The Co-Production Forum will take place from September 23 to 25 as part of the Industry activities of the San Sebastián Festival.
As a new feature this year, directors participating in this edition of the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum or Ikusmira Berriak will be eligible for the Casa Wabi-Escine Award, granted by Fundación Casa Wabi and Escine. The award consists of a five-week residency in one of the bungalows at Casa Wabi in Puerto Escondido (Mexico) for a director of a project selected in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum or Ikusmira Berriak. This award joins the Best Project Award, the DALE! Award, and the ArteKino International Award.
The fourteen selected projects come from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Paraguay, and Switzerland, and seven of them are first or second films.
Animales del desierto, by Santiago Loza; Crocodila / She, Crocodile (Coccodrilla), by Gabriela Amaral Almeida; El espíritu de la ley / The Spirit of Law, by Natalia Meta; La escuela pesada / Hard-Boiled School, by Hernán Rosselli; La levedad de ella / Her Lightness, by Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo; La mujer extraña / The Strange Woman, by Martín Boulocq; Los dos paisajes, by Francisco Lezama; Los erizos / The Hedgehogs, by Victoria Galardi; Malestar Tropical / Tropical Malaise, by Jorge Cadena; Mar de Leva, by Mariana Saffon Ramírez; Otro Jardín / A Different Garden, by Mariana Gil Ríos; Rambler, by Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero; Remanso, by Pablo Lamar; and Sólo el amor existe, by Natalia López Gallardo, are the fourteen projects selected from eight countries out of 269 submissions. This year’s edition will be held from September 23 to 25, and the representatives attending the event will have the opportunity to present their projects to potential partners to complete their financing and enhance their access to international markets.
Seven of the projects are first or second films: La levedad de ella / Her Lightness, by Rosa María Rodríguez Pupo, who has four short films and a documentary to her credit; Los dos paisajes, by Francisco Lezama, who won the Golden Bear for Best Short Film at this year’s Berlinale with Un movimento extraño / An Odd Turn; Malestar Tropical / Tropical Malaise, by Jorge Cadena, whose short films have been awarded at the Berlinale, the Rotterdam Festival, and SXSW; Mar de Leva, by Mariana Saffon Ramírez, winner of the Orizzonti Award at the Venice Film Festival with her short film Entre tú y Milagros; Otro Jardín / A Different Garden, by Mariana Gil Ríos, whose short film Uli received a special mention in the Generation KPlus section at the Berlinale 2024; and the project presented at Ventana Sur’s Proyecta 2021, Remanso by Pablo Lamar, who has premiered his short films at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize at the Rotterdam Festival in 2016 with La última tierra, his first feature film. Finally, Natalia López Gallardo will present the project for her second feature film, Sólo el amor existe. Her debut feature, Manto de Gemas / Robe of Gems, won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in 2022 and was screened in Horizontes Latinos.
Several filmmakers return to San Sebastián with their new projects: it will be Santiago Loza’s eighth participation with Animales del desierto, whose previous titles have been featured in various sections, including Breve historia del planeta verde / Brief Story of the Green Planet (Forum, 2017), which won the Teddy Bear at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival; Natalia Meta presents El espíritu de la ley / The Spirit of Law after El prófugo / The Intruder (2020) in Horizontes Latinos; Martín Boulocq returns with La mujer extraña / The Strange Woman after being selected in Horizontes Latinos in 2006 with Lo más bonito y mis mejores años / The Most Beautiful of My Very Best Years; Victoria Galardi returns with Los erizos / The Hedgehogs, her fifth participation in San Sebastián after Amorosa Soledad / Lovely Loneliness (New Directors, 2008), co-directed with Martín Carranza; Cerro Bayo / Mount Bayo (Official Selection 2010, TVE – Otra Mirada Award) and Pensé que iba a haber fiesta / I Thought It Was a Party (Co-Production Forum 2012 and Horizontes Latinos 2013); and Fernanda Valadez and Astrid Rondero will be in the Forum with Rambler. Valadez previously presented Sin señas particulares / Identifying Features, winner of the 2019 Films in Progress Award, the Audience Award, and the Jury Prize for Best Screenplay in the World Dramatic Competition at Sundance in 2020, and winner of the Horizontes and Spanish Cooperation Awards that same year; while Sujo (Horizontes Latinos, 2024) also won the Grand Jury Prize in the aforementioned section at Sundance this year.
Completing the selection is the horror story Crocodila / She, Crocodile, the third feature film by Gabriela Amaral Almeida, and La escuela pesada / Hard-Boiled School, the fourth film by Hernán Rosselli.
Many of the projects recently presented at the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum have enjoyed successful international careers: in 2024, Memorias de un cuerpo que arde / Memories Of A Burning Body, by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss, won the Panorama Audience Award at the Berlinale, and El aroma del pasto recién cortado / The Freshly Cut Grass, by Celina Murga, won the Best Screenplay Award at the Tribeca Festival. This title, along with Zafari, by Mariana Rondón, will participate in Horizontes Latinos.
AWARDS
- Best Project Award, endowed with €10,000 for the majority producer of the winning project.
- DALE! Award (Latin America-Europe Development): awarded by the European Association of Film Agencies Directors (EFAD) and the Conference of Audiovisual and Cinematographic Authorities of Ibero-America (CAACI) and endowed with €10,000 for the majority producer of the winning project.
- ArteKino International Award, awarded by ARTE, consisting of €6,000 for the majority producer of the winning project.
- Casa Wabi-Escine Award by Fundación Casa Wabi and Escine for a director of a project from the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum or Ikusmira Berriak, consisting of a five-week residency in one of Casa Wabi’s bungalows in Puerto Escondido (Mexico), round-trip travel, and a commitment to develop a cultural exchange project with neighboring communities.
