Catalonia: How Change is Sweeping Through the Industry
Over the last seven years or so, the ever more capitalized Catalan industry, much based in capital Barcelona, has driven into domestic co-production with other parts of Spain. One result: an exciting new generation of young directors and producers, often women, which have scored a Berlin Golden Bear (Carla Simon’s “Alcarràs”) and best lead performance (“20,000 Species of Bees”).
The Catalan film-TV industry is now, however, in the throes of a gathering industry makeover which is showing its first fruits. One driver, as so often in Europe, is public sector funding.
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In 2019, total allocated Catalan government audiovisual funding stood at €12.6 million ($13.7 million). It rose to €40.8 million ($44.5 million) in 2022 and will rise again to an estimated €50 million ($54.5 million) in 2024, if the Catalan Parliament approves the budget, says Edgar Garcia, director of the governmental culture industry unit ICEC.
In response to ramped-up funding, Catalonia industry has grown vibrantly. 130 execs and talent, representing 80 companies, attend 2024’s Berlin Film Market.
Parallel to directors and producers step-up in ambition, two governmental initiatives – a Catalan Minority Co-Production Fund, launched 2020, and €1.5 million ($1.6 million) grant for up to five high-end Catalan language series each year – are reshaping Catalonia’s industry.
Of the six Catalan titles selected by Berlin, three are international co-productions, and early recounts of Minority Fund coin: Panorama player “Memories of a Burning Body,” produced by Costa Rica’s Substance Films and Barcelona’s Playlab Films, and “Reinas,” in Generation Kplus, knitting Switzerland’s Alva Films, Peru’s Maretazo Cine and top Catalan arthouse Inicia Films (Summer 1993,” “La Maternal”).
When launched, the Fund aimed to allow producers to build up networks of trust in international markets. Departing from initial minority participation, companies will be able to find regular partners for their own future projects.
One case in point is Swiss-Peruvian Klaudia Reynicke’s Sundance hit “Reinas,” a “poignant early-’90s Peruvian drama,” mixing “grounded wonder and realism for a cleverly written family story,” said an upbeat Variety review. It saw first state backing from Catalonia’s minority fund, allowing Inicia Films to board the project as an official co-producer, subsequently snagging a second subsidy from Spain’s national film institute.
Swiss funds fair reciprocity. Alva and Inicia now stand well-placed to tap Swiss funding for a second project, to shoot in Spain, says Inicia’s Valerie Delpierre.
“The fund was marvelous. Thanks to it we could board ‘Memorias,’ push on with the project and its co-financing acted as a guarantee when we applied to and won Ibermedia,” the Ibero-American co-pro and distribution fund,” says Estephania Bonnett Alonso, of Barcelona’s Playlab Films.
“Alcarràs” won Catalonia a Berlin Golden Bear in 2022, “20,000 Species of Bees” a best lead performance (Sofia Otero) last year at the Berlinale. A dozen or more titles may vie, if ready, for major festival berths this year, such as mother-daughter drama “Los pequeños amores” from Celia Rico (“Journey to My Mother’s Room”). Coming-of-age tale “The Turtles,” by Belén Funes (“The Thief’s Daughter”), and “Los destellos” by Goya and San Sebastian winner Pilar Palomero (“Schoolgirls,” “La Maternal”).
All three directors are leading lights of Barcelona’s fast-growing newest wave of filmmakers, who yoke a grounded sense of place and universal issues.
Yet new films from key directors often look set to be made at a larger scale, targeting broader audiences with more obvious international impact.
At September’s San Sebastian Festival, “Alcarràs” director Carla Simón announced that her fourth feature will be set in Barcelona’s troubled La Mina district. It will also be a “neorealist flamenco musical,” she told Variety.
Carlos Marques-Marcet (“10,000 KM”) is readying a tragicomic musical, “They Will Be Dust.” Isaki Lacuesta has “Saturn Return,” and Palomero’s “Destellos” is produced by Mod Producciones (“Agora,” “While at War”), Inicia Films and Misent; Marcel Barrena’s true events inspired social mobilization tale “The 47,” is backed by The Mediapro Studio.
Albert Serra’s Andergraun Films is co-producing Alain Guiraudie’s “Misericordy,” producing Lav Díaz’s “Beatrice, the Wife,” about Ferdinand Magellan’s young spouse, while developing Serra’s own “Out of this World,” a six way co-production, another take on international diplomacy after “Pacification.”
The big question is how fast Catalonia may evolve.
“Catalan independent producers are growing fast in ambition, making their project slates for development bigger and more international. Their current and future projects span from working with consolidated directors to betting on new talented young auteurs who bring a more challenging, diverse and inspiring approach to film and TV productions,” said Garcia. He cites Elena Martín’s Cannes hit “Creatura” by Elena Martin, David Trueba’s “Saben aquell,” a Catalan-language broader audience play and Pablo Berger’s Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams.”
“We’ve created a small star system of directors whose films are festival hits. But we have to be more ambitious in an international sense, create Catalan icons and a star system which sell abroad,” says David Matamoros, whose Mr. Miyagi co-produced Netflix megahit “The Platform.”
Another possibility is to power up fiction production at 3Cat, converting its series into international referents, he adds.
In another industry makeover, a new €1.5 million ($1.6 million) grant for higher-end Catalan-language TV series, is now bearing fruit, and the first series out, “This Is Not Sweden,” may show a way forward (see separate article).
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