🎉 Spain Named as Country of Honour at the 2023 Marché du Film

Spain has officially been named the Country of Honour for the upcoming 2023 edition of the Marché du Film, the world’s biggest international film market event, taking place from 16-24 May during the 76th edition of the Festival de Cannes.

Spain’s participation in Cannes will be organized by ICEX Spain Trade & Investment  (the public entity of the Ministry of Industry, Trade & Tourism) and ICAA – Institute of Cinematography & Audiovisual Arts (the public entity of the Ministry of Culture & Sport) who will work together with the Marché du Film this year to establish a strong and prominent presence of Spanish talent and content in all sections of the market, ranging from cinema to documentary, animation and extended reality.

Spain is the second country to receive this privilege after India became the first official Country of Honour in 2022 as part of a new initiative launched by the Marché du Film to spotlight and celebrate different nations at each market edition.

It has already been an incredible year for Spain’s cinema sector which continues to reap numerous accolades. Last month, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s debut feature 20,000 Species of Bees won three awards at the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, while two former 2022 Cannes Selections by Spanish filmmakers took home prizes at the recent 48th César Awards in France: Albert Serra’s Pacifiction (Best Actor & Best Cinematography) and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beasts (Best Foreign Film). Recent successes last year also include Carla Simón’s Alcarràs (2022 Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival) and Alberto Mielgo’s The Windshield Wiper (2022 Best Animated Short Film at The Academy Awards), demonstrating Spain’s significant status on the global film industry map.

Spain will continue to celebrate and promote its achievements in Cannes at the upcoming Marché du Film – the film industry’s most important international gathering of the year, bringing together more than 12,500 audiovisual industry professionals in Cannes to present around 4,000 films and projects in development in 33 screening spaces.

Represented onsite in Cannes by Cinema from Spain – the umbrella brand to promote the Spanish film industry around the globe – Spain is already confirmed to participate in several of the Marché du Film’s key industry programs:

  • Producers Network, which brings together more than 400 producers from around the world each year for a series of meetings and unique events designed to boost networking and co-production opportunities, will introduce and spotlight Spain’s most promising Spanish film producers.
  • Spain’s next-generation talents will also be introduced at Goes to Cannes, a series of showcases presenting original works-in-progress hand-selected by the Marché’s partner festivals. Up to six Spanish films in post-production will be presented to an audience of sales agents, distributors and festival programmers for potential collaborative opportunities.
  • Spanish professionals from the animation, documentary and XR sectors will also have a privileged spot in the different networking activities, roundtables, workshops and conferences of Animation Day, Cannes Docs and Cannes XR.
  • Cannes Next and impACT, the Marché’s innovation-driven programs which shed light at the future of the entertainment sector and the industry’s environmental impact & sustainability efforts, will also feature the participation of Spanish experts, financiers, decision-makers and other industry leaders of each field.
  • Spain’s latest short films and rising talents will also be highlighted by the Short Film Corner | Rendez-vous Industry, the Festival de Cannes’ official forum to connect young, emerging filmmakers with programmers, distributors, buyers and other industry professionals.

In collaboration with the State Secretariat for Telecommunications & Digital Infrastructures, the Country of Honour agreement is supported and funded by the Spanish government’s two major initiatives: “Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe” Plan (to boost the audiovisual sector) and the Recovery, Transformation & Resilience Plan (to boost the country’s economic growth).

The “Spain, Audiovisual Hub of Europe” Plan – which has a planned public investment of 1.6 billion euros for the period of 2021-2025 and aims to increase audiovisual production in Spain by 30% at the end of the period – will be presented in detail along with other tax incentives at a conference to be held at the Marché du Film’ Palais Stage.

Launched in 2022, this new government plan is one of the major axes of the Digital Spain 2025 agenda, which aims to turn Spain into the main audiovisual hub in Europe. Top speakers from Spain will detail how the country plans to promote national audiovisual production and attract investment and economic activity, all while strengthening companies in the sector, improving their competitiveness through digitization and support for talent, and further reducing the gender gap.

“We are proud to have Spain as our Country of Honour for this special market edition. For my first year as the head of the Marché, I am particularly grateful and thrilled to build this 2023 edition with such a creative country. Spain will have a large presence in the Marché du Film’s programs and is looking forward to sharing with the entire film professional community its impressive ambition in supporting international co-production and strengthening the role of Spain as a major audiovisual hub in Europe.” – Guillaume Esmiol, Executive Director of the Marché du Film

The Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes opens its doors on 16 May 2023, with the film market running until 24 May and the Festival concluding its activities on 27 May.