When Pierce Brosnan visited Bilbao in 1999 to record the opening sequence of The World is Not Enough, directed by Michael Apted, there was no other news in the city beyond the arrival of 007. They were key years in the transformation of the town, which It still maintained a gray and inhospitable atmosphere, and the arrival of international stars to the city, which had just inaugurated the Guggenheim as an emblem of that metamorphosis, still caused perplexity.
A quarter of a century later, Bilbao and the entire Basque Country have become accustomed to the visits of celebrities, the arrival of thousands of tourists – to the point that in some areas the threat of touristification looms – and, in recent times , also to the landing of a number of filmings, attracted by the facilities provided by the Basque institutions.
The data regarding this last phenomenon are eloquent. In Bizkaia, the territory that has most decisively opted to attract the arrival of filming, there has gone from 87 productions filmed and attended in 2014 to a total of 269 during 2023, adding documentaries, advertising spots, television programs , short films, music videos, feature films and series.
All of these productions have the support of the Bilbao Bizkaia Film Commission and for the last year have benefited from tax deductions that range between 35% and 70% depending on the percentage of expenses and investments made in the territory. The Provincial Council of Bizkaia is convinced that this support is proving key when it comes to attracting new filming, and they give as an example the increase in the number of series and feature films filmed last year: nineteen films and series, practically double the former. The provincial councils of Gipuzkoa and Álava have already announced that they will apply deductions of this type from this year “to support the creative and cultural industry.”
Director David Pérez Sañudo, who debuted as a director with Ane, is filming these days in Gernika and Llodio the film version of the novel The Last Romantics (Azken erromantikoak), by the writer Txani Rodríguez. In his opinion, this support for the arrival of filming is part of a “gear” that is also allowing talent to emerge and allowing “Basque cinema to experience the most special moment in its history.”
“There is an institutional commitment that is helping to generate more talent. In every place there is talent and people wanting to make films, but that talent does not reach any destination if there are no opportunities. The institutions have understood that audiovisuals, and cinema specifically, have a cultural, economic, industrial or social meaning. The key is the existence of a mechanism formed by regional television that contributes money to the cinema, regional aid and now also from the councils and tax incentives for filming.”
Lara Izagirre, director of Nora or An Autumn Without Berlin, and responsible, through the production company Gariza Films, for films such as 20,000 Species of Bees, agrees in appreciating “a good moment for Basque cinema”, although she sees that “it is still far away.” of what it can become”, especially in the case of cinema in Basque, and considers that some bets still in the making, especially on the part of the Basque Government and ETB, “will bear fruit in a few years”.
Furthermore, he appreciates a surprising dynamic, opposite to what occurred a few years ago: “Before, most film professionals went out to Barcelona or Madrid to work. Now what happens is that the teams come from outside because Basque professionals cannot supply the amount of filming that there is.”
At this point, Izagirre believes that this wave brought about by the boom in filming and the good times of Basque cinema should be taken advantage of to strengthen the Basque audiovisual industry. “It’s about seeing cinema as a real option for young people, like other industries, and promoting their access to work in that sector,” he says. Twenty-five years after the arrival of James Bond and after milestones such as the landing of Game of Thrones on the Basque coast, it would be about going beyond the objective of projecting the territory to focus on reinforcing the Basque audiovisual sector for its cultural function and also its potential as an industry.
