This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyses the significant changes in the aesthetics, production and reception of Spanish cinema and genre from 1990 to the present. It brings together European and North American scholars to establish a critical dialogue on the topic of contemporary Spanish cinema and genre while providing multiple perspectives on the concepts of national cinemas and genre theory. The book starts from the premise that Spanish cinema is a product of local, regional, national and global forces operating in diverse contact zones inside and outside of geopolitical borders. It provides an investigation of contemporary Spanish cinema within a transnational framework by positing cinematic genres as the meeting spaces between a variety of diverse forces that necessarily operate within but also across territorial spaces.