“Hollywood should be jealous of what Spain is doing and our facilities allow for this,” Netflix Spain and Portugal boss Diego Ávalos proclaimed today.

Ávalos talked up the stunt work and set design on shows such as Netflix smash Money Heist on a panel of the streamer’s execs at the MIA Market, explaining that sound stages have doubled to 10 since last year and there is a post-production facility with “state-of-the-art technology that is leveraged by Netflix around the world.”

“In Money Heist there is a big museum explosion and that was a set built entirely to last two minutes before it exploded,” he added. “We have built sets that I would argue are above anything you have seen in Hollywood.”

Other nations are also jumping aboard these facilities, he added, flagging the likes of UK series Kaos shooting in Spain.

Speaking on a MIA panel yesterday, Mediawan boss Elisabeth D’Arvieu said European production has a “big competitive advantage” over America, as she singled out Spain, Italy and Belgium in particular.

Ávalos said part of his strategy is to world-build, pointing to upcoming Money Heist spin-off Berlin, which is in fact set in Paris.

Overcoming stereotypes

Meanwhile, Netflix’s Italy chief Tinny Andreatta discussed how she wants to overcome national stereotypes rooted in the 1960s.

Andreatta acknowledged that the 1960s was a successful decade for Italian cinema but that this had “created stereotypes in our country.”

“Now the ambition is to launch a more modern, out-of-stereotype image of Italy,” she said.

In order to do this, Andreatta is commissioning shows for younger people, from the female gaze that are “complex and complicated” or about issues such as masculinity.

She flagged recent examples such as Matilda de Angelis-starrer The Law According to Lidia Poët, Supersex about Italian porn star Rocco Siffredi or “larger than life” music doc Vasco Rossi: Living It.

“We want to portray societies that are changing and spotlight people that are irregular,” she added.

Andreatta joined Netflix three years ago after a distinguished 25-year-long career at Italian broadcaster Rai and she said the quantity of productions in the nation has sinced multipled enormously.

This, she added, has created competition for talent with the traditional players. “I love competition but the problem with competition is there is a lack of talent so we are contributing with several initiatives to support the industry,” she explained, pointing to programs for intimacy co-ordinators, producers and women behind the camera.

Netflix Italy is also pushing into the unscripted space and Andreatta pointed to next year’s launch of a local version of hit format Rhythm + Flow.

This show, she explained, will showcase the differing culture of the nation by airing from Naples, Rome and Milan, underpinning her desire to tell stories of regionality from within Italy.

TV and film confab MIA Market is running all this week, with talks from the likes of Paramount’s Nicole Clemens, Miramax’s Marc Helwig and Anonymous Content duo David Levine and David Davoli.