Por Redaccion 
The Minister of Culture and Sports, Patricia del Pozo, expressed her regret at the plenary meeting of the Sectoral Conference on Culture that the Ministry of Culture has drastically reduced funding for the film sector, which in 2024 had 20 million euros allocated for project development and exhibition venues. «We are concerned about how subsidy lines such as project development have been affected, with cinema venue grants reduced by almost half, from 14.5 to 8.5 million euros,» she noted.
At this point, Patricia del Pozo, who participated remotely in the meeting held at the Monastery of Yuso in San Millán de la Cogolla (La Rioja), pointed out that «in addition to the usual budget reduction, the Ministry of Culture failed to call for cinema exhibition grants in 2024, after it was agreed that the funds would be centralized by the Spanish government.»
This reduction in funding from the Ministry of Culture contrasts with the reinforcement of incentives that the Andalusian Government has made available to the film sector this year, amounting to nearly 6 million euros, the largest amount allocated to audiovisual creation, promotion, and production since the inception of these grants. Specifically, 5,300,000 euros have been allocated for audiovisual production and 620,846.94 euros for project development.
In addition to the investment, the Ministry of Culture and Sports has introduced significant improvements in grant management, bringing forward the call schedules and resolving them before March 31st. «Andalusia has positioned itself as the only autonomous community in Spain to have resolved its grants in the first quarter of the year, providing the Andalusian audiovisual sector with an advantage in accessing other sources of funding,» the minister noted.
Minister Patricia del Pozo reported that «Andalusia has already developed the regulatory bases for cinema exhibition grants, awaiting the transfer of the 1,473,333.34 euros credit from the Ministry of Culture for distribution among the autonomous communities. These incentives will be awarded through non-competitive concurrence, enhancing the agility of the process.»
Furthermore, accompanied by Vice Minister Macarena O’Neill, Secretary General of Cultural Innovation and Museums José Ángel Vélez, and Secretary General of Historical and Documentary Heritage Mar Sánchez Estrella, Minister Del Pozo welcomed the inclusion of two Andalusian representatives in the expert committees responsible for evaluating grant applications from the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA).
During the Sectoral Conference on Culture meeting, Andalusia expressed appreciation for the redirection of the Mondiacult 2025 event, allowing autonomous communities to have a voice, while also agreeing to the call for grants for art and education projects and the promotion of cultural activities in rural areas, following the incorporation of their requests regarding deadlines and execution criteria.