The 29th Festival de Málaga, organised by Malaga City Council through Malaga Procultura, hosted the round table discussion Violencia Cero: cómo crear espacios seguros at the Women Filmmakers Conference, in an event organised by AMMA and CIMA at the Carmen Thyssen Museum on Monday 9 March.

"I had to look for a way to survive in this jungle, because sexual assaults were always happening", is one of the testimonies included in the report After the silence. Impact of sexual abuse and violence against women in the film and audiovisual industry by the Association of Women Filmmakers and Audiovisual Media (CIMA). This is the first document in Andalusia to gather data and testimonies on sexual violence in the Spanish audiovisual industry at national level.

Barbara Tardón, co-author of the report, argues that it is necessary to read it "breaking with the ideal of stipulated rape". A total of 60.3% of the women surveyed in the report have experienced sexual violence in the audiovisual sector, of which 81% have faced verbal harassment, 49.5% physical harassment and 22.3% virtual harassment.

Blanca Rey, head of the Network of Safe Audiovisual Spaces project of the Andalusian Association of Women in Audiovisual Media (AMMA), began the talk by saying that the association was lucky enough to present the '¡CORTEN!' project at last year's Festival de Málaga, a "manual of good practices in the audiovisual sector", which contains figures that are in line with those presented in the CIMA report. Tardón stressed that one of the most worrying facts is that only 6.9% of women who have suffered some kind of sexual aggression have reported it to the State Security Forces, and only 4.3% have taken it to a specialised institution.

“We talk about reporting, when a company official is made aware of what has happened," said Tardón. "What this reveals is that the institutions continue to be unknown spaces where women do not feel protected”. In this line, Blanca Rey stressed that in the Carmenes Awards AAMMA implemented and promoted the punto violeta. "We were lucky that figures such as Salva Reina, Kira Miro, Abi Núñez and Silvia Acosta, among others, attended and joined in with this space for women", said Rey, stressing the "distance and resistance" that still exists when it comes to approaching these points, as it is not just place to report assaults.

Recommendations for the creation of protocols for the prevention of sexual violence and safe spaces for women in the audiovisual sector.

Some of the recommendations proposed in this report to the Ministry of Equality are the effective implementation of Organic Law 10/2022; the monitoring of crisis centres in accordance with Organic Law 10/2022, and the promotion of the approval of the administrative accreditation of victims of sexual violence.

The report also gives a nod to film academies and proposes the inspection of workplaces. "We know that the labour inspectorate is still not reaching those areas within the industry that demand the need for research and specific campaigns adapted to the sector", concluded Bárbara Tardón.