Ten shoots per day in Catalonia in 2022, only 3% were movies 

Catalonia served as a set for 3,612 filming productions in 2022, almost 10 recordings everyday, according to Catalan Institute of Cultural Enterprises (ICEC).  

Most of the shoots took place in Barcelona, and only 3.2% of the general recordings were for films or TV series. The rest of the shoots (97%) are publicity, television programs, short films or other types of small productions.  

As part of the Raindance Festival, an independent film festival in London, in which Catalonia is a guest of honor, a talk organized by Catalan Films called "Catalonia, a Country for Film Presented" presented last year's data of filmings in Catalonia.  

Since 2015, with the exception of 2020 because of the pandemic, there has been an stable tendency on productions recorded in Catalonia.  

However, 2022 represents a 6% decrease in productions compared to 2021. That is 174 less in Barcelona and 61 in other parts of Catalonia.  

Nevertheless, fiction films for cinema have increased in the last year from 49 to 52, and from 25 to 30 in TV shows. 

Some of the films shoot in Catalonia this past year are "Creatura" by Elena Martín, mainly shot in coastal town of l'Escala and won the prize for Best European Film at the Cannes Directors' Fortnight and "La imatge permanent" (The permanent image) by Laura Farrés, a film recorded in El Prat de Llobregat and that competed in the official section of Festival de Locarno.  

Catalan locations have also been a place for streaming platform productions like "Bird Box Barcelona" from Netflix, "Awarenness" by Daniel Benmayor in Prime Video, a scene of the popular show "The Crown"'s sixth season, and most recently Netflix's "El Cuerpo en Llamas" (Burning Body).  

Although most of these shootings (76%) took place in Barcelona, almost 8 out of the 10 daily recordings. In the rest of Catalonia, the main filming locations in 2022 were Terrassa, where the Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (ESCAC) is located and where popular film directors like J.A. Bayona studied, as well as El Prat de Llobregat, Tarragona, Sabadell, Girona, l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and Mataró.  

Catalonia, guest of honor at Raindance Film Festival 

Catalonia has been the guest of honor at London's Raindance Film Festival, the main independent film festival in Britain. 

ICEC, through Catalan Films and the Catalunya Film Comission, has presented to the contest 10 productions which are "very different and representative of Catalan cinema" like "Un amor" by Isabel Coixet, "Tender Metalheads" by Juanjo Sánchez, and "La singla" by Paloma Zapata, among others.  

Raindance Film Festival has been a great opportunity for Catalan cinema to win "more prestige and dynamise the industry," as Joan Ruiz from Catalan Films explained to Catalan News Agency (ACN).  

"Catalan cinema is living a sweet moment and is being welcomed internationally, and I think that is due to our own point of view being seen in the stories together with a universal sensitivity," Ruiz added.  

Carla Simón, the award-winning filmmaker, explained during the Raindance Film Festival that " Little by little, Catalan cinema is becoming more visible in festivals and international competitions, therefore people are linking our names with what is going on in the Catalan cinema industry". 

"I think we are seeing a creative boom in Catalonia, especially with women, and it is also travelling internationally so people are starting to see that there is something going on in Catalonia's cinema industry," Simón added.  

"Raindance is focused on voices that do not always have screen space, and the Catalan cinema has a beautiful mission of promoting Catalan culture and language, as well as educating people. That ends up bringing stories created from the heart to reality. That is what I like the most," Joan Ruiz concluded.