Spanish Producers at Hot Docs Tout Opportunities in Their Country’s Booming Documentary Sector

variety.com:

Jennie Punter Spain’s push to position itself as a premier player in the world’s film and TV industries extends to the documentary zone, as both audiences and industry delegates discovered in the impressive display of the country’s finished and work-in-progress films and co-production know-how at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival this week.

According to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Yearbook 2023/2024, Spain is the European leader in documentary production, with 153 films in 2022 (Italy was second with 137, Switzerland third with 83)—a sign that Spain’s €1.6 billion public investment in the strategic sector, intended to spur production growth for the 2021-2025 period, has taken root in the doc space.

On the opening morning of the festival’s industry conference, five Spanish producers on the panel “International Co-production: Working With Spain” used their current projects as a jumping off point to describe and discuss the benefits of and opportunities for co-productions to dazzled delegates.

In addition to the usual funding frameworks for minority co-production with Spain—ICAA lines of support, the varied financial backing from the autonomous regions, which can be combined, and working with broadcasters, theatrical distribution, VOD—the panelists outlined important strategies to increasing a project’s chance of getting funds, such as including women in key positions, which adds points in the assessment.