After a few years affected by the negative effects of the pandemic, Catalan film production is in luck, with a record volume of films: in 2022, 98 titles with Catalan participation were rated, 21% more than the previous year and the highest figure of the 21st century (above 95 in 2010) with 4 million viewers in Spanish theaters and Tadeo Jones 3: The Emerald Table as the main box office success, according to the progress of a study released yesterday by the Film Academy Catalan in collaboration with the Audiovisual Production Observatory (OPA) and the support of Productores Audiovisuals de Catalunya (PAC).
The historic figure is part of a context of widespread growth throughout the State. “We are coming back. It is the year in which Catalonia has participated the most in the most Spanish films”, Joan M. Corbella, director of the OPA, the Pompeu Fabra University portal designed to offer study services on audiovisual production, told La Vanguardia. Parallel to the growth in the volume of production, the number of Catalan production companies that have participated in the films also increased, a figure that went from 89 to 119 companies.
The relative weight of this Catalan production with respect to the total number of Spanish films produced in 2022 is 30.5%, a figure that slightly improves that of 2021, but which has remained in the range 28-32% since 2016. Far is the 35% of 2015 and even more 48% of 2010. Corbella does not see the amount badly: “The ability to intervene in the Spanish film market has not been lost despite the strategies of some autonomous communities.” 56.1% of the rated Catalan films in 2022 were fiction, 41.8% documentaries and 2% animation.
The figures, similar to those of last year, present a significant variation in the proportional weight of Catalan fiction with respect to the Spanish total, which went from 33.6% to 37.2%, thus increasing its relative weight in the framework of the State. Despite the small number of animated films, it is precisely this genre that has marked the great leap in cinemas, since it went from 316 to 1,793,525 viewers, mainly marked by the box office impact of Tadeo Jones 3: The Emerald Table by Enrique Gato. “A mandatory investment quota is needed in animation to give stability to the sector, and here the televisions are essential,” says Corbella.
As of today, the number of viewers in theaters for the 98 qualified Catalan films in 2022 exceeds four million (4,039,784), tripling the figure of the previous year. If we frame this data in the Spanish box office as a whole, we find that cinema with Catalan production in 2022 constitutes 28% of the total number of viewers of Spanish-produced films in the State, set at 14,270,814 to date.
From PROA (Federation of Audiovisual Producers) they value these data “very positively”, although they believe that there is still “a way to go” and advocate looking at the figures for 2010 “as an objective to achieve in all aspects, both in production as financing.
The presentation of the studio coincides with the celebration of the traditional summer party of the Academy of Cinema chaired by Judith Colell, who yesterday moved to the botanical garden of Barcelona to count, among others, the presence on the red carpet of Elena Martín, Elena Trapé, Celia Rico, Sílvia Munt, Vicky Luengo, Malcolm McCarthy, Iván Morales, Aina Clotet or Bruna Cusí. During the event, the Pepón Coromina prize was awarded to Visual Women, an association promoting women filmmakers and audiovisual media in Catalonia that defends and promotes the presence of women in the audiovisual sector.
