The Screen Academy plans to set up its production and teaching premises in central Beirut, at which time the Film Fund activities would be merged with the Academy.
The Academy will offer high-level professional courses in all key areas of specialization within creative filmmaking and thus strengthen capacity building in the field of screen arts and techniques. Entry to the Academy will be based on merits, tests and competition. Only mature students with practical film/TV experience and/or relevant studies in film, as background will be considered. The Screen Academy is in the process of developing its curricula. A date for first intake cannot be set yet as additional funding and sponsoring of scholarships need to be identified in order to secure sustainability.

The stability of the Institute and its training programs will depend on sustainable funding structures. The Institute will need substantial ongoing support from Arab and international development agencies and foundations. The target figure to be reached before opening the activities of the Academy is USD 3,000,000.
Major sponsorship, donations, endowments and scholarships are therefore pursued.
To be effective in the community and to attract funding and other forms of support the Institute will establish a reputation for excellence in training and become regarded worldwide as a model for regional indigenous industry training and cultural development.

The Screen Institute Beirut will establish contacts and collaborative projects with other institutions in Arab world and worldwide, that offer similar or complementary training courses, for the purpose of exchanging information, experience, training materials and teachers. Links and collaboration with industry partners and local and international film- and television festivals will be given high priority.

The ambition of the Institute is to train the leaders of tomorrow's regional industries. This can best be achieved by providing full-time production, industry-based programs focusing on key disciplines at graduate or post-graduate level whilst a professional short course program that addresses the immediate needs of the industry should be conducted at the Institute. The Institute will not conduct any under-graduate level programs, as such programs are well taken care of by a number of universities in the whole Arab region.

Of equal importance to achieving success and producing the best graduates in the region, are the principles for the recruitment of students and teachers.

To compete with technically sophisticated imported screen products for regional audiences, it is important that training take full advantage of new production technologies and develop courses that focus on content that can be created by new digital technologies and software.

A reliable and efficient technological infrastructure is of primary importance to securing an effective and smooth running program. It should be stressed that the emerging technologies can only be fully exploited when a coherent digital environment has been established.

The foundation of all training and education activities at the Institute is the focus on the cinematic story and the curiosity to explore the good story and its potential. While examining and testing the film language, attention should also be given to the sources of storytelling. Oral and literary storytelling traditions hold universal values that can also inspire innovation in cinema and help students develop their own artistic style and personal voice.