Madrid is a center of much media and entertainment industry activity again this week as Spanish- and Portuguese-language content creators and executives from Europe, Latin America, the U.S. and beyond are descending on the Spanish capital for four days of keynote addresses, panel discussions, screenings, pitching sessions, and social events at Iberseries & Platino Industria.
The fifth edition of the industry gathering, organized by the Secuoya Foundation, Spain’s largest rights collection agency EGEDA, and the Ibero-American Federation FIPCA, runs Tuesday through Friday, putting the focus on key industry players, from networks and streamers to production firms and hot-button issues, including financing trends, adaptations, and AI.
Among the many high-profile speakers and panelists at Iberseries are the likes of writer and executive producer John Altschuler (Silicon Valley, Beavis and Butthead, King of the Hill), Warner Bros. Discovery head of scripted content development Vanessa Miranda, Sofía Fábregas, vp, original production, Disney+ Spain, Javier Pons, chief content officer and head of Telemundo Studios, SkyShowtime chief content officer Kai Finke, and Gaumont CEO Sidonie Dumas.
Ahead of the kick-off of the 2025 edition, Iberseries & Platino Industria co-director Samuel Castro, head of Iberseries, and Adriana Castillo, general coordinator of Platino Industria, discussed with THR‘s global business editor Georg Szalai the global appeal of Spanish- and Portuguese-language content, the growth of their industry event, and more.
What’s new for this year’s edition?
Samuel Castro The great novelty of this year’s fifth edition is that Iberseries & Platino Industria has become not just a transatlantic event focusing on Spain, Latin America and the United States, but we have become an international and global event. I say that because this year, participants are going to have the opportunity to hear from and meet people from South Korea, which is our Country in Focus this year, from India, from China, and, of course, from Europe.
If you take a look at the program, the conference, the screenings, and the amazing list of international buyers that are going to be in Madrid, we are trying to offer the best opportunity for Spanish and Portuguese content across the world. It’s true that this sounds ambitious, but content in Spanish and Portuguese has reached such a high level that we are ready to compete with content from other countries.
Adriana Castillo For us, it’s a celebratory event, because we have had five years and have made this market an obligatory date on the schedule of festivals and markets. We have more than 50 countries attending this event this year, and we are offering more than 127 activities. Our main audience is producers, so we want to give them the best options to develop projects, to get investors, and to, together with new people, develop their ideas. Also, the [streamers] and the CEOs and key players decide to come, which is huge for us.
Adriana Castillo, general coordinator of Platino Industria
Courtesy of Iberseries & Platino Industria
I noticed that you are not just focusing on TV and film, but also have a music event this year. Tell me a bit about the decision to schedule that?
Castillo Our aim is to bring creators, directors, producers and showrunners closer to potential strategic partners, investors, and buyers, and to foster international collaboration, whether it is on animation, fiction, documentary, feature films, series, miniseries, or music.
Castro When we decided to bring together Iberseries and Platino Industria, I used to joke that the name was so long and that it was bad marketing. But the goal was to integrate TV series and feature films. When you talk about the Latin American audiovisual industry, the borders between feature films and TV series are not as important as in other countries, because the producers in Spain and in Latin America used to produce TV series and feature films as well.
There is also this link between the greatest international artists in the music industry and audiovisual content. And you have examples of [such docu-series as one on Spanish singer and composer] Alejandro Sanz. Now they’re going to explore how to apply this formula with musicians and artists in Mexico. So it’s something that matches perfectly with our event. And I think it’s necessary to create this link between the audiovisual industry and the music industry.
I can remember when I was a young guy, watching the video clip of Bad from Michael Jackson, which was directed by Martin Scorsese. So, I think that we have to explore again the communication between music and visual content.
What do you expect to be the key themes of this year’s edition?
Castro Financing is one of the most important values of the event. We have invited film financiers and funds, not only from Latin America and Spain, but also the U.S. and Europe. We have invites.
Samuel Castro, co-director Iberseries & Platino Industria
Courtesy of Iberseries & Platino Industria
And we will be talking about artificial intelligence this year. We are going to offer focused information. And we’re going to talk about how to apply it in your company, how to apply it in the process of production. Of course, we are not going to talk about how AI can create, write, or supply an actor. That is not the idea. Keep in mind that our main guests are producers, and artificial intelligence is there to facilitate the production process. AI is something that can be very useful in helping and changing all the tasks that the producer has to do.
Are there any other trends or events at Iberseries & Platino Industria that you want to highlight?
Castro We have a keynote by Luisana Lopilato, the famous Argentinian actress who is becoming a producer, and we are going to have a presentation by Mexican actor Eugenio Derbez (CODA). More and more, actors want to control more of their projects as producers. Last year, we had Paz Vega discuss her first movie as a director. And we have noticed that actors and actresses want to come to our event to talk about these new professional lives.
Also, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitch will participate in our conference because we know that fiction content is going to these platforms. So, this kind of change is important to discuss and address.
Castillo I would also like to highlight the presence of Brazil and its content and creators, because everybody will get a chance to get closer to this country with this different language, Portuguese. Prime Video and HBO Max have launched successful Brazilian series. So for us, it’s very important that Brazil decides to come.
Also, we want to focus on IP. Over the last two years, IP from Latin American writers has been launched through series or feature films. So we will at this year’s edition be talking about literature.