More than 350 participants at Spanish Screenings, which will hold an extended edition in 2022 from the 22nd to the 24th of March, during the 25th Malaga Film Festival

MAFIZ, the Festival’s industry area, hosted the event from the 20th to the 22nd of October 2021, in collaboration with ICAA and ICEX.

The 25th edition of Spanish Screenings, held for a fifth year in a row within the framework of MAFIZ (Malaga Film Festival Industry Zone), brought together more than 350 persons of 50 different nationalities, including more than 200 buyers, delegates from 26 international festivals, and more than 70 producers and 21 sales agents, amongst others.

Spanish Screenings – Málaga de Cine was held from the 20th to the 22nd of October in an online format due to the restrictions on international travel as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. The event, which is the sole official market for the sale and promotion of Spanish cinema, benefits from the collaboration of ICAA (Institute of Cinematography and Visual Arts) and ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones (Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade), and the support of sales agents and producer associations in Spain. In 2022, the event will return to its in-person format, in an extended edition to be held from the 22nd to the 24th of March and which will include new elements to be announced in the near future.

During the three days of the market, international buyers, sales agents, distributors, festival programmers and producers were able to view the most recent feature films and the ones about to arrive through the festival’s different sections. Spanish Screenings, the core of MAFIZ designed as an international platform for the promotion of Spanish cinema and with the main objective of boosting the international sales of Spanish films, has succeeded in positioning itself as an essential event in the calendar of international markets.

In respect to content, participants from countries that included Germany, Holland, China, Brazil, Poland, Singapore, Lebanon, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, Turkey and Puerto Rico, had access to 114 films which accumulated a total of 960 viewings.

This edition included the launch of the Regional Film Hub, a new section consisting of an area for the screening of films which benefitted from the support of Spain’s film institutes for their development and post-production. Eight regional film institutes participated in the Hub (Andalusian Agency for Cultural Institutions; Association of Basque Producers (EPE-APV); Canary Islands Film; Catalan Films; Regional Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports of the Community of Madrid; Government of Navarre – Generazinema; Institute of Cultural Industries of the Balearic Islands and the Valencian Institute of Culture), and considered that their participation was positive and satisfactory. Moreover, producers and international guests reaffirmed the need for this section as a platform to give visibility to cinema produced and financed in the framework of Spain’s different autonomous communities.

In addition, this edition of Spanish Screenings reinforced the section Next From Spain, in which buyers, festival programmers, national distributors and sales agents were given a preview of the films selected at Malaga WIP Spain 2021, as well as previews of the films expected in 2022 and 2023.