17/03/2008

The Official Credit Institute (ICO) and the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), which is dependent on the Ministry of Culture, have renewed their collaboration agreement for 2008, whose aim is to promote the Spanish film industry. A film production fund will be set up, whose value – already published in the Official Spanish Gazette – will be €50m.

This amount represents an increase of over 25% compared to last year, when the budget for film production was €39.1m, to which was added the €12.53m from the collaboration programme with FAPAE and RTVE.

The ICO has been subsidising the Spanish film industry since 1995 and so far more than 600 features have been financed (including Alejandro Amenábar’s The Sea Inside [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film), with 91 films receiving funding in 2007.

It is significant that, since 2000, when the first agreement with the ICAA was signed, more than 60% of features made in Spain have received some form of financing from the ICO.

It has been decided that the loans may cover up to 50% of the film’s budget, with a maximum of €1m per project. The maximum amount allocated per producer is €4m per year (although this may be increased to €5m in exceptional cases).

The interest rate will be equivalent to Euribor with a maturity of six months plus 0.75 points, and it is possible to obtain financial aid from the ICAA which would reduce this by 1.70 points.

Finally, a fund will be set up aimed at small and medium-sized companies, ICO-PYME. The fund will help to finance movie theatres, dubbing and sound studios, film laboratories and film lighting and shooting companies.

(Translated from Spanish)