On Wednesday, 24 March, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, appeared at the Doré cinema (headquarters of Filmoteca Española) to announce plans to invest over €1,600 million in a new programme entitled “Spain: Europe’s Audiovisual Hub,” intended to energize the audiovisual industry and help it reach further in 2021–2025. The measure is part of España Digital 2025, an ambitious programme that aspires to transform Spain into a European leader for the audiovisual arts and a magnet for international investment, boasting a world-class ecosystem of industry services. Its target is to grow Spain’s audiovisual production by 30% by the end of its run.

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The programme offers a package of public funding and reforms designed to deliver a boost to the industry’s entire value chain, leveraging Spain’s particular strengths: a solvent, highly trained and prestigious audiovisual industry, internationally recognised creative talent and a competitive advantage in the rapidly expanding market for Spanish-language productions (thanks partly to its enduring ties to Latin America). It adopts a holistic view of the audiovisual sector with room for every format (cinema, series, short films, advertising, video games and animation) and a unifying vision that transcends the audiovisual world to forge links with culture, tourism and Spain’s international brand.

Component projects have been selected on the basis of three main priorities: elevating Spain to an international pole of attraction for audiovisual production, with more competitive entry costs; bolstering business competitiveness through the roll-out of new technologies; and nurturing talent while narrowing the gender gap. Presenting the plan, which also includes measures to promote Spain internationally and draw in foreign film crews, Sánchez declared that “the audiovisual industry plays a key role in the economy and job creation, but also in our cultural identities and through its global reach.”

He explained that, at a moment when Spain’s achievements in this sector have garnered worldwide acclaim, there is a need to “create a rich, productive and sustainable ecosystem that allows our industry to grow in consonance with the great talent it is fortunate to possess.” Sánchez added that “to bring this new ecosystem to life, it needs to be sustainable; it needs to profitable, self-sufficient and a regenerative source of wealth. We’re looking to harness all the dedication of our creatives in pursuit of competitive, commercially successful outputs.”

Also in attendance at this launch event for “Spain: Europe’s Audiovisual Hub” were Nadia Calviño, Third Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Economic Affairs and Digital Transition; Reyes Maroto, Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism; and José Manuel Rodríguez Uribes, Minister of Culture and Sport. Dialling in remotely were Nicolás Matji, president of the animation and audiovisual effects federation Diboos; James Costos, former US ambassador to Spain and film director Isabel Coixet.

The event continued with a round-table discussion featuring producer Belén Atienza (The Impossible [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Juan Antonio Bayona
scheda film]);  the president of the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Mariano Barroso; video-game developer Valeria Castro; and the president of the Spanish On-Demand Video Association, José Antonio Luna.

You can read more about the new programme (in English and all of Spain’s official languages), on the Spanish government website.