San Sebastian News Announces 2025 Projects

Ikusmira Berriak, the San Sebastian-based development behind the Cannes director’s two-week hit “Water,” “Fresura” and Sundance standout “The Salt of All Dirt Roads,” has announced its 2025 residency program Six projects inspired by the program were popular, with applications soaring 34% to 487 that year.

Reasons cut in several ways. As a marketing contract, Ikusmira Berriak celebrates its 10th anniversary this year and has supported 50 film projects since 2015. With 23 films premiering at international festivals, this proved a must-have platform for cutting-edge films that can be produced with the many features produced. every year in Europe and beyond. Among other Ikusmira Berriak alumni, Jaione Camborda developed San Sebastian's top-notch golden shells with Ikusmira Berriak. Nele Wohlatz's “Sleeping with Eyes Open” at the 2018 installation won Berlin Encounter's Fipresci Prize last year.

Ikusmira Berriak draws from all over the world, often hinting at current trends in cutting-edge Arthouse Cinema, despite having two berths for Spain and the Basque Country. This year, for example, at least four out of six projects registered social pressures through body dysmorphia, recruiting genres to depict topics such as collapse (“La Koreana”), disappearance (“900 Tons”), transgender transition (“The 900 Tons”) Relevance (“La Koreana”) (“Cowboy Billy”), even literal kills (“The Mermaid”).

Organized by the San Sebastián Film Festival, the Tabakalera of the City, the Contemporary Cultural Center and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Ikusmira Berriak on their projects. After receiving development assistance in June-September, they returned during the San Sebastian Festival to present the project to the industry in a pitch meeting and tailor-made sessions.

Starting on January 25, as part of the year-round program of the San Sebastian Festival, the retrospective Ikusmira Berriak 10 Years will be presented in the program's Tabakalera 21 films and screened at the festival, including San Sebastián, Cannes, Venice, Venice, Venice, wenice, The Berlinale, Sundance, Sundance, Sundance, Sundance, Sundance, Sundance , Los Angeles, Vienna, Magagen in Madrid, Turin Film Festival and Mar del Plata.

Ikusmira Berriak should make another film appearance at the 2025 festival. In the Potential Bow: Diego Cespedes, Chile’s Cannes Cineodation Winner, “The Mystery of the Flamingo” Gaze”; from the rising Basque Cineaste Irati Gorosmidi” anekumen”; the anticipated “Last night I conquered the city of Thebes” from Gabriel Azorín and “Strange River” Jaume Claret, 2024 winner of Les Arcs Industry Village Claret.

Ikusmira Berriak's 2025 Residency Program is a student of Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, the International Film School Forum Nest of San Sebastián (Basque Country, Spain, Spain, Spain and Spain and eelut Plose of the World of the San Sebastián of the last five versions). collapse:

Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola Category

“Mermaid,” (“Sirenas”, Alexandra Latishev, Costa Rica)

Latishev's third feature, both “Medea” (2017) and “Delirio” (2024), explored genre violence. “Mermaid” explores a reaction in the story of a woman who enters water and is transformed into a half-boned creature. Latishev said: “The Mermaid is about women's 'transition into women who survive,' and it's a film introduced by typical legendary fantasy elements, revolving around the image of the siren.”

Nest Category

“The Dance of Shadows” (“The Dance of Shadows,” Kathy Mitrani, Columbia)

Ivana's husband died in a storm on an island north of Colombia. The building her dead husband built collapsed, reinforcing Ivonne's belief that she was cursed. “At its heart, ‘La Danza de las sombras’ is an intimate look at the difficulties women feel in pain,” says Colombian Mitrani, an American whose feature expands on the theme of Nest Short Short Shorbras Nada Más, elected 2023 year's nest.

basque category

“Lyanna,” (“La Koreana, a poem of light and memory”, Joana Moya, Spain

Inspired by a journey from her native Malaga in 1959 to, together with her husband, the huge open iron mine of La Arboleda in Bizkaia, whose story begins from the perspective of its inhabitants, now submerged in a reservoir middle. The film is “a reflective place for the people who lived there: where does one hold on to memory? Ask the miners among the ruins. I asked myself how our memories continue to shape the past and the future,” Moya said. . Developed in Madrid's Matadero and now Noka, it is a Tabakalera program aimed at mentoring emerging female directors in the Basque country and Navarre .

spanish category

“Return to the Valley,” (“Return to the Valley”, Jaime Portas, Spain)

Jaime Puertas's second feature, the debut of the Rotterdam selection “The Shepherd's Tale,” not only paints a physical and mental landscape of Spain's fast-moving countryside. Set once again in rural Spain, in this case in a village in the province of Jaén, north of Granada, a character based on the Spanish mystical poet San Juan de la Cruz, and two young The friendship between queer people, Luz and Pedro Omar. “Amidst the research and sensual atmosphere deep within the province of Jayne, these three will gradually discover the role God plays in their relationship,” the synopsis says.

international category

“900 tons”. (900 tons,” Daniel Suarez, Portugal)

Sandro is a 33-year-old garbage worker who cleans the streets of Lisbon at night. Despite his financial struggles, Sandro drove a luxury sports car. Unable to distinguish himself from this object, Sandro begins to sell himself out and become less and less invisible. “'900 Tons' is a tragedy that deals with appearance, reality and how far we are willing to go to keep our self-constructed narratives alive. Cannes. Produced by Ira Sachs “Frankie” and Miguel Gomes of “Arabian Nights” Supported by filmmaker Som Eafúria.

international category

“Cowboy by” (“Waterfall”, Fede Gianni, Italy)

In the suburbs of Rome in the 1960s. The field is the western location where 12-year-old Balnca dreams of becoming a stunt rider, which requires her to pretend she's Billy, a dangerous act that could destroy the only thing she's ever known. world,” the script says. Kino Produzioni, from Italy, co-produced Alcarràs and Puan, which is short for Giani. “As I navigated the uncharted territory of constructing my own identity as a trans person, I felt drawn to a reliable archetype: the cowboy. Since its power is a symbol of freedom, I wanted to Quaar it and make it.” Gianni commented.