Objective: to create an image for the city and for its own economic sector. Cities in the Basque Country are suddenly fashionable with film directors looking for settings for their movies. Bilbao's revamped, remodelled and ultra-modern look, the attractive historical air of Vitoria and, in particular, its Santa María Cathedral, and San Sebastián's dandified elegance, capable of absorbing the modern Kursaal conference centre, are attracting an increasing number of location units shooting film scenes, an activity that is more lucrative and image-boosting than some people probably realize.

To date, only San Sebastián has actually quantified the economic impact of filming on the city. According to the city's Film Commission, filming brought in €4.6 million in 2008. In all, San Sebastián hosted 190 audiovisual productions, requiring 329 days of actual shooting.

Of course, it helps matters that the ten-year-old (how time flies!) Kursaal conference centre is the HQ of the city's International Film Festival. It is in fact probably one of the country's most photographed buildings. In 2008, it provided the backdrop for six film and advertising shoots, although the figure doubles if we include TV programmes, interviews and photo shoots. The Kursaal cubes have also played host to firms like Astore, La Oca, El Corte Inglés, Kutxa, Euskaltel and fashion and society magazines Telva and Hello! original Hola, besides serving as the scenario for the debuts of 15-plus vehicles, presented by big names like Lexus, Mercedes, Volkswagen, BMW, Jaguar, Renault, MAN and Irizar.

Santa María cathedral in Vitoria has also attracted the attention of the media, production companies and local institutions as a setting for shoots, including the Paulo Coelho interview conducted by idiosyncratic Spanish journalist Jesús Quintero for his TV programme "The fool on the hill", and the arrival of US public TV channel PBS, which shot a series of programmes on tourism and gastronomy called, 'Spain... on the road again', presented by actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Claudia Bassols, chef Mario Batali and gastronomic critic Mark Whitman.

But it was Bilbao and environs that registered the biggest increase in film shoots. With the recent Spanish Christmas lottery adverts still fresh in the memory, there were 44 shoots in the city during the year.  As Bilbao Films Commission director Ernesto del Río wryly comments, "we were 120 per cent more attractive last year than in 2007."

Isozaki's burnished towers and Frank Gehry's spectacular Guggenheim museum have really caught the public's (and the film directors') imagination, at home and abroad.