The eFilm streaming service, offered by public libraries in Catalonia, the Valencian Country, and the Balearic Islands, treats Catalan and Valencian as separate languages in its language selection menu. This platform, subsidised by the Spanish Ministry of Culture, provides free access to films, series, podcasts, and books through public libraries.
Neither the service's use within Catalan libraries nor its denial of linguistic unity is new. According to a press release and confirmation from the platform itself, eFilm has been active in Catalonia since September 2018. At that time, the Generalitat announced that library users could access over 2,000 audiovisual documents from the catalogue for free via the eBiblioCat digital library.
Service Launch and Institutional Support
When the service launched, it was described as a collaboration between the Libraries Service of the Department of Culture of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Library Services Management of the Barcelona Provincial Council, and the Barcelona Libraries Consortium, with support from the Spanish Ministry of Culture. The service became available in the Balearic Islands in 2020 and in the Valencian Country in 2023.
The platform has confirmed that the distinction between Catalan and Valencian is not a recent change; it has always been present, including in 2018 when the Department of Culture announced its availability in Catalonia. While many Spanish institutional websites differentiate between Valencian and Catalan, eFilm is notable because it relies on both the Ministry and Catalan institutions, and it directly serves public libraries across the Catalan-speaking territories.
Since the project's inception, starting with Catalonia in 2018 and later expanding to the Valencian Country and the Balearic Islands, no government has introduced or requested changes regarding the platform's use or a modification of its language menu.
