Catalan government backs features “with clear commercial focus”

by Sergio Ríos Pérez

11/01/2011 - The Institut Català de les Indústries Culturals (ICIC, Catalan Institute for Cultural Industries), which is dependent on Catalonia’s autonomous government, will allot €2.8m in production funding to ten feature films with a clear commercial focus. The funding is divided into two sections: large-format productions in any language and projects in their original Catalan version whose aim is to strengthen the local film industry.

Highlights among the projects of the first category include Rodrigo Cortés’s new, English-language filmRed Lights (production: Versus); André Cruz’s Crónica de Otro Confín (Cine de Garage); Joel Joan and Sergi Lara’s Fènix 1123 (Benecé Produccions and Arriska Films); Abel Folk and Joan Riedweg’s Salim, El Mag Dels Animals (Animal Films and Ovídeo TV); Eduard Cortés’s Los Pelayos (Alea Docs&Films, Bausan Films); and Jesús Monllaó’s Querido Caín (Life&Pictures).

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Selected in the second funding category are new works by Cesc Gay, who is co-directing La Màquina del Món (Cromosoma) with Baltasar Pedrosa, and Bigas Luna (Second Origin, El Virgili Films and Porta Gaset); as well as Juan Carlos Medina’s Painless (Roxbury Pictures) and Andrés Schaer’s Floquet de Neu (Castelao).

This action is part of a series of initiatives the autonomous region has implemented to support the film sector, through internationalisation, creative excellence and promotion. This continual work has paid off with the setting up of production companies such as Filmax ([Rec] [trailer, film focus], Mientras Duermes), Rodar y Rodar (The Orphanage [trailer], Julia’s Eyes [trailer]), Mediapro (Map of the Sounds of Tokyo [trailer], You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger [trailer]), Versus (Buried [trailer, film focus], Time Crimes [trailer, film focus]), Ikiru Films (Lope [trailer], Biutiful [trailer]), Eddie Saeta (Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives [trailer], The Mosquito Net [trailer]), Canónigo Films (I Want To Be a Soldier [trailer]), Oberón Cinematográfica (Neon Flesh [trailer], The Milk of Sorrow [trailer]), Versátil Cinema (¿Para Qué Sirve Un Oso?, Paper Birds [trailer]), and the Spanish arm of Zentropa (Alakrana).

(Translated from Spanish)