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Cultural certificate
Pursuant to Article 22 of Royal Decree 1084/2015, of 4 December, the granting of general and selective financial aid to produce project-based feature films will be conditioned to these confirming their cultural nature.
- A cultural certificate will be issued ex officio, without the need for an express request and without any specific processing in favour of the projects receiving selective financial aid, given that their cultural nature will have been assessed and confirmed by the Committee for financial aid towards the production of feature films and short films.
- In the case of general financial aid for the production of project-based feature films, confirmation of their cultural nature will require the issue of a cultural certificate by the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, which will be issued as long as at least two of the following requirements are met:
- Its original version is any of Spain’s official languages. In the case of co-productions with foreign companies, the feature film may have as its original version any European Union official language.
- The setting of the content is basically in Spain.
- The content is directly related to literature, music, dance, architecture, painting, sculpture and, in general, artistic creation expressions.
- The script is an adaptation of a pre-existing literary work.
- The content is biographical or, in general, reflects historical events or characters, without prejudice to the free adaptation inherent to a cinematographic script.
- The content basically includes mythological or legendry stories, events or characters that may be considered to belong to world heritage or cultural tradition.
- It provides further knowledge of cultural, social, religious, ethnic, philosophical or anthropological diversity.
- The content is related to matters or topics that belong to Spain’s social, cultural or political reality, or has an effect on the same.
- In the cinematographic story, one of the protagonists or several actors in a secondary role are directly linked to this same Spanish social, cultural or political reality.
- It is specifically directed to children or young spectators and contains values in line with educational principles and purposes, gathered in Organic Education Act 2/2006, of 3 May, or any other rule replacing the same, as amended by Organic Act 8/2013, of 9 December, to improve the Quality of Education.
A cultural certificate application will be deemed as jointly filed along with a request for the subsidy in question and will be issued, as the case may be, along with the resolution granting the financial aid.
It will also be granted to feature films that meet the requirements established in each financial aid announcement but which cannot obtain the same due to exceeding the maximum credit amount established in the announcement.
The person in charge of the General Management of the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts may revoke the cultural certificate granted to a feature film project if the information on the work that is eventually submitted for rating purposes does not reflect the initial information based on which it was issued and it is ascertained that it does not meet the criteria justifying its granting. Revocation of a certificate will require the reimbursement of all financial aid received.
In the event of investments in the production of feature films and audiovisual series that involve fiction, animation or documentary content, for which no financial aid for production is requested but which need to certify their cultural nature in order to be eligible for the deductions foreseen in tax regulations, a cultural certificate will be requested from the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, which will reach a decision based on whether the aforementioned requirements are met.
The failure to confirm this cultural nature will entail a dismissal of the financial aid requested and this will be expressly referred to in the unfavourable resolution, without prejudice to any other justifying reasons.
