Yesterday Peru, protagonist of Latin American Focus of MAFIZ, received the Silver Biznaga

Eduardo Pérez del Solar, representative of the Embassy of Peru in Spain, expressed with emotion his appreciation for the award given to him by the Mayor of Malaga

Guest of honour of the 26th edition of the Malaga Film Festival and protagonist of Latin American Focus of MAFIZ, the Andean country showed its most recent films and new talent in a series of activities held yesterday, Wednesday 15th of March, that finalised with the award of the Silver Biznaga by the Mayor of Malaga Francisco de la Torre.

The award ceremony took place yesterday evening in the Hall of Mirrors of the Malaga City Hall to celebrate the exchange between the Spanish and international industry and approximately 30 professionals of the Peruvian audiovisual sector, who met to explore possibilities of collaboration, to strengthen commercial and artistic relations, and to create business opportunities to promote the international presence of Peruvian audiovisual productions.

The Mayor opened the act expressing his sincere satisfaction at having the chance to receive “a presence that honours and enriches us” and to offer “an acknowledgement of the cinematographic and cultural efforts of our dear Peru, always so united with Spain, which we hope will also contribute to the development of that territory”.

The representative of the Embassy of Peru in Spain, Mr. Eduardo Perez del Solar, who headed a delegation with a strong female component, thanked the Mayor for the award “on behalf of the Peruvian people, and in particular of our filmmakers, who with their work and daily dreams show the wonders, the diversity and the richness of our country”.

The activities began with the roundtable Peru: Place of creation and inspiration for films and audiovisuals, presented by Piluca Quero, Director of the Andalucia Film Commission, in which Erika Chávez Huamán, Director of DAFO and Carmen Julia García Torres, Head of the Office for Country Image and Brand Strategy, spoke of Peru’s potential for film shoots and investments.
Chávez Huamán highlighted the competitive advantages of Peruvian landscapes, given their richness and versatility “for making fantastic, period and science fiction films, and for advertising…,, since we have the Andes, the Amazon, mountains, jungles, in other words… very attractive locations for film companies who want to come and shoot”. Examples of these possibilities are the third season of the Netflix series ‘The Queen of the South’ and the US superproduction ‘Transformers: Rise of the Beasts’.

“It is important to highlight that all of this is part of the Law of Cinema which was revised in 2019, and of the Plan (Annual Economic Stimulus Plan to promote cinematographic and audiovisual activity) to strengthen the cultural and creative industries through the concession of economic incentives to cultural agents for the cinematographic and audiovisual sector”.
In this sense, García Torres pointed out that “ the brand Peru is under construction, with the objective of creating industry in respect to audiovisual production”.

“For us, Malaga is a very important experience that allows us to discover first-hand the experiences, policies, programmes and incentives that are applied in other territories, in addition to being a space to encourage coproductions, which is a path we are beginning to open”.

Likewise, Chávez Huamán insisted that “these incentives make it possible to have training spaces such as the section Warmi Lab, which in coordination with MAFIZ, has enabled “four Peruvian women from remote regions, who do not usually have access to any support or encouragement of this type, to present their projects”. The four directors prepared themselves for one year to present, with the Warmi Lab label, the following projects: ‘Cabeza de Toro’, by Kandy Nataly Aures; ‘Catorce’, by María Jimena ‘Calderón’; Ukhu, by Sadeli Nina Contreras and ‘Watukamunayki’, by Gladis Flórez.

In turn, El corazón de la luna (Aldo Salvini, 2021) inaugurated the Peru Series at the Albéniz theatre, with two other films schedules for Friday, 17th March: Invasión Drag (Alberto Castro, 2020) and Un mundo para Julius (Rossana Díaz Costa, 2021).

Peru was also present in the different section of MAFIZ: four projects were included in MAFF, and other productions and projects from this country participated in MAFF Women Screen Industry, Malaga WIP Ibero-America, Malaga Talent and Hack Malaga.