The Minister of Culture, Ernest Urtasun, defended this Thursday in Congress the need to move forward with a new Film Law "at the height" of the "success" that Spanish audiovisual is experiencing, and censured the PP for trying to block its parliamentary processing despite admitting, as he stressed, that the current legislation is "outdated" and requires a profound review.
"The PP itself recognizes in its total amendment that the current law has become outdated, that technological changes and new consumption habits require regulatory updates and that audiovisual constitutes a strategic sector for our country. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the conclusion reached by the Popular Group. The logical thing to do, as I told you in the last control session, would be to get to work to improve it. What is difficult to explain is that those who recognize the need for a new law are precisely proposing to prevent that law from even being processed in this Chamber," the minister reproached the PP representatives.
At the beginning of the total debate on the draft Film Law, Urtasun remembered the former director of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), Ignasi Camós, who recently passed away, to whom he attributed a decisive role in the promotion of the norm and of whom he assured that he would be "happy" to witness the discussion in the hemicycle.
The head of Culture asked the 'popular' party "not to steal the debate" and to opt for presenting proposals for improvement instead of blocking the initiative. He insisted that this phase does not imply final approval, but rather opens the door for Congress to process the text and incorporate amendments, with the aim of strengthening the entire audiovisual value chain and adjusting it to the reality of the sector.
In his speech, he also rejected Vox's amendment, which he accused of relying on a "supposed culture of subsidies," and defended that public policies to support cinema are present in all European Union countries.
"I believe that this statement says much more about the person who makes it than about the reality of the Spanish audiovisual sector. Because when one hears talk of a supposed culture of subsidies, one might imagine a dependent, stagnant sector, or one incapable of competing on its own. But the reality we have before us is exactly the opposite," he stated.
Likewise, he has lashed out at the Argentine president Javier Milei, whom he has accused of implementing cuts and dismantling cultural institutions such as the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA), and has expressed his "solidarity" with Argentine film professionals.
"Great moment for Spanish cinema" and the need for a new law
The minister has championed cinema as "an artistic manifestation, a cultural industry, and a tool for knowledge" that allows societies to "tell themselves who they are, where they come from, and where they want to go," and has emphasized that the audiovisual sector has become a strategic sector that has changed radically since the approval of the 2007 law, marked by the emergence of digital platforms and new consumption habits.
Urtasun has highlighted the "great moment" for Spanish cinema, mentioning filmmakers such as Carla Simón, Oliver Laxe, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, or Alberto Rodríguez, as well as actors such as Javier Bardem or Victoria Luengo, and has highlighted the "record" presence of the national industry at the Cannes Film Festival, along with audience and box office figures in 2025 and European leadership in film production.
In this scenario, he has argued that the sector "needs legislation commensurate with this success" that accompanies its expansion and international projection, and has guaranteed that the Government will maintain dialogue with the sector and with parliamentary groups throughout the process.
On the economic front, Urtasun has recalled that in 2025 more than 65 million viewers attended cinemas in Spain, with a box office revenue exceeding 453 million euros and a market share of nearly 19 percent for Spanish cinema, with more than 12 million attendees for national productions.
As he explained, the bill seeks to address issues such as how to ensure that independent producers can compete in an increasingly concentrated market, how to strengthen the role of cinema in an audiovisual ecosystem dominated by platforms, or how to ensure that cinemas remain accessible cultural spaces throughout the territory.
It has also raised whether audiovisual public policies are adapted to new consumption models, how to ensure equal conditions in creation, or how to preserve audiovisual heritage for the coming decades. "These are some of the questions this text answers," he noted.
In the final stretch, Urtasun asked PP and Vox what they would do with the ICAA if they came to power and warned that the bill aims to consolidate a "stronger, more diverse, egalitarian, and competitive" audiovisual sector in the coming years.
To conclude, he appealed to the parliamentary groups to reject the amendments in their entirety so that the law can proceed, with the aim of "opening the debate" and reaching a consensus on a regulation that strengthens the Spanish film industry.