Great talent, beautiful locations, and Deadline articles are among the assets helping to transform Spain into a “gold mine” for developing international productions, Secuoya Studios Chief James Costos said this afternoon during a session at Iberseries & Platino Industria.
Costos — a former U.S. ambassador to Spain — was joined on the panel by Georgina Gonzalez, VP of Global Scripted Series at NBC Universal, and Jacobo Aparicio, Director of International Content at Anonymous. The trio all discussed their current interest in Spain and Spanish-language content.
“Spain has a lot of natural beauty, and locations and weather — all the reasons why people would want to come and shoot here. But the fiscal incentives really needed to be changed and President Sánchez really understood that,” Costos said.
Spain has offered an incentive programme for international productions since 2015. At a national level, there’s a tax rebate of up to 30% on a €1 million minimum spend but that rebate increases in different areas: In the Navarre region, it’s up to 35%; in the Canary Islands up to 54%; and in the Biscay region up to 60% (which is monetized with private investors).
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In 2021, after months of industry talks on how to bolster the industry, Prime Minister Sanchez announced he wanted to turn Spain into the “Hollywood of Europe” and introduced a plan to invest €1.6 billion to ramp up the audiovisual sector between 2021 and 2025.
“We want to attract as much business as possible, whether it comes to Secuoya or our competitors, we want that business to land here,” Costos said. “Over the course of the last four years, it has continued to build. And as we sit here today at Iberseries’ fourth installment, and we have U.S. day today directed towards U.S. companies, I think that’s a testament to how far it’s come.”
Costos added that great talent has helped propell Spain’s efforts to boost it’s value.
“There’s an incredibly seasoned workforce and producers who create great stories. Spain is really a gold mine for people to develop globalized stories,” he said.
The final piece to the burgeoning international production puzzle, Costos added, is Deadline. The studio chief said he has “signed up for every newsletter that comes out of Deadline” and he uses the sites journalism to shape his business moves.
“My inbox is full of stories each morning of everything that is happening and deals that are taking place,” he said. “It’s such a great resource to have that information each morning. It gives me a calling list of people that I will get on the phone with.”
He added: “I am constantly looking for partners. I’ll call someone about their project and tell them it’s perfect for Spain and start a conversation. Those stories are so valuable.”
Iberseries & Platino Industria runs until October 4 in Madrid.
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