Following a banner year in 2025 with Carla Simón’s “Romería” and Oliver Laxe’s “Sirāt” in Cannes competition, Catalan cinema makes a strong return to the Croisette this year with seven titles, incñuding six features, across the festival, taking in Maria Martínez Bayona‘s “The End of It,” Aina Clotet’s “Viva,” Diego Luna’s “Ashes,” Pegah Ahangarani’s “Rehearsals for a Revolution” and Laïla Marrakchi’s “Strawberries” and Bruno Dumont’s “Red Rocks.”
Catalonia has become a powerhouse in film production thanks to a combination of healthy public-sector funding, experienced local crews and two established film schools — Pompeu Fabra and ESCAC — which inject fresh new talent into the industry every year. Public investment in the region has been ramping up steadily since 2019, with the government launching key initiatives such as the Catalan Minority Co-Production Fund in 2020, with the Catalan Institute for the Cultural Companies (ICEC) increasingly supporting projects from development to post-production.
The healthy funding ecosystem, coupled with leading producers, has turned Catalonia into one of the most trusted co-production partners in Europe. The bountiful crop of Catalan films at this year’s Cannes reflects this strong standing. On top of projects with strong partners like Belgium and Mexico, the films at the French festival also introduce bolder, trickier-to-pull-off collaborations, including a co-production between Spain’s Fasten Films, the U.K.’s Elation Pictures and Norway’s Eye Eye Pictures for “The End of It.”
Adrià Monés, managing producer and director at Fasten Films, says “The End of It,” an ambitious sci-fi drama starring Rebecca Hall, Gael García Bernal and Noomi Rapace, can be a “case study” for Spanish producers. “It’s an interesting mix of subsidies in Spain, tax incentives in the Canary Islands where we shot and support from the U.K.,” he says. “It’s very hard to put something like this together with the Anglo-Saxon world. It is two different worlds. We’ve learned so much; it was very intense but in a good way.”
Monés adds they had to balance “equity, U.K. financing, investors and soft money” while threading the unsteady grounds of a post-Brexit relationship with their northern neighbor. “Without Elation as a co-producer, it would have been hard because they understand the system. But we maximized all the options we had to land the budget we needed.”
Commenting on how Catalonia and Spain more broadly are seen by prospective partners, Inicia Films producer Valérie Delpierre says the country is “sexy” because it offers “a very easy financing and co-producing system.”
“The process is very clear and secure,” says Delpierre, who will be in Cannes with Diego Luna’s “Ashes.” “In Europe, it is Belgium and Spain that are attracting the most projects at the moment because France, for example, is not as secure. Their funding is very competitive. In Italy and France, unless you’re a big name, it’s not easy.”
Delpierre says Catalonia is also attractive because of its extensive experience both in theatrical releases, international festivals and working with major streaming platforms. “People know we are very well prepared and trustworthy. We are now working on a French co-production that came to us when their other partner failed, and we were ready to jump on it. We are not happy when colleagues fail because we want a healthy ecosystem in Europe, but the point is that we are now seen as the reliable, less-stressful partner, and we are making the most of it.”
While Catalan co-productions are booming, local productions are also on the rise. Ikiru Films’ Edmon Roch will land in Cannes with Aina Clotet’s feature debut “Viva,” selected for Critics’ Week and entirely produced in Catalonia. The producer praises the support the project received from ICEC and TV3CAT, Catalonia’s public broadcaster, in allowing the creative team to tell a story about the region that “wasn’t the tourist image you usually think of.”
“Not only did the local ecosystem make the film possible, but it was also the cast and crew — who are local and very talented young people,” he adds. “We had great Spanish heads of department working with us.”
Roch praises Clotet as a “unique voice” in Catalan cinema, adding that it was a great advantage to be working with a first-time feature director who had a proven track record on television — Clotet was just out of a successful run with the award-winning “This Is Not Sweden.” Although a co-production might have worked for “Viva,” neither Roch nor Clotet — who also produces through her Funicular Films label — wanted to “force” a situation into the story to land a collaboration.
“We tried not to force anything just to be able to make the film,” adds the producer. “ We were lucky to make the film without having to introduce strange elements to it. Sometimes you have to, and there is no other way, but you have to listen to how the story needs to be told.”
Delpierre reiterates that the success of Catalan cinema is not something the industry can take for granted. “I feel we have things we need to keep working on, mostly not losing public support, but we are so lucky. And not only because of our production funds, but also the strong representation from Spain’s Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute, and Catalan Films, who are great. When people see five or six Catalan films in Cannes, this is the result of a long public strategy within arts administration. One we are grateful for and should continue to support.”
variety.com
#Strong #Catalan #Presence #Cannes #Reflects #Regions #Trustworthiness
