Major Spanish public broadcaster TVE has increased its investment in films by 20% to $47m (€35m) for 2010 and will continue its film sales activities, despite former TVE head of cinema insisting sales activities would be wound down.

“We will continue our film sales activities and pre-buying film projects,” Eva Cebrian told ScreenDaily at the San Sebastian Film Festival.

TVE has previously handled sales on Joaquin Oristrell’s popular Spanish comedy Mediterranean Food and Mateo Gil’s new drama Blackthorn, starring Sam Shepard and Eduardo Noriega, which is currently in post.

Andres Santana, head of Blackthorn’s Spanish co-producers Aiete-Arianne Films confirmed that TVE will no longer be handling sales on the project.

Gustavo Ferrada, former head of the cinema unit at TVE, told ScreenDaily back in March before he left his post in June, that TVE’s film budget had been stripped and it was likely to wind down its international film sales activities and no longer co-produce films, with pre-buying TV rights the only remaining service.

The Spanish government decided that because TVE is no longer allowed to advertise on its channels and is funded by the state, the broadcaster should not actively chase revenue through marketing and investments, said Ferrada.

However, TVE’s requirement under the new General Audiovisual law to invest 6% of its annual revenue in Spanish and European film projects, as opposed to the previous 5%, has resulted in its pre-buying activities increasing to $47m, up 20% on last year.

TVE has just pre-bought the TV rights to new projects from some of the biggest names in Spanish cinema, including Iciar Bollain’s Vicky Sherpa, Pedro Almodovar’s La Piel Que Habito, Javier Fesser’s Mortadelo Y Filemon 3D, Alex De La Iglesia’s Un Dia De Suerte and Fernando Trueba’s El Artista Y La Modelo.

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