Spain’s Council of Ministers has approved a €500,000 direct grant to strengthen the industry programme of the San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF), and will make the Ministry for Digital Transformation and the Civil Service the sole sponsor of the festival’s industry activities.
The news was announced in a public conversation held in the ministry on September 8 between SSIFF director José Luis Rebordinos and digital transformation minister Óscar López.
The funding will support the two major conference events of the festival: the Creative Investors’ Conference, which brings senior international audiovisual executives to San Sebastian for a programme of events including engagement with the local industry; and Leading the Audiovisual of the Future, a ministry-organised event that brings together Spanish and international industry figures.
This year’s edition of the latter will take place at San Sebastian’s Kursaal on September 20 under the banner ‘The New Script of the Audiovisual Industry: Diversity, Investment and Future’.
The funding will also support the Zinemaldia & Technology programme and increase the prize for the best Spanish project in the Zinemaldia Startup Challenge to €30,000.
Beyond San Sebastián, the council of ministers also approved three further grants: €1m for CREA SGR, which guarantees financing for audiovisual and creative-sector SMEs; €500,000 for Spain Film Commission to attract international shoots and inward investment; and €200,000 for Malaga’s MAFIZ Gaming Lab.
López said the SSIFF investment would reinforce “a strategic infrastructure for the Spanish audiovisual sector”, citing the festival’s ability to attract investment, connect talent with international financing and promote the Spain Audiovisual Hub of Europe initiative.
Spain had progressed beyond its former reputation among international producers as a destination offering attractive locations and low costs, the minister continued. “Spain has the talent it always had, but it now also has a major industry behind it,” he said. “This is the great transformation of the Spanish audiovisual sector.”
Rebordinos added that the funding would “consolidate the growth of the [SIFF] industry department, something it has been doing consistently for more than a decade”.
“If we hadn’t succeeded in bringing business and industry to San Sebastian, selling films and financing films, San Sebastian would have been dead,” he said during the discussion. “It is no longer enough for a festival of a certain size simply to have a good programme.”
“The number of people employed in Spain’s audiovisual sector has doubled since 2020, rising from 30,900 to more than 64,000 in the first quarter of 2026,” enthused the minister, underlining the strategic social value of the sector.
The initiative forms part of the second phase of the Spain Audiovisual Hub plan, which is focused on financing, private investment, public-private collaboration and greater industrial maturity.
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