Madrid. Despite the award obtained this year in Cannes by the Franco-Spanish óliver Laxe for his film SiratSpanish cinema crosses a difficult pass: in 2024, the attendance of rooms dropped by 6 % and national films represented only 19 % of market share, compared to almost 45 % of entries for French films in France. It is in this context that the Spanish Ministry of Culture, through the Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (ICAA), announced in April the opening in 2027 of a Museum of Spanish Cinema.
The recently acquired Madrid building to welcome it, located at number 145 of Calle Velázquez, is steeped in history. He first hosted the premises of the production of the No-DO, short film filmed news of Francoist propaganda, then the headquarters of the RTVE national television until 2007, before remaining unoccupied.
This public project aims to fill a void and provide Spain with a real reference institution. The museum will not be a simple exhibition space: in addition to its permanent and temporary collections, it aims to become a cultural center specializing in the country’s audiovisual history, offering projections and educational activities accessible to all audiences. For this, it will be based on the 70,000 negatives preserved by the Spanish filmotheque to trace, for example, the history of propaganda films and that of cinema under Francoism.
However, this will not be the only museum dedicated to cinema in Spain, another already exists in the region. The latter is a private institution, more oriented towards film material. Founded by the entrepreneur and collector Carlos Jiménez, this museum presents projectors, cameras, posters and other objects related to the 7th art.
