About ugbb

The Usina de Guiones Breves UGBB is the first international programme for writing short films in Spanish at the Cervantes Institute in Berlin. It offers Spanish-speaking authors from all over the world the opportunity to work intensively on the development of their projects in space for creation, reflection and exchange for five months, from May to September, in an environment designed to foster professional collaboration and the development of quality scripts.

Together with María Meira, the Usina selects up to nine projects each year, which are developed from their embryonic phase in two stages of work, one online and the other in person. 

In the first stage – between May and August – each participant elaborates and deepens their initial idea through argumental, aesthetic and thematic research with personalised tutorials and online masterclasses. 

In the second stage – in September – the participants meet for two intensive days at the Instituto Cervantes in Berlin to share, analyse and reflect on their projects already in an advanced stage, enriching them even more through the exchange of ideas and perspectives, as well as fostering links between the participants with the aim of generating new avenues of collaboration.

In October, at the end of the programme, a Jury of specialists awards one of the resulting scripts, which receives support for its realisation in the city of Berlin. 

At the Usina, we believe that the encounter between authors from different backgrounds who share a sensitive and reflexive creative process allows new ways of writing films to emerge. That is why we trust that this will be the starting point of a thriving universe of gazes, voices and stories, a true powerhouse of Spanish-speaking audiovisual creation in Berlin.

History of ugbb

The Usina was born out of the intensive workshops that María Meira has given every autumn since 2015 at the Cervantes Institute in Berlin. Those first workshops offered the city’s Spanish-speaking community the opportunity to learn and exercise basic audiovisual fiction writing tools in our language: Spanish. 

Encouraged by the success of the workshop, at the beginning of 2020, when nobody could still imagine the pandemic, we launched the first edition of the Usina, with the aim of expanding the proposal to Spanish speakers from all over the world, providing advanced writing tools for those seeking a platform of international level where to develop their projects over several months, adding an intensive exchange experience in the city of Berlin. From Berlin to the world and with the focus on bringing together and promoting diversity, the Usina has already been running for two editions and is going for its third in 2022.

Team

María Meira

María writes films and series, is a teacher and a script doctor. She has been headwriter on the fiction series La voz ausente (The Absent Voice, 2024)-produced by Star+, Disney Entertainment and Pampa Films, based on the best seller by Gabriel Rolón- and screenwriter on Atrapados (Caught, released in 2025)- based on the best seller by Harlan Coben and produced by Netflix and Haddock Films-. Her films include El Suplente (The Subtitutte, 2022) -Official Selection at the Toronto and San Sebastian Film Festivals, available on Netflix -, Una especie de familia (A Sort of family, 2017)- Best Screenplay at the San Sebastian Film Festival-, Refugiado (2010) -Official Selection at the Cannes Festival-, La mirada invisible (The invisible eye, 2010) -NHK Award for Best Latin American Screenplay at Sundance- and Tan de Repente (Suddenly, 2003) -Best Screenplay in Huelva, produced by Campo Cine, co-written and directed by Diego Lerman-. For her work in cinema she has received the Sur, Cóndor de Plata and Argentores awards in Argentina. Born in Buenos Aires, she graduated in Dramaturgy from the Metropolitan School of Dramatic Art (EMAD) and in Film Direction from the National School of Cinematographic Experimentation and Realization (ENERC) in her native country. In 2003 she participated in the first Berlinale Talent Campus. She has been an advisor for the Proimágenes Film Development Fund in Colombia, for Eficine in Mexico and for the Reymundo Gleyzer program in Argentina. Since 2015 she has taught screenwriting seminars at the Cervantes Institute in Berlin, where in 2020 she created ugbb, the first international short film writing program in Spanish in the city.

Marcela Polgar

Marcela graduated in Image and Sound Design at the University of Buenos Aires and holds a Master’s degree in Communication from the University of Westminster in London. She was born in Buenos Aires and has been living in Berlin since 1996 where she works for the German channel Deutsche Welle TV. First as a picture editor for the daily news programme and since 2009 also for the Design department doing Motion Graphics. As a producer she worked for KINO – DW’s German Film Magazine, Enlaces, Ventana abierta al mundo digital and Reporteros en el Mundo, the channel’s Spanish-language magazine. Since September 2020 she programmes film events at Andenbuch, Berlin’s bookshop and cultural space, and does press and promotion for cultural projects such as EsImprocine and ugbb.

Catalina Flórez

Catalina is a filmmaker, journalist and founder of the Berlin-based production houses Soilfilms Media and Urua Films, of which she is the director. She directed the documentaries «Orlando, a little story of the middle class» and «Buy me!», world premiere at the 45th Hof International Film Festival, Best Documentary and Editing at the Sehsüchte Festival.  He has produced international award-winning documentaries, fiction and commercials. She coordinates the German mentoring programme for women filmmakers «Into The Wild», in collaboration with Disney+, Tobis, ZDFneo, Warner Bros., Ufa Fiction and Studio Zentral, among others. Born in Colombia, she studied journalism and communication at the UPB in Medellín and Film and Media with a Masters in Documentary Filmmaking at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Germany and in Cuba at the International Film School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV).