Spain's State-Backed Film Fund Put €215.6 Million to Work in a Year

SETT — the state-backed venture capital fund that acts as the investment driver of the Spain Audiovisual Hub — has directed €215.6 million ($252.3 million) over the past 12 months into Spanish film, Variety reports. That is a public fund operating with the cadence of a private one, which is the part worth watching. A venture investor's job is to place bets and accept that some fail; a state fund's job is harder to specify, because its returns are supposed to include things that don't show up on a balance sheet — a domestic production sector with enough scale to hold its own internationally. Whether the money builds durable companies or simply subsidises a slate is the question a number like €215.6 million can't answer by itself.