Festival In Focus: How San Sebastian Has Positioned Itself As A Bridge Between Europe & Latin America

For more than 70 years the San Sebastian International Film Festival has been considered the premiere hub for connecting Europe’s film industry to Latin American cinema and filmmaking talent. The festival has long supported the early works of famed Latin American filmmakers ranging from Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles to Argentina’s Daniel Burman whose respective early works Foreign Land and A Chrysanthemum Bursts in Cincoesquinas both screened at the festival. 

In more recent years, Spain’s most prominent festival has made strides in strengthening the special relationship between Europe and Latin America through the creation of sections such as Works in Progress Latam (established in 2002) and its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum (established in 2012). It was in the former that esteemed Chilean director Sebastián Lelio was given the WIP Latam Award in 2012 for his project Gloria.

“We have a very special relationship with the Latin American market,” says San Sebastian festival director José Luis Rebordinos. “We are one market with more than 500 million people. As a child, when I watched films at the festival, Latin American cinema was always very important. In the last few years at the festival, as we have put more of an emphasis on working with the Latin American industry, we’ve really improved the connection and become an important door for Latin American cinema in Europe.”

This year, three Latin American films will compete for the Golden Shell, the festival’s top prize: Chilean title In Her Place (El Lugar de la Otra), the first feature film from Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker Maite Alberdi; The Wailing (El Ilanto), a Spanish-Argentine-French co-production from Spanish director Pedro Martín-Calero; and The Man Who Loved UFOs (El Hombre Que Amaba Los Platos Voladores), a dramedy from Argentine director Diego Lerman. All three titles will world premiere at the festival this year. 

In its New Directors section, which features a selection of first and second features from directors, the fest is world premiering Surfacing (La Ilegada del Hijo) from Argentine helmers Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato, while a host of other Latin American titles will feature across sections such as Horizontes Latinos (where all films are Latin American productions), Zabaltegi-Tabakalera (its all-encompassing competitive section), Perlak (which includes films that have garnered acclaim from other international fests), short-film section Nest and its Klasikoak section, which features restored and classic titles from around the world. 

This year, the festival is also hosting a day of action in support of Argentinian cinema on September 24, when it will premiere Lerman’s The Man Who Loved UFOs along with the international premiere of non-fiction film Traslados, directed by Nicolás Gil Lavedra. Argentina has been in freefall since March when the new far-right government pushed through plans to defund all state funding to the country’s national film body, the National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts (INCAA). 

Since 1989, Golden Shells have been awarded to nine Latin American films ranging from 2022’s The Kings of the World to 2019’s Pacified to 1998’s El Viento Se Ilevó Lo Qué. Last year, the festival had 243 Latin American industry delegates attend from 13 countries. 

Supporting cross-pollination between Europe and Latin America has always been a natural step for San Sebastian to take, says festival selection committee member Javier Martín, who is San Sebastian’s delegate for Latin America. “Spain has always shared a star system with many Latin American countries, such as Argentina for example, where the main actors are really popular in Spain,” he says. “But in the last few years, we’ve seen a technological change because of digital happening in Latin America where a lot of films in the region began shooting but they didn’t have the money to finish. So, San Sebastian created this ecosystem through Works in Progress Latam or the European-Latin American Co-Production Forum in order to do the work of connecting Latin American producers looking for European partners.” 

The idea, say Rebordinos and Martín, has been to cultivate a strong throughline for talent, offering a range of different opportunities – from short film to development to co-production to finished films – for creators to showcase their work, regardless of what stage the project is at. 

Nest, says Rebordinos, is largely considered to be a one of the most significant sections at the festival and is a breeding ground for new talent. For example, Un Puma’s Jeronimo Quevedo, now one of Argentina’s leading producers, started in this section and this year, his production Hard Boiled School (La Escuela Pesada) has been selected to participate in the festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. Meanwhile, Lelio’s 2005 debut feature film The Sacred Family (La Sagrada Familia) premiered at the festival before the director received the WIP Latam Award for Gloria in 2012. 

This year, Alberdi’s first fiction title In Her Place features in the main competition section of the festival while the director’s 2020 documentary The Mole Agent, which was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, was part of the festival’s Co-Production forum in 2017. 

The Mole Agent producer Marisa Fernández Armenteros, who first met Alberdi in Chile but began her working relationship with the director in San Sebastian, says the festival has been “the best way to find the best partners – not just producers – but also to identify new talent and follow careers.” 

“It’s important for us to set up a friendly and accessible environment for people coming to San Sebastian because the people that arrive at Nest or the Co-Production forum, ultimately want to come back to the festival,” says Martín. “There is always something very touching in this relationship between us and the Latin American industry – it’s very a very organic and fluid relationship.” 

The 72nd edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival runs September 20-28, 2024.