23/09/2026 - At the San Sebastián International Film Festival, it has been confirmed that aid will continue to be distributed at a time of extraordinary development and success for the country’s industry

Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, during the panel (© Pablo Cifuentes/SSIFF)

On Sunday 20 September, as part of the 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival, a day-long series of debates titled “The New Script for the Audiovisual Sector. Diversity, Investment and the Future” was held, organised by the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, through the Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence. It focused on the audiovisual landscape in Europe, with the ultimate aim being to reflect on the audiovisual ecosystem at a time of change and global challenges. The event officially opened with remarks from Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence María González Veracruz, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Culture Carmen Páez, and San Sebastián International Film Festival director José Luis Rebordinos.

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That morning, the remarks delivered from the podium by Óscar López, Minister for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service, stood out the most. He highlighted not only the excellent period that Spanish cinema is enjoying (on that very Sunday, shortly afterwards, it emerged that La bola negra had been rewarded at Toronto – see the news), but also that the government is poised to continue supporting the sector with the Spain Crece fund, which will include new investments through SETT (the Spanish Society for Technological Transformation), the Ministry’s sovereign venture capital fund. “When a public policy works, it should be maintained and have no expiry date because we are witnessing the golden age of our audiovisual industry,” the minister declared, reminding those present of the impressive figures racked up by the sector. “There was a lack of political will and any meaningful capital injection,” López continued, pointing to the Spain Audiovisual Hub, created in 2021, as the driving force behind the sector’s development, “fostering an economic transformation of unprecedented magnitude following a €1.6 billion investment.”

Indeed, Spain is currently the largest production market in the European Union, having grown by 31% in 2025. Employment in the sector has also doubled since 2020, rising from 30,900 workers to 64,000 last year. And finally, the minister noted, “The sector will soon benefit from the €450 million in investments mobilised by SETT in companies such as Lazona, Good Films and Aurora Media.”

This was followed by a preview of the report on the economic impact of the audiovisual industry in Spain, presented by Leon Forde (CEO of SPI) and Juan Manuel Guimeráns (president of the Spain Film Commission), which estimates direct production spending of €20 billion between 2020 and 2025, generating 64,000 jobs. Direct investment grew by 45%, as more than half of the employment generated by the sector comes from related industries and supply chains, including hospitality and transport.

The event also included a round-table called “Audiovisual Models in the European Union”, featuring Esben Snoer (Danish Ministry of Culture), Leonidas Christopoulos (Hellenic Film and Audiovisual Center) and Carla Redondo (Director-General for the Regulation of Digitalisation and Audiovisual Communication Services), who underlined that diversity is one of the strengths and a creative asset of the continent's different film industries. Finally, the panel “The Role of Broadcasters” stressed that channels have successfully got with the times by offering new formats, approaches and programmes.

(Translated from Spanish)