05/03/2024 - Madrid Film Office and Film Madrid are set to promote Madrid as a filming location and foster local production and co-production at MAFIZ

Madrid Film Office, the media office of the Madrid City Council, attends the Málaga Film Festival once again to promote the city as a production hub and highlight Madrid cinema and the lines of support offered to it by the City Council.

In the last decade, the streets of Madrid have gone from being the set of 20 films and 20-30 series annually, to 40-45 films and 50-70 series in recent years, an increase in production that, in the words of Raúl Torquemada, director of Madrid Film Office, “is the result of a clear commitment by production companies, platforms and networks, both national and international, for the city and its industry, demonstrating the immense attractiveness that the city offers in terms of filming possibilities and as a creative and business center for the audiovisual sector.” In 2023 the streets of the city hosted more than 41 films, 55 television series and 410 advertisements, which demonstrates the wonderful situation that the city's industry is going through.

Madrid Film Office will be present in MAFIZ, the industry zone of the Málaga Film Festival, with the stand “Make it possible in Madrid”, shared with Film Madrid, the film promotion office of the Community of Madrid. They attend the festival with the aim of promoting Madrid as a filming destination and stimulate local production and co-production with Madrid companies, which has become an important formula in the last years. At least 15 of the 41 films shot in the city of Madrid in 2023 were international co-productions with countries such as France, Mexico, Argentina, Romania, Belgium, Uruguay or the Dominican Republic. Madrid Film Office's interest in promoting international co-productions, a financing and collaboration mechanism that allows to establish synergies, share creative, technical and economic resources and intensify cultural links between different countries, extends to other actions carried out by the office throughout the year, such as the sponsorship of the Iberseries & Platino Industria market, whose next edition will take place from October 1 to 4 in Madrid, or the City Council's support for Ventana CineMad, the International Co-production Laboratory and Forum organized by the Madrid Audiovisual Association (AMA), and which will celebrate its tenth edition this year.

Co-production will be one of the points to be discussed in the round table "Presentation of Spanish minority co-production funds", which will take place on Wednesday, March 6 at 9:00 a.m. in the UNIA Auditorium, within the framework of the festival, and in which the Madrid City Council will participate through its Institutional Relations and Strategic Projects unit. The round table will be an opportunity to discuss the reserve for projects in minority co-production already present in the Audiovisual Aid of the Madrid City Council, one of the main lines of financial support for projects promoted by the Madrid council. Another one is the agreement that the City Council maintains with the mutual guarantee company Crea SGR for the provision of guarantees that facilitate the financing of productions, and various development programs.

The support to the audiovisual sector by Madrid Film Office and other areas of the Madrid City Council translates into a wide presence of Madrid projects in the different sections of the Malaga Festival. Among them, seven projects that have received support from the Madrid City Council through its Audiovisual Aid or the Film Academy Residency program: Saturn Return [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Isaki Lacuesta and Pol Rodríguez, and Nina [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrea Jaurrieta
film profile] by Andrea Jaurrieta, will participate in the Official Section for Feature Films of the festival, with Jumping the Fence [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Benito Zambrano, also present, but out of competition; and Saturno by Daniel Tornero will be present in the Official Section for Documentary, with the additional participation, out of competition, of La primera mirada de Luis E. Parés, Marisol, llámame Pepa de Blanca Torres y Ullate. La danza de la vida by Elena Cid. “The wide presence of projects from Madrid in the festival shows that its audiovisual sector is in a great moment on a creative and industrial level, and from Madrid Film Office and the Madrid City Council we will continue working to stimulate its development and expand the stories told and filmed in our city,” concludes Raúl Torquemada.

(Translated from Spanish)