Attractive tax incentives, magnificent landscapes and impressive local crew make Spain and the Canary Islands hotspots for international shoots.
Spain’s 30% national tax rebate — higher still in some regions such as the Canary Islands and Basque Country — has helped attract and consolidate the flow of international shoots, adding to wider appeal of the country’s natural assets and architectural diversity.
An average of 320 days of sunshine a year, a solid film industry, top transport infrastructure for road, rail and air travel, as well as a wide choice of accommodation are some of the other tempting attractions for international producers.
Prospects for 2025 are promising, with local service companies recording a significant rise in requests compared to 2024. “Demand is certainly high for 2025,” says Juan-Manuel Guimerans, who took over as president of Spain Film Commission from Carlos Rosado in October 2024. “An executive from a major international streamer told me recently the value for money for international shoots in Spain is so good that it makes us extremely competitive.”
The national tax incentive was increased in 2020 and is currently at 30% for the first $1.1m (€1m) of local spend by an international shoot and 25% thereafter. The cap for the total tax rebate per feature is $22.4m (€20m) and $11.3m (€10m) per episode of a TV series. And the tax rebate runs even higher in regions with a tax regime that differs from the rest of the nation, with an incentive of up to 60% offered in the Basque Country, up to 54% in the Canary Islands and up to 50% in Navarre.
These incentives have been instrumental in the rise of international productions drawn to Spain, fuelling the local industry too. According to a report by Olsberg SPI released last September (commissioned by Spain Film Commission in conjunction with Spanish service provider association Profilm), inward investment from international film and TV productions in Spain totalled $1.4bn (€1.3bn) between 2019‑22, generating $1.9bn (€1.8bn) in gross value added and a return on investment to the Spanish economy of $10 (€9) for every euro invested through the incentives programme. Spain Film Commission is in talks for a follow-up study to cover 2023 and 2024.
“Data is essential so the industry and government can work together to make the most of it,” says Guimerans. “The audiovisual sector in Spain has vast potential. Our wish would be to keep improving the incentives, raising the percentage, improving the administrative processing and raising the cap for the total tax rebate per feature [currently at $21.4m (€20m)]. That would especially help in the case of bigger budget productions, particularly from the US. After all, this is a very competitive market.”
Tax rebate conditions aside, “there is hardly any production that comes here only because of the costs,” asserts Guimerans. “They come because they find the locations they need and because of the quality of crews and service companies.”
International features to visit Spain include Disney’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman, which used locations in Asturias in the north; Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebush Pruning, which shot in Catalonia for The Match Factory and The Apartment Pictures; Lasse Hallström’s The Map That Leads To You, which filmed in Catalonia and Navarre for Amazon MGM Studios; Renny Harlin’s The Beast, which took in Madrid and the Canary Islands for Unified Pictures; and Peter Cattaneo’s The Penguin Lessons, produced by 42 and filmed in Catalonia and the Canaries. Angel Gomez’s horror movie Dangerous Games To Play shot in Spain for Thunder Road genre label Badlands and Scott Strauss.
A busy hub for series, Spain hosted the third season of AMC’s horror spin-off The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon in locations including Andalusia, Madrid, Catalonia and Aragon; and the second season of The Night Manager, created and executive produced by David Farr, used several locations in Catalonia. The show premieres on the BBC and Prime Video worldwide.
Channel 5 and Paramount miniseries Catch You Later shot in the Basque Country; The Girlfriend, directed by Robin Wright, shot in Andalusia, as did Guy Ritchie’s Prime Video series Young Sherlock, Left Bank Pictures’ series This City Is Ours and Netflix’s Mango.
Disney+’s adaptation of French comic hero Lucky Luke set up camp in Almeria, legendary home of the spaghetti westerns. And the second season of Berlin, the prequel series to Money Heist produced by Vancouver Media for Netflix, used locations in Seville and Jerez de la Frontera.
Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands was the location for Movistar Plus+ feature The Beloved (El Ser Querido), directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and starring Javier Bardem. Other titles to have used Canarian locations include Apple TV+’s currently untitled series from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul creator Vince Gilligan; the second season of The Gold, produced by Tannadice Pictures for the BBC; Netflix’s People We Meet On Vacation by Brett Haley; Eleventh Hour Films’ series 9 Bodies In A Mexican Morgue; and Paramount series Stags. Also on the islands were features Mi Amor, directed by Guillaume Nicloux and produced by France’s Les Films Du Kiosque, and Itonje Soimer Guttormsen’s Butterfly, produced by Norway’s Mer Film.
Tenerife has hosted German series Alea Aquarius, produced by Red Balloon for ZDF and RTVE, as well as UK series Frauds, produced by Monumental Television with ITV Studios and starring Suranne Jones and Jodie Whittaker. Both projects were serviced by Spain’s Fasten Films.
Frauds shot in Spain from mid-January to April 2025. The principal location was Tenerife in the Canary Islands, complemented by a few days in Madrid, at a bullring and the Reina Sofia museum.
“This is our first time shooting in Spain. The script is set there so it made sense,” says executive producer Jill Forbes. “We looked at the Canary Islands, which has great tax credits. We needed a bullring and Tenerife had one, although we also used one in Madrid. The weather was also a big pull. There are a lot of positives to working in Spain — the locations, the weather, the tax credit and the crew, which has been fantastic. I would recommend it.”
“We had to bring more crew than expected from the mainland,” adds Forbes of working on the islands. “That proved a bit costly. But as they get busier, the infrastructure will surely build up — it’s definitely a very popular place for filming. It’s just a matter of teething issues.
“I would advise fellow producers to consider that shooting days are a bit shorter in Spain — nine hours plus one, compared to 10 plus one in the UK,” she adds. “But overall we made it work and the rushes look amazing. We have been spoiled with our locations.”
THE LOWDOWN: Spain & the Canary Islands
European status
Spain is a member of the European Union and part of the Schengen Area. Its currency is the euro.
Financial incentives
Spain’s national tax rebate is 30% for the first $1.1m (€1m) of local spend by an international shoot, dropping to 25% thereafter. The cap for the total tax rebate per feature is $21.4m (€20m) and $10.7m (€10m) per episode of a TV series. The amount of the rebate cannot exceed 50% of the production cost. The minimum expenditure on Spanish territory must be $1.1m (€1m) and $214,000 (€200,000) in the case of animation. The international incentive does not have an annual cap.
Spain is structured in different autonomous communities and some offer higher tax incentives due to special fiscal regimes. On the Canary Islands, productions can access up to 54% tax rebate for the first $1.1m (€1m) and 45% afterwards. Compared to the mainland, it also offers higher caps of $38.5m (€36m) for features and $19.3m (€18m) per episode in the case of TV series. The minimum expenditure on the islands is $1.1m (€1m). The $53.5m (€50m) cap in annual production spend was cancelled last year, a move specially welcomed by local service companies working for big-budget productions.
Furthermore, the Basque Country offers up to 60% tax incentives, and potentially 10% more if the production is in the Basque language. The region of Navarre offers up to 50% tax rebate.
Spain Film Commission (X shootinginspain.info/en) and the vast network of regional and local film commissions offer detailed information about tax incentives and service production companies, as does Profilm (X en.profilm.es), the organisation that represents most of the service producers on the mainland as well as the Canary and Balearic islands.
Infrastructure and crews
Spain has a reputation for quality crews. Plans supported by local players including film schools, the public television service RTVE, some regional and local governments and Spain Film Commission are underway to make more specialised crews available to cope with the rise of activity. Spain can also provide specialists for underwater shoots.
Service companies actively working on international shoots include Nostromo Pictures, Fresco Film, Anima Stillking, Sur-Film, Fasten Films, Calle Cruzada, Meñakoz Films, Volcano Films, Babieka Films, Palma Pictures, El Ranchito, Minded Factory, Seven Islands Film, Mediapro Services, Nanu Films, Bambú Producciones, Brutal Media and Filmax.
One of the significant developments for the international industry in 2024 was the full reopening of Ciudad de la Luz (City of Light) Studios in Alicante, on Spain’s east coast. Now fully operational, it is the largest filming complex in the country with six soundstages totalling 11,160 square metres as well as interior water tanks and an exterior tank of 8,000 square metres equipped with a 120 metre long and 12 metre high chroma screen. It has hosted shoots for AMC’s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Netflix’s Néro and local big-budget productions such as Alejandro Amenabar’s The Captive and Alberto Rodriguez’s Los Tigres.
Plans are underway in several Spanish regions to build or expand existing facilities. These include Secuoya Studios in Madrid — part of Madrid Content City and home to Netflix’s European production hub — and Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya on the outskirts of Barcelona.
Spain has also invested significantly in virtual stages and technology. Coruña Centro Inmersivo, the biggest virtual set in the country, started operating last February in Galicia, northwest Spain. Spread over 2,000 square metres, the facilities include an 800 square metre soundstage for immersive virtual shoots, equipped with a semicircular LED screen measuring 28 metres long and six metres high.
VFX companies have expanded the range of services and there is also a growing demand for animation productions fuelled by tax incentives both on the mainland and the Canary Islands.
Size matters
Spain’s diverse landscapes cover 506,000 square kilometres. It has 8,000 kilometres of coast and beaches along the Mediterranean Sea to the east and south, the Atlantic Ocean to the west and north, and the Cantabrian Sea to the north.
Natural landscapes include high mountain ranges, deserts, plains, plateaus and a wide range of forests, from oak and fir to tropical. Architectural heritage sites abound, making Spain well suited for period shoots.
Spain’s longstanding tourism industry and public investment in road, rail and airport networks make logistics easy for international crews. Accommodation options can suit all budgets, though the popularity of certain locations during tourism season makes it advisable to book well ahead.
There are 46 airports and a 4,000 kilometre high-speed rail network offering tickets at competitive prizes.
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