Universal Film & Television Journal’s Amir Ganjavie interviewed South International Series Festival’s Director Joan Alvarez to discuss the inaugural festival and its future.
Amir Ganjavie, UniversalCinema Magazine (UM): Can you first start by telling us about what you do in your role as Director of the festival?
Joan Alvarez (JA): I design it, design the concept of how the festival should be, the goal of the festival, get the financing to do the festival, and be on top of how others work. This is a festival, so I need to look after our talent, directors, and guests in general. On the first day, I did the red carpet. Then the rest of it, I try to rest a bit.
(UM): How did the idea of making a festival in Cádiz about TV series come to mind? Can you say a little bit about history?
(JA): Four years ago, in partnership with the former director of a cultural center in Málaga called La Térmica, Mr. Salomón Castiel, asked us to design the series festival. We designed it and prepared everything, and then the pandemic arrived, and everything stopped. There was a forum for industry and professionals from that project called the Iber Series. It was only a forum for industry. The festival remained undone, which we resumed at last year’s end.
We took the idea again and prepared this festival with the support of the Andalusian regional government, a key partner. Another partner is the City Council of Cádiz. Spain Film Commission has also been very important. With these partners and other partners, we have added sufficient money to do the festival. That is the financial part of it, the strategic part of it. The idea underneath is way more complex.
Our mission is to have an international festival with a solid root in Spain and Andalucía and with an international outlook, which is not focused only on the Western part, but actually on the global South. We are interested in Africa, Arab countries, Asia, and Australia. It is a completely new outlook, which didn’t exist before in the Spanish industry, and we thought it would be interesting to have it because when it’s streaming, you can get it truly everywhere, the four corners of the world.
Series get everywhere. Audiences are fully global. There are more and more production centers, in Nigeria or Riyadh, in South Korea or Turkey. That is the approach for us.
(UM): Why did you pick Cádiz for the location for the festival?
(JA): Cádiz has an interesting appeal and attraction capacity. People love it. It’s amazing. The regional government of Andalusia, which is our regional government, thought that Cádiz needed an initiative for a main cultural event. That was magic because whenever we would meet someone and tell them, “Oh, we want you to be our partner,” and they would ask us where we take place and we would say, “Cádiz”, they’d say, “I’m on board,” immediately. There was nobody ever who was indifferent to the idea. The city has a really interesting appeal.
Additionally, Cádiz also has its own identity. It’s a very international city. People who went to the Americas came from the area, but there have also been very interesting events in the history of Cádiz. This is where the first democratic constitution of Spain was approved in 1812.
I would also add that important parts of the film and TV industry come to Cádiz. They have houses here. They have the summer holidays here, so they are here. It was lots of factors, which made it automatic to choose Cádiz. We are very happy that we have done so.
(UM): And in terms of selection, do you have a programming team?
(JA): Yes, we do. We have a programming team, and we also have an advisory committee. We have very well-known figures, and we ask them for their opinions. Practically, we just talk to all these series right holders in Spain: platforms, TV channels, and producers. We have made a selection and series that will be premiered in the Autumn and Winter seasons which are important. We have done a mapping of the international series.
(UM): Was it easy for you to convince, for example, the producer or distributor to give you their series, given the fact that this is the first time?
(JA): It’s been very good, really easy. This is the first large series festival in Spain. There are other small festival series, but they are very small and they are more linked to one single player. We are not. We are a large festival with a very international outlook, and we’ve talked to all the players. All of them have responded positively.
Things are completely different with a film festival. For a film festival, what you do is you find producers, you do a call for projects, for films. We’ve done the same thing, and we’ve had many series coming up. But when it’s time to select a series, you talk to Disney, Netflix, or Channel 5 on Spanish television. They look at what series they’ve finished, and premiere it with a potential release date around here.
For them, being with us is a major communication and PR event. We’ve negotiated that with all TV channels to see whether they would fit into their agenda, our festival, and we’ve managed to do so.
(UM): You’ve spoken about public sponsorship, what about from the private sector?
(JA): Commercial sponsorship is much more difficult to raise compared to public funding. Once you’ve convinced the public funding, then you can go for the private.
From now on, we will truly start working on commercial funding. We didn’t have commercial funding. It is not business as such. In private financing, they want PR and marketing for their brand. It’s a pure sponsorship, right? You can’t do that unless you have a product. Now, we have a product story. We have the products, and we can say, “If you come with us, this is what you get.”
Media impact, so far, is around 6 million euros, and I think we’ll make it to 12 million euros, which is quite a major figure. You talk to your sponsors and you tell them, “Listen. Your communication impact is going to be that high,” and maybe we ask them to give us, I don’t know, 20 times less than that. But of course, you can only do that once you have a product, so now we are making the product.
(UM): Time of year is an important thing with festivals, I’m curious, why did you pick October?
(JA): Because there was no other way around it. We are already thinking about a different date for next year, but we had to find approval from the regional government, and it didn’t come until January. In January, we could not make any commitment before the summer. In Spain, August is the month when everybody is on holiday. Nobody does anything in August. We had September to prepare for October, but it’s true, the dates are not good.
We are very close to the San Sebastian Film Festival, Rome’s MIA Market, there is another industrial forum in London, so this month is really difficult. We are considering other dates, but we need to have time and organize it. October is also good because it was the deadline for the players who own their rights to give us the broadcasting rights. It was the deadline to present the products to the whole industry. We need to respect those deadlines.
In summer, there are no releases of new projects so we need to always be linked to the release schedule for the official sections of the series.
(UM): Securing venues is very important for a festival, was it easy for you to find good theatres?
(JA): This venue from the beginning was given to us by the city council, and we like it. Across the road, we have the port with this village where we have created a space for people to go and have a beer. It’s more casual, and we like it. There is also a local big theatre, a traditional Italian-style theatre, which is where we think we can eventually do our opening and closing galas in our second edition. It is a more traditional theatre.
(UM): And about staffing, staffing is also another issue with many festivals because the job is often seasonal.
(JA): This festival has the public sponsors I mentioned earlier. There is a producer, a company that is producing the festival. It’s the key organizer of the festival. We have Human Resources, the producer has hired external people to do it. There are five or six people who are not members of the company, but we work at the festival. Everything else is done internally in the company, and they’re great. They are a really good company. That is the formula.
This is what we call a PPP, Private-Public Partnership. The producer brings in the talent, people, the HR, the resources, and the sponsors, support financially. The city council of Cádiz, they are also doing an outreach campaign in the city. There are five or six professionals, like freelancers, who have been called to do it but are not employees of the company.
(UM): Is the festival open to the public or only to the industry?
(JA): 90% of participation comes from the public. Screenings are fully open to the public. You need to book the ticket online. You cannot turn up and just get in. You just book your ticket. You go online, you book the ticket, but it is fully open to the public. For industry, you need to get an accreditation. We have more than 1,000 industry professionals accredited, and people who come need to have the accreditation.
For the accreditation, we don’t have demanding requirements. There are university students here, and they got accreditation because they want to attend the seminars and the debates that occur. We did not ask them to do anything. That is mostly done by people who work in this industry, professionals. All they need to do is to get their accreditation.
(UM): I’ve seen the official advertisements for the festival around the city, how has the reaction been from the locals and the audience?
(JA): Wonderful. Super nice. We have a full house many times. At the red carpet for our guests and talent team, there’s always people watching. The first days, we had more people than we could have on the red carpet, so we could not ask for a better event.
(UM): You said it’s the first major event in Cádiz. I’m curious if you had ideas or concepts about the festival, and how it could be useful for the economy or culture of the city.
(JA): Yes, together with the city council we’ve done a dynamic outreach program in the city, like outreach to the different corners of the city. Outside, we’ve done activities in the public squares like make-up workshops and street activities. That’s a good dynamization for the city.
(UM): With festivals like Berlin having shakeups and others being canceled because of changes in the Municipality do you worry about the future of your festival?
(JA): As I said, we have funding from the regional government. That is the most important source of funding for us. We have a three-year commitment to continue. The support we had for this year, and the next two, gives us peace of mind. The city council is super devoted. This venue belongs to the city council and is given to us for free, which is a major contribution for us. On top of that, they will organize a party, so there is a great contribution from the city council. They also have tickets to this venue, so we are working hand-in-hand together with the city council.
I think it will evolve well because we are at the beginning of a political cycle. The local government started their term six months ago, so it is going to be the same for four years. There is no reason to worry about a political change that would not like the festival. We have a greater certainty which is that people are relating to the festival. There is a feeling of belonging to something that takes place here that is theirs. The response of the audience is only going to get bigger and better.
(UM): Given the fact that you are supported by Spanish media, do you have any quotas in terms of Spanish production, in terms of race or gender? Do you have any kind of quotas in your selection process?
(JA): Not at all. The right holders in Spain are not the producers. It’s the TV chains or the platforms that hold the rights. Some producers do a pilot episode but not the full series, and then they negotiate with a platform or a TV channel. Series owned by a producer, there are very few of them, they are making online series, straight internet series, very small and not large; therefore, we mainly talk to TV channels and platforms.
When we talk about a more international scope, things can change. We have a series called, “Peace Peace Now Now,” a Chilean-produced series directed by Isabel Coixet, a Spanish film director, and performed by Lydia Cacho. She is an author from Mexico with Spanish National because she did a wonderful campaign reporting the persecution of women in Mexico and revealing a pedophile ring in Mexico. In Mexico, she was frightened of the police killing her, which is an easy thing to do in Mexico, so she moved here and she’s living here.
That series, the rights are owned by a Chilean producer. The Chilean producers sold their rights to Disney Plus, but Disney Plus Latin America. They didn’t purchase them for other territories. As you know, copyright is negotiated on a territorial basis. Here in Spain, that production is owned by the Chilean producer. It doesn’t have a distributor. After they see it here, maybe a distributor says that they are interested and they decide to distribute it here because they only bought it for Latin America. It’s very delicate, this thing about rights and right-holders, but we just need to do it with each product on an individual basis.
(UM): How important is the star system or a star for your event?
(JA): It’s key, absolutely important. We have four red carpets each day, talent coming with all the series, and there is a lot of PR, communication work, and photo calls. The star system is really important for us, every day.
(UM): Anything else you’d like to add?
(JA): We are very interested in talking or having people from the productions of Spanish language series in the United States, so series which are shot in Spanish in the States. That’s a key priority.
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