PSF producers, Carles Brugueras and Marieke van den Bersselaar, participated in the recent panel ‘International Co-production: Working With Spain’ at Hotdocs.
One of the hottest topics was the recent increase in funding for film production in Spain:
Spain’s bid to position itself as a major player in the global film and television industry extends to the documentary arena, as audiences and industry delegates alike witnessed at the impressive showcase of finished and in-progress films at Toronto Hot Docs Festival.
On the opening morning of the festival’s industry conference, five Spanish producers took part in the panel ‘International Co-Production: Working with Spain’ and used their current projects as a starting point to describe and discuss the benefits and opportunities of co-productions to the dazzled delegates.
Marieke van den Bersselaar explained to Variety how development grants help attract international co-producers ‘It’s always important to work thoroughly on the development of the film: building a solid story and getting 90% financing before the film starts shooting’.
Marieke adds ‘In Catalonia we have a development fund. So if you get 20,000 euros and possibly combine it with funding from Creative Europe Media slate, you could have 50,000 euros for development”, “You can travel to markets, make a good trailer, shoot material… it’s very important for documentaries”.