“If you’ve been to the san sebastian international film festival, then you know. If you’ve walked around the Frank Gehry-Designed, Titanium-Plated Guggenheim Museum on the Formerly Industrial Banks of the NERVIón River in Bilbao, You Know. If You’ve Gorged Yourself on Pintxos or Had the Luxury of Dining at One of the Many Michelin-Starred Restaurants”, – WRITE: www.hollywoodReporter.com
Basque Country Is Unique. This Northern Autonomous Community of Spain is Sophisticated, Innovative and Thriving – and Its Film Sector Is No Different. Now, The Region Is Consolidating ITS OUTREACH and SUPPORT EFFORTS INTO A NEW INITIATIVE DUBBED FILM BASQUE COUNTRY, WHICH WILL BE LAUNCHED AT BERLINLELE ONEB. 16.
“FILM BASQUE COUNTRY IS AN INITIATIVE THAT POSIONS BASQUE COUNTRY as A Top Destination for Audiovisual Productions,” Says Ruth Aristondo, Head of Film Basque Country (FBC). The Organization, WHICH IS ALSO LAUNCHING A Website On Feb. 16, Will Promote the territory as a whole. “This is Key Since We Will Now Have A Platform That Offers A Unique Window For Those Interated In Filming in Basque Country.”
The Project, Which Aristondo Says Has Been in The Works For More than 10 Years, Coincides with A Recent Rise in Incentives – Tax Credits of Up To 60 to 70 percent (More on . “A PROJECT THAT HAS BEEN IN THE MAKING FOR SO MANY YEARS IS NOW COMING TO LIGHT AT A TIME WHEN WHEN THE NEED TO SHOW [that] Basque Country is Also in Demand by the Industry. ”
As a Centralized Platform, FBC Will Offer Essential Information Such as Details on Locations, Competitive Tax Incentives, Access to Qualified Local Talent Ural Landscapes and Historic Architecture. “Everything is desigked to enSURE A SMOOTH PROCESSION PROCESS AND OFFER A COMBINATION OF CREATIVE INSPIRATION AND Practical Advantages,” Aristondo Says.
FBC ALSO AIMS TO ENCORAGE INTERNATIONAL COLLABOURT AND SUPPORT LOCAL Companies to Position Them in Global Markets, Working with Basque Audiovisual ES CO-Productions and the Distribution of Basque Projects.
“Basque Country not only Offers Competitive Incentives But Also A Small Environment of Great Versatility, Professionalism and Talent, WHERE Creativity, Efficiency Ane Visual Project A Reality, ”Aristondo Says.
“Institute Committee to The Industry” is Key, She Adds, Promising “Friendly and Approach Lenting Administrations and Institutes Ree, from Preproduction to Shooting and Postproduction. ”
Basque Country Offers Some of Europe’s Most Competitive Tax Credits and The Largest in Spain: Up to 60 Percent Deducions on Feature Films, Short Films, Series And Documentar y. Deductions Can Be Increased by An Additional 10 Percent on Projects That Meet Certain Special Special Special. After the incentives Were introduced, bilbao and the surrounding bizkaia province reported a 140 percent rise in feature film shoots and 40 percent in series 2023, and an Econ.
“I Think The Basque Tax Incentive, Which Has Kind of Revolutionized The Spanish Industry, Is A Very Attractive Endeavor Because It Is a Very High Tax Rate,” Says Alvaro Lonro Lon orena films, whoh shot san Sebastian-Born Director Julio Medem’s New Film, 8and part of of agustina macri’s Miss Carbón In Basque Country Last Year, Accessing the Tax Credit on Both.
“They have been Veri Proactive in Getting Crews and Studios and Facilities Up and Running As Soon as Possible, Which Has Allowed for a Lot of Films to Be Sho Fere,” Adds Longoria. Local Providers and Talents Have More Steady Work and Are Gaining Experience on Bigger and More Complex Shoots, Thought Crews Arets of Firten Brough in From Elsewhere in Spain Our.
“A FEW YEARS, THERE WILL BE A Lot of Professionals,” Says Veteran Production Manager, Assistant Director and Producer José Luis Escolar Age of the local incentives. His company shot the spanish-Swiss co-reproduced series In High Seas Largely in Bilbao’s Port Last Year. Escolar Adds that Housing and Salaries in Spain Are Still Relative Low “For The Quality You Get.”
“The Incentives Apply To Both National and International Productions and Are Designed to Encourage Not Only Large Productions But Also Smaller Projects that Generate Economic and The Reye f the Great Advantages of the Tax System in the Basque Country Is Its Transparency: “Provincial Councils Offer A Direct and Clear Access to Tese Benefits, In Addition To Having A [geographically] Close Administration, WHICH BENEFITS PRODUCERS IN THEIR FINANCING PROCESS. ”
WHEN WOODY allen shot Rifkin’s Festival in San Sebastian (and Elsewhere in Basque Country) in the Summer of 2019, IT CAME as Little Surprise to Locals. “HE HAD BEEN SEVERAL TIMES, AND HE ALWAYS SAID THAT HOULD MAKE A FILM IN SAN Sebastian, That It Was A Wonderful City,“ Recalls José Luis Rebordinos, Director of the San San (San San San. The Romantic Comedy – WHICH INCORPORATES SSIFF INTO ITS Storyline – Was The Festival’s Opening Night Film The Next Year.
Now, A Walking Tour of “Woody Allen’s San Sebastian” can be found online. Likewise, Interactive Maps and Tours from Across Basque Country Point to Locations Recognizable to Global Audiences, from The Hermitage of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe Game of Thrones‘Dragonstone) to the Modern Buildings of Bilbao Seen in Netflix’s Recent Series Intimacy. And THEN THERE’S The MEMORY OF PIERCE Brosnan’s James Bond Rapeling Out A Window in Front of the Guggenheim in 1999’s The World Is Notough.
“You Can Do Everything” in Basque Country, Says Escolar. “YOU CAN CERTAINLY DO A LOT OF EUROPEAN CITIES IN BILBAO OR SAN Sebastian or Vatoria. There are Corners in Bilbao WHERE YOU CAN DO VIENNA, YOU CAN DO PARIS. And The Landscapes Are Amazing. ”
Ignacio Corrales, gm of Buendía Estudios, whoh shot the thriller Sin cobertura In Bizkaia Last Year and the Menxican Telenovela Angela There in 2023, Says Basque Country Has Annormous Landscape Value, With A Diversity That Allows For Films in Markedly Different Periods and Settings. “For Example, Angela is a contemporary thriller that trees place in Designer Urban Environments, Luxury Housing Estates, The Coast and The Mountains, While Sin cobertura take place in the Middle Ages, in a Medieval Castle. Bizkaia is a Huge set in WHICH, WITHIN A One-HOUR RADIUS, YOU CAN FIND SPECTACULAR URBAN AND NATURAL LANDSCAPS, WHICH GREATLY Facilitis Logistics and Budget Optimization.
Adds Aristond: “Filming in Basque Country Is Noty about Taking Advantage of a Place with Incredible Practical Advantages But Also Immersing Yourself in AnViron Ers a Positive Experience So that Any Production Team Will Will Want To Return to the region. ”
In a report released in january by the función contemporánea’s culture Obervatory, Basque Country Was Named The Third MOST HIGHLYAED REGON Al Offer, “and the Ssiff Was Ranked The Third MOST IMPORTANT CULTURAL EVENT OF 2024, After The Prado Museum and the Reina Sofia Museum, Both Based Based in Madrid. The Guggenheim Was Fourth.
“The Support of the Basque Government to Basque Cinema in Recent Years Has Been Great, and Very Intelligent,“ Says Ssiff Director Rebordinos. “I AM 63 YEARS OLD, AND I’V BEEN WORKING IN CINEMA As A Programmer Since i Was 27, and I Wuld Dare Say i Don’t’t’t’t’t’t’t’tnk I have every seen Suc. Quantity and Variety, and in Basque Cinema in Particular. ”
Rebordinos Underscores that there have been at least one basket film in the Festival’s Office Selection Every Year Since the 2014 Premiere in Competition of the Drama Flowers (Loreak), from Directors Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goenaga, WHICH WENT ON TO toing the FIRST BASQUE-Language Film to RepreSent Spain for the Best International Oscar.
The Festival Aims to Support Basque Cinema. “BASQUE CINEMA IS INCREASINGY PRODUCING HIGHher-Quality Productions that Give Us The Possibility of Programming Them with An International Character,“ Says Rebordinos. “They’re at the Same Level As the most Important Spanish Productions.”
Rebordinos Adds that Basque Directors from A Generation Ago All Left Basque Country to Make their Films. Today, He Says, They Stay: “For Quite A Few Years Now, All Cinema Sectors Have Been Working Together – Basque Television, The Basque Government, The Production Companies – We Alle.