15/10/2013 - Statement by finance minister Cristóbal Montoro on the quality of Spanish cinema ignites controversy

After months of battling behind closed doors, underhand criticisms and attacks on the cinema industry, one of Spanish government’s biggest figures, finance minister Cristóbal Montoro (photo), has brought the debate to life by declaring in a radio interview that the problem with Spanish cinema should be blamed on its quality.

These declarations came crashing down on the sector like a bomb. Recent months has seen an increase in taxes on cinema tickets from 8% to 21%, aid from the ICAA go from €76 million in 2011 to €33.7 in 2014, while measures announced to combat piracy have had no result, a fiscal incentive program to attract private investment has not started yet, and talks surrounding financing have gone nowhere. Not forgetting that filmmakers and producers had already rebelled against claims that the alarming state of the sector was down to the low quality of its product.

The controversy erupted first on social networks, after which the Cinema Academy took it upon itself to respond to the minister with a declaration stating the minister “has a sell-by date, just like yoghurt. Whereas creativity does not.” 

In order to try and calm tempers, the finance ministry released a statement in response, saying Montoro was “supportive of the cinema industry as one of the sectors within Spain’s economy, which generated both economic and cultural richness.” This is how the latest, and probably not last, chapter covering the relationship between the current government and the cinema industry ended.

(Translated from Spanish)