25 Apr Tenerife Film Commission
An excellent reputation abroad, attractive tax incentives, and the island’s experienced companies and professionals are just some of the reasons Tenerife has become a place of reference for the sector or, as some have said, why it’s become the new Spanish Hollywood.
Since the year 2000, the island has served as a location for over one thousand productions, including features and short films, advertising commercials, etc.
The island’s natural charms and its tax incentives are a huge draw for production companies that are increasingly more interested in finding locations where they know they can shoot 365 days a year.
The Tenerife Film Commission has played a crucial role in this with its tremendous efforts to promote audiovisual production on the island among both foreign and peninsular production companies as well as among Tenerife’s own production companies.
By promoting Tenerife as a shooting location and attending fairs, presentations, and festivals targeted at the sector, the Film Commission has managed to attract major international production companies like Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, who have repeatedly chosen to shoot scenes for their movies on the island.
How can the Tenerife Film Commission help the audiovisual sector?
In our last few posts, we talked about the infrastructure, tax benefits, Canary Islands Special Zone (ZEC), and natural scenery that Tenerife offers the audiovisual sector. But, when producers arrive on the island, they need help to get through all the paperwork as soon as possible, obtain the materials they need, and find the perfect locations for their shoot.
The Tenerife Film Commission is a department of SPET- Turismo de Tenerife, created in the year 2000, and they are here to help you by:
- Providing free advice
- Helping you scout for locations
- Putting you in touch with local production companies and service providers
- Helping you obtain permits
- Serving as a liaison with the local, island, and regional Governments
- Serving as your contact in the network of national and international Film Commissions (Spain Film Commission and AFCI)
What is Tenerife Isla Cartoon?
As mentioned previously, Tenerife serves as a virtual set and is a source of resources for the film industry.
In addition to offering infrastructure to facilitate the process of producing audiovisual works, Tenerife has gained a foothold in the film industry and is increasingly gaining international recognition in the business thanks to the opportunities generated by a new activity within the audiovisual sector: the animation and video game industry.
Tenerife offers high-speed internet connections through a fiber-optic network with six undersea cables connecting the island to the European mainland; and this is just one more thing that makes the island so attractive to the animation sector.
But no doubt the one advantage that makes all the difference for animation projects produced in Tenerife is the Teide-HPC High Performance Computing Supercomputer, which is available for use in rendering, not to mention the large pool of qualified, creative, and competitive local audiovisual industry talent.
This is what led the city council, through Turismo de Tenerife, to create the Tenerife Isla Cartoon brand, a division of the Tenerife Film Commission (TFC) dedicated to promoting the island as the ideal place to produce animation projects.
“Tenerife already has seven studios and has created over 300 jobs directly related to animation over the past few years. The city also hosts two key international events: the Quirino Awards and Bridging the Gap-Animation Lab, and this has led us to create the Isla Cartoon image and brand.” – Alberto Bernabé Turismo de Tenerife Board Member.