Barcelona is once again a great audiovisual setting. Leaving behind the limitations caused by the pandemic in 2020, many points of the city have been the chosen scenario to film scenes for 569 national and international series and feature films during 2021, a 15% increase. The Barcelona Film Commission (BFC) has reported that this activity has had an economic impact for the city of 40 million euros.
To highlight, due to its international repercussion, the filming of the superproduction Uncharted, starring Tom Holland, with other prominent figures from the international scene such as Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas, and directed by Ruben Fleischer, which arrives in cinemas this week. The production of the film lasted nine weeks across different neighborhoods of the city, from the districts of Ciutat Vella to Horta-Guinardó and other locations in the Eixample.
The direction of this action feature film chose prominent points of Montjuïc mountain (the Victoria Eugenia pavilion, the exteriors of the MNAC or the Plaza de las Cataratas). And it also recorded scenes in the Sagrada Familia or inside the Basilica of Santa Maria del Mar and the nearby Passeig del Born. The unique Plaça de Sant Felip Neri and L'Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau are others.
According to Barcelona Film Commission (BFC), the Barcelona City Council service that freely facilitates the management of audiovisual filming for cultural purposes, the Sony feature film, produced by the Spanish production company Frescofilm, reported a direct investment of 8 million euros in the city and 4 million in the rest of Catalonia.
The investment in Barcelona was distributed among the hiring of artistic and technical personnel, set design and costumes, locations, machinery and transport rental, accommodation and catering, and post-production. As for the film crew, this production generated 214 jobs and employed hundreds of extras, among whom 456 were residents of Barcelona.
But Barcelona has also been the setting for frames from films nominated for the Gaudí Awards 2022, such as Las leyes de la frontera, by Daniel Mónzon; Sis dies corrents, by Neus Ballús; Libertad, by Clara Roquet; Tres, by Juanjo Giménez; or Chavalas, by Carol Rodríguez Colás.
In total, the municipal service managed permits to carry out 569 film and series shoots, about fifty more than the 512 registered in 2019. Most, about 400 recordings, are from Catalan projects, and more than twenty correspond to international proposals. The 2021 balance is also higher than the 495 filmings in 2020, a year in which, despite the pandemic, filming did not stop, or the 487 in 2018.