Following last week’s appointment of Angeles Gonzalez Sinde as Spain’s culture minister, Ignasi Guardans will become the new director of the ICAA (Institute ofCinematography and Audiovisual Arts), the country’s film and TV body.

ICAA is an autonomous body within the Ministry of Culture which promotes, regulates and funds cinema and A/V activities in Spain, including film production, distribution and exhibition.

ScreenDaily has learned that MEP Guardans, a member of the European Parliament committee on education and culture, will replace outgoing ICAA chief Fernando Lara later this month.

The well-regarded Guardans, an active and vocal MEP on film issues and a strong proponent of the protection of intellectual property and content on the Internet, was already understood not to be standing for re-election in June.

Earlier in the week, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero surprised the film industry with the appointment of filmmaker and former Film Academy president Sinde, to the post of Spanish Culture Minister.

She replaced Cesar Antonio Molina who held the job for two years.

The moves will have a Europe-wide effect in the coming year as Spain looks to implement a film law that was passed in 2007 and as the country takes over the European presidency in 2010.

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