Spain has historically been a country where top producers and film studios of the world come to film their outdoor scenes, as is the case with super-productions such as “Lawrence of Arabia”, “Doctor Zhivago”, “For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “Patton” and many of the famous spaghetti westerns produced by the American film industry during the seventies.
In recent years, such renowned directors as Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Woody Allen and Paul Greengrass have also chosen our country as the backdrop for their films, as much for the great variety of landcapes offered by Spain as for the high quality of the national technical teams and providers.
Today, with the construction of the modern Ciudad de la Luz Studios in Alicante, new productions can count on cutting edge facilities within one of Europe's foremost studios, with the most exclusive and advanced technical services and resources in the world.
Any audiovisual project produced or co-produced in Spain may apply to the Ministry of Culture for a non-returnable subsidy of up to € 900,000; the producers may also claim a refund of up to 18% on company tax.
In the same way as in the rest of Europe, the Spanish broadcasting agencies are obliged by law to invest 5% of their income from advertising into their own or co-produced audiovisual projects.
The Valencian Community has funding allocated to support the cinema production.
These various forms of finance are accumulative and to a great extent, make the launching of new audiovisual projects possible.