Organised by DEIA at the Euskalduna Palace
The Basque Country Film School will participate on March 11 at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao in the meeting on Creative and Cultural Industries (CCI) organised by the newspaper DEIA. The event will bring together institutional representatives and industry professionals to analyse the present and future of creativity as an economic driver in Bizkaia.
The event will feature David Pedrosa, director of the Basque Country Film School, who will take part alongside other key figures from the region’s cultural and audiovisual ecosystem.
Creative and Cultural Industries have become one of the strategic sectors in Bizkaia, with a growing presence within the territory’s economy and business fabric. According to the latest data from the Basque Statistics Institute (Eustat), the cultural sector represented around 2% of the Basque Country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2024. In addition, CCIs account for more than 10% of companies in the region and generate over 5% of total employment, reflecting the real impact of a sector that spans performing and visual arts, digital content, design, fashion, video games and audiovisual production.
The meeting organised by DEIA will explore the role of this sector as a driver of economic development, job creation and innovation, while also addressing the challenges currently faced by cultural companies in a rapidly evolving environment.
The event will open with an institutional welcome from Ainara Basurko, Regional Deputy for Economic Promotion. Two roundtable discussions will then bring together various industry stakeholders to discuss Bizkaia’s role as a territory that fosters culture and economic development, as well as the current challenges facing cultural and creative companies.
Alongside David Pedrosa, director of the Basque Country Film School, the event will also feature Begoña de Ibarra, Director General for Culture at the Provincial Council of Bizkaia; Felipe Jiménez Luna, Digital Strategy Director at Banijay Iberia; Yurdana Burgoa, CEO of Last Tour; producer Carlos Juárez from Basque Films; and film director and screenwriter Mikel Rueda.
The participation of the Basque Country Film School reinforces its role within the Basque audiovisual ecosystem, contributing to the development of creative talent and the training of new professionals in a sector that continues to grow in both economic and cultural relevance.
The event will take place at the Euskalduna Palace in Bilbao, one of the city’s main cultural and conference venues. In 2024 it hosted 719 events and reached a 90% occupancy rate, further consolidating Bizkaia’s position as one of the most dynamic cultural hubs in the Basque Country.
