With a total of 154 filmings of movies and series, and an income exceeding 218 million euros in 2024, the Canary Islands is consolidating its position as a preferred location for audiovisual productions of international, national, and local scope.
The sector's balance sheet, prepared by the Culture area of the Autonomous Government through Canary Islands Film, shows very positive results across all links in the chain that make up this sector, which in just one year has been able to generate more than 14,000 direct jobs in the islands.
These data were presented this Monday, February 24, by the Director-General of Cultural Innovation and Creative Industries of the Canary Islands Government, Cristóbal de la Rosa, and the coordinator of Canary Islands Film, Natacha Mora.
According to them, these figures are higher than those recorded in the previous year, especially in terms of the economic investment left on the islands by these productions, with a growth of 50%, and in the number of jobs (40% more), distributed across the different islands.
Cristóbal de la Rosa pointed out that these data reflect that "it has been a very good year for the Canarian audiovisual sector and that, therefore, we must continue to collaborate with a sector that is demonstrating great potential when it comes to generating cultural industry and cultural content, but also employment and diversification of the Canary Islands' economy." A team effort in which the island councils also participate, through their Film Commissions, PROEXCA, the ZEC, and the local private sector, all encompassed under the umbrella brand Canary Islands Film.
Fiction, documentaries, animation, programs, and shorts
Of the 154 productions filmed in 2024, 80 were made by state production companies, including Canarian ones, and 45 were international. Of the total, 55 are fiction (30 feature films and 25 series); 44 documentaries (31 feature films and 11 series); and 26 animation (6 feature films and 20 series). In addition to this, there are 14 TV programs; 17 short films; and 12 post-production works. All this without counting advertising productions, of which 390 have been recorded this last year.
All of this has meant an investment in the islands of more than 218,053,860 euros, also considering that this is a low estimate, as not all productions update this data. In terms of employment, this activity generated 14,675 hires of technical and artistic personnel from the Islands. This amount does not include the hiring of suppliers. During the year, 6,150 filming days were carried out, spread across all the islands.
It should be noted that, while until now large productions only carried out part of the filming on one or more islands, in 2024 it has begun to be detected that there are fiction series that did so entirely in the Canary Islands, among them, 'Weiss and Morales', which will premiere soon at the Malaga Film Festival; and 'Physics and Chemistry. The new generation'.
There is also an increase in national productions compared to the previous year. This circumstance could be influenced by the fact that the Government of the Canary Islands managed to eliminate the annual limit of 50 million euros in 2024, which until then existed in the incentives for the audiovisual sector in the Canary Islands. An increase in the number of local productions accessing tax incentives has also been detected, which was barely reflected a few years ago and shows the great step taken by the island sector.
The activity, in general, has been developed by companies mainly from the United Kingdom, USA, Germany, France, Canada, Denmark, and the Canary Islands, as well as the rest of Spain. Of the total, in addition to those mentioned above, there are series such as 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power' (season 2), 'Arcane' (season 2), 'La Palma', 'Norma for a page of events' or the films ', 'Den of Thieves 2: Pantera'; 'Under the Volcano' and 'My most illustrious friend'.
Potential of Canarian audiovisual
This result is the fruit of work that has been carried out jointly over the last few years, through a strategy that dedicates a significant part of its efforts to promoting the local audiovisual sector and attracting filming from other countries to the Canary Islands.
The support for own creation by the Government of the Canary Islands is based especially on a subsidy plan consisting of lines of support for films and series: production, minority co-production, development, and short films, the realization of audiovisual events and, from 2025, the creation of scripts of Canarian authorship. A strategic approach that allows the 'accompaniment' of projects with potential from their first steps, when it is still a 'seed' in the idea phase, until it manages to become a production of interest to the public.
The amount of these subsidies will amount to 3.1 million euros in 2025, executed in parallel to other initiatives and projects that are supported through the Canarian Institute of Cultural Development (ICDC) and its Canary Islands Film unit. In this way, it is possible to give visibility to the talent and the great work that is being done in the local sector as a whole, thus contributing to their productions being selected, nominated, or awarded in the main festivals and markets of the sector in the world.
The most recent example is the Goya Award for best animated feature film to 'Black Butterflies', by David Baute, or the nomination for the same award by 'Superklaus', by 3Doubles Producciones. Also, the Insularia Films project 'Quantum Rave' has just been selected in one of the sections of the market parallel to the Malaga Festival.
Likewise, the Canarian filmmaker Alberto Gross has obtained an award for his script 'March Fourteenth' in the co-production market that has just been held at the Berlin Festival. For her part, Macu Machín, who last year reaped many awards for 'The Litter' has now managed to be selected for the 'Wheel' program of the Film Academy for 'The Porters'.
Internationalization strategy
These two phases of the work that is being done for the audiovisual, the attraction of filming and the support for the local sector, merge into a third section that closes the 'circle' necessary to have a strong industry with solidity for the future: the internationalization of the sector. Canary Islands Film attends markets and festivals in order to promote and support professionals from the islands when it comes to obtaining funds or partners for the production of new films and series, in addition to attracting filming with which to obtain the results that have been presented previously.
Also noteworthy in this regard is the growing presence of Canarian companies that attend these international markets and fairs in search of contacts and financing for their productions. In the last market of the Berlin Festival, up to thirty production companies were counted compared to the five or six that on average used to attend this type of event a few years ago.
In fact, and in view of the good results that this type of action has, Canary Islands Film is reinforcing the networking meetings between Canarian and foreign production companies, in an activity parallel to the attention of information demands about the Canary Islands that generally occur in this context.
In Berlin, for example, about 200 professionals from different countries were invited to a working meeting with local agents. In it, it was possible to advance agreements with service companies to bring projects to the islands, attend professional markets that are held in the Canary Islands and invest in productions promoted by local filmmakers.
