This year’s seventh edition of the Ibero-American Platino Awards (Premios Platinos) will honor Mexican actor, director, producer and festival organizer Diego Luna with the Platino Award of Honor. An itinerant award show by design, this year’s Platinos will be held on Oct. 3 in Madrid.
At just 41 years old, Luna will be the youngest recipient of the career achievement honor, joining previous winners Miguel Rafael Martos Sánchez, often simply referred to as Raphael, one of Spain’s most iconic entertainers of the 20th century; Adriana Barraza, the Oscar nominated Spanish-English-language crossover star of Alejandro Iñárritu’s “Babel” and “Amores Perros”; Oscar and three time Primetime Emmy nominee Edward James Olmos (“Stand and Deliver”); Oscar nominee Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”); and Primetime Emmy (“The Burning Season”) and Bafta (“Dona Flor e Seus Dois Maridos”) nominee Sonia Braga.
A child actor who excelled from an early age, Luna’s first film appearance was in Javier Bourges’ 1991 Mexican Academy Award-nominated short “The Last New Year.” He appeared in several telenovelas throughout the ‘90s, joined on screen for the first time by his longtime collaborator and close friend Gael García Bernal in “El abuelo y yo” in 1992. Alternating between film and TV over the next decade, his international breakout came with García Bernal and Spain’s Marbel Verdú in Alfonso Cuarón’s seminal coming-of-age road trip film “Y Tu Mamá También.”
Shortly after, Luna began his Hollywood career appearing alongside Bon Jovi in John Carpenter’s “Vampires: Los Muertos” and in Selma Hayek’s Oscar-winning biopic “Frida.” In the decades since, Luna has continued to work on both Latin American and U.S. productions while also taking turns as a producer, writer and director. He also, again with García Bernal, launched the nomadic documentary film festival Ambulante, as well as their own production label, first Canana in 2005 and now La Corriente del Golfo.
Most recently, he created and hosts the Amazon Original conversation series “Pan y Circo” and is starring in the Disney Plus’ “Andor,” a spinoff series following his “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” character Cassian Andor. He was also recently confirmed as a voice actor for Netflix’s upcoming animated series “Maya and the Three,” where he will team with frequent collaborator Jorge Gutierrez (“The Book of Life”).
Last year’s ceremony was, like so many, forced online by the COVID-19 pandemic. But this time around, the Platinos are planning an in-person event to celebrate the best offerings from the Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American screen industries. At 11 nominations each, the two standout titles are Fernando Trueba’s Colombian drama “Memories of My Father” and Jayro Bustamante’s Guatemalan thriller “La Llorona.”
The Platino Awards are promoted by EGEDA (Spain’s Entity for the Rights Management of Audiovisual Producers) and FIPCA (the Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers) and have the support of the Ibero-American film academies and institutes as well as numerous sponsors in Europe and Latin America.