On March 30, a letter was sent to the President of the Government, to make available the work that the Spain Film Commission and its Honorary Ambassador, James Costos, are doing to attract audiovisual projects and North American companies, aimed at reviving the Spanish film industry.

We share the full text of the letter below. 

Mr. President,

First of all we want to convey our sincere affection and condolences to the loss of lives in Spain due to the COVID19 pandemic, our thoughts are with the families directly affected and with all Spaniards.

Second, we would like to convey our respect, words of encouragement, and confidence in the steps you are taking to control the spread of the virus.

We write to you on behalf of Spain Film Commission, Carlos Rosado as President of the entity and myself as Honorary Ambassador of SFC to transfer you, from our experience as representative entity of the filming industry in Spain, ideas and criteria that we believe can be most useful to strengthen the relationship of Spain with the audiovisual industry in the United States.

In recent weeks I have had the opportunity to maintain contact with numerous high representatives of the entertainment industry in the United States about the actions that the Spain Film Commission is proposing in Spain, and all of them agree that the country, sooner rather than later, will be seen as a role model, worldwide, to slow down the curve and stop the spread of the virus. My compatriots trust your success in adopting these measures and are sure that Spain will get out of this situation much sooner than North America, even though there are still tough moments that we will have to overcome.

I have also been able to speak with analysts and economists in North American entertainment industry and they have conveyed their conviction that the audiovisual sector will be one of the first to recover and quickly become active once this happens. If this is so, as we believe will happen, the smarter approach is to prepare now when audiovisual production deals are still being closed.

Many of Hollywood's top industry leaders are working now and preparing for the future. Writers have organized virtual scripting rooms and creative teams are developing new projects. It is important to note that before the beginning of this crisis there were more than 300 projects under development in Hollywood.

Sets, technical teams and artistic teams had been hired for months and even years, due to high demand. Now, all these productions are paralyzed, but as soon as this crisis passes there will be a massive restart of activity, resulting insufficient the capacity of the markets to accommodate all these projects, due to lack of material space to house them.

If the Spanish government adopts the measures that Spain Film Commission proposes in this rescue package for the Spanish audiovisual sector, we could immediately start working with our counterparts in Hollywood to bring a good part of that industrial activity to Spain once the crisis is over.

We believe it is time to act. We are aware of several projects that would come to Spain if new conditions were approved and the Spanish audiovisual infrastructure (the Spanish audiovisual hub you introduced last fall in New York) was put into operation, making Spain a first class reference in the world.

We have asked the Minister of Industry, the Minister of Culture, the entities that depend on them and, in general, the Government, a set of urgent palliative and impulse measures so that the serious crisis generated in the audiovisual industry can be reversed in an immediate and desired future that improves, even more, the competitiveness of Spain as a destination for film and audiovisual productions. Some of them were already suitable before this crisis, now they are essential.

We are confident that this initiative will be of your interest, we send you all our encouragement, our thanks and support for the difficult decisions that Spanish Government is facing, and we are at your disposal for whatever you need from Spain Film Commission, from both of us and all the members of the extensive network of offices that we coordinate in Spain.

Receive a warm greeting,

James Costos - Carlos Rosado 

“Money Heist”awarded in FITUR SCREEN as best Spanish production.