MAFIZ, the Malaga Festival Industry Zone, breaks its attendance record with 1,866 accredited persons from 64 countries

Spanish Screenings Content celebrates its second edition with 834 attendees and 2,002 viewings

Spanish Screenings XXL is part of the component 'Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe' of the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience promoted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation

A total of 1,866 persons from 64 countries took part in MAFIZ, the Malaga Film Festival Industry Zone. Of these, 834 were accredited at Spanish Screenings Content, the event that has grown the most in this edition and which has the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports through the ICAA (Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts), the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones and the San Sebastian Film Festival. These figures represent an increase of more than 50% compared to 2022 and position the Malaga Film Festival as the industry’s most important event in Spain.

With an enlarged format and new contents, it has entailed another stop for 'Spanish Screening XX: an international market for Spanish audiovisual production', which is part of the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR by its Spanish acronym) and allocates a total of 200 million euros to strengthen Spain's role as the audiovisual hub of Europe.

In Spanish Screenings Content and with the slogan 'Talent, Diversity, Opportunities', 184 films - with a total of 2,002 viewings- and 15 projects were presented. To date, 50 sales agreements have been signed and more than 80 are being negotiated. In addition, of the eight Malaga WIP Spain films in post-production, three have already begun negotations with potential partners for completion. As for the six Spain Copro Forum projects, they have held more than 50 meetings with potential international co-producers.

Different initiatives have been added to to Spanish Screenings Content, including Animation Day, aimed at the international animation and VFX market; Remake Day, for buyers of remake rights; Spain Colorful Diversity; Regional Film Hub; Book Showcase and Spain Scorecom, as well as the new event Malaga Short Corner, in which 60 short films were screened and also included 11 regional catalogues.

MAFF Malaga Fund & Coproduction Event, a training and financing event for fiction and non-fiction projects from Latin America in which 33 projects were submitted in search of international co-producers, was also held within the framework of MAFIZ. Three of the projects participated in the MAFF Women Screen Industry event, organised in collaboration with three associations of women filmmakers with the objective of moving towards equality. The filmmakers in charge of the projects held 586 meetings with potential partners.

16 films in the post-production phase were presented at Malaga WIP. In addition to the Malaga WIP Spain films mentioned above, there were also eight Latin American films from six countries. Their representatives also participated in a total of 423 face-to-face meetings with potential partners to contribute to the completion of the films.

Moreover, in its strategy to position itself as a hotbed of talent, the Malaga Film Festival brought together 20 young Spanish and Latin American filmmakers for the training and networking programme Campus Malaga Talent and 20 digital content creators for the second edition of MAFIZ Malaga, which is also part of Spanish Screenings Content. Selected from among 2,200 candidates, in Malaga they presented the last creative challenge proposed by the Malaga Flm Festival with the title 'Malaga and love (in times of artificial intelligence)'. They also had the opportunity to participate in talks, training sessions and tutorials with experts from the sector’s main platforms, companies and international agencies, such as Youtube, Twitter, Twitch or Etermax, among others.

Catalonia was the protagonist of Territories; its industry brought 20 projects to the different sections of MAFIZ, 40 productions to different competitive sections of the Festival, and the presence of 60 companies. The presentation of the Silver Biznaga Award to Natàlia Garriga, Regional Minister of Culture of Catalonia, was the culmination of the Catalonian presence at the Malaga Film Festival.

Peru also received the Silver Biznaga as the Festival's guest of honour in Latin American Focus, with the presence of 68 professionals and four projects in MAFF, two in MAFF Women Screen Industry and two in Malaga WIP Iberoamerica. The Peruvian presence was completed by the screening of three recent films in the series Focus Peru and Warmi Lab, a pioneering initiative in which four young female directors from remote areas had the opportunity to present their projects to the international industry.

Note should also be taken that during this edition, the 2023 Documentary Film Encounter Malaga Docs was held once again with the title 'In the mirror: a shared regard at documentary film in Spain'.

MAFIZ was the setting chosen to present RibeLabs, the new international network comprising six laboratories and spaces for the development of cinema in Latin America, Spain and the Caribbean.

Finally, 15 Film Institutes from the main Latin American countries were represented at La Village, which together with the presence of the different Spanish autonomous regions and institutional stands, completed the participation of the sector’s professionals gathered at MAFIZ.

Spanish Screenings is the programme for the internationalisation of Spanish audiovisual productions that was given a new impulse in 2022 with a greater diversity of content, including new thematic sections and with the vision of including work aligned with the new audiovisual narratives and also enhance the entire professional chain of Spanish audiovisual productions.

In consequence, its new format Spanish Screenings XXL is an international market for Spanish audiovisual productions, a project with more content and more activities to adapt to the new challenges of the audiovisual industry, which entails the collaboration of the Ministry of Culture and Sports through the ICAA and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation through ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones, the Malaga Film Festival and the Festival of San Sebastian.

Spanish Screenings is part of the component 'Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe' of the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience promoted by the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation.