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MAFIZ will open the Spanish Screenings 2022 market on March

January 28, 2022

Maribel Ramos-Weiner

Spanish Screenings

The Malaga Festival, through MAFIZ (Málaga Festival Industry Zone) dedicated to the industry within the festival, will be including the Spanish Screenings 2022 market, from March 21 to 24, which will be held in person but maintaining some of their online activities.

The event is designed as an international platform to promote sales of the Spain cinema, and it is the only official market with this promotional purpose in that country. It is also supported by the ICAA (Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts) and ICEX Spain Exportation and Investments, as well as by sales agents and producer associations in Spain.

In this edition, thanks to the budget boost from the Spanish government, a new format was adopted to become: Spanish Screenings XXL, an international market for audiovisual production in Spain. The project is part of the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan, which allocates a total of 200 million euros to reinforce Spain’s role as Europe’s audiovisual hub.

The first of these XXL Spanish Screenings will be the Spanish Screenings Content, held during MAFIZ. With this move, the festival aims to achieve greater diversity in content (cinema, series, new online and offline formats), as well as new sections.

“The audiovisual industry has changed radically in recent years. New production formats have emerged and, therefore, new professionals in the international market. It does not just feature films anymore. Spain is beginning to be a benchmark in the production of series, documentaries, animation, digital creators, and talent”, said Juan Antonio Vigar, director of the Malaga Festival. “This is why the Spanish Screenings, as the only space in Spain’s audiovisual market, is forced to grow and evolve to adapt to what is now demanded by the international industry”.

As for the contents, Vigar announced that new audiences, creators, and agents involved in the audiovisual industry will be specially tended to and the Hack MAFIZ Malaga – a meeting aimed at new digital creators- will be also integrated. “This innovative event centers our focus and efforts on new audiences and audiovisual formats, and for the first time will integrate companies specialized in them to the Spanish Screenings.”

Attention will be paid to attracting new buyers of Spain’s audiovisual content and at least 25% of the participants will be VOD platforms, which have become a fundamental piece in the market. Apart from international buyers, sales agents, distributors, festival programmers, and producers, buyers will also have the latest productions of Spain at their disposal, including through the reference platform: spanishscreenings.online.

The new sections available in this edition of Spanish Screenings are:
– Remake Day: a day dedicated to the new sales format for Spain’s audiovisuals with the participation of leading international producers.
– Literary adaptations: through spanishscreeningns.online, they will be able to access the literary works available for adaptation to audiovisual format.
– Spain Colorful Diversity: showcasing of locations, filming support plans, tax advantages and incentives by the Autonomous Regions.
– Regional Film Hub: a new platform for the promotion and dissemination of the cinematography of the different communities of Spain. A space for the Film Institutes of the country to screen the films that once supported their development and production.
– Market Premieres: a space set up for three private screenings of productions that have not premiered in any other international market and with the participation of the artistic talent of the works.