A pioneering producer in fiction series co-production, Portocabo has been determined to seek out international partnerships to promote more ambitious projects. Alfonso Blanco, the company's founder, explains the advantages of his approach.

Spanish Screenings XXL, the ambitious international market platform, is heading into an intense fall with two of its events—Spanish Screenings Financing & Tech and Spanish Screenings on Tour—taking place close to each other in the calendar, as part of the San Sebastian Film Festival and the MIA market in Rome, respectively, in its aim to globally promote our industry.

The international prominence of Spanish animation cinema is reaching unprecedented heights, not only due to recent spectacular international sales results or global box office performance, but also because of growing interest among programmers at major festivals.

In the current effervescence of the filming industry in Spain, it is worth mentioning the influence of cinema advertising, which has contributed significantly to its development.

The Spanish animation and VFX sector is thriving. On its way to becoming a consolidated global leader, Spain is increasingly attracting top international companies that come to invest in local talent and resources.

As platforms have reached new heights and record-breaking tax incentives for both local and international shoots have grown, there has been a huge demand for production facilities in Spain.

The Spanish video game sector had a turnover of 1.281 billion euros in 2021, a 16% increase over the figure for the previous year, and expects to exceed 2.2 billion in 2025, according to figures published in the ninth edition of the White Paper on Spanish Video Game Development 2022, published by DEV, the Spanish Association of Video Game and Entertainment Software Production and Development Companies presented today at the headquarters of ICEX Spain Export and Investment. Growth in the sector is not solely economic - the industry is also employing more and more people. In 2021, 8,833 professionals were working in the sector, an increase of 10% over the previous year, and the number of direct jobs is expected to exceed 13,000 by 2025. Twenty-four percent of employees are women, two points above the European Union average.

After succeeding on the international market with fiction, Spanish production continues to expand its presence abroad through non-fiction content. Some entertainment formats such as El Conquistador have already been broadcast on free-to-air TV channels in Latin America. Formats such as the docu-reality El Puente, born on pay TV, are also traveling.

With an international prestige built up over decades, Spanish animation has definitely made a splash in recent years. Steadily consolidating a competitive internal structure across different industrial centers, the sector is gaining important foreign recognition and having a great commercial impact. 

Carla Simón, Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia and Pilar Palomero, three of the most outstanding new voices on the Spanish film scene, achieved industry and public recognition with their previous films, so the expectation surrounding their upcoming projects is high.