DAMA presents a report on the socio-occupational situation of directors of audiovisual works in Spain
The Minister of Culture and Sport, Miguel Iceta i Llorens, stressed the importance of this study as a basis for guiding public policies in this sector.
The study is the first of its kind to be carried out in Spain.
According to the research, only 30% of the 638 active professionals quantified work in management on a continuous basis over the course of a year.
The report highlights a wide gender gap: 85% of audiovisual management professionals are men.
The Minister of Culture and Sport Miquel Iceta i Llorens presented this morning at the headquarters of DAMA the study Dirigir obras audiovisuales en España. Radiografía sociolaboral de la profesión (Directing audiovisual works in Spain. Socio-labour radiography of the profession), carried out by DAMA, the audiovisual copyright management organisation, in collaboration with the Academia de Cine.
Based on intensive fieldwork, in this pioneering and unique study in Spain, university professors Javier Carrillo and José Antonio Gómez Yáñez detail with objective figures and data the characteristics of the group of professional directors in our country, as well as the conditions in which they carry out their work in the current audiovisual scenario.
Miquel Iceta i Llorens, Minister of Culture and Sport, highlighted in his speech the relevance of this type of research:
“I would like to thank DAMA for its efforts, recognise the value of the study and urge us to continue working so that the public is more aware of the situation of the world of culture, its potential, but also its difficulties. This study also helps society to better understand the policies of promotion and support that we are developing from the administrations, and particularly from the Ministry of Culture”.
The minister also wanted to remind the figure and importance of the actor Juan Diego, who passed away this morning.
The presentation was also attended by the president of DAMA, Borja Cobeaga, who detailed some of the conclusions of the report. According to the study, only 30% of the 638 active professionals quantified work as directors on a continuous basis throughout the entire year. Twenty-five percent devote about three months a year to the profession and 60% of those surveyed combine management with other activities.
Another of the most relevant conclusions of the study, according to Borja Cobeaga, is the existence of a significant gender gap in this group:
“85% of directors are men. Women directors point to unequal opportunities as one of the major problems of the profession, something that, however, the directors consulted do not highlight with such intensity”.
The report also details the salary conditions of a profession in which intermittent work leads to large fluctuations from period to period. According to the study’s calculation, the average annual income is €42,000, although 27% of management professionals earn less than €20,000.
For his part, Mariano Barroso, president of the Academia de Cine, said:
“When the people at DAMA told us about the work they wanted to do, I found it very difficult to find the common ground that would affect the whole profession. But when I read the report, I recognise myself in almost every page. These are things that I have been thinking about and that concern us all, and that the study supports with data.
This DAMA study shows the complexity of the professional reality of audiovisual directing in Spain, and with it, as filmmaker Borja Cobeaga explains, the need for a review of the profession from a social, labour and fiscal point of view.