In December 2024, as a film-TV force, Uruguay came of age, co-hosting with Cannes Film Market, Ventana Sur, Latin America’s biggest film-TV market, held since 2009 in Buenos Aires.
Easy-to-work and welcoming, Ventana Sur also showcased what Uruguay can bring to the table.
That, as of 2024, is rather a lot and cuts two ways: “Both production services on foreign shoots and international co-productions,” says Marcio Migliorisi, head of international affairs at Uruguay’s film-audiovisual agency ACAU.
Put together, they make Uruguay an ever-stronger film-TV hub and port-in-the-storm on a now highly volatile Latin American film-TV scene.
One game changer has been Uruguay’s sky-rocketed international shoot scene.
Since 2019, Uruguay has hosted Keanu Reeves’ “The Conquest,” with troops storming Montevideo’s central Plaza de la Independencia. The country also saw Bill Condon shoot the prison scenes of “Kiss of the Spider Woman” and Brazil’s “Senna,” using Montevideo’s airport to create a racetrack.
Most spectacularly as all Montevideo-based Cimarrón, now a pan-Latin American company owned by The Mediapro Studio, provided services on “The Society of the Snow,” from J.A.Bayona, helping him to shoot the exact mountain backgrounds in the Valle de Lágrimas where the crash took place, and renovate Montevideo’s old Carrasco Airport, now in disuse, for early scenes. The shoot serviced by Cimarrón called for 400 technicians and sometimes over 1,000 actors and extras.
Other shoots serviced in Uruguay include Daniel Burman’s “Yosi, the Regretful Spy,” Oscar winner Armando Bo’s “El Presidente,” Disney+’s “El mejor infarto de mi vida,” HBO Max’s “Amsterdam,” Max’s “Margarita” and Dori Media thriller “Amaia.”
“Uruguay’s emergence as an international shoot hub is no matter of chance. With a population of 3.4 million fuelled by emigration from Europe, Uruguay cannot live on its internal market,” observes producer Andrés Varela. Its economy has always looked abroad.
“Uruguay is accustomed to collaboration, working together, given its scale and cultural and multicultural characteristics,” says Migliorisi.
In 2019, Uruguay’s government launched a pilot Uruguay Audiovisual Program (PUA), offering up to 20%-25% cash rebates on foreign shoots and sizeable international co-productions, which are also waived 22% VAT payments.
Capped at $1 million per title, the rebates are not the only reason foreign companies, most especially global streamers, shoot in Uruguay.
COVID-19 hit Latin America in March 2020, five months after a pilot PUA was put it place. But the virus’ incidence was low in Uruguay, with just 1,611 confirmed cases by September. With health and security protocols quickly put into place, Cimarrón’s first production service, Prime Video’s “Manhãs de Setembro,” kicked off that same month. Other shoots – “Yosi,” “El Presidente” – followed quickly.
What streamers warmed to is a safe and stable country, in political and economic terms, with lower costs by international standards, stunning Montevideo architecture, from the colonial to neo-classical, Caribbean – convincing Michael Mann to shoot 2006’s “Miami Vice” in the country – and Art Nouveau and Art Deco. At a compact difference outside Montevideo are 1,000 kilometers of coast, a broad gamut of beaches, desert dunes and extensive rural landscapes.
Also key is the quality and depth of its local talent and technician pool.
“Over the last 15 years, a lot of universities in Uruguay have trained generations of highly flexible technicians, writers and directors,” says Cimarrón’s Santiago López.
Shoot costs have not spiraled in consequence, adds Agustina Chiarino. Also, the industry has grown in specific technical expertise.
Uruguay’s service scene is growing. Over 2019-23, 48 international productions shot in Uruguay. 20 filmed alone in 2024, according to ACAU stats. Now, the “big challenge,” says Musaluppi, is how to leverage big shoots from overseas to develop Uruguayan talent.
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Publish date : 2025-02-16 00:00:00
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