After our first meeting with Raúl Torquemada last October (read more), we chatted again with the director of Madrid Film Office to discuss other aspects of the City Council department’s work in the Spanish capital, focusing on supporting, promoting and collaborating with the audiovisual industry, both locally and internationally.

Cineuropa: When and why did you decide to create Madrid Film Office?
Raúl Torquemada: Madrid Film Office is a public service from Madrid City Council that was created in 2018 with the aim of promoting filming and audiovisual productions in Madrid. Four years later, our mission, as well as promoting the city as a filming location for audiovisual productions, is to help companies and professionals who choose the city of Madrid to carry out their projects, to support Madrid's audiovisual sector and to promote investment and local development.

Why has Madrid City Council decided to support the audiovisual industry in such a specific way?
The audiovisual industry is hugely important to the city in terms of the economy and culture. Madrid has a long-standing audiovisual tradition, especially in film and television, which has led to a long legacy of stories and images that add cultural value to the city. Also, in recent years the city and the region have become one of the main production hubs in Europe, which has a major effect on the city's image internationally, but also, and above all, a significant economic impact on the city.

Madrid accounts for more than 32.05% of the total number of active companies dedicated to audiovisual activities in Spain, according to data in 2020 from the National Institute of Statistics, which represents 75.89% of the turnover (7,329.8 million euros) and 41.26% of the employed personnel (27,513 people) of the totals of these variables in Spain. There is also the impact on spin-off service companies and other sectors in the city. These figures reflect the importance of the audiovisual sector, recognising it as a key sector that generates employment and business. On the other hand, any audiovisual project filmed in Madrid is a perfect showcase to promote our city, a fantastic tool to attract potential screen tourists, attracted by what they have seen in their favourite series or films directed by their favourite filmmakers.

What should a filmmaker who wants to shoot in Madrid do?
We recommend that you contact us from the pre-production phase so that we can guide, advise and accompany you throughout the development process of the project in Madrid, both at the production level and later in the promotion stage. The Madrid Film Office team is a public service, and so we want to help professionals to develop their projects in our city, because there is a lot of talent in Madrid.

How are sustainable measures being promoted in the audiovisual sector in Madrid?
Promoting sustainability is one of our key areas, and it is key to ensuring the sector's activity over time. Not only from an environmental point of view, which we work on, for example, through training sessions that promote incorporating sustainability into filming, but also from a social and economic point of view within the framework of the city, for which we are carrying out different activities aimed at promoting the decentralisation of filming throughout the region.

When we accompany projects from pre-production, we highlight to professional the opportunities offered by the most outlying spaces and districts through a range of locations on the website. We have completed a photographic inventory project of outlying areas so that they are included in our range of locations, because we believe that sometimes these locations are not taken into account due to a lack of visibility and awareness. We are also going to launch a project in 21 districts, aimed at encouraging this decentralisation and promoting greater coordination with neighbours to involve them in the process.