Spanish Producers at Hot Docs Tout Co-Production Opportunities

Spain’s push to position itself as a premier player in the world’s film and TV industries extends to the documentary zone, as both audiences and industry delegates discovered in the impressive display of the country’s finished and work-in-progress films and co-production know-how at Toronto’s Hot Docs Festival this week.

According to the European Audiovisual Observatory’s Yearbook 2023/2024, Spain is the European leader in documentary production, with 153 films in 2022 (Italy was second with 137, Switzerland third with 83)—a sign that Spain’s €1.6 billion public investment in the strategic sector, intended to spur production growth for the 2021-2025 period, has taken root in the doc space.

On the opening morning of the festival’s industry conference, five Spanish producers on the panel “International Co-production: Working With Spain” used their current projects as a jumping off point to describe and discuss the benefits of and opportunities for co-productions to dazzled delegates.

In addition to the usual funding frameworks for minority co-production with Spain—ICAA lines of support, the varied financial backing from the autonomous regions, which can be combined, and working with broadcasters, theatrical distribution, VOD—the panelists outlined important strategies to increasing a project’s chance of getting funds, such as including women in key positions, which adds points in the assessment.

The word complicated was used to describe the “puzzles” that Spanish producers, and their co-producing partners, put together. “But complicated also means opportunities, when you combine all these things within Spain,” said Lukimedia’s Stephanie von Lukowicz, a former ARTE commissioning editor and longtime pitch moderator/trainer and independent producer, who is based in Barcelona.

Her in-production doc “Dreams of the Wild Oaks” is a co-production with Iran, which is where director Marjan Khosravi’s story of a young woman facing a forced marriage is set. It’s one of five projects in Hot Docs’ Deal Maker industry program, where Von Lukowicz has started conversations with potential North American co-producing partners.

“Twenty years ago when I arrived in Spain, there were barely any co-productions from Spain with the rest of Europe or the rest of the world,” she told Variety after the panel. “At that time, Spain was less advanced in documentary production than other countries like France and Germany—but this has changed.

“If you’re doing an ambitious project it needs to be a co-production and this adds value on every level, not only the economic side, which is important obviously, but also on the creative side. Co-productions have broadened horizons for Spain.”

Inés Nofuentes was based in Latin American and produced films there for several years before returning to Spain in 2018 to found Curuxa Cinema, which continues her focus on creative documentary storytelling from lesser known corners of Latin America.

Renato Borrayo Serrano’s “The Good Man of Pachalum,” which Nofuentes is producing, is about an extravagant businessman who has appointed himself the intermediary between families in the poorest region who have sent their loved ones to the U.S.

“There is a need to tell these stories in order to change the narrative of global events,” she told Variety after the panel. “These kinds of things are happening all over the world.” Nofuentes’ ability to access European and Spanish funding has allowed shooting to begin in February in Guatemala, where she has a local co-producer; she is seeking North American involvement to support the filming of final scenes in the U.S.

The other Spanish project in Del Makers are “Brücher. Unheard of Botanical Chronicle,” directed by María Camila Menéndez and Mariana Elena Guzzante; and “La Pietà” by Pepe Andreu and Rafa Molés.

On Wednesday, Spain dominated screens with the world premieres of three feature documentaries, including Marta Gómez and Paula Iglesia’s “Flying Hands” (a Pakistani mother builds a community that uplifts deaf children), Peter Porta’s “The Click Trap” (investigative journalists and online activists reveal the unsettling reach of the unregulated digital advertising industry), and Mauro Colombo’s “Wild Gleaming Space” (a chilling encounter deep in Panama’s untamed jungle trigger a personal exploration of life and death; the film is also in Deal Maker, seeking sales and broadcast partners).

The international premiere of Carlota Nelson’s “Eyes of the Soul: Cristina García Rodero” is Thursday and Patricia Franquesa’s “My Sextortion Diary” screened on the weekend.

Marieke van den Bersselaar, in town with fellow “Click Trap” producer Carles Brugueras (founder of Polar Star Films), told Variety after the film’s premiere that one of the benefits of the recent increased support for film production in Spain has been the subsidies.

“In Catalonia, we have a development fund. So if you get 20,000 euros and possibly combine with Creative Europe Media slate funding, you have maybe 50,000 euros for development,” said van den Bersselaar. “You can travel to markets, make a good trailer, shoot some material—is so important for documentaries.

“Then you attract co-producing partners who can also fund. This is always important to work deeply in the development of the film—building a strong story and building the financing to 90% before the film starts shooting.”

Polar Star Films and Denmark’s Hansen and Perdersen are co-producing Robin Petré’s “Only Here on Earth,” which is set in one of Europe’s most vulnerable forest fire zones—southern Galicia.