The Spanish Film Screenings of Lanzarote, a three-day mini-market for Spanish cinema heldevery winter in the Canary Islands, have been cancelledafter six editions.

The Screenings drew anywhere from50 to 90 international buyers each winter to the Spanish archipelago off thenorthwest coast of Africa. After five years running inlate November and early December, the market shifted dates last year toFebruary to fit in better with the international calendar.

Local producers are understood tohave called for changes to the event in response to the consolidation of thesector, where in the last few years much sales activity on Spanish cinema hasbegun concentrating into the hands of a few big companies.

Although the desert island localewas a mid-winter favourite among international buyers, there were alsocomplaints about the long travel schedules and required stopovers to get there.Many participants last year were further slogged by weather-related delays in Madrid.

Sources at the Spanish Producers'Federation FAPAE, one of two main sponsors of the event together with theSpanish Foreign Commerce Institute (ICEX), underscored that over its six years Lanzarote has played an invaluable role incarving asuccessful platform for Spanish cinema to reach the international market.

FAPAE calculated in a recentreport that global sales on Spanish film and TV product have doubled theirvalue in the last five years. But, whereas five companies accounted for 80% ofSpanish film sales abroad in 2002, only three companies accounted for almostthe same percentage just two years later.

Spanish producers need "new meansfor commercialising their product" to adapt to the changing market, the FAPAEsources said. FAPAE is understood to be developing, together with ICEX, a planfor "new activities targeting the international market."

"The local and regionalgovernments of Lanzarote and the Canary Islands deserve a lot of credit for investing so much in Spanishcinema," added Teodoro Rios, who helped create andthen directed the Lanzarote Screenings. "I wish themarket all the best for its future consolidation and growth."