MEDIA Antenna Scotland celebrates tenth anniversary

MEDIA Antenna Scotland, the office of the European Union’s MEDIA initiative, is celebrating its tenth anniversary.
During its ten years of operation MEDIA Antenna Scotland has attracted funds of nearly £5m for Scottish companies. The MEDIA Programme supports a broad spectrum of activities across the audio-visual industry, including training courses, subsidies to allow filmmakers to attend overseas markets, cinema exhibition and direct funding into productions.
In the decade of MEDIA Antenna Scotland, over fifty Scottish production companies have received funding, over three hundred industry professionals have been supported to attend international markets and more than 200 have attended training courses. The MEDIA Programme also supports Moonstone International, the Celtic Film & Television Festival, the EUROPA CINEMAS Network, which has five members in Scotland, and has made direct funding into films such as ‘Rob Roy’ and the soon to be released ‘Mary Queen of Scots’.
Emma Valentine, MEDIA Antenna Scotland’s Co-ordinator, is delighted that the EU’s MEDIA initiative has been so successful. She said: "There is no doubt that the support the MEDIA Programme provides under its various schemes, which have been in existence since the early 1990s, has made a big difference to industry professionals in Scotland. The MEDIA Training initiatives are particularly popular and as a result the small number of places on them are highly contested. Scottish filmmakers have been very successful in gaining places on these courses, thus raising their competence levels to the benefit of the industry generally. One of the achievements we are most proud of is Peter Mullan’s internationally-acclaimed film ‘The Magdalene Sisters’ winning the MEDIA Prize in 2003, which brings with it not only the award, but also 25,000 euros. We are delighted that the industry in Scotland is so appreciative of the work we do and we look forward to the next ten years of MEDIA Antenna Scotland being able to support the work of even more of Scotland’s film industry."
MEDIA Antenna Scotland celebrates its tenth birthday on Wednesday evening January 14 at the CCA in Glasgow, along with many of the people who have benefited from European support gained with the assistance of this office.