Spain’s independent production scene is leaning into a familiar playbook — strong creators, distinctive local stories and plenty of hustle — while looking for new ways to make those stories travel.
At the 6th Iberseries & Platino Industria confab in Madrid, executives from The Mediapro Studio companies Globomedia, 100 Balas, Big Bang Media, Cimarrón Cine and El Terrat laid out strategies that, despite their different slates, share a common thread: don’t chase scale for scale’s sake. Build projects around talent, stay nimble and find the right production model for each story.
Globomedia’s entertainment slate remains closely tied to comedy, a genre that director general Maria Jose Rodríguez said is embedded in the company’s DNA. The company has been behind influential Spanish TV titles including “Sé lo que hicisteis” and “Caiga quien caiga” — shows that, she argued, helped reshape the country’s television landscape.
“Comedy is the best tool we have to entertain, generate critical thinking and connect with one another,” Rodríguez said.
For 100 Balas, real-life stories and creator-driven fiction are at the heart of the strategy. Director General Alejandro Flórez described the company as “a production company with stories, with origins and with authors,” pointing to real cases, investigations and creators capable of building their own worlds.
The producer is behind scripted thriller “Death in Llanes,” based on the murder of Spanish politician Javier Ardines, and documentary series “Expediente Linares,” about the alleged paranormal phenomena surrounding Madrid’s Palacio de Linares. On the fiction side, titles including “Celeste,” “Su Majestad” and “Yakarta” reflect the company’s focus on projects with strong creative identities.
“At a time when the audiovisual offering is broader than ever, the real differentiator continues to be the stories and those capable of telling them in a unique way,” Flórez said. “It’s not about producing more content. It’s about producing content that leaves a mark.”
The company is also betting on the second season of “Celeste,” created by Diego San José and starring the ever-popular Carmen Machi, who was honored with the prestigious National Film Prize at San Sebastian Festival, as a tax inspector who delves again into tax evasions, money and powerful interests.
On international expansion, Flórez said: “We don’t make series thinking about traveling,” he said. “You shouldn’t be afraid of being local.” For Flórez, a distinctly Spanish voice can be precisely what gives a series international legs.
At Big Bang Media, meanwhile, live television remains a major part of the DNA. General manager Carmen González pointed to “Malas Lenguas,” which has evolved across RTVE’s La 2 and La 1, different time slots and different presenting teams.
“It’s a typical example in television,” González said of the show’s ability to move between channels and audiences while retaining its identity.
The producer is also pushing deeper into fiction. “Ser o no ser,” made for RTVE Play, ran for two seasons and targeted younger audiences, while “Pérdida” has expanded internationally via Atresplayer. Big Bang is now developing projects with bestselling author María Dueñas and “La Dama de la Cartuja,” a period drama based on Inma Aguilera’s novel.
“We’re looking for creators who have a lot to say, as well as literary titles that we believe can make an important leap to the screen,” González said.
Across the Atlantic-facing Spanish-language market, Cimarrón Cine is taking the borderless approach a step further. CEO-co-founder Santiago López likened the company to Uruguay’s cimarrón dogs, a breed shaped by generations of mixing and adaptation.
“Cimarrón is also a mixture,” López said. “We started as a mix of two countries and are now a mix of five countries, of very different formats and projects, but above all of very different people.”
That mix is increasingly feeding original development. López said that five years ago, roughly one in five projects was created in-house; today it is one in three, with the company aiming for one in two.
Its model is deliberately cross-border. Cimarrón has taken Spanish format “El Conquistador del Fin del Mundo” to Mexico and the U.S., shot it in the Dominican Republic and completed work in the Southern Cone. It has also adapted Argentine novel “Cometierra” across Mexico and Uruguay.
“There is no territory that thinks while the others simply execute,” López said. “We try not to make the stories smaller. We make the project possible so that the story can be possible.”
Creative director Andrés Gelós summed up the philosophy in more colorful terms: after spending decades as a “lone wolf,” he now sees Cimarrón as a creative “pack.”
Finally, El Terrat is using almost four decades of comedy and entertainment experience to make a bigger fiction play. General manager Agustín Esteve acknowledged that the company remains best known for entertainment but said its ambition is clear: “Our goal for some time now has been to also be recognized for fiction.”
Its latest feature, “5 minutos más,” produced with Ikiru for Movistar Plus, premiered at San Sebastián, where Javier Cámara won the Silver Shell for supporting actor. The Berto Romero-scripted film, directed by Javier Ruiz Caldera, mixes comedy, thriller and apocalyptic elements.
“We struggled for a long time to define what genre this film belongs to,” Esteve said. “But however you define it, it’s a film with a broad audience.”
El Terrat is also developing Season 2 of “Otro Mundo” for Movistar Plus+ and “Amadas” for 3Cat, while expanding its documentary work with “SerYo,” centered on actor Sergio Peris-Mencheta’s experience during cancer treatment, directed by Marta Solaz, Verónica Díaz Pérez and Peris-Mencheta and the Emmy International-nominated docu ‘Temps Mort,’ co-produced with 3Cat.
Across all five companies, the message was remarkably consistent: the market may be crowded, budgets may be tight and production increasingly complicated, but distinctive voices still matter.
For Esteve, the formula comes down to “talent, irreverence, risk, passion, honesty and play” — plus one decidedly unglamorous ingredient: “the desire to work, because without work none of this is possible.”