Call for applications for Spanish Screenings 2022, the official market for the sale and promotion of Spanish films

MAFIZ, the Malaga Film Festival’s industry zone, will host this event from the 21st to the 24th of March, with a new extended format and new content

The Festival de Málaga – Malaga Film Festival has announced the call for applications for the next edition of Spanish Screenings, an event designed as an international promotion platform aimed at boosting the sale of Spanish films. Spanish Screenings, which will be holding the 16th edition in 2022, is the only official market for the sale and promotion of Spanish cinema, and is held in collaboration with ICAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts) and of ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones [Spanish Trade Commission], with the support of the sales agents and producer associations in Spain.

Thanks to the central government’s budgetary allocation, this edition of the event will adopt a new format as ‘Spanish Screenings XXL – International Market for Spanish Audiovisual Production’. This project is part of the Plan for Recovery, Transformation and Resilience, and will benefit from a total of 200 million euros to reinforce the role of Spain as Europe’s audiovisual hub.

The first event of Spanish Screenings XXL is Spanish Screenings Content, which will be held, for the sixth year in a row as part of MAFIZ (Malaga Festival Industry Zone) within the framework of the Malaga Film Festival, between the 21st and the 24th of March. With this new format, the Malaga Film Festival seeks to achieve its objectives through different lines of work, which include a greater diversity of content (film series, new online and offline formats) as well as new sections.

As explained by Juan Antonio Vigar, Director of the Malaga Film Festival, “the audiovisual industry has changed radically in recent years. New production formats, and in consequence new professionals, have appeared on the international market, where products other than feature films are also sold. Spain is beginning to be a benchmark in the production of series, documentaries, and animation, and for its digital creators and talent”. In this sense, as the sole Spanish audiovisiual market in Spain, Spanish Screenings has had to grow and evolve in order to adapt to the new demands of the international industry. Its organisation and logistics have thus had to respond to new, urgent needs to position this project at a competitive level with other international markets that firmly support their respective film industries.

This is all reflected in the design of the XXL format of Spanish Screenings, which aims to achieve the following objectives:

- Increase the variety of the participants’ profiles: pay platforms, televisions, digital creator platforms, film festival programmers, international producers, international press.
- Increase the promotion, information and dissemination of Spanish cinema 365 days a year.
- Increase and improve the venues for screenings and activities.
- Reinforce the Spanish Screenings brand by means of itinerant actions geared at the sales and promotion of Spanish cinema in territories where the Spanish film culture is not yet consolidated.
- In line with the Malaga Film Festival’s business philosophy, to have an event that is as sustainable as possible. For this purpose, its carbon footprint will be calculated after analysing the greenhouse gas emissions produced as a result of the Spanish Screenings event, aiming at reducing them as much as possible and applying compensation measures required to achieve a carbon neutral event.

In respect to content, Mr Vigar announced that special attention will be paid to the new audiences, new creators and new agents involved in the audiovisual industry. With the objective of consolidating Malaga as a seedbed of talent, Vigar indicated that Spanish Screenings will be integrated in Hack MAFIZ Malaga, an event geared at new digital creators, the first edition of which was very successful. “This innovating event embodies our focus and our efforts in respect to new audiences and new audiovisual formats”.

The Director of the Malaga Film Festival also stated that special attention would be paid to attracting new buyers of Spanish audiovisual content and that at least 25% of the participants would be VOD platforms, which have become an essential component of the market.

Following the success of the 2020 and 2021 online editions, adapted to the virtual format due to the coronavirus pandemic and restrictions on international trips, this year Spanish Screenings returns to an in-person format, maintaining some of its activities online, and adapting as required to current regulations regarding capacity and security and health protocols.

The event has become an essential event in the international market calendar. At its last edition, Spanish Screenings brought together more than 350 persons of 50 different nationalities, including, amongst others, more than 200 international buyers, delegates from 26 international festivals, more than 70 producers and 21 sales agents. In respect to content, the participants had access to 114 films which accumulated a total of 960 viewings, the majority from countries such as Germany, the Netherlands, China, Brazil, Poland, Singapore, Lebanon, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, Turkey and Puerto Rico, amongst others.

In the course of the four days of the market, international buyers, sales agents, distributors, festival programmers and producers will have access to the most recent Spanish productions.

In addition, they will have our platform spanishscreenings.online, the site of reference for agents, national and international distributors and festival progammers, at their disposal.

Spanish Screenings will have new sections, including the following:

- Remake Day: a day devoted to the new sale format for Spanish audiovisuals, with the participation of prominent international producers.
- Literary adaptations: through spanishscreeeningns.online, participants will have access to literary works available for adaptation to an audiovisual format.
- Spain Colourful Diversity – the Spanish Autonomous Communities will present their film locations, plans to support shootings, tax advantages and incentives.
- In line with the attention given to Spanish Autonomous Communities, Regional Film Hub is a new platform for the promotion and dissemination of their cinema, a space in which the Film Institutes of Spain can screen the films developed and produced with their support.
- Market Premieres: a space set up for three private screenings of productions that have not been premiered at any other international market, with the participation of the productions’ artistic talent.

In addition, the following successful sections will continue:

- Screenings: sessions at which buyers and international festival programmers can view recently produced Spanish cinema, with priority given to films from the last quarter of 2021, first quarter of 2022 and that have not had much presence at other international markets.
- NEO Screenings: screenings of the most innovative and daring Spanish cinema. The new forms of film expression underway in Spain will be presented.
- Next From Spain: screening of trailers of upcoming premieres.
- Spanish WIP: a space conceived to boost the finalisation of Spanish films in the post-production phase and to foment their dissemination and promotion.
- Spanish Co-Production Forum: new, novel fiction and non-fiction feature film projects submitted to the call for applications of the Malaga Festival Fund & Coproduction Event 2022 looking for coproduction, which will be presented to the industry at MAFIZ.
- Industry Club: a venue for meetings for producers, distributors and participants in general.
- Film Library: online platform for buyers, distributors and international festival programmers to view films and TV series.

Deadlines, conditions and information can be found at www.mafiz.es