UPF-BSM receives the Academic Golden Spike of Honour at the 71st SEMINCI

The festival presents the award to the school’s Master’s in Creative Documentary, an international benchmark in film education and a training ground for several generations of acclaimed filmmakers.

The Master’s in Creative Documentary at UPF Barcelona School of Management (UPF-BSM) was awarded the Academic Golden Spike of Honour at the 71st edition of the Valladolid International Film Week (Seminci) today, in recognition of nearly three decades of work and its contribution to contemporary documentary cinema. According to the festival, the award “champions education as an essential part of film culture” and recognises those who help ensure that quality cinema continues to be made through education and training.

Established thirty years ago by Jordi Balló and currently directed by filmmaker Eva Vila, the UPF-BSM programme is a pioneering model that brings together education and filmmaking. It has supported a total of 42 film projects by prominent filmmakers such as José Luis Guerin, Oliver Laxe and Albert Serra, and has trained filmmakers including Isaki Lacuesta, Neus Ballús and Lois Patiño.

“This recognition is a source of great pride for our community, as Seminci is one of Europe’s most prestigious film festivals and an international benchmark for auteur cinema,” said José M. Martínez-Sierra, Director General of UPF-BSM. “We are the only management school committed to cinema and culture in the broadest sense. This award recognises the track record of an academic and filmmaking project that is unique in the world, both for its methodology and for the impact of the films and professionals it has helped develop and bring to prominence over nearly three decades,” he added.

A breeding ground for national talent

The Master's legacy spans several generations of filmmakers and audiovisual professionals across Spain and Catalonia. Alongside Lacuesta, Laxe, Patiño and Ballús, its alumni include Mercedes Álvarez, Renate Costa, Víctor Moreno, Carla Subirana, Tatiana Huezo, Maite García Ribot, Lupe Pérez, Pilar Monsell, film editor Núria Esquerra, and sound designer Amanda Villavieja, who was nominated for an Oscar for her work on Sirat, a film for which she also won a Goya Award. Cristóbal Fernández, also a former student, won the Goya Award for Best Film Editing for the same film. Their work has been showcased at leading film festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Locarno, Rotterdam, Venice, San Sebastián and Visions du Réel.l.

Each edition of the programme enables students to develop their own projects through a mentoring system in which established directors work closely with them to explore and refine their initial ideas. “We provide critical and constructive guidance that transforms students’ creative ambitions into internationally recognised works. Thanks to this intensive methodology, the programme has played a key role in the creation of many documentary films,” explained Eva Vila, Academic Director of the programme.

Alongside mentoring students on their own projects, each edition of the programme also supports the production of three documentary films in collaboration with independent producers. Each film has a distinctive creative vision, reflecting the changing dynamics of contemporary cinema.

This approach has resulted in a total of 33 feature-length documentaries, including notable titles such as En construcción, directed by José Luis Guerin, winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary; Cravan vs. Cravan, by Isaki Lacuesta; El cielo gira, by Mercedes Álvarez; La plaga, by Neus Ballús; O que arde, by Oliver Laxe; Samsara, by Lois Patiño; Sica, by Carla Subirana; and Bajarí, by Eva Vila.

More recently, the UPF-BSM programme supported Tardes de soledad, Albert Serra’s first documentary, which won the Golden Shell at the San Sebastián International Film Festival and the Goya Award for Best Documentary.

“The projects supported by the programme stem from a unique learning model based on dialogue, shared creation and collaboration across generations. Each film has been developed by filmmakers in collaboration with a small group of students from each cohort. It is an approach to education in which filmmakers train future filmmakers, helping to renew contemporary documentary cinema,” Vila emphasised.

An ecosystem supporting Catalan cinema

The Master’s in Creative Documentary is one of the pillars of Barcelona Film Society, UPF-BSM’s ecosystem for film education and creation. This ecosystem also includes LABED (the Editing Laboratory) and UPF-BSM’s postgraduate programme in audiovisual editing, among others, continuing a commitment to cinema that has developed over nearly three decades.

To mark the programme’s 30th anniversary in 2027, the school is preparing a new boost to activities associated with the initiative. A special programme will involve organisations including Filmin, the Filmoteca de Catalunya, A Contracorriente, the Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies (ICEC), TV3 and RTVE, among others. New film productions developed within this creative environment are also planned.

“The arts, including literature and cinema, help shape the values through which societies understand themselves. At UPF-BSM, we firmly believe that engagement with these cultural expressions can strengthen our students’ leadership and management skills, broadening their understanding of people, organisations and society,” Martínez-Sierra concluded.

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