Madrid consolidates as a TV Series production hub during the first semester of this year

According to the data given by Madrid’s Town Hall and Madrid Film Office, during the first semester of this year 5.306 shooting applications have been processed: 2.996 to communicate an activity on the street and 2.310 to occupy a public place. The permissions that involved an occupation of the public space were issued for 527 different audio visual productions, from which 45% were advertisements and photo shootings, a 23% TV programs and a 21% fiction works.

Madrid consolidates as a center for TV Series production.

A total amount of 44 TV Series were shot in the city during six months, which is almost the same as in the whole 2018 (46 TV Series). This data reflect that producing companies, TV channels and streaming platforms are strongly committed to create and produce original series, probably motivated because of the growing demand of audio visual contents. This increase has been eased with the interest that local productions have generated internationally, after the worldwide success of Spanish TV Series such as “La Casa de Papel” and “Élite” (especially in Latin America).

A proof of this is that Netflix is opening its first production headquarter in Europe, consolidating the production line that started in Spain with “Las Chicas del Cable”. The North American company announced that they will produce between 9 and 12 TV Series every year, some of which have been produced in Madrid (“La Casa de Papel”, “Las Chicas del Cable”, “Paquita Salas”, “Élite”, “Velvet” and “Valeria”). Amazon Prime is also releasing and producing their first Spanish TV Series, “Pequeñas Coincidencias”; HBO has started producing its first original productions in Spain: “Patria” and “30 monedas”, both with shooting locations in Madrid; and Viacom International Studios announced the creation of its own hub in the region.

Important Spanish producing companies are also joining this tendency: Movistar+, Mediaset, Atresmedia or RTVE, which increased its production, emphasizing series like “45 Revoluciones”, “La Valla”, “No te puedes seconder” or “La Unidad”. The Mediapro Studio has also been created, a new international studio owned by this company.

The number of feature films shot in the city has increased.

Madrid has hosted the shooting of 22 feature films during the first semester of 2019 (8 more than in the same period in 2018). Among these projects, 16 were national, 4 were a Spanish coproduction with other countries (Argentina, Netherlands and France) and 2 international projects (Hong Kong and Colombia).

Among all the producing companies, we can highlight the activity of Atresmedia Cine, with three projects (“Hasta que la boda nos separe”, “Malasaña 32” and “Superagente Makey”), Telecinco Cinema has two projects (“Un Mundo Prohibido” and “Way Down”), Morena Films (“Ventajas de viajar en tren” and “Bajocero”) and Álamo Producciones Audiovisuales (“Hasta que la boda nos separe” and “Superagente Makey”). It is also worth to mention the participation in Spanish Productions of important North American companies, such as Warner Bros (“Malasaña 32”), Sony Pictures (“Padre no hay más que uno”) or Netflix (“Bajocero”).

Madrid Film Office assisted 160 projects.

The majority of projects that we already mentioned counted with the assistance of Madrid Film Office, Madrid’s Town Hall promotional office. During the first semester of this year, the office has participated in 160 productions (21 TV Series and 11 films), an important increase since last year when 113 shootings were attended. Among these productions, 95 are national and 65 international (48 European, 7 North American, 8 Asian and 4 Latin American).

Among these Spanish productions, we should highlight the shooting of the new film by Jaume Balagueró, “Way Down”, an international superproduction by Telecinco Cinema which was declared as a shooting of Municipal Interest for its economic impact in the city, with a 7.5 million euro direct investment, and the potential international projection of the city worldwide. If we talk about international projects, “Line Walker 2” a superproduction from Hong Kong, which together with the shooting of the TV Series “Spanish Passion” or the reality show “My dearest ladies”, shows that there is a growing interest in Madrid from the Asian audience and audio visual industry.

Impulse and promotion of Madrid’s audio visual sector.

The activity of Ciudad de Madrid Film Office during 2019 is framed in Madrid’s Town Hall goals to impulse the creative and audio visual industries. A support that has been materialized in actions like the TV Program “Residencias Academia de Cine”, started last September with 15 filmmakers chosen among 985 candidates, which will develop audio visual projects related with the city. As well as with the organization of the professional forum “Ventana de Cine Madrileño” together with the Asociación Madrileña del Audiovisual (AMA) and the Comunidad de Madrid, a professional encounter to facilitate the coproduction and the international diffusion of cinema produced in Madrid, which will celebrate its 5^th edition from the 23^rd to the 25^th October with Argentina, Canada and the region of Brussels (Belgium) as guest countries.

In their work of promotion of the city, Madrid Film Office attended to the European Film Market (Berlin), Málaga Festival Industry Zone – MAFIZ, Le Marché du Film (Cannes) and Conecta Fiction. This task will be developed during the following months of this year: in September they will attend to the industry area of San Sebastian’s Film Festival, and in December they will be in Content London and Focus London.

These activities are followed by the collaboration of the office in formation and diffusion projects, among which we can highlight we should highlight two events in the following months: Another Way Film Festival, between the 24^th and 27^th October, which will offer activities for professionals about sustainable audio visual productions; and the Program of European Coproductions, organized by the renowned Erich Pommer Institute and will take place in Madrid between the 20^th and 24^th November.

Source: Madrid Film Office  https://cityofmadridfilmoffice.com/madrid-centro-de-produccion-de-series/

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