The Department of Culture adds nearly two million euros to the grants for audiovisual production in Basque

The Department of Culture and Language Policy of the Basque Government will add 1,972,419.23 euros to the call for grants for audiovisual production for 2026. The increase was approved by the Resolution of October 1, 2026, signed by the Deputy Minister of Culture Andoni Iturbe Amorebieta, and was published in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country on October 13, 2026, in issue number 195, with official reference 2026/4225. The entire additional amount will be allocated to projects with an original version in Basque.

The Resolution takes as its starting point the Order of April 22, 2026; that order called for and regulated the grants for audiovisual production for the 2026 event, and in its article 1.2, it established an initial endowment of 8,828,000.00 euros. The additional provisions of that order allowed the Deputy Minister of Culture to increase that maximum amount, either through the amount that can be transferred annually from the ICAA — the Institute of Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts, an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture and Sport — or through unused budget availability in other programs of the department. In this case, the route is the agreement to be signed with the ICAA.

The total amount of the call will increase to 10.8 million euros

Once the increase is approved, the maximum global amount of the call stands at 10,800,419.23 euros, that is, 1,972,419.23 euros more than the initial 8,828,000.00 euros. The entire additional amount will be allocated to projects in Basque.

• Initial endowment: 8,828,000.00 euros.
• Approved increase: 1,972,419.23 euros.
• New maximum global amount: 10,800,419.23 euros.
• Use: projects with an original version in Basque.

Feature film and short film modalities

The Resolution distributes the increase by modality, according to the chapters of the call. Feature films are the main beneficiaries, but the short film modalities also receive a significant increase.

• Feature films (Chapter II): increase of 1,800,000.00 euros; the endowment increases from 5,400,000.00 euros to 7,200,000.00 euros.
• Short films (Chapter III): increase of 172,419.23 euros; the endowment increases from 428,000.00 euros to 600,419.23 euros.

Agreement to be signed with the ICAA

The Resolution announces that an agreement will be signed in the coming weeks between the ICAA and the Directorate for the Promotion of Culture and Cultural and Creative Industries of the Basque Government, on behalf of the General Administration of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country. The purpose of the agreement is to channel a direct grant to help produce, distribute, exhibit, and promote cinema and audiovisuals in 2026 in a co-official language other than Spanish.

The legal basis for the measure is Article 36 of Law 55/2007, of December 28, on Cinema. This article establishes a fund to promote cinematography and audiovisuals in co-official languages, which is fully transferred to the competent bodies of the autonomous communities so that they may manage it according to their powers.

Background and appeal

There is a recent precedent: the Official Gazette of the Basque Country published Resolution 90/2026 on October 1, 2026, in issue number 188, which included the text of the agreement signed with the ICAA for 2022; in that agreement, the institutes transferred 760,395.49 euros.

An appeal against the resolution may be filed within one month, starting from the day following its publication, before the first vice-president and Minister of Culture and Language Policy. The resolution will be effective from the day following its publication in the Official Gazette of the Basque Country.

For the Basque-language audiovisual sector, this increase significantly raises the floor of the call: the long-form film modality grows by more than a third, and only Basque-language projects will receive the full additional funding. The sector will have a more stable source of financing in the 2026 call, and the agreement to be signed with the ICAA will give continuity to that path.

Fuente: BOPV, issue 195, October 13, 2026, Other Provisions (official reference: 2026/4225).