More than half of Spaniards would be in favor of greater protection for national cinema

According to a survey carried out by Metroscopia for Filmotech, 61% of Spaniards consider that nationally produced films should be protected from foreign production. 71% believe that the Government should support the construction of a stronger film industry.

Rafael Sánchez, general director of Filmotech, took advantage of his presentation at the II ASIMELEC Summer Course "Digital Convergence. The Digital Society in the Development of the Sustainable Economy" in La Granja (Madrid), to present the most relevant data from a survey carried out by Metroscopia, at the request of his company, on the opinion of citizens regarding Spanish cinema.

According to the study, 61% of Spaniards consider that tickets to nationally produced films should be cheaper. 63% declare that it should be protected against foreign cinema and 71%, that the Government should support the construction of a stronger film industry. Given these figures, Sánchez concludes that for Spanish citizens “cinema is a matter of State.”

On the other hand, and according to Fernando Labrada, head of the consulting firm Soain, in 2009, 138 feature films were released in Spain, of which only 10 accounted for 75% of the revenue (75 million euros). Given this panorama, and according to Labrada, “the role of the independent producer is certainly difficult.” Labrada stated that independent producers face the problem of financing since television networks, except TVE, do not support independent film production.

According to Labrada, in the first six months of 2010, 51 Spanish titles were released in our country, 62 from the rest of Europe and 82 basically North American: "that is, Spanish cinema occupies 26.15% of the premieres in theaters, but it does not correspond to the income." For Labrada, at this time the producer still does not have a defined model to recover his investment in film production and commented on two clear trends. Either undertake films of more than 5 million euros, which requires international collaboration for financing, or decide on films with a budget below two million, to amortize them locally. "The perverse effect is that to access aid the State requires that the film be at least two million euros."