Eighteen projects from nine countries have been selected for the IX Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which has recorded 235 submissions. Set within the San Sebastian Festival’s 68th edition, the activity will take place from 19 to 21 September, will run exclusively online and will be open to professionals who have an industry accreditation.

The selection at this new edition of the Forum combines original and adventurous proposals with other more conventional takes on immigration, sexual identity, family relations, the rejection of difference... Looking at reality through fiction or from a documentary point of view, from a gender perspective or in the shape of a fantasy story, the 2020 selection is a lucid and pertinent reflection of the current state of society.

Ten of the eighteen projects will be the first or second works by their authors. New approaches, like those of Theo Montoya (Anhell69) and Camila Beltrán (El día de mi bestia), whose recent short films were part of the Cannes and Locarno 2020 selections, respectively. Also from Colombia comes the debut film by Juan Sebastián Quebrada (El otro hijo / The Other Son), brought to us by the producer Franco Lolli. Equally anticipated are the feature film debut from the renowned Mexican short filmmaker, Eduardo Esquivel (La eterna adolescente / Eternal Adolescent), the second work in production from Diego Schipani (Tres / Three), Albertina Carri’s habitual producer, and the new work from the Costa Rican Antonella Sudasassi (Memorias de un cuerpo que arde / Memories of a Burning Body) after El despertar de las hormigas / The Awakening of the Ants, selected for the Berlinale Forum.

Returning to the San Sebastian Festival with their second film projects are moviemakers who implemented their first films through Films in Progress or the self-same Co-Production Forum. This is the case of Lucía Garibaldi (La última reina / The Last Queen), director of Los Tiburones / The Sharks, winner of the Films in Progress Industry Award and an accolade at Sundance. Alexandra Latishev (Delirio / Delirium), the director of Medea; and Mateo Bendesky (La fiebre / The Fever), who participated with Los miembros de la familia / Family Members (previously Limbo, presented at the Co-Production Forum) in the Berlinale Panorama. Also returning to San Sebastian is the German Nele Wohlatz (Noche americana), honoured in Locarno for her debut work El futuro perfecto / The Future Perfect, and a former participant in Ikusmira Berriak 2018.

On the other hand, this new edition of the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum will serve to discover the latest projects by filmmakers of recognised career, whom the San Sebastian Festival as accompanied since their first works: Celina Murga (El olor del pasto recién cortado) took part in Films in Progress with Una semana solos / A Week Alone, in the Co-Production Forum with Irene and in Horizontes Latinos with Ana y los Otros / Ana and the Others and La tercera orilla / The Third Side of the River, premiered at the Berlin Festival; Benjamín Naishtat (Pobres Pibes) presented Historia del Miedo / History of Fear, also premiered at Berlin, in Films in Progress and in Horizontes Latinos while competing in the Official Selection with Rojo (Silver Shell for Best Director and Best Actor and Jury Prize for Best Cinematography), and Martin Rejtman (El repartidor está en camino / Riders) participated in Made in Spain with Silvia Prieto, in Horizontes Latinos with Los guantes mágicos / The Magic Gloves and Dos disparos / Two Shots Fired, in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera with Shakti and was president of the Nest jury in 2019. 

Also present will be the new projects from the Hungarian György Pálfi (Hen), director of Taxidermia and Final Cut, both presented at the Festival de Cannes, and who nabbed a Special Jury Mention in New Directors with Hukkle, and the Paraguayan Marcelo Martinessi (¿Quién mató a Narciso? / Who Killed Narciso?), whose first film Las Herederas / The Heiresses won the Sebastiane Award and participated in Horizontes Latinos after winning the Alfred Bauer Prize and the Silver Bear for best actress at the Berlinale.

The screenwriter and director Paula Markovitch (Ángeles), who lives in Mexico, returns with her new project to the Argentina of her birth. The Spanish production from Daniel Vidal Toche (La anatomía de los caballos / The Anatomy of the Horse), a Peruvian filmmaker trained at the ECAM, and the French project from the Venezuelan Jorge Thielen Armand (La cercanía / Nearness), nominated this year at Rotterdam for his work La Fortaleza, complete the IX Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum selection.

Thanks to the Festival's collaboration with Ventana Sur, the film market organised by the Marché du Film-Festival de Cannes and Argentina's INCAA (National Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Arts), European projects selected for the Forum have the opportunity to participate in Ventana Sur's Proyecta programme.

In 2019 more than 1,000 professionals participated in the Co-Production Forum. Since its creation in 2012, the Forum has selected 130 projects, of which 68 have been released, 6 are currently at the pre-production or post-production stage, and 39 have been selected for international festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Locarno and San Sebastian.