The Ibero-American Support Fund has once again selected Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola in the category of Support for Training Programmes (2022 Call) , for which film or television schools, universities, associations and specialised professional training centres in Latin America and Italy were eligible.

The Ibermedia evaluation committee deemed the EQZE educational project (directed by filmmaker Carlos Muguiro, whose interview you can read here) to be substantial and innovative, valuing its synergy with the institutions and its events (such as the San Sebastian International Film Festival, Tabakalera and Filmoteca Vasca). Twelve students will receive support for the 2023-2024 academic year.

The evaluating body valued "the substantial and innovative training system" (divided into three specialities: archive-preservation, curatorial-programming and film creation) of a project that "balances theory and practice very well". The panel regards it "important the emphasis on accompanying emerging filmmakers and its aim to create new cinematographic realities" proposed by the project, a challenge it describes as "stimulating". The training structure, the programme contents, the teaching staff and the experience of the institution have also received the maximum score allowed by the evaluation system.

Following the approval of the resolution published earlier this month, the fund will give EQZE $40,000 towards scholarships and tuition assistance. The school will hand out the grant in the form of twelve scholarships worth $3,333 each, which will be open to candidates from the 23 countries that are part of the programme: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Italy (as guest), Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.

The Ibermedia Programme that supports film and audiovisual production in Ibero-America was launched in 1998. Since then, it has had more than 30 calls, through which it has supported 1,049 co-production projects, 1,130 audiovisual projects in development and awarded more than 2,950 grants in 23 countries. In total, this represents an investment of $118 million, from which nearly 3,300 projects have benefited.