base poverty ruled by a few families certainly not willing to give up their centuries-old power and privileges – economic, social or of droit du seigneur.

Marshland impressed for its stunning, often kinetic, and varied cinematography: It’s made up of some 170 sequences, some multi-shot, some not. It also won critical plaudits for the interplay between the two cops who realize that they must put aside their personal differences if they’re to stop a serial killer, and the shaded balance of its portrait of one, played by Gutierrez. Capable of absolute heroism, he also tortured suspects under Franco and will never be hauled up in court for that.

“Marshland has been compared to everything from the first season of True Detective to Seven, and is a first class thriller, and the Goya Awards are a testament to the quality of the filmmaking,” said Hudson.

Todo Cine Latino will look to build word-of-mouth via festivals; AZ Films will release the film in Canada on August 14, while Outsider will release in the U.S. on August 21 in Miami, where “Marshland” had its U.S. premiere in March at the Miami Film Festival.

Marshland will then be released on digital streaming site Todocinelatino.com, which is dedicated to the release of the best in Latin Cinema in North America.

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