Origins of the institutionalization of film training in Spain. The academies for the training of actors in the early 20th century

This paper addresses the beginnings of the institutionalization processes of film training in Spain; it specifically focuses on the “film academies”, which appeared in the twenties in twentieth-century Barcelona. The interest in these schools, which were pioneers in teaching performing arts for cinema, lies in the role that they played in promoting filmmaking and in the fact that it is a subject which has received little attention in Spanish communication studies. Thus, this paper aims to explain the emergence of such entities and demonstrate the fundamental role that they had in the institutionalization processes mentioned above. This objective has been achieved through the study of documentary sources whose information has been analysed by means of the construction of descriptive systems and by examining them based on theory. Consequently, a historical reconstruction of the educational panorama of the period, as well as a detailed analysis has been obtained, which are supported by Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann’s theory of social constructionism. The results achieved reveal the vital role that these academies played in the institutionalization of film training in Spain by helping to establish, through their activity, the belief in the usefulness of academic training for the film professions.