STUNNING LOCATIONS, HIGH INCENTIVES, QUALITY CREW AND AN EXPANDING STUDIO BASE. IT’S NO WONDER THE STUDIOS AND STREAMERS ARE FLOCKING TO SPAIN.
“A GLANCE DOWN THE EXTENSIVE LIST OF INTERNATIONAL PRODUCTIONS THAT HAVE BEEN FILMING IN SPAIN IN 2023/24 CAN ONLY LEAVE YOU IMPRESSED.”
"JUST TWO OR THREE YEARS AGO IT WAS NEARLY 100% LOCATION DRIVEN, BUT NOW THE STUDIOS ARE A MAJOR PART OF THE CONVERSATION. THERE’S DEFINITELY DEMAND AND SUPPLY IS INCREASING."
| A glance down the extensive list of international productions that have been filming in Spain in 2023/24 can only leave you impressed. To name but a few, there’s Sony and Marvel’s Venom: The Last Dance, Guy Ritchie’s In the Grey, Netflix’s shark drama Under Paris, Arclight Films’ Deep Water, BBC and Left Bank’s This City is Ours, Netflix series Kaos, AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon and Alejandro Amenabar’s new film The Captive, co-produced by Mod Producciones. This is as well as returning series like Netflix’s The Crown and Cosmopolitan Pictures/Clerkenwell Films’ The Mallorca Files. “It’s been a busy period, despite the US strikes, especially with UK projects,” confirms Mike Day, owner of Palma Pictures who have provided production support for This City is Ours, The Crown and The Mallorca Files filming across the Balearic Islands. “The islands are very welcoming when it comes to filming,” says Ben Donald of Cosmopolitan Films, executive producer of The Mallorca Files. “We’ve had incredible access to public spaces, historic sites and villas, including the UNESCO world heritage site Serra de Tramuntana, which is great, and the Opera House. There are so many landscapes on one island, from mountains to rustic interiors and vineyards. “It was just a little harder to film there for series three because we were shooting from March to July, so it was hotter, more expensive in terms of flights and accommodation, and slightly harder to stop traffic and take over buildings (the owners were hedging it off against their tourist income). But it was all still possible and the Mallorca Film Commission is very supportive in getting permits and easing relationships in delicate locations.” It’s not just the Balearics getting all the action. Filming has been taking place all over Spain. Gangster film This City is Ours filmed on the coast of Marbella; In the Grey and Den of Thieves 2: Pantera shot in Tenerife; BBC legal/family drama series The Split was in Barcelona; Kaos was in Almeria and Jerez; and Deep Water in Gran Canaria. The studios have also been bursting with productions. One of the most used is the re-opened Ciudad de la Luz in Alicante, offering six sound stages, which grabbed the big prize of Venom: The Last Dance earlier this year, shooting for four weeks in February after three months of prep. The Sony Pictures blockbuster, starring Tom Hardy, which also partly filmed in the surrounding province of Alicante and used more than 500 local crew, accessed both the 30% national incentive and the Valencia region grant worth 25%. The Captive filmed for six weeks at Ciudad de la Luz and surrounding area (including the Santa Bárbara de Alicante castle), as did Under Paris. “They came here from May to June 2023 to use our water tanks (indoors and outdoors) for a shark chase sequence and scenes on the river bank,” says Marta Bellod, COO of the studios. “You can work in the water there up to your waist and can easily change the camera, train the actors and give them breaks, as opposed to on the sea where you’re on the boats all day. It’s safer, more practical and efficient. One day in the tank would take about two days in the open sea,” says Fernando Victoria de Lecea of Meñakoz Films, the producers of Under Paris in Spain. Another popular site is the Gran Canaria Studios spread across 6,000 sqm, offering two large sound stages, where Eleventh Hour Films’ TV series Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue was filming from April to August, and last year hosted Renny Harlin’s Deep Water, Peter Cattaneo’s The Penguin Lessons and Sony Pictures’ German production The Investigators. “We were doubling Gran Canaria for Mexico on Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue, partly shooting in the studio and on location,” says Day. “The facilities there are great and the locations worked well, the incentive was a big draw and the production team were comfortable with the level of expertise of the Spanish crew.” There’s also Tres Cantos studios in Madrid, which Netflix is heavily utilising, as well as new studios, including Orca Studios in Gran Canaria with an LED volume stage, which opened recently, and Coruña Estudio Inmersivo in Galicia, which opens this autumn with a semi-circular 4K screen. Plus, Universal Production Services has partnered with UK outfit Stage Fifty to build the EUR120 million Murcia Film Studios, which will span 100,000 sqm. “The requests and demand for stages has really increased in the last year or so,” adds Day. “Just two or three years ago it was nearly 100% location driven, but now the studios are a major part of the conversation. I’m occasionally asked for advice by stakeholders (infrastructure company and equity groups) in that space who are keen to invest or build. There’s definitely demand and supply is increasing.” The production influx is expected to continue next year too. “It’s looking really bullish. We’ve got projects with Disney, Amazon and Netflix lined up for 2025 and a lot of our conversations are with the US,” concludes Day. TAX INCENTIVES Spain offers a 30% rebate for productions on the first EUR1 million spent in the country, and 25% for any amount above that (up to EUR10 million per production). In the Canary Islands, the incentive is worth 54% of the first EUR1 million, 45% after that, and production companies can benefit from a 4% reduced corporate income and there’s a 0% VAT rate that applies to the delivery and import of goods and rendering of services. In Valencia (where the Ciudad de la Luz Studios are based), there are regional incentives consisting of a direct grant equal to 25% of the local expenditure incurred during production up to a maximum of EUR1.5 million per production. Navarre offers a 35% tax credit (with a cap of EUR5 million per project) and the Basque Country has a 35% incentive with the possibility of raising it to 60% (when investment in the region exceeds 50% of the total budget. Main Image: | Q&A ELISA GARCÍA GRANDE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ICEX-Invest in Spain
Q: What work do you do to attract international productions to Spain? A: Spain is fully committed to the audiovisual industry. In 2021 the Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe plan was launched by the government, with more than EUR1.6 million of public investment until 2025. As part of the plan, we have the Spain Audiovisual Bureau for companies interested in undertaking projects in the screen sector in Spain. It’s a free-of-charge service. In the case of initiatives led by foreign companies, a team of expert consultants helps companies to understand how the Spanish sector works and the advantages it offers, as well as the steps to follow to develop their screen-based project here. Q: How important is the financial incentive in attraction productions? A: Spain offers tax incentives for international shoots in the form of a tax rebate and tax credit, 30% of the first EUR1 million of expenditure in Spain and 25% after that. There are territories with a higher rebate, such as the Canary Islands (54% of the first EUR1 million, 45% after that) and other territories with tax credits, such as Navarra (35%) or the Basque Country (35% with the possibility of raising it to 60%). But there are other positive elements such as our highly qualified workforce. Q: What further plans do you have for investing in and promoting the screen sector? A: A new initiative is the opening of support antennas for the media sector in the economic offices of the Spanish Secretary of State for Trade in LA and Singapore. The aim is to gain a better understanding of those markets, identifying the main players in the ecosystem and their needs, so that Spain can position itself as the ideal destination to grow their media projects.
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