A surge of high-profile international film and TV projects are filming around Spain in 2025 as the country’s film commission works to ensure the activity is enduring and sustainable.
Spain Film Commission (SFC), under newly appointed president Juan Manuel Guimeráns, provides strategic guidance and support to incoming productions is the network of almost 50 film offices under the Spain Film Commission umbrella.
It has recently partnered with Crew United, one of the largest and most respected European platforms for film and audiovisual professionals, to provide Spanish talent with the opportunity to boost their national and international visibility.
“Between 2022 and 2024, the Spain Film Commission played a key role in developing the Spain AVS Hub Plan, a major public initiative to position Spain as a leading audiovisual centre in Europe,” said Guimeráns. “Leveraging 25 years of experience, the Commission contributed to projects focused on knowledge development, digitisation, impact analysis and international promotion.”
SFC is looking to foster further growth through public-private partnerships and has established a Board of Trustees, of which Telefónica, Netflix, and Grupo IZEN, are members.
Filming
Recent film and TV shoots on Spain and its islands include parts of the second season of Amazon’s The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power on the Canary Islands. Feature films to recently shoot in Spain include Guy Ritchie’s In The Grey for Black Bear Pictures, indie film Under The Volcano directed by Damian Kocur for Lizart Film and Hawk Art, and homegrown streaming series El Ser Querido directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen for Movistar Plus+.
Ritchie subsequently returned to Spain to shoot the Amazon series Young Sherlock in Andalusia, while AMC’s third season of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, co-directed by Daniel Percival and Paco Cabezas, shot across Andalusia, Castile and León, Catalonia and Aragon, and Disney’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman, shot in Asturias.
Spain’s abiding appeal as a filming destination is grounded in several key strengths. They include abundant natural light with over 300 days of sunshine per year and an extraordinary variety of landscapes ranging from the desert and volcanic terrains of the Canary Islands and Andalusia, to the lush greenery of northern Spain from the Pyrenees to Galicia
With nearly 8,000 kilometers of coastline and 4,000 kilometers of mountains—some snow-capped for up to nine months a year—Spain offers a rich geographical diversity.
Spain’s topographical attractions are complemented by its colourful historical heritage, top-tier service companies, attractive financial incentives, and an extensive network of studios and sound stages throughout the country.
Spain also has generous financial incentives. It offers a standard 30% national tax rebate for international productions, with even more competitive rates available in certain regions such as the Canary Islands and the Basque Country. Set up in 2020, the incentive grants a 30% rebate on the first $1.14m (€1m) of local expenditure, and 25% on the amount thereafter. The maximum rebate per feature film is capped at $22.78m (€20m), and $11.39m (€10m) per TV episode.
Some regions, which operate under different tax regimes, offer even higher incentives: up to 60% in the Basque Country, up to 54% in the Canary Islands, and up to 50% in Navarre. Productions shot in the Basque language can receive an incentive as high as 70%.
Spain’s leading service companies are brought together under the association PROFILM, with which Spain Film Commission has collaborated on the First Study of the Economic Impact of International Productions Shooting in Spain, with Olsberg SPI.
Among other notable international productions to have shot in Spain recently are Rosebush Pruning, a dramatic thriller directed by Karim Aïnouz for Mubi, The Match Factory and The Apartment which shot in Catalonia. Catalonia, along with Navarre, also hosted the shoot of Lasse Hallstrom’s feature The Map That Leads To You for Amazon MGM Studios, while Diego Luna’s Mexican-Spanish film Ceniza En La Boca, starring Adriana Paz, Irene Escolar and Anna Díaz, has also filmed in Catalonia.
Meanwhile Madrid hosted the shoot of Renny Harlin’s The Beast for WMW Independent, while UK director Peter Cattaneo chose Catalonia as well as the Canary Islands to double for Argentina in The Penguin Lessons.
Contact: Lara Molina
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