Spain’s ICAA has given more than $16m in total to 20 films that have hit a specific milestone at the Spanish box office.

In Spain, movies get the prize when they rack up more than 35,000 spectators and meet criteria of a complicated equation that factors in the film’s budget, it’s box office success and other factors.

according to a complicated quadratic equation that counts the money that the film has cost and its success in the Box Office among other factors.

The top funding goes to: Spanish Civil War drama Paper Birds (Pájaros de papel) $521,528 (€400,000) for Versátil Cinema; $337,088 (€258.000) to Antena 3 Films and $445.294 (€341.500) to Globo Media SA. The other two films that have received more than €1m are the comedy Que se mueran los feos ($1.3m shared by Antena 3 and Aparte Films) and the also comedy Tensión sexual no resuelta ($1.304m, for Amiguetes Entertainment and Bowfinger International Pictures).

Only Antena 3 Films and Tornasol received money for more than one film. Tornasol also released Las viudas de los jueves ($9,939) and El corredor nocturno ($9,907). Antena had the aforementioned Que se mueran los feos and Pájaros de papel.

Other companies receiving significant sums are Ircania Producciones ($752.224 for El discípulo); Intervenciones Novo Film ($866.731 for Room in Rome); Mod Producciones ($318.796), Himenoptero ($318.796) and Telecino Cinema ($521.591) for El mal ajeno. Flamenco Films receives $990.053 for Rosa y negro and Ovideo TV $851.086 for La vida empieza hoy.

This current system is the subject of controversy in Spain, with accusations that some production companies buy tickets in order to access the funding.

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