Pablo Fendrik’s Hermano Peligro, Jayro Bustamante’s La Llorona, Matthias Huser’s The Jungle and Clara Roquet’s Libertad took one prize a piece at San Sebastian’s 7th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which wrapped Wednesday night.

Meanwhile, The Sharks, the first feature of Uruguay’s Lucia Garibaldi, swept San Sebastian’s Films in Progress.

This year saw plaudits shared by four of the strongest projects at the market in terms of director renown, prestige producer backing or even, in the case of “La Llorona,” a sales agent deal.

Winner of the Co-production Forum Best Project Award, “Hermano peligro,” for instance, comes from a three-times Cannes selected director, Fendrik. A propulsive vengeance-survival thriller set in the wilds of Patagonia, Hermano peligro is produced by Argentina’s Rei Cine (Zama, The Accused), co-produced by Denmark’s Snowglobe (Our Time, Birds of a Passage).

Winner of the EFADs-CACI Europe-Latin America Co-production Grant, adjudicated by the two regions’ state film agencies, La Llorona marks Guatemalan Jayro Bustamante’ s third feature after he burst onto the scene with Berlin Silver Bear winner Ixcanul.

A “luminous revenge thriller” with echoes of Inglourious Basterds but set in contemporary Guatemala, Bustamante said at San Sebastian“ La Llorona stars Ixcanul leads Maria Mercedes Caroy and María Telón in a movie taking as a backdrop the mass killings of Maya civilians during the Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996).

Swiss Matthias Huser, whose 2014 Kaurismaki-ish debut, They Chased Me Through Arizona, drew fans at Locarno, won the Forum’s Eurimages Development Co-production award for The Jungle, about a dying father fighting for his land in the jungle, a symbol of natural chaos, Huser has said. Also behind Toronto Platform and San Sebastian competition title The Innocent, Switzerland’s 8Horses produces.

Part of an exciting generation of young women directors in Catalonia bursting through to festival berths and prizes, Clara Roquet, screenwriter of SXSW best actors winner 10,000 Km and Directors’ Fortnight title Petra, won the Forum’s Arte Kino Intl. Prize for her debut, La Libertad, produced by Barcelona-based Lastor Media (10,000Km), Madrid’s producer-distributor Avalon (Summer 1993) and Snowglobe.

“A story of feminine friendship and loss of innocence,” Roquet told Variety, La Libertad turns on a girl forced to come of age by her maid’s wild teen daughter, discovering the class gulf and meaning of freedom.

The Sharks scooped both the Films in Progress 34th Industry Award, granted by a slew of Spanish services and production companies - Ad Hoc Studios, Deluxe-Spain, Dolby Iberia, Laserfilm Cine y Video, Nephilim producciones, No Problem Sonido and Wanda Visión - and the Film Factory Award, consisting of the offer of a €20,000 ($23,200) minimum guarantee.

Shown at rough cut in San Sebastian, Garibaldi’s debut centers on a teen girl, Rosina, at a small seaside resort threatened –or rumors have it– by the arrival of sharks offshore. But Rosina welcomes the new arrivals, does everything she shouldn’t “as if driven by animal instinct,” the festival synopsis reads. “The Sharks” “talks about hot blood, the sea and the irremediable search for empathy,” it adds.

A follow-up to his admired The Gambler, Lithuanian helmer Ignas Jonynas snagged both Glocal in Progress Awards for Invisible, the story of a man faking blindness in order to participate in a TV dance contest.

Elena Lopez Riera’s El agua (Water) walked away with the Ikusmira Berriak Award, given by the San Sebastian-based residence film development program, for the Spain-set coming of age tale.

John Hopewll, Jamie Lang