09/10/2019 - The Spanish Film Institute, which reports to the Ministry of Culture, has published the provisional list of projects it is backing in 2019, with the new film by Carla Simón, Alcarràs, leading the pack

Director Carla Simón, whose project Alcarràs will receive funding

Spain’s ICAA – Film and Audiovisual Arts Institute, which answers to the country’s Ministry of Culture and Sports, recently published a provisional list of the recipients of selective production support for films of special cinematic value (covering both fiction titles and animations), documentaries and experimental titles. A total of €7,810,900 will be split among the beneficiaries, and this money comes courtesy of the Film Protection Fund relating to the 2019 tax year. In addition, the list of the projects refused funding has been made public, and these titles may submit their appeals over the next few days via the “Sede Electrónica” section of the Ministry of Culture and Sports website, accessible using the same digital certificate that was originally used to request the support.

In first place in the batch of provisional recipients of support for fiction or animation projects of special cinematic value (regardless of whether or not they are being helmed by a new director), with both the highest score and the highest amount received (€475,000), is Alcarràs [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Carla Simón
interview: Giovanni Pompili
film profile], the second movie by Catalan filmmaker Carla Simón, which – like her much-lauded debut, Summer 1993 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile] – is being staged by Avalon. Alcarràs is followed, in order of the scores assigned to them by the commission tasked with evaluating the projects, by the animated film My Grandfather's Demons [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Nuno Beato (Caretos Films AIE), which will receive €317,680; the fiction Out of Sync [+see also:
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interview: Juanjo Giménez
film profile] by Juanjo Giménez (Tres La Película Frida Nadir AIE), with €450,000 in support; La estrella azul [+see also:
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interview: Javier Macipe
film profile] by Javier Macipe (Mod Producciones), with €386,100; and Suro [+see also:
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interview: Mikel Gurrea
film profile] by Mikel Gurrea (Lastor Media), with €429,840, rounding off the list of the five top-scoring projects.

Other notable films among the total of 18 that will be granted support in this strand are ¿Qué hicimos mal?, produced by Matriuska Producciones and directed by Liliana Torres, which Cineuropa has already written about previously (see the news), with backing amounting to €285,047.89; the animated movie El sueño de la sultana by Isabel Herguera (El Gatoverde Producciones), which will get €378,000; Contando ovejas [+see also:
film review
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interview: José Corral Llorente
film profile], a fiction title by José Corral (Aquí y Allí Films), with €339,882.20; Bora Bora by Catalan helmer Albert Serra (Andergraun Films), with €272,000; En la alcoba del sultán by Javier Rebollo (Elamedia), with a provisional grant of €160,000; and El regalo by Daniel Castro (Gonita Filmación), with €116,297.71.

Perched in the top spot in the provisional list of recipients of support for documentary projects is La hojarasca [+see also:
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interview: Macu Machín
film profile] by Macu Machín (El Viaje), boasting the highest score and an amount of €112,000. It is followed by Francesca y el amor by Alba Sotorra (Alba Sotorra), with €136,000; Niños somos todos by Sergi Cameron (Nanouk Films), with almost €43,000; Love Parade by Dominik Wessely (Arpa Films, €45,859.20); Tolyatti a la deriva by Laura Sisteró Carmona (Boogaloo Films), with €40,000; and, in sixth place in a list of 16 titles, Singing on the Rooftops [+see also:
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interview: Enric Ribes
film profile] by Enric Ribes (Barcelona-based outfit Inicia Films), with €159,200.

The provisional list of experimental films that will be in receipt of support is made up of seven titles. The one with the highest score was Crías by Galician director Xiana Gómez Díaz, which has secured €66,600, but the biggest amount of aid (still subject to alterations or amendments) will be received by the film that came in in seventh place: La parra [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Alberto Gracia (Filmika Galaika), with €140,000 in production support.

The full, detailed list of the projects selected can be found here (in Spanish).

(Translated from Spanish)