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Director, screenwriter, and producer Antonio Eceiza has spent the latter part of his career working in and promoting the growth of Basque cinema. After Eceiza obtained a law degree from the Universidad de Valldolid, he studied film direction at the Instituto de Investigaciones y Experiencias Cinematográficas in the late '50s, though he never graduated. Eceiza worked as a film critic and an assistant director before teaming up with influential producer Elías Querejeta to produce a pair of short documentaries in the early '60s. Thereafter, Querejeta produced all of Eceiza's early films. Due to his radical political associations, Eceiza moved to Mexico in 1973, where he made two films and lectured at Mexico's Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos. In 1978, he returned to Spain to work in Basque cinema. Eceiza has subsequently used the Basque spelling of his name in the film credits, Antxon Exeiza.