Spanish films sell more and better abroad
- Ramón Colom, the FAPAE chair, offered an overview of the Spanish industry at a press conference during the IX Madrid de Cine – Spanish Film Screening
In 2014, as many as 157 Spanish films were shown outside Spain, with Italy purchasing 36 titles, more than any other country, against a 45% share in Latin America and 37% in the rest of Europe. The number of people who watched Spanish films abroad numbers 30 million and earnings reached 186.4 million euros, twice the amount compared to five years ago. The data was offered yesterday by the FAPAE chair Ramón Colom during the press release held over the lunch hour at the IX Madrid de Cine – Spanish Film Screenings,which started in Madrid last Monday (more here).
The data was collected by Rentrak and confirmed by the European Audiovisual Observatory. The 224 films produced last year in Spain, half of which are documentaries, account for 14% of the overall number made in Europe, placing Spain in eighth place globally and third in Europe. The Spanish film with most international views – screened in a whopping 48 theatres – is the Spanish-Argentinian co-production Wild Tales ,whose producer Agustín Almodóvar (El Deseo) was awarded the FAPAE-RENTRAK 2015 prize yesterday for the most successful Spanish film abroad. This dark comedy directed by Damián Szifrón brought in 45 million euros at the box office, went on to win eight Platino Awards (more here) and was nominated for the Academy Awards.
Agustín Almodóvar, who has just released The Clan [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] in Spain, also co-produced with Argentina, will continue the trend in 2016 by producing a new film by his brother Pedro Almodóvar, who has finally chosen Julieta [+see also:
film review
trailer
Q&A: Pedro Almodóvar
film profile] as a title, to avoid confusion with Silence by Scorsese (more here) and Zama [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucrecia Martel
film profile], by Lucrecia Martel, who declared that “we have to take an international stance and mustn't conform with our local market, as cinema knows no boundaries”, which was confirmed by Colom, who claimed that “thinking only in terms of the national market doesn't make films economically viable”.
(Translated from Spanish)
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