Spain

[ES] Films in Catalan

IRIS 2009-5:1/21

Laura Marcos & Enric Enrich

Enrich Advocats - Barcelona

The Catalonian Government is preparing a new Cinema Act which is expected to be approved before the end of this year.

One of the multiple questions that this new proposed act deals with is the one related to the promotion of the Catalan language, in the sense that half of the foreign movies shown in the movie theatres in Catalonia will now have to be dubbed into Catalan (a co-official language in Catalonia together with Spanish). And, in the case of foreign movies shown in their original versions, half of them must be subtitled in the Catalan language too.

According to Joan Manuel Treserras (Councillor of Culture and Communication Media of the Generalitat), this measure is justified as there is currently a great imbalance between Spanish and Catalan cinema in Catalonia and this would be the only way to guarantee equality between both languages.

This measure, if and when approved, will be introduced progressively. During the first year after the adoption of the new Cinema Law, movies dubbed and subtitled in Catalan must be at least a 30% of the total, finally reaching 100% during the third year.

The bill, which develops an issue already introduced in the Catalan Act of Linguistic Normalization of 1983, exempts from the measure all movies whose original version is already in Spanish or in Catalan.

The bill has caused great discussions within the industry, as majors, distributors and exhibitors are concerned about the increases in cost that the measure may entail.