Asturias: new node of Spanish audiovisual with a film school, sets, post-production studios...

The executive of the Principality of Asturias has presented a project to consolidate a “strong and competitive” film industry in the community, an initiative that will be supported with the creation of key infrastructures.

The regional Executive has expressed its intention for this to be a wide-ranging project regional, which benefits the entire community and acts as engine to strengthen the audiovisual field. The Asturias Paraíso Natural Film Commission será el eje vertebrador de esta estrategia, que también busca fomentar la creación de nuevas empresas vinculadas con el sector. “No se trata únicamente de aprovechar los paisajes de Asturias como plató natural, sino de crear en la comunidad los recursos necesarios para que cualquier producción pueda desarrollarse íntegramente en el territorio: rodaje, producción y postproducción”, declara el gobierno autonómico.

He project, in the initial phase, has a feasibility study led by the Agency for Science, Business Competitiveness and Innovation (Sekuens Agency) and aims to cover the entire film industry value chain: from training to exhibition. Among the planned actions is the creation of a Film School; a space of production and filming with state-of-the-art facilities; workshops specialized technicians, and a post production studio equipped with advanced technology for editing, sound, visual effects and three-dimensional (3D) animation.

This initiative is part of the economic and industrial transformation strategy of Asturias. In addition to the sectors already contemplated in the Smart Specialization Strategy (S3), and other emerging ones such as the defense industry or the space sector, the Government of the Principality is committed to cine as new path of industrial specialization. To do this, the Ministry of Science proposes following a model similar to that applied in the defense industry, based on the public-private collaboration and the dual technology development. The estimated initial investment ranges between 15 and 20 million, some of which will come from European and national funds (such as those of the Spain Audiovisual Hub).

The project aspires to become a cinematographic pole complementary to that of other communities in the northwest of Spain, with which alliances could be established to attract large international productions. The development will be progressive. In this sense, the Film School will be the first infrastructure to get going. The objective is for the entire project to be fully operational within four to five years.