The filmmakers protest: "The new Audiovisual Law addresses linguistic quotas but not gender quotas"

• Independent cinema The protest sector

The Plenary Session of the Congress of Deputies will vote this Thursday on the General Audiovisual Communication Bill, the norm that will govern the production and broadcast of cinema and television in Spain.

, as it became known after the closing of the amendments,

unattended.

First, the quotas provided to encourage productions directed by women are not those that the Government had announced to its interlocutors during the drafting of the Law. And second, the definition of the concept of independent production company is so confusing that it leaves it without content.

CIMA, the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA), has denounced the first oversight of the new law: articles 113 and 114, which were to set a quota of 40% for the broadcast and catalog of films and series directed by women, they have ignored that demand entirely.

Later, articles 116 and 117, in which the claim for a quota of 40% of the investment of content platforms and generalist television for productions made by women should be collected,

.

The law only foresees that 30% of the investment in independent productions is obligatorily directed to women.

"That, in practice, leaves us with the same share of 21% of the total investment that we have today," explains Cristina Andreu, president of CIMA.

An explanation: since 2009, the Audiovisual Law provides that public and private television channels and content platforms invest between 5 and 6% of their gross income in the production of films and fiction series, as part of their responsibility. social and in transposition of a European standard.

"In other European countries there is an audiovisual council that regulates support for women's work. In Spain, that council does not exist, so we

," explains Andreu.

Why this neglect?

Andreu interprets that the Ministry of Economy, responsible for the new law, does not have the codes to understand their demands.

"We raised these quotas because we want women to work and also because we believe that women contribute our gaze. It is the only way to fight against the stereotype... That, in the Ministry of Culture, they understood it well, but I suspect that

But we also have an Equality Law that applies to all ministries...

At CIMA they had the favorable promise of the parliamentary groups of the PSOE, United We Can and the left-wing and nationalist deputies who support the Government.

Although, for the nationalist groups, the priority was the quotas that promote production in Catalan, Galician and Basque.

"

", says Andreu.

The other area not covered by the law has to do with the insufficient definition of what an independent production company is.

To prevent the obligation to invest in film and television from becoming a reinvestment policy, the regulations defined the figure of independent production company and established the obligation to diversify projects in them.

The conflict appeared when the sector was alerted to the appearance of companies that were created to suit televisions and platforms.

.

Now, the new law includes

that, according to the sector, facilitates fraud.

Article 110.1: "For the purposes of this chapter, an independent producer is considered to be a natural or legal person that is not linked in a stable manner in a common business strategy with an audiovisual communication service provider that is obliged to comply with the provisions of articles 115 to 117 and that assumes the initiative, coordination and economic risk of the production of audiovisual programs or content, on its own initiative or by request, and in exchange for a consideration makes them available to said

The apparently minimal change has received criticism from almost all the associations in the sector: AEcine, PROA, PIAF, PROFILM, MAPA, Diboos... This afternoon, the producer María Zamora

Festival He denounced the government's policy with the support of his European colleagues.

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