The development of strategic agreements, the creation of talent retention programmes and all improvements that contribute to promote innovation and application of new technologies in the audiovisual sector are the objectives of the Government Measures of the Barcelona City Council.

This is a strategic sector, which in Barcelona accounts for 57.1% of the jobs and 61.7% of the companies with salaried employees in Catalonia. It is a sector that finds itself in a context of globalisation of production processes and contents. In order to offer it support, a strategy has been presented that operates both locally and internationally.

The audiovisual sector is a sector with great potential which, in the case of Barcelona, benefits from the city’s capacity to generate talent and from efforts to strengthen its role as a magnet for international audiovisual production. To achieve this and improve conditions in Barcelona’s audiovisual sector, actions will be implemented in the areas of training, the promotion of talent retention programmes, the international promotion of Barcelona’s talent and the creation of spaces for dialogue between the agents involved and the administration, such as the Audiovisual Roundtable. Between 1.5 and 2 million euros will be allocated to these actions.

According to Xavier Marcé, the councillor for Culture and Creative Industries, “the audiovisual sector is one of the sectors that has most developed its hybridisations. It is no longer essentially limited, as it was a few years ago, to the world of television, series and cinema, but is now embracing all that would be the digital discourse around augmented reality, video games… It is a very broad universe”. In the moment we are living in, he believes “it is necessary to reflect on the role of the City Council in this map, which is very inter-institutional and where many players are involved, some from the State, others from Europe, others from the Generalitat….”. Here is a measure that responds to this desire to define Barcelona’s place.

Promoting research into technological and digital applications, creating the aforementioned specialised round table in which all the agents and associations in the sector should have a place, and promoting joint programmes between ICUB and Barcelona Activa are some of the proposals.

With regard to the promotion of research, actions aimed at facilitating the generation and creation of marketable content in the field of augmented reality and immersive audiovisuals are being prepared, and it is proposed to create a joint plan with Barcelona’s facilities and heritage centres to develop spaces for the generation and presentation of new proposals and formats (pictured, a film in front of the Mercat de Sant Antoni building. Photo: Laura Guerrero).

One of the star measures aimed at the internationalisation of Barcelona’s talent is the creation of a triennial of the arts, an event that would give Barcelona international leadership in the creation and dissemination of new visual creations. Some of the planned actions include guaranteeing a continued presence at international audiovisual fairs and markets, consolidating the Barcelona Film Commission to attract filming to Barcelona and, together with Barcelona Tourism, promoting sustainable film tourism, as well as offering support to the city’s film festivals to ensure their consolidation.

You can check the document here. (Onlyt in Catalan)