From Cate Blanchett to David Beckham: Estació de França train station as a movie set

The Estació de França train station in Barcelona saw one of its busiest years as a film set in 2024 with a dozen productions, from series, television programs, and commercials for both the Spanish market and the rest of the world.

In recent years and under strict confidentiality agreements, global stars such as Cate Blanchett, for Armani, and David Beckham, for Adidas, have filmed at the train station.

The facility has also been the chosen setting for ads for major global tech companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft and Xiaomi.

The set locator Lluís Botella explains to the Catalan News Agency (ACN) that among the attractions of the Estació de França are the architectural space and the "willingness" of those in charge of the station to make filming compatible with railway activity.

Recognized as one of the greatest exponents of modernist iron architecture, Estació de França was inaugurated in 1929 for the International Exhibition and was remodeled in 1992 for the Olympic Games.

Ever since the Olympiad, the station has become less and less important in the city's overall transport network, although around 5,600 passengers still pass through it daily.

Combining filming without affecting rail traffic is one of the challenges for the production companies and rail operators. In addition, the Estació de França is a Cultural Asset of Local Interest and the contract requires the utmost care not to damage any of the facilities.

2024 saw around a dozen filming sessions in the Estació de França. These have been for American, Japanese, Korean, British, French, German, Italian and Spanish production companies.

The Estació de França has served as a recreation of other train stations, such as the Liverpool metro or cities in the United States, but it has also been dressed up as museum or hotel lobbies, New York office buildings from the 1970s, a bank or, a few months ago, a football pitch in an advertisement for a betting company during the European Championships.

In 2024, an episode of the La Sexta program 'El Piano' was recorded there, as were pieces for the successful Italian series 'In Utero' and the German 'Gute Zeiten Sclechte Zeiten Special'.

Last year also saw an advertisement for the cosmetics company Roche and another for Apple.

Three films have been partially shot there, although although the names have not yet been revealed for reasons of confidentiality.