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INSTITUTIONS Spain

AEC launched as single voice of Spanish production

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The 2010 edition of Madrid de Cine-Spanish Film Screenings, which promotes Spanish cinema abroad (see news), was also the perfect occasion for the launch of the State Film Association (AEC), the only nationwide association dedicated solely to film in Spain. It was presented by its president, Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson, who is also a renowned producer on the Spanish market.

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The AEC groups together the three previously existing film producers’ associations (UPCT, PC and API) with the intention of “speaking with a single voice for all its members”, explained Salazar-Simpson in an exclusive interview with Cineuropa, for producers realised that “the great variety of associations included in FAPAE often made it impossible to reach an agreement between all of them.” He added: “We currently represent the broadest majority of film producers, both in terms of number and box office takings, awards, and productions, etc. You could say that we truly represent cinema”.

The president of the association defended the work of Spanish producers, who try hard to “reach out to viewers and make varied films, not just in genre, but in concept, personality and culture”. However, the current economic circumstances will mean they have to focus “more and more on the box office and the international market”, the two major exhibition windows left open to Spanish cinema.

The relationship between producers and television companies, which is still tinged with the controversy over TV companies’ obligation to invest in cinema (see news), will have in the AEC and Salazar-Simpson a negotiator with strong representational powers. In this respect, his aim is to “create a customer-supplier relationship” with broadcasters and “prove to them that film is viable content for television if it is well programmed”.

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(Translated from Spanish)

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