Spanish cinema continues to perform better internationally than locally

Spanish cinema grossed 90 million euros abroad in 2010, and was seen by 16.3 million viewers, while Spanish films shown in national cinemas grossed 80.27 million euros and were seen by 12.9 million viewers.

This Monday, June 20, a meeting with the press took place within the framework of the VI edition of Madrid de Cine – Spanish Film Screenings with the participation of Pedro Pérez (president of FAPAE), Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson (president of AEC) and Fernando Trueba (director and Producer), who sponsors this edition.

The president of FAPAE has analyzed the situation and data of Spanish cinema in the International Market in 2010, which are unpublished and FAPAE only prepares from the information provided by RENTRAK EDI, the European Audiovisual Observatory and the ICAA.

Once again, the data provided at the Madrid Film Working Breakfast demonstrate that Spanish cinema continues to perform better outside of our borders than within.

Spanish cinema grossed 90 million euros abroad in 2010, and was seen by 16.3 million viewers, while Spanish films shown in national cinemas grossed 80.27 million euros and were seen by 12.9 million viewers.

The countries where Spanish films have obtained the highest grossing are, in this order, France (23 million euros), the United States/Canada (more than 13 million euros), Italy (12 million euros), Mexico (5 million euros) and the United Kingdom/Ireland (4.7 million euros).

The set of Spanish premieres and films shown in previous years that are still showing outside Spain has increased by 18%. The countries that have shown the most Spanish films in 2010 are Italy and Mexico with 25 titles, followed by France with 24, Argentina with 17 and the USA/Canada, Germany and Colombia with 14 feature films each. The countries that have marketed the most copies have been France, Mexico, Italy and the United States/Canada.

Of the 91 Spanish titles distributed internationally (7% more than in 2009), 73.6% are entirely national and majority or equal co-productions. Which is almost 19% more than in 2009.

Pedro Pérez has indicated that all types of Spanish genres continue to be exported, once again highlighting drama, followed by comedy, thriller, animation, horror and documentaries.

The Spanish films that have been exhibited in the greatest number of countries in 2010 were Planet 51, distributed in 39 markets, Buried in 33, The secret of his eyes in 30, Now in 27, Broken hugs in 23, You will meet the man of your dreams in 20, Rec2 in 17, Looking for Eric in 13, Cell 211 at 11 and Me too y My life in ruins, both at 10.

The President of FAPAE has highlighted that the commercial life of Spanish films in international cinemas is not reduced to several weeks in theaters but is maintained even from one year to the next with great reception from the international public.

Subsequently, he gave the floor to Gonzalo Salazar-Simpson, president of the State Film Association, who indicated that national film financing sources are not enough and those that come from abroad are beginning to be important. "The film market is increasingly global and international pre-financing must be obtained, and in this sense, sales agents are very important, since they have to stop being merely sellers of produced films and be project developers, to obtain co-productions and pre-sales, so agents become project designers." Salazar-Simpson has pointed out that this practice is already being carried out in the horror genre and that it must be carried out to other genres so that "there are films with reasonable commercial possibilities, both nationally and internationally."

Fernando Trueba, who sponsors the VI edition of Madrid de Cine, has stressed, for his part, that "Spain is a country with great talent and creative force in all fields, but we do not know how to communicate it or sell it, it is the eternal pending issue." And he continued, "Spanish cinema has to recover its audience and establish more fluid communication with the media. Stop always being in a continuous war that we have, since we are part of the same thing, so we must establish a necessary and fluid collaboration between everyone."

PAFAE Award 2011

During this event, the president of FAPAE, Pedro Pérez, announced the “2011 FAPAE Award for the Spanish film with the greatest international impact”, awarded by the Associations of the Federation, which this year went to the film Cell 211, produced by Vaca Films Studio, Morena Films, Telecinco Cinema, Testimonio Gráfico A.I.E., and La Fabrique 2. The purpose of this award is, on the one hand, to recognize and disseminate the work that producers carry out internationally. The criteria for the selection of participating films have been films with wholly Spanish nationality or majority or equal co-production, between January 1 and December 31, 2010, in international markets that have grossed more than 1 million euros and that have not participated or obtained this Award in previous editions.