Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian Oscar nominee The Secret Agent won seven awards at the 13th Platino Awards in Mexico on Saturday (May 9) led by Best Ibero-American fiction film.
The slow-burn thriller about an engineer in 1977 who tries to reunite with his son while evading the dictatorship’s agents also earned awards for director, actor, screenplay, art direction, original score, and editing.
Saturday’s event at Riviera Maya – named the Premios Platinos Xcaret in honour of the host hotel – brought further recognition to a formidable awards run that has seen The Secret Agent garner four Oscar nominations, and four prizes in Cannes including best director for Filho, best actor for Wagner Moura, and the Fipresci Prize. Mk2 Films handles sales and Cinemascópio produced with partners from France, Germany and the Netherlands.
The victory extends Brazil’s winning streak at the Platinos following last year’s success for Walter Salles’ I’m Still Here, which won three prizes including Best Ibero-American fiction film, and went on to become the first Brazilian entry to win the best international feature film Oscar.
Political controversy
The gala was overshadowed by political controversy involving Madrid regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who abruptly left Mexico following criticism over remarks defending the historical legacy of Hernán Cortés, a symbol of military strategy and colonial violence.
Upon returning to Spain on Friday (May 8), Ayuso’s team alleged that Claudia Sheinbaum’s Mexican government had threatened to shut down the hotel complex hosting the ceremony if she attended. Grupo Xcaret issued a public rebuttal, stating: ”We categorically deny having received threats or instructions from Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo or from any other government official”.
The company acknowledged that it had asked organisers to withdraw Ayuso’s invitation “to prevent the event from being used as a political platform instead of a celebration intended to honor Ibero-American cinema”.
The Eternaut triumphs in TV categories
Bruno Stagnaro’s dystopian Argentinian sci-fi drama The Eternaut swept the television categories, taking eight Platino Awards including best miniseries, direction, editing, and original score. Netflix’s sci-fi survival story starring Ricardo Darin and produced by K&S Films is based on the cult Argentine graphic novel by Héctor Germán Oesterheld and Francisco Solano López.
The documentary award went to Apocalypse In The Tropics, Petra Costa’s Brazil-Denmark-US co-production examining the leadership of former president Jair Bolsonaro and the growing influence of evangelical politics in Brazil. Seven years ago, Costa broke onto the international scene with her Oscar-nominated and Platino-winning The Edge Of Democracy.
Spain’s Blanca Soroa won best actress for her breakout performance in Sundays, which won the Golden Shell in San Sebastián last year. Balancing fragility, conviction and emotional opacity, Soroa plays a 17-year-old who shocks her middle-class family by deciding to become a cloistered nun.
Eva Libertad’s Deaf won two Platino Awards: best first feature and supporting actor for Álvaro Cervantes. Sold internationally by Latido Films, Libertad’s drama follows a deaf woman whose relationship and impending motherhood force her to confront fears about communication, identity and belonging in a world shaped by sound. The film previously won the Berlinale’s Panorama Audience Award, best director in Guadalajara, and four Goya Awards, among others, confirming it as one of the major Spanish breakout titles of the season.
Guillermo Francella received the Platino Honor Award. One of Argentina’s most popular and versatile actors, Francella has built a career spanning mainstream comedy, prestige drama and global streaming hits.
He became a household name through a string of major comedy successes in the 1990s and 2000s, and achieved international acclaim with Oscar winner The Secret In Their Eyes, later delivering acclaimed dramatic turns in The Clan. More recently, he has expanded his global reach with Disney+ hit series The Boss.
As announced during the ceremony, next year’s edition of the Platino Awards will return to Spain under the alternating hosting system introduced in 2024 that is scheduled to run at least through next year. The ceremony is expected to head back to Madrid, where the regional government remains one of the event’s key institutional backers.
Main 2026 Platino Awards winners:
FILM
Best Ibero-American fiction film
The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best director
Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best actor
Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best actress
Blanca Soroa, Sundays (Sp)
Best ensemble actress
Camila Pláate, Belén (Arg)
Best ensemble actor
Álvaro Cervantes, Deaf (Sp)
Best first film
Deaf, Eva Libertad (Sp)
Best screenplay
Kleber Mendonça Filho, Thge Secret Agent (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best cinematography
Mauro Hercé, Sirât (Sp)
Best original music
Tomaz Alves Souza y Mateus Alves, The Secret Agent (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best sound
Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas y Yasmina Praderas, Sirât (Sp)
Best editing
Eduardo Serrano, Matheus Farias, The Secret Agent (Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best art direction
Thales Junqueira, The Secret Agent
(Br-Fr-Ger-Neth)
Best animation film
Olivia & The Clouds, Tomás Pichardo-Espaillat (Dom Rep)
Best Ibero-American comedy
La Cena, Manuel Gómez Pereira (Sp)
Best documentary
Apocalypse In The Tropics, Petra Costa (Br-US-Den)
Feature audience award
Sundays (Sp)
TELEVISION
Best fiction or documentary series
The Eternaut, Bruno Stagnaro (Arg)
Best miniseries or series creator
Bruno Stagnaro, The Eternaut (Arg)
Best actor in a series or mini-series
Ricardo Darín, The Eternaut (Arg)
Best actress in a series or mini-series
Paulina Gaitán, The Dead Girls (Mex)
Honorary Platino
Guillermo Francella.
