22/04/2010

At a difficult economic time, Pedro Pérez, president of the Federation of Audiovisual Producers Associations (FAPAE), called for the protection of Spanish cinema, which he described as “essential” for the country’s cultural life, at the annual press conference at the 13th Malaga Spanish Film Festival, which is currently underway.

Moreover, Pérez explained, cinema is a “countercyclical sector”, for not only has it been unaffected by the crisis, but box office takings have even increased (see news). He thus concluded that “it would be a bad idea to waste the opportunity and let others bring us their films”.

Pérez also took the opportunity to comment on certain figures, the most striking of which is a new rise in the number of productions in Spain, which reached 186 in 2009 (including 135 entirely Spanish productions and 51 co-productions), compared to 173 in 2008. With regard to this figure, the FAPAE president pointed out that “there are too many to be released competitively in theatres alongside films from other countries”.

However, this situation doesn’t look set to change in the short-term, for 38 features (four more than the same period in 2009) have been produced since April 5, although the reported number of film shoots is 12 fewer than last year.

Finally, Pérez did not avoid talking about the controversy with television companies related to the compulsory investment in production, which has recently been reduced from 5% to 3% of revenues (see news). However, he didn’t add fuel to the fire and said: “Those are the regulations and from now on we must obey them, for sometimes we spend too much time talking about them”.

(Translated from Spanish)