Shooting Locations Marketplace, the marketplace for professionals working in the movie-shoot industry, will hold its sixth edition on 14 and 15 October at the Feria de Valladolid (Valladolid Trade Fair - see the news). We spoke with its CEO, Alberto Alonso, to delve into some of its defining features.

Cineuropa: This is the sixth edition of an event that keeps on growing. How has it been put together, and what’s new this year?
Alberto Alonso: This edition cements the global nature that the event began its life with, as we have professionals from 27 countries; new destinations are coming on board, such as Stockholm, Italy, Morocco, Uruguay and Peru; and 85% of the participating location managers and producers are also international. We’re keeping the format’s original structure, with three areas of activity: the hiring marketplace, with 1,500 pre-arranged meetings, which is the core of the event; the talks and round-tables; and the fam trips, which allow participants to discover future shooting locations on the ground. And this is where the event’s global scope becomes clear, since the destinations for these trips will be Estonia, Turkey, Sweden, Norway, Portugal, the Canary Islands, and Castile and León.

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What impressions, comments and criticism do you receive before, during and after Shooting Locations Marketplace?
Feedback from both the supply and demand sides is very positive, as reflected in our surveys. The originality of the approach – giving prominence and recognition to the role of the location manager – continues to be mentioned in 93% of responses, but above all, they underline the quality of attendee profiles, people with real decision-making power, the rotation of those profiles, and the option of going on the fam trips. Shooting Locations Marketplace has a very strong image: suggestions for improvement concern operational matters, and even extending the event by an extra day.

What do you expect from this new edition?
Our expectations are high because the quality on both the supply and the demand sides is the best guarantee of the event running smoothly, and that’s the result of the work done by the organisers, and the support of institutions and professional associations.

Which entities collaborate to make it happen?
Institutions such as Valladolid City Council and the Regional Government of Castile and León support the project, as do the professional associations Location Managers Guild International (LMGI), European Film Commissions Network (EUFCN), The European Producers Club (EPC), Crew United, European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs (EAVE) and specialised media outlets, such as Cineuropa.

How does organising this event help when it comes to attracting shoots to the region?
I think it’s hard to pinpoint the exact moment when a shoot’s location is “born” because many factors influence the decision, but we know for a fact that Shooting Locations Marketplace has been the meeting point in many cases for drawing shoots to the participating destinations. In fact, 98% of location managers and producers say they have obtained useful, valuable information here for their upcoming projects.

Let's say someone in the sector still hasn’t decided whether to attend your event this year; how would you encourage them to come to Valladolid?
I encourage them to take part in the 2027 edition - not only destinations, but also service companies, private locations and so on... All of those stakeholders involved in processes linked to the film and TV production industry.

How does Valladolid host an international event of this scale, given that it's held so close to the staging of Seminci?
Valladolid is cinema, there’s no doubt about it; it’s a city that’s engaged with film, both on the professional side and when it comes to the public. Shooting Locations Marketplace and Seminci are different events aimed at different audiences, but they share broader goals such as strengthening the audiovisual ecosystem and boosting the territory’s visibility.

Lastly, is there any particular content, talk or activity you’d like to highlight from this sixth edition?
The conference programme is interesting: we’ll be talking, of course, about incentives, which is a recurring topic (this year, several finance heads from major studios are taking part, given their decision-making roles); how to tackle issues stemming from changing situations driven by geopolitics or the climate; the need to identify the right point of contact to manage shoots, especially international ones; the European audiovisual strategy; and Spain Film Commission, which will present a workshop on creating screen-tourism experiences and the Film Data España platform.