09/04/2020 - During April, the Somos cine website is hosting movies such as Julieta by Pedro Almodóvar (the most-seen film of last weekend) in order to help brighten up the domestic quarantine

More than 60 features, many of which have won a Goya Award, can be enjoyed online, for free, thanks to Somos cine, a platform launched on RTVE’s website. Standing out among them are arthouse titles such as the drama Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] by Pedro Almodóvar and the road movie The Olive Tree [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Icíar Bollaín
film profile] by Icíar Bollaín, together with box-office smashes like Champions [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Javier Fesser, the horror flick Verónica [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Plaza
film profile] by Paco Plaza and the musical Holy Camp! [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Javier Calvo and Javier Amb…
film profile] by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo. In addition, there is a batch of edgier films, such as Magical Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carlos Vermut
film profile] by Carlos Vermut, as well as others that refuse outright to be pigeonholed, like People in Places [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Juan Cavestany.

This extremely varied catalogue will be complemented by news about both Spanish and Latin American films (with particular attention paid to those that had RTVE involvement), festivals and shoots. We talked about the initiative with Gema Sánchez Moreno, head of Digital Entertainment Content at RTVE, who broke down several aspects of Somos cine: “As a result of this crisis, we realised that there was more demand these days, as people are holed up in their homes, and we’re reaching record levels of consumption on our website. And at TVE, which has always been committed to Spanish cinema through its involvement in many films and festivals, we thought it would be a good time, as a public-service company, to make those movies available to users, as this is the perfect opportunity for people to enjoy them.

“We’re not aware of any other channel anywhere in the world that has done anything similar in their home country,” Sánchez goes on. “It’s a project that arose in collaboration with the heads of fiction at TVE, whom we approached with the possibility of recovering some of those titles for the digital environment, and we hope this will serve as the basis for a platform that will carry on growing, since we’ll gradually be incorporating new films that we’re already working on. On Somos cine, we bring all of this together and split it into genres – dramas, comedies, children’s films and so on – so that the audience can track them down more easily. Separately, the portal will be beefed up with trailers, and we will be the first ones to present first-look images of the movies we’re involved in, through Spanish film news. The fact that the content can’t be seen outside of Spain has to do with the rights: for commercial reasons, the majority of films have to be geo-blocked, but for our part, we would love to circulate it more widely.”

When asked whether this represented a major form of promotion for Spanish film, she replied: “Support for Spanish cinema is one of our cornerstones. We’re happy that in these circumstances, when people cannot go to the movie theatres, at least they can catch up on these features online. In addition, we’re partnering with the Spanish Film Academy, and starting on Monday 13 April, we’re kicking off a series of discussions with actors and directors. We’re going to start with Isabel Coixet, who will chat with presenter Elena Sánchez on our Instagram page about her film Endless Night [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile], which can be seen on our website.”

(Translated from Spanish)