The winning video, submitted by Nestor Arispe, Sergio Berrutti and Diego Barnabe, deals primarily with recent relations between the two countries. NOTICE: This embedded media file is a third-party content and may set cookies in your browser. The U.S. Embassy Montevideo disclaims any affiliation with the content provider or its sponsors.

A panel of renowned experts in communications has announced the results of the video contest "Uruguay and the United States." This competition, aimed at both, professional and amateur levels, was convened by the U.S. Embassy to commemorate the 233rd anniversary of the independence of the United States. The theme was the relationship between Uruguay and the United States in the cultural, commercial, political or historical spheres. Contestants had to submit before August 25, the date of Uruguay's Independence, a video of no more than three minutes through the competition website on YouTube.

The jury, composed by Sebastian Orlando, a creative artist for the advertising agency Gurisa, Sebastian and Santiago Faraldo of Solis Films, winners of a recent video contest on the environment, and Rubek Orlando, the embassy's Media Relations specialist, chose the video submitted by contestants Nestor Arispe, Sergio Berrutti and Diego Barnabe as the winner, based on its technical quality and editing of content. Appearing much like a newsreel, the winning video deals primarily with recent relations between the two countries and contains material either authorized for its use and/or generated by the same contestants.

Entries by other contestants were also cited. One work receiving mention was the video by Luis Scilinguo, of which the jury stated, "We believe that the historical relationship between Uruguay and the U.S. is very well presented in this video. We felt the friendship, mutual respect and solidarity, as was manifested in the presidential meetings.”

The jurors also praised the technical work carried out by Manuel Ruiz in his video which symbolizes the relationship between the two countries through a chess game between máté gourds and soda cans. The jury remarked that in this video "We recognize that technically there was an arduous task preparing and editing the content." Another work that attracted attention was that of Silvia Semperena, of which the jury said: "It has a high symbolic content and links the two nations in their spirit of freedom and independence."

The embassy wishes to thank all the participants and congratulates the winners who will be rewarded with a high definition digital video camera.

All finalist videos can be seen on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=31E6B91066ABEA6C