Spanish cinema remains silent on sexual violence against women in the industry.

A few months ago, with the Goya Awards season, there was a euphoric atmosphere surrounding our audiovisual sector that made us proud. The " Made in Spain" approach to both small and big screens makes us proud , even though we're not part of the industry.

And it's a feeling you can surely identify with every time you open a streaming platform and the faces of our country come to mind. We've done it, we're there. Although there's much of that achievement we don't see, but which most national audiovisual works surely share: violence against women.

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This was made clear this Thursday by the presentation of the first national report on sexual violence in the Spanish audiovisual industry. This research by the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA) documents not only how it operates, but also the impact on the lives of women in the sector.

Violence in film is structural, systemic, and has been rendered invisible by its normalization. These are some of the conclusions presented by Dr. Bárbara Tardón and Dr. Nerea Barjola in After the Silence: Impact of Sexual Abuse and Violence Against Women in the Film and Audiovisual Industry (which is now available on their website ).

From acting school to casting calls , including offices, film shoots, promotion parties, and film distribution, the more than 300 women involved in the investigation confirm what #MeToo predicted a few years ago. This violence is part of the workplace , based on hierarchical inequalities, and women in the industry feel it is inevitable.

The researchers also sound the alarm about the most vulnerable in the industry, young women who suffer double discrimination because academic teachers, casting directors or producers see them as 'prey' and their consent is not free when they find themselves in a vulnerable situation with someone they admire or a certain sexual practice away from getting a project.

It's nothing new to Spanish cinema. "A very important director of the time wanted me for a film, and it was like, ' The director wants to touch your breasts too, to see if he wants this for the film ,'" according to the research based on the testimony of one of the participants in a focus group of 55- to 77-year-olds.

This has a huge impact on women's lives, as many of those who have experienced sexual violence are unable to continue their careers , and they suffer lifelong physical and psychological consequences.

A very important director of the time wanted me for a film and it was like, "The director wants to touch your tits too, to see if he wants this for the film."

We must not forget that this violence is sustained by collective silence, firstly by the victims' fear of speaking out because they will not be believed or because they will be re-victimized, but also by the silence of those who witness or know of the behavior and remain silent .

Even if a complaint were to be filed, Nerea Barjola and Bárbara Tardón have also highlighted in their report the ineffectiveness of the protocols —which are becoming more symbolic than effective —as well as the lack of inspections and transformative training, since the current ones do not last more than 5 or 10 hours.

Sexual violence, an occupational hazard within the sector

The data from hundreds of women in the sector who participated in the research (aged 20 to 80) are chilling, with 60.3% reporting having suffered some form of sexual violence , 81% reporting verbal harassment, 49.5% physical harassment, and 22.3% digital sexual violence.

There is unanimous reaction: 92% have not reported the incident, 6.9% have reported it to a law enforcement agency, regional police force, or court, and only 13.6% have told a responsible person (supervisor or human resources). And this widespread lack of action in reporting the incident is also not a coincidence.

First, a lack of credibility or mockery on the part of work teams is the first factor in silencing , as is a lack of trust in reporting channels or the absence of effective mechanisms for action and follow-up . Not to mention the pressure at work due to fear of retaliation.

"If we have to remove this person from the project, we'll have to stop filming, and we can't start stopping filming now ," is another recollection from one of the women in the report who gave testimony for the investigation.

The conclusion is that all professional women (actresses, directing, art, makeup, hair, sound, script, production, post-production, etc.) have faced some form of sexual violence in the industry, and that impunity prevails for the aggressors and the environment that silences them.

It is a form of discrimination that occurs across all ages and contexts, in work, leisure, private, and digital spaces, and acts as a mechanism of exclusion , pushing women out of the sector.

Their goal, says Guadalupe Balaguer (CIMA president) at the end of the press conference, is a safe, violence-free industry; in fact, the call for urgent measures is clear in their research. If this is a starting point, it's a positive attitude we can't help but cling to .

But my most negative—or realistic—side comes to light when I chat with a colleague before leaving for the day. I can't help but wonder how many of the films or series I've watched in recent years have featured accounts of violence.