31/10/2003

Spanish state television is investing in cinema and for the first 10 months of 2003 the total amount of money it has contributed has now topped €26 million.
The figures were announced on October 28 by Juan Menor, the director general of TVE, who added that it could well be possible that the figure rises to a total investment of €36 million by the end of the year.

To date, the RTVE group public television has bought the rights of around 40 films, 9 documentaries and 1 short film, some of which have ended their theatrical run and some of which are currently being made. Even though the intention is to respect the government directive that says the channel mustn’t spend less than 5% of its annual turnover in Spanish and European cinema, these figures really are remarkable.
In fact, the titles involved feature excellent authors from the national cinematographic scene, like Alex de la Iglesia and his El crimen perfecto, Carlos Saura with El septimo dìa, Pedro Almodovar with la mala educaciòn, Alejandro Amenabar with Il Mar adentro, together with some equally famous European names, like the British director Ken Loach and his Sweet Sixteen [+see also:
trailer
film profile] or the Frenchman Cedric Klapisch and his chaotic Euro Pudding, or the Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles and his Motorcycle Diaries.
According to the figures given by Menor, in the last four years TVE has continually increased its investment in cinema, especially in national productions, starting from a total of €14.9 million in’99, to €24.5 million in 2001, and €22.6 million in 2002. Something that is equally interesting is the significant decrease in the budget for American films, which has dropped from €86 million in 2002 to €41 million this year.

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

(Translated from Italian)