La Gran Ruta de Cine

Over the years, many hundreds of movies have been shot in Andalucia, due to the extraordinary variety of its landscapes - mountains, deserts, beaches; its magnificent cities, with beautifully preserved period buildings; and its reliable sunshine.
Think of the spaghetti westerns of the 1960s and 1970s, shot in Almeria; Hollywood blockbuster Knight and Day, starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz, and filmed in Cadiz and Seville; or Antonio Banderas' semi-autobiographical El Camino de los Ingleses, set and shot in his native Malaga.


Andalucia is the region of Spain where most film are shot - last year, 1900 movies were made here. The provinces with most filmic activity are Seville and Malaga. One of the shoots here in Seville was Sacha Baron-Cohen's new film - he chose Plaza de España, which has been used in countless movies, for his spoof about a Middle Eastern dictator. You read a blog post about the shoot here.
For this reason, the Andalucia Film Commission has created a series of "film routes", showing you all the places were certain movies were shot.
The AFC, which was set up in 1998, already has more than 300 enclaves cinematograficos (cinematographic areas) around Andalucia which it promotes, locations you can visit where movies have been filmed.
Its Red de Ciudades de Cine de Andalucia (Network of Film Cities in Andalucia) has 93 towns, with 20 more due to join. This is one section of the Andalucian economy which is not in decline.
Here are some of the classic greats which have been shot in Andalucia, and the provinces where they were filmed:

Lawrence of Arabia (Sevilla, Almeria)


Doctor Zhivago (Granada)


The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Almeria)


Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (Sevilla)

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Almeria, Granada)

Die Another Day (Cadiz)


Currently being shot here in Sevilla is The Blind Man of Seville, from the Robert Wilson thriller.
See the AFC website for more information, and also the Rutas de Cine to find the shooting locations of specific films, such as Knight and Day and Kingdom of Heaven.
The AFC also has an excellent filmography, where you can search by location, film, director, actor.
Andalucia: the ideal destination for film buffs.
Blog published on 5 March 2012