Uruguay has positioned itself internationally as a country that, beyond its size, offers unbeatable possibilities for the health sector. cinema, as a space for filming foreign films, but also promoting local creation. The State seeks to enhance economic stimulus, through a development agency.
In 2019, the Uruguay Audiovisual Program (PUA) with an economic appeal for filmmakers, since it returns a percentage of the investment. According to the latest current update, if the investment is between 300,000 and 3 million dollars, a 25% refund is made. From 3 million dollars, the return is 20%. In addition, there is a special incentive for cases in which the main direction or script is Uruguayan and participates in at least 50% of the episodes to be produced. If so, they add an additional refund amount equivalent to 5% of it. The economic benefit is on expenses incurred in national territory, costs of hiring Uruguayan personnel and technical resources.
Official figures indicate that the program began 4 years ago, with 24 weeks of filming. Since then, its growth was constant: in 2022 it reached its maximum with 87 weeks of filming.
“This is a program that seeks to attract investments from what is called production service for them to come film Uruguay and use it as a place where there are good locations, good talent and good tax incentives. We work on axes such as the development of our own projects, what it would mean to develop intellectual property own, generating greater dynamism in the production of national work,” he said Facundo Ponce de Leondirector of the Film and Audiovisual Agency (Acau), which replaced the previous Film and Audiovisual Institute (Icau), in dialogue with Ambit.
“Icau was an institute that depended on the central administration and a ministry, and the Acau agency is public under private law, it does not depend on a ministry, it has a board made up of three ministries and has management autonomy,” he explained.
“The program Uruguay Audiovisual It had its gestation in 2018, it was applied for the first time in 2019 with singular success, then the pandemic came and then we were the first country in the region to open filming protocols and that meant that in 2021 it had exponential growth.
In this context, a very particular production service is inserted, because it is a production of Netflix and of Spainwhich they request from the company Cimarron a filming service The Snow Societywhich generated the peculiarity that although it was a production service, this was a Uruguayan story about a Uruguayan book with Uruguayan actors, with a director of photography who was also local,” he added about the current situation of the sector and the recent film that has placed the country in the international showcase.
Present but also future
“The agency’s main objective this year is to improve the consumption of national cinema. We invest a lot of money and it has little impact on the population, so we have to work a lot in the access to audiovisual work”, mentioned the director of Acau.
“There is a position from the agency that the objective is not to grow only in foreign productions that come to film here, as if this were a set devoid of any issue of identity and talent. What we have to look for is that they come to film here because of the talent there is, because of the stories that are found and because the conditions, not only financial but also human, are unique,” he contextualized.
For this, it is also planned to enhance financing to promote local artistic talent, through development funds.
“We have a concentration of funds in production and we lack funds in development and distribution and exhibition.
We invest millions of dollars in making films and we have to invest more so that once they are made, they have good promotional campaigns, good sales agendas, good chances of being in catalogs around the world. because the consumption of audiovisuals is impressive,” concluded Ponce de León.
Uruguay outstanding in the world
The audiovisual industry in Uruguay It is in total growth. It went from having 24 weeks of filming for content in 2019 to 142 in 2021, stabilizing at 90 weeks by 2022 and there were more than 100 in 2023. More than 500 companies work on it, the majority in production and post-production, according to numbers provided. to Ambit by companies Musitelli Film and Redoubtspecialized in providing production and logistics services to international filming.
There are 1,500 professionals linked to production and post-production activities and another 1,500 dedicated to providing services and equipment, distribution and exhibition. Currently 3,000 students study communication, film and audiovisual degrees.
According to data from the Audiovisual Film Agency, between 2021 and 2022 the following were made in our country: President (Medium Salty), Cro-Magnon (Cimarron), Olive, The assistent and You decide (The production company Films and One Box).
In 2023 they appear AMIA, the series (Cimarrón and Dori Media), Parking (The Film and One box production company), Porn and ice cream second season (Salado media) and Ayrton senna (Salty Media for Netflix).
The Cimarrón production company, which leads the market, also produced The Snow Society, the film that portrays the drama of the plane crash in the Andes mountain range and that represented Spain (and in some way Uruguay in the competition for Oscarwithout getting statuettes.
Source: Ambito
