Madrid is a middle of a lot media and leisure trade exercise once more this week as Spanish- and Portuguese-language content material creators and executives from Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and past are descending on the Spanish capital for 4 days of keynote addresses, panel discussions, screenings, pitching classes, and social occasions at Iberseries & Platino Industria.
The fifth version of the trade gathering, organized by the Secuoya Basis, Spain’s largest rights assortment company EGEDA, and the Ibero-American Federation FIPCA, runs Tuesday by way of Friday, placing the give attention to key trade gamers, from networks and streamers to manufacturing companies and hot-button points, together with financing developments, variations, and AI.
Among the many many high-profile audio system and panelists at Iberseries are the likes of author and govt producer John Altschuler (Silicon Valley, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), Warner Bros. Discovery head of scripted content material growth Vanessa Miranda, Sofía Fábregas, vp, unique manufacturing, Disney+ Spain, Javier Pons, chief content material officer and head of Telemundo Studios, SkyShowtime chief content material officer Kai Finke, and Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas.
Forward of the kick-off of the 2025 version, Iberseries & Platino Industria co-director Samuel Castro, head of Iberseries, and Adriana Castillo, basic coordinator of Platino Industria, mentioned with The Hollywood Reporter the worldwide attraction of Spanish- and Portuguese-language content material, the expansion of their trade occasion, and extra.
What’s new for this yr’s version?
Samuel Castro The nice novelty of this yr’s fifth version is that Iberseries & Platino Industria has turn out to be not only a transatlantic occasion specializing in Spain, Latin America and america, however we’ve turn out to be an worldwide and international occasion. I say that as a result of this yr, members are going to have the chance to listen to from and meet folks from South Korea, which is our Nation in Focus this yr, from India, from China, and, after all, from Europe.
Should you check out this system, the convention, the screenings, and the wonderful listing of worldwide patrons which might be going to be in Madrid, we try to supply one of the best alternative for Spanish and Portuguese content material internationally. It’s true that this sounds formidable, however content material in Spanish and Portuguese has reached such a excessive stage that we’re able to compete with content material from different international locations.
Adriana Castillo For us, it’s a celebratory occasion, as a result of we’ve had 5 years and have made this market an compulsory date on the schedule of festivals and markets. Now we have greater than 50 international locations attending this occasion this yr, and we’re providing greater than 127 actions. Our major viewers is producers, so we need to give them one of the best choices to develop tasks, to get buyers, and to, along with new folks, develop their concepts. Additionally, the [streamers] and the CEOs and key gamers resolve to return, which is big for us.
Adriana Castillo, basic coordinator of Platino Industria
Courtesy of Iberseries & Platino Industria
I seen that you’re not simply specializing in TV and movie, but additionally have a music occasion this yr. Inform me a bit in regards to the determination to schedule that?
Castillo Our goal is to carry creators, administrators, producers and showrunners nearer to potential strategic companions, buyers, and patrons, and to foster worldwide collaboration, whether or not it’s on animation, fiction, documentary, function movies, sequence, miniseries, or music.
Castro Once we determined to carry collectively Iberseries and Platino Industria, I used to joke that the identify was so lengthy and that it was unhealthy advertising. However the objective was to combine TV sequence and have movies. If you discuss in regards to the Latin American audiovisual trade, the borders between function movies and TV sequence aren’t as necessary as in different international locations, as a result of the producers in Spain and in Latin America used to provide TV sequence and have movies as nicely.
There’s additionally this hyperlink between the best worldwide artists within the music trade and audiovisual content material. And you’ve got examples of [such docu-series as one on Spanish singer and composer] Alejandro Sanz. Now they’re going to discover methods to apply this components with musicians and artists in Mexico. So it’s one thing that matches completely with our occasion. And I feel it’s essential to create this hyperlink between the audiovisual trade and the music trade.
I can bear in mind once I was a younger man, watching the video clip of Unhealthy from Michael Jackson, which was directed by Martin Scorsese. So, I feel that we’ve to discover once more the communication between music and visible content material.
What do you count on to be the important thing themes of this yr’s version?
Castro Financing is among the most necessary values of the occasion. Now we have invited movie financiers and funds, not solely from Latin America and Spain, but additionally the U.S. and Europe. Now we have invitations.
Samuel Castro, co-director Iberseries & Platino Industria
Courtesy of Iberseries & Platino Industria
And we might be speaking about synthetic intelligence this yr. We’re going to supply targeted data. And we’re going to speak about methods to apply it in your organization, methods to apply it within the strategy of manufacturing. After all, we’re not going to speak about how AI can create, write, or provide an actor. That’s not the thought. Understand that our major visitors are producers, and synthetic intelligence is there to facilitate the manufacturing course of. AI is one thing that may be very helpful in serving to and altering all of the duties that the producer has to do.
Are there some other developments or occasions at Iberseries & Platino Industria that you simply need to spotlight?
Castro Now we have a keynote by Luisana Lopilato, the well-known Argentinian actress who’s changing into a producer, and we’re going to have a presentation by Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (CODA). Increasingly, actors need to management extra of their tasks as producers. Final yr, we had Paz Vega focus on her first film as a director. And we’ve seen that actors and actresses need to come to our occasion to speak about these new skilled lives.
Additionally, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch will take part in our convention as a result of we all know that fiction content material goes to those platforms. So, this sort of change is necessary to debate and deal with.
Castillo I might additionally like to focus on the presence of Brazil and its content material and creators, as a result of everyone will get an opportunity to get nearer to this nation with this totally different language, Portuguese. Prime Video and HBO Max have launched profitable Brazilian sequence. So for us, it’s crucial that Brazil decides to return.
Additionally, we need to give attention to IP. During the last two years, IP from Latin American writers has been launched by way of sequence or function movies. So we are going to at this yr’s version be speaking about literature.
