Lights, camera, action: Madrid breaks the record for films shot in a year in the city

It is not easy to stop the maelstrom of the thousands and thousands of cars and pedestrians that circulate daily along the Gran Vía in Madrid, the commercial street with the most traffic in Spain and the third in Europe.

But on Sunday, October 23, Madrid residents and tourists woke up to find one of the capital's main arteries cut off.

No one was able to access the road between six in the morning and noon.

On the road, a few police vans, an ambulance and several cameras, one of them hooked to a large black crane.

It was not an accident, but the filming of

, the new film by director Daniel Calparsoro, and one of the 47 fiction feature films that have been shot in the city in 2022. It is a record number.

Never before has the town become a set for so many productions, according to the latest balance of the Film Office, a municipal body created five years ago and whose objective is to promote filming in the capital.

“The filming promotes the city.

There are already between 80 and 100 million people in the world [data from the World Tourism Organization] who choose where to travel based on the movies they see.

Furthermore, Madrid is a chameleon, it can become Paris, Buenos Aires or New York”, explains Raúl Torquemada, director of the Film Office.

The number of films shot in the capital has not stopped growing: in 2018 there were 32;

a year later, 35;

in 2020, due to the restrictions due to the covid-19 pandemic, the number dropped to 26;

and in 2021 it reached 44 feature films.

Among those who have chosen Madrid as their setting in 2022, the

Calparsoro stands out, starring Inma Cuesta and Luis Tosar, who this year has also gotten into the shoes of an anti-eviction lawyer with the film

The new film, in which viewers will recognize the Gran Vía, Paseo de la Castellana or Recoletos, is scheduled to be released in 2023. The city will also be the backdrop for the long-awaited second part of

, Javier's emotional comedy Fesser that exceeded one million viewers.

Shooting of the film 'Todos los nombres de Dios', which closed Gran Vía on Sunday, October 23, 2022. Madrid Film Office

The Madrid City Council, through the Filming Authorizations Bureau, processed 10,849 applications for filming on public roads last year.

Of these, 39% (4,214) for space occupation permits for medium-sized and large teams ―more than 15 people―, and the rest (6,635) free of charge for small teams.

The former pay 48.65 euros for the issuance of administrative documents and 0.58 euros per linear meter requested each day of filming.

In total, more than 860 projects ―including films, series, commercials, video clips and documentaries― have been filmed in the city and have required a permit to occupy the public highway.

In 2021, 791 were counted, almost 9% less.

Of all the projects, the Film Office has offered assistance in 557, 39% more than last year, when 397 shootings were attended.

Central District, the preferred setting

Of the 21 districts of the city, the Center is the one that most triumphs as a set: in 2022 they concentrated 34.75% of the applications there.

They are followed by Moncloa-Aravaca, with 9.9%;

Retiro (9.05%), Salamanca (6.61%) and Chamberí (5.53%), according to data from the Film Office.

Before this municipal office ―which depends on the Tourism area of ​​the City Council―, the Film Commission operated in Madrid, the window to attract filming that closed in 2014 due to the lack of public and business support.

“It is important to publicize all the districts and decentralize the filming, also for the neighbors.

Many complain and rightly so.

This industry has to balance the business and economic impact it generates with the needs of the citizens,” says Torquemada.

They still do not have specific data on how much they collect directly and indirectly with all the shoots, but the objective of the office is to collect this information throughout this year.

"They are service companies, international promotion and the work that is generated, among many other things," adds the director of the organization.

Although film shoots tend to be more striking, Madrid has also served as the setting for 66 seasons of series and miniseries of various kinds, the same number as in 2019 and two less than in 2021. National production companies, such as Atresmedia, and international companies, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime have chosen the capital for their filming.

For example, the audiovisual adaptation of the literary success

, written by the Madrid novelist Juan Gómez Jurado, or those of

and

, both by Carmen Mola, a pseudonym not without controversy under which the winners of the Award write. Planet Jorge Díaz, Agustín Martínez and Antonio Mercero.

Also the British series

for Netflix and which adapts Greek mythology to the present day, or the long-awaited

, sequel to

an 84-episode series that aired between 2002 and 2005 on Antena 3.

In a matter of numbers, advertising is who wins: last year 380 advertisements and 55 photographic reports were filmed in the city.

From the Campofrío

to those of Wallapop, Zara, Beefeater or Calvin Klein, among others.

The Film Office forecast for 2023 is that the number of filming, of any kind, will continue to grow.

"New York taxis are known from the movies, because something similar can happen with Madrid," Torquemada confides.

A moment from the filming of the series 'Red Queen', at the end of August, with Hovik Keuchkerian, known for 'La Casa de Papel'.

Madrid Film Office

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