The Valencian Department of Education, Culture and Sports released regulatory bases in the Official Journal of the Generalitat Valenciana that outline a 2.3 million euro aid package. The funding is aimed at boosting innovation, digitization, attracting new audiences, and aligning cinemas with modern audiovisual consumption patterns.
The grants break down into 1 million euros for 2022 and 1.3 million euros for 2023, drawn from New Generation funds. The European Union administers the program in collaboration with the Institut Valencià de Cultura, or IVC.
Abel Guarinos, the IVC’s general manager, noted that since 2020 the Ministry of Culture, Education and Sports has supported cinema exhibition venues through this institution with unprecedented financial calls for help.
These new European resources for digitizing and modernizing community cinemas—whether public or private—reinforce the regional strategy to bolster Valencia’s audiovisual exhibition sector, a plan that started two years earlier.
Guarinos explained that the subsidies will enhance the competitiveness, resilience, and creative vitality of the Valencian audiovisual sector. The funding is available through Generalitat Valenciana resources in combination with European funds from the Next Generation program.
The European subsidy can be combined with other public or private aids, national or international, provided that the total aid does not exceed 80 percent of the activity’s total cost.
Number of Screens
The grants set limits on the maximum subsidy per project and the number of screens that can be supported in each exhibition venue, following predefined rating criteria. Eligible recipients include natural persons or legal entities that own a cinema or cinema complex.
Applicants must be registered with the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts and own a theater or film complex located in the Community of Valencia before the call is issued.
The submission deadline was September 5, 2022. Applications are to be filed at the IVC headquarters, with all requests submitted electronically via the IVC portal. The organization or its representative must hold one of the accepted certificates or electronic signatures for the relevant submission.
Evaluations will assess proposals across five criteria: capacity and potential (up to 8 points); sector digitization and environmental impact (up to 12 points); audience impact, social inclusion, and demographic reach (up to 10 points); variety of cinematic offers (up to 6 points); and budget feasibility and overall project viability (up to 4 points).
The maximum attainable score is 40 points. To qualify for aid, projects must attain at least 15 points overall. The evaluation will also account for the size and location of the exhibition venue to adjust the impact attributed to each criterion evaluated for that venue.
[Source: Official Journal of the Generalitat Valenciana, regulatory bases for the cinema aid program.]