The Basque Country has become an increasingly attractive place to make films and television.
In Bizkaia alone, audiovisual employment rose 50.5% between 2014 and 2024, while the number of companies linked to the sector climbed from 284 to 448. In 2025, the Bilbao Bizkaia Film Commission supported 219 shoots with an estimated economic impact of €138.1 million ($158.45 million).
For Xabi Berzosa of San Sebastian-based Irusoin, the legal answer is relatively simple.
“From a legal standpoint, if a film is produced by a Basque production company, it’s Basque. That’s simply how it is defined.”
Then he offers the complication. Irusoin is a co-producer on Nanni Moretti’s latest film “It Will Happen Tonight,” alongside such companies as Fandango and BTeam Prods.
For filmmaker Koldo Almandoz, whose Basque-language feature “The Last Goodbye” plays out of competition in San Sebastian’s Official Selection this year, the answer lies somewhere beyond legal definitions. It has to do, he says, with “the soul,” with “the culture, the language, the crews and the intention of the films.”
That word — deep-rooted — sits uneasily beside an industry that is increasingly mobile. Berzosa puts the principle more simply. “Productions that come for financial reasons will leave for financial reasons.”
None of the producers argues that attracting international productions is a mistake. “Major international productions have obviously a very positive impact,” Ganuza says. “They create jobs, generate economic activity, and boost international visibility.”
Berzosa makes a similar distinction between servicing and co-producing. “The obvious solution is to service that shooting,” he says. “You are hired, they come and they go.”
Almandoz worries about what happens to that local infrastructure if conditions change.
Ganuza says the next phase must focus on making sure international investment strengthens local companies rather than displacing them.
“The main problem is not a lack of opportunities,” he says. “It is precisely the opposite: there is a huge opportunity, and we must ensure that growth does not leave behind the companies that have built this sector right here.” That may ultimately become a useful measure of success, and one relevant far beyond the Basque Country.
“We have to start talking about where we want the Basque film industry to be in 2030,” Ganuza says, “not just how many film shoots we’ll have next year.”
