In the ceremonies of the there are very tearful years in which the highest authority of the is lamenting the disaster of the sector. And others… where satisfaction floats. At the last gala, the president said that “this year will be remembered above all because we have reached the most desired milestone, we have won the public”. And this Sunday, what will he say? It doesn’t seem like he can shake off a certain optimism.
In 2025 there have been films, few, with a good box office. Films with Catalan production have been placed in third place (, 625,394 viewers), fourth (, 597,593), fifth (Dinner606,141), seventh (Sirat438.325) o dessert (Pilgrimage275,920) of the top ten of Spanish cinema. The Catalan productions were at the main festivals (Venice, Cannes, Berlin, Málaga, Sant Sebastià…), etc. But these successes cannot hide strong weaknesses.
According to data from the Observatory of Audiovisual Production, in 2024, a quarter (30 out of 114) of the films qualified with Catalan production, in whole or in part, were waiting to be released in theaters on May 30, 2025. Smallness and fragmentation. 78.6% of Catalan production companies qualified only one film in 2024.
As for the cinema spoken in Catalan, in 2025 it had a share of 5.47% of the total number of viewers: 646,328. Behind 2024, which reached one million entries thanks to the push of i .
Obtaining financing in Catalonia can take two and a half years when in Europe it takes six months
Marc Chica, president of Audiovisual Producers of Catalonia, sums up the situation with one word: precariousness. Because obtaining funding can take two and a half years when in Europe, with more agile funding mechanisms (subsidies, tax incentives, televisions…), it takes six months. A disadvantage that is added to the low cost of productions, which leads to intermittent work and cheapens the level of public funding you can ask for. “This vulnerable situation favors”, explains Chica, “the emigration of professionals to Madrid, with international platforms that provide more stability”.
The annual report includes a survey that allows us to affirm that 23% of cultural professionals, not only in the cinematographic sector, earned less than the minimum wage. And Europe does not avoid problems either. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, more than 40% of screenwriters and directors of films in 2015 have not released another project.
An organization applauded by the producers is the Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises, but it would need more resources to develop in accordance with the needs of the sector. In this area, the Catalan Audiovisual Media Corporation is obliged by law to promote audiovisual production. And it does, but not enough. “With the current directive, we have open avenues for dialogue, but a collaboration agreement has not yet been finalized.” The validity of the last agreement ended in 2009 with an extension until 2011.
For Chica, business fragmentation is not a problem. It is positive. “We have a group of micro-companies that prevent the situation of abuse that would occur with a high concentration”. In addition, fragmentation, he concludes, favors artistic freedom and creative diversity. “We have good schools, great authors and artists, highly prepared human teams… In short, a diamond in the rough that industrially we cannot sustain”. And Chica mentions the existence of more competitive, strong and agile tax incentives in other international regions that prevent Catalonia from being what it could be, “a stage of the world” and a center of creation referring to Europe. “And to top it off, the money allocated to Culture does not reach 2% of the Generalitat’s budget”. “Do we want to be a strategic sector?” Chica asks the politicians. “Michael Blackman, general director of the ISE fair, said that ‘nobody outside knows you are that good’… but we don’t quite believe it. Without a clear public commitment we can make a bit of cinema, but not fully”, he concludes.
More than 40% of screenwriters and film directors in 2015 have not taken any projects forward again
Lluís Miñarro is producer (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, , Oliveira, Naomi Kawase, Guerín…) and director (Emergency Exitis his last film). Of incorruptible militancy in aesthetic radicalism, he recognizes that it is more difficult for him to make his way in the audiovisual biotope. “A producer can make a film, but distribution and exhibition can condemn him to ostracism. They are the ones who control access to the screens, and an independent work finds it very difficult in a sector in which 75% of consumption in theaters is dominated by the products of American companies that impose their conditions”.
For example, his latest film has been seen for a few days in cinemas in Madrid, Barcelona, Lleida, Valencia, Tenerife, Valladolid and Santiago de Compostela. “For this reason, I find it indecent that public television buys second-rate American product to fill the grid and belittle the country’s cinema.” In view of this panorama, Miñarro has a personal illusion: “In the same way that there are national theaters, there should be a public network of cinemas dedicated to the programming of Spanish cinema”.
The Academy of Cinema has promoted a stable network of theaters in Catalonia where it shows 10 Catalan films a year. There are more than 140 throughout Catalonia, and some abroad. For Miñarro it is a commendable initiative. It has, however, an original vice: the opacity of the committee that chooses the films to be programmed. “It is not known who they are and whether they favor less auteur cinema”. He also appreciates the existence of strong film schools, but regrets that there are too many students in the promotions who want to be directors and few are interested in other trades in this craft.
Miñarro defends that cinema can only be made with public aid (“which is not a gift”) and envies countries like France, which opens many more windows for cinema: Arte, Cinéma du Monde (“which favors co-productions with emerging cinematographies and attracts foreign talent”) and a public investment approximately 10 times higher than in Spain.
What should be used in the Gaudí gala: dig or aspirin?
