A street in central Barcelona is closed to traffic. Several production trucks occupy the parking spaces. Meanwhile, technicians unload lights, cameras and microphones, actors go over the script, and the Urban Guard regulates traffic. For many residents, coming across a film shoot at their doorstep—and even running into an international actor—is an increasingly common sight.
In fact, Barcelona is increasingly becoming a genuine open-air film set, with its streets, squares, parks and emblematic—but also everyday—buildings transformed into settings for films, series, commercials and music videos. In 2025 alone, 2,758 national and international productions—including feature films, series, television programmes, advertising campaigns, music videos and other audiovisual formats—filmed in Barcelona, according to data from the Barcelona Film Commission (BFC), the municipal office responsible for facilitating and coordinating filming in the city.
But what lies behind these more than 2,700 productions? What needs to be put in place beforehand for a production team to start filming on a street in Barcelona? How many permits, teams and professionals are involved in a shoot of this scale, and how is the impact on residents, businesses and public space managed? And once the cameras leave, what impact does all this activity have on the city?
After reviewing during these summer months, with Lights, Camera, and... Barcelona!, some of the most emblematic films and series shot in the city, it's time to look at what happens when the cameras haven't started recording yet. Because behind every shoot there is an industry that seeks locations, processes permits, moves equipment, and coordinates dozens—or hundreds—of professionals.
And to understand what role the city of Barcelona plays today on the international audiovisual map, one only needs to look at the data with some perspective. At the beginning of the previous decade, in 2010, the city registered 1,948 productions, according to data from the Barcelona Film Commission. Fifteen years later, the figure exceeds 2,700 annually, and in several years of the last decade, it even surpassed 3,000 annual productions.
Eduard Gil (Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia): "Barcelona has gone from being an interesting city for its emblematic locations to becoming a true audiovisual hub"
But, as Eduard Gil, manager of the Audiovisual Cluster of Catalonia, points out, the evolution of the sector cannot be explained only by the number of productions that choose Barcelona as a set, but also by all the activity, companies and professionals that have been concentrating around these productions. "Barcelona has gone from being an interesting city for its emblematic locations —from the Gothic Quarter to the coast— to becoming a true audiovisual hub."
And what has changed for Barcelona to make this leap? According to Gil, one of the keys is that the city no longer only offers attractive locations, but also a good part of the resources necessary to make a production possible. "Barcelona —and Catalonia— concentrate the entire value chain," he remarks. That is to say, that when a large production lands in the city, it has a whole network of professionals and companies specialized in equipment, technicians, transport, production or post-production services, without having to bring all this infrastructure from outside. A network that has not stopped growing and that today already has a record dimension: the Catalan audiovisual sector —which almost represents 3% of Catalan GDP— invoices 9,120 million euros, groups 4,457 companies and employs 44,986 professionals, according to the latest data from ACCIÓ.
This dimension has also increased Catalonia's capacity to undertake increasingly complex productions and attract projects that come from beyond its borders. Sergi Ovide Maudet, general director of Ovide —a company that rents audiovisual equipment, with more than 25 years of experience, in both local and international projects, and with headquarters in Barcelona and Madrid—, has closely experienced this evolution. "The rise of large platforms, especially since the pandemic, has caused a boom in large productions that is also noticeable in the city," he states.
Large productions grew especially after the pandemic, when —with millions of people confined at home— the increase in the consumption of series and films on platforms triggered the demand for new content. In recent years, however, the market has stabilized. “Barcelona, but also other cities like Madrid, have been gaining weight on the map of large productions, while other iconic centers, like Los Angeles, have been losing it,” explains Ovide.
Data of known origin also illustrate this change in dimension. Of the 587 productions whose origin the Barcelona Film Commission was able to identify in 2025, 370 were from Catalonia and 130 from the rest of Spain. The remaining 87 corresponded to international productions, with 20 projects from the United Kingdom, nine from France, and seven from Germany, in addition to others arriving from places as distant as the United States, China, New Zealand, Singapore, or Israel.
However, although the rise of platforms has redefined the map of large audiovisual productions, not all productions that arrive in Barcelona are large international films. In fact, advertising continues to lead filming activity in the city, with 949 productions in 2025, followed by television programs and reports, with 392, and fiction and dramatic formats, with 277, not forgetting music videos, which totaled 146.
The other protagonists of filming
Whatever the format, there is a large part of the filming that remains off-screen and without which no production could begin. In fact, according to Cristina Latorre, head of production specialized in advertising and television formats such as La Gran Cita, the dating show presented by Dulceida and produced by Incís and 3Cat, this entire process can last between two and three months, once the casting is already done.
During this time, production must begin to fit all the pieces together. First, find the right location, a decision that depends on the script and the image to be conveyed, but also on much more practical factors, such as the availability of the space, the budget, or whether production trucks can access it. Then come the permits, space reservations, travel planning, and coordination of the different teams. When filming occupies public roads, the need to minimize the impact on neighbors, businesses, and traffic is added to all this.
A coordination task that is not minor, because behind the cameras there are many more teams and professionals than those seen on screen: direction, production, technical team, transport, catering, assembly and, increasingly, specialized profiles such as intimacy coordinators, responsible for ensuring that intimate scenes are filmed safely and with consent. The dimension of this machinery becomes evident in productions such as La Gran Cita, where the technical team brought together a hundred people, to which another hundred participants willing to find love in front of the cameras must be added. With so many people, vehicles, and teams involved, having everything coordinated requires "millimetric planning," as Latorre points out.
"In Barcelona, there is no single filming permit or fee; rather, the processing depends on the size of the team, the space to be occupied, and the impact it will have on public roads"
Before reaching this point, however, one of the first major tasks of this pre-production is precisely to find the locations. Barcelona's offer is, in this sense, one of its main attractions. The Barcelona Film Commission has a directory with more than 825 locations, including streets, buildings, natural spaces, and private facilities, which production companies can consult through its directory.
In the case of private spaces, this involves checking availability, negotiating conditions with owners, and fitting the cost into the budget. When it comes to public spaces, however, planning is even more complex: not only must the right place be found, but it must also be checked whether filming is allowed there, under what conditions, and what permits need to be obtained.
Locations and permits: this is how Barcelona is filmed
In the city, in fact, there isn't a single filming permit; rather, the processing depends on the size of the crew, the space to be occupied, and the impact it will have on public roads. A small crew—up to ten people including technical and artistic staff and with a maximum of one tripod—working without interrupting normal activity can apply for a basic, free authorization that can be requested up to 24 hours in advance. In contrast, a production that exceeds these conditions or in some way alters the usual activity of the street must process a license for the occupation of public space.
In this case, the application must be submitted at least five working days in advance and entails a management fee of 89.80 euros, which must be paid before starting the process and is not refunded even if the application is rejected or canceled. To this amount may be added the actual fee for occupying public roads. In the case of filming, this is 480 euros per day or fraction when fewer than ten vehicles are used, and 600 euros when ten or more are used, regardless of other services that the filming may require.
If the intervention of the Guàrdia Urbana is necessary, for example to regulate traffic, the corresponding fees for the services provided may also be added. However, cultural filmings considered of general interest can benefit from a 90% reduction in the occupation fee, a bonus that does not apply to other productions such as, for example, advertising.
The complexity of these permits also has to do with the volume of filming concentrated in the city. The fact that Barcelona receives more and more production requests implies greater coordination with the administration, as each production may require permits, occupation of public space, and the intervention of different municipal services. As Cristina Latorre points out, “it is not necessarily more difficult to film in Barcelona, but it is more bureaucratic than in other cities, precisely because of the high demand”.
These bureaucratic procedures are further complicated in certain locations, which have their own procedures and authorizations managed by other municipal departments, beyond Public Roads. In parks and gardens, for example, a specific permit must be requested —with a minimum of 15 calendar days— for each occupation, indicating the location, date, and square meters to be occupied. In addition, spaces like Park Güell have their own regulations, due to their status as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, and filming that does not have a scientific or educational purpose linked to heritage is not authorized.
For their part, municipal markets also have particular conditions to avoid interfering with commercial activity. In the case of La Boqueria and Santa Caterina, for example, teams can consist of a maximum of five people and one camera on the shoulder, and any affected stall must give its consent. In these spaces, filming for an advertising spot or a feature film can reach 847.80 euros per day and market. The cost is even higher in municipal cemeteries, where requests are studied on a case-by-case basis: filming between four and eight hours costs 1,400 euros, while a day of up to twelve hours can reach 2,100 euros.
All this complexity makes sense because Barcelona offers a particularly wide range of locations. But, among streets, squares, buildings, and facilities, not all spaces arouse the same interest. Data shows that Sant Martí, Eixample, and Ciutat Vella are, recurrently, the districts that concentrate the most activity since Barcelona began collecting film activity in 2010. And 2025 was no exception: Sant Martí topped the list, with 600 shoots, followed by Eixample, with 557, Ciutat Vella, with 508, and Sants-Montjuïc, with 394.
If we go down from the district to the neighborhood, however, the map changes. Poble-sec was the neighborhood that concentrated the most shoots in 2025, with 263, followed by Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera, with 185, and Parc i la Llacuna del Poblenou. Beyond the neighborhoods, some unique spaces also concentrate a significant part of the film activity: la Presó Model added 93 permits; Port Vell, 45; Parc de la Ciutadella, 43; and Mercat de la Boqueria, 42.
Beyond the filming
When the cameras leave these locations, however, activity does not disappear with them. A filming mobilizes hotels, restaurants, transport, security companies, equipment rental, catering, post-production and a whole network of professionals and companies that are part of the audiovisual value chain. "A large production is almost a temporary industry that settles in the city," remarks Eduard Gil, and which, therefore, generates an impact that goes beyond the filming itself.
In fact, only 30 feature films and series managed by the Barcelona Film Commission generated an estimated expenditure of 68 million euros in the city on locations, technical material, transport, accommodation, food, personnel and other services. But the impact is not only economic: audiovisual productions also contribute to projecting Barcelona to audiences around the world.
The city's challenge, however, is to take advantage of this momentum to grow and consolidate the Catalan audiovisual fabric. It is here where, according to Ovide, Catalonia still has room for growth: the offer of large soundproofed studios remains limited, beyond infrastructures such as the Parc Audiovisual de Catalunya, in Terrassa, and this can condition the capacity to undertake larger projects. The challenge, in short, is that Barcelona is not only the place where productions come to shoot, but also the place where they find a consolidated industry capable of accompanying them.
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