Madrid Film Office Honcho Raúl Torquemada on Filming and the Co-Pro Upswing in Spain’s Capital

According To The variety From Prime Video’s hit series “Red Queen” to Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved” starring Javier Bardem and Diego Luna’s “A Mouthful of Ash,” Madrid has hosted this year high-profile co-productions, many with Latin-American partners. On the eve of the 5th Iberseries & Platino Industria – the go-to networking event for the Spanish and Portuguese-language audiovisual industry – the Madrid Film Office’s honcho Raúl Torquemada spoke to Variety about the hike in co-productions and filming in the Spanish capital, facilitated by the Madrid City Council’s promotional body. “Our strategy is two-fold: first to sell the city and its locations. Madrid is a city chameleon-which can easily pass for Buenos Aires, Paris or Mexico, so the filming opportunities are vast. At the same time, we support the local talent and audiovisual sector, to create value for the industry, our city and our region,” Torquemada summarised, pinpointing Spain’s international competitiveness through the 30% tax rebates, wealth of talent, sustained public support, and largest cluster of Madrid-based audiovisual groups – from Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime Video to Spanish groups Atresmedia, Movistar Plus+, The Medipro Studio, RTVE and Mediaset España . “There is an ecosystem in Madrid which favors the development of the entire audiovisual industry,” he insisted, referring to the Madrid-based 3,500 audiovisual outfits and 30,000+ professionals that accounted for 2.6% of Madrid’s GDP according to AFI (Analistas Financieros Internacionales), more than doubling the national average of 1.2%. Torquemada also underlined the Netflix effect in lifting the Spanish capital to its status of a leading European production hub since the global streamer first set up shop locally a decade ago. “Netflix’s ‘La casa de papel’ [‘Money Heist’] was a landmark show for Madrid and for Spain as it showed what we could do in terms of delivering the highest-quality international production in our city, our region and our country. Moreover, Netflix’s establishment at Secuoya Studios in Tres Campos has fuelled the development of filming infrastructure, with other groups such as EFD Studios following suit. The collaboration between the private and public sector is key to us,” insisted the Spanish executive. Recent figures regarding the surge of filming activity in Madrid and its region, and of international co-productions -especially with Latin-America-also speak for themselves. According to data from Spanish film agency ICAA, shared by the Madrid Film office (MFO), between 2021-2023, almost 40% of the 972 Spanish films produced (fiction, documentaries, animation) were spearheaded by Madrid-based outfits, a level upped to 53% in 2023. Of the 972 films, 194 were international co-productions and 89 (more than 46%) were produced by Madrid-based companies. Confirming the strong ties with Latin America, most feature co-productions during that period involve Argentina (15), Mexico (12) and Peru (7), as well as European countries such as France (16), Portugal (7) or Italy (6). Only some of those films used Madrid as a filming location. Looking at 2024 and MFO’s own data, the Office answered 3,853 specific shooting requests, up almost 18% from 2023, which already saw a 17% climb in demands from the previous year. The city was the setting for 41 films (matching 2023 figures), including 14 co-productions such as Renny Harlin’s “The Beast.” Nearly half of the co-productions (6) involved Latin America, with Mexico contributing five. Confirming Madrid’s status as a prime European hub for series production, 48 fiction and five docu series chose it as filming location, almost on par with 2023 (49 fiction/6 doc). Nine of the shows were high-profile international co-productions such as AMC’s third season of “The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon” and MGM+/BBC’s thriller “Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue” starring Eric McCormack and David Ajala which starts airing Sept. 27 on the BBC. Weighing in heavily again, three of the international shows involved Mexico – such as Prime Video’s mega hit “The Red Queen” Season 2 (“Reina Negra: Loba Negra”) based on Juan Gómez Jurado’s bestselling novel trilogy. Meanwhile Argentine star Óscar Martínez toplined the Movistar Plus+ original “Fine Arts” (“Bellas Artes”) as the new director of an important modern art museum in Madrid. Figures for the first seven months of 2025 reflect the continued growth in feature film productions shot in the Spanish capital, with 46 titles including 10 international co-productions such as the French-Spanish drama “The Beloved” (“El ser querido”) by Oscar-nominated Rodrigo Sorogoyen starring Javier Bardem. Two anticipated titles are co-produced with Mexico: “Mouthful of Ash” (“Ceniza en la boca”) helmed by “Andor” star Diego Luna and the comedy “La navidad en sus manos 2” by Joachín Mazón. On the TV front, Madrid hosted 33 series, including three co-productions: the high-profile Movistar Plus+ and Arte France’s “The Anatomy of a Moment” (“Anatomía de un instante”) starring Alvaro Morte “(“Honey Heist”), the true crime “El Immortal” Season 3, another Movistar Plus+ Original, produced with DLO and Telemundo International Studios, and Prime Video’s “Red Queen” Season 2. Commercials are plays a key part on Madrid’s filming boom, with 410 shot in 2023, 430 in 2024 and 264 for the first seven months of 2025. Looking ahead Torquemada said “strengthening and projecting Madrid’s image as a friendly and competitive city for international production” will remain his priority, on top of developing filming sustainability efforts. Next to the filming backup, the head of MFO emphasized the Office’s continued “institutional commitment and support to events aimed at bringing the industry together to exchange projects and ideas, where co-production with the rest of Latin America is central. “This is the case”, he underscored, “with Iberseries & Platino Industria, the Platino Awards, the ECAM Forum, and the Documenta PRO and Animario PRO sections, among other events that we sponsor or organize directly from the Madrid Film Office. We can add here also the collaboration between Madrid City Council and Spain’s Academia de Cine for writing residences which always includes one or two Latin-American creators,” he noted. Enhancing the Madrid City Council’s wide range of support to the international film and TV community, Torquemada also cited the “significant line of grants” available via the General Coordination of the Mayor’s Office. “These grants are aimed at promoting Madrid-based productions and, since 2023, they include an endowment similar to that incorporated in the ICAA grant line for minority international co-productions, amounting to 10% of the total budget [€200,000 or $233,000],” he said. Organised by EGEDA (Audiovisual Producers’ Rights Management Entity) and the Secuoya Foundation, with support from FIPCA (Ibero-American Federation of Film and Audiovisual Producers), the Community of Madrid, and the Madrid City Council, Iberseries & Platino Industria’s 5th edition will run between over Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 at Madrid’s Matadero culture center.