Production of television films: there will be public aid

The general director of the ICAA promises aid of up to 300,000 euros to produce films for television starting next year.

Television films will receive public aid for their production starting in 2010, as Ignasi Guardans announced today in Valladolid, within the SeminciTV Film and Fiction Festival for Television. The general director of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA) has advanced the developments that will be brought about by the ministerial order that develops the Cinema law and that establishes, for the first time, aid for this type of products. The draft document is currently undergoing a consultation process and its final approval is scheduled for next autumn.

Starting in 2010, producers will be able to resort to the financial support that the Cinematography Protection Fund provides for films intended for broadcast on the small screen. The recipient of this aid, which will go to independent producers and not to television operators, is one of the most notable novelties of the future legislation, but not the only one.

The maximum amount that projects can aspire to is set at 300,000 euros, although there are some limitations. Thus, the minimum budget for television films will be 750,000 euros and the aid will in no case exceed 60 percent of their cost or the producer's investment.

Guardans assures that the intention of the ICAA and the Ministry of Culture is to promote the production of quality products, so the most ambitious projects with the prospect of a better bill will benefit the most.

When granting subsidies, priority will also be given to the fact that they are in an advanced development phase and have a firm contract or an “expression of interest” from a national or two regional television stations for broadcasting. In cases of television films shot in a native language, the commitment of a single regional operator will be sufficient.

Ignasi Guardans has referred to the need to include television films in the distribution of cinema aid due to their capacity to generate wealth and jobs in the sector. "Television movies are a good investment, for the producer and the operator. You can make money with them, it is not a help to the poor," said the new head of the ICAA.

The inclusion of television films in the distribution of aid from the protection fund will not imply in any case a cut in the amount allocated to the world of cinema, Guardans has indicated, since it has increased significantly after the approval of the new legislation by all groups with parliamentary representation and will grow 3 percent annually until 2012.

The mirror for the production of television films in Spain, the director of the ICAA has assured, is found in European countries such as France or Italy, in which television films occupy an important place on the schedules and represent a juicy part of the pie for the audiovisual industry.