Cinema of Spain

Cinema of Spain
Cine Capitol, Gran Vía, Madrid
Number of screens	3,908 (2013)
• Per capita	9.7 per 100,000 (2011)
Main distributors	Warner Bros. E. España, S.L. 16.0% Paramount Spain 13.0% Sony Pictures 12.0%
Produced feature films (2011)
Total	199
Fictional	122 (61.3%)
Animated	9 (4.5%)
Documentary	68 (34.2%)
Number of admissions (2013)
Total	78,690,507
• Per capita	1.93 (2012)
National films	11,013,096 (14.0%)
Gross box office (2013)
Total	€506 million
National films	€70.2 million (13.9%)

The art of motion-picture making within the Kingdom of Spain or by Spanish filmmakers abroad is collectively known as Spanish Cinema.

In recent years, Spanish cinema has achieved high marks of recognition. In the long history of Spanish cinema, the great filmmaker Luis Buñuel was the first to achieve universal recognition, followed by Pedro Almodóvar in the 1980s. Spanish cinema has also seen international success over the years with films by directors like Segundo de Chomón, Florián Rey, Luis García Berlanga, Juan Antonio Bardem, Carlos Saura, Julio Médem and Alejandro Amenábar. Woody Allen, upon receiving the prestigious Prince of Asturias Award in 2002 in Oviedo remarked: "when I left New York, the most exciting film in the city at the time was Spanish, Pedro Almodóvar's one. I hope that Europeans will continue to lead the way in film making because at the moment not much is coming from the United States."

Non-directors, like the cinematographer Néstor Almendros, the art director Gil Parrondo, the screenwriter Rafael Azcona, the actresses Maribel Verdú and, especially, Penélope Cruz and the actors Fernando Rey, Francisco Rabal, Antonio Banderas, Javier Bardem and Fernando Fernán Gómez, have obtained significant recognition outside Spain.