Film projects by Maria Elorza, Marieke Elzerman, Felipe Gálvez, Lucy Kerr, Mikele Landa and Cande Lázaro were chosen from among 362 applicants to the tenth edition of Ikusmira Berriak, to take place in 2024. Of the total number of applications to the residency and audiovisual projects development programme organised by the San Sebastian Festival, the Tabakalera-International Centre for Contemporary Culture and Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), 13 belong to EQZE students and alumni, 18 to participants in the Nest section, 27 to Basque filmmakers (from the Basque Autonomous Community, Navarre of the French Basque Country whose project is mainly in the Basque language or which has the Basque community as its backdrop or subject), 100 to filmmakers from Spain and 204 correspond to the international category.

Maria Elorza, Felipe Gálvez and Lucy Kerr will develop their second feature film after the success of their respective débuts at San Sebastian, Cannes and Locarno, while Marieke Elzerman, Mikele Landa and Cande Lázaro will work on their first feature film after a promising career in short films. These are the six titles selected by the Ikusmira Berriak selection committee, consisting of representatives from Tabakalera, EQZE and the San Sebastian Festival:

• EQZE CATEGORY: Wash Over, by Marieke Elzerman (Netherlands)
• NEST CATEGORY: The Bow, by Lucy Kerr (United States)
• BASQUE CATEGORY: Caro Bastiano, by Maria Elorza (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain)
• BASQUE CATEGORY: Senda, by Mikele Landa (Bilbao, Spain)
• SPANISH CATEGORY: La Pastora / The Shepherdess, by Cande Lázaro (Badajoz, Spain)
• INTERNATIONAL CATEGORY: Impunidad / Impunity, by Felipe Gálvez (Chile)

For the first time in the history of Ikusmira Berriak, two Basque projects have been selected in the same call for proposals, taking into account the extraordinary moment that Tabakalera generation of Basque women creators are experiencing and, in particular, the track record of the two directors. Author of award-winning short films Ancora Lucciole / Still Fireflies (2018) and Quebrantos / Breaches (2020),  Maria Elorza (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1988) presented her feature film debut, A las mujeres y a los libros canto / To Books and Women I Sing in the New Directors section of the San Sebastian Festival, where it was recognized with the TCM Youth Award and a Irizar Basque Film Award special mention, the beginning of a career in festivals that culminated a few days ago with the Porto/Post/Doc Festival.

For her part, Mikele Landa (Bilbao, 1995), an EQZE alumni, was recognised at Euskal Zine Bilera with the award for best director for her first short film, Heldu. She was selected for Nest in 2022 with her short film Noizko basoa / When Does a Forest Begin, which also participated in Zinebi and Punto de Vista. The project for Senda, her first feature film, which she will develop at the residency, has gone through the Noka Mentoring and Elkarrekin Sortzen programmes.

In the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola category, which is open to EQZE students and alumni, Wash Over, the first feature film by Dutch filmmaker Marieke Elzerman, was chosen. Her previous work, La voz rosa / The Pink Voice, was presented last year at the Rotterdam Film Festival.

In the Nest category, which is open to filmmakers chosen in the last five editions of the Festival’s international student film festival (2018-2022), The Bow, by Lucy Kerr (Houston, Texas, 1990), was selected. After her short film Crashing Waves, the American director’s first feature film, Family Portrait, received the Boccalino d’Oro for best director at the Locarno Festival this year, among other awards.

In the Spanish category, the project by Cande Lázaro (Badajoz, 1997), visual artist and filmmaker, whose short film Mar(i)cona has won awards at various festivals, was selected. La Pastora is a non-binary film that establishes a space for dialogue on the complexity of gender by rescuing the character of Florenci Pla, an intersexual maqui (a member of an anti-Francoist guerrilla group) from the Maestrazgo mountainous region.

Finally, Felipe Gálvez (Santiago de Chile, 1983) was selected with his debut work, Los colonos / The Settlers, in the Un Certain Regard section of the last Cannes Festival, where it won the Fipresci Prize. Los colonos was part of the Horizontes Latinos section of the San Sebastian Festival and is the candidate chosen by Chile to be nominated for the Oscar for best international feature film.

The residency will run for eight weeks divided into two periods. The six filmmakers arrive on 4 March at Tabakalera, where they will have time to work on the development of their projects in the Artists Space until 14 April. During that time, they will be receiving advice from the committee of experts and professionals expressly chosen for each project according to their needs. In June, each resident will receive a development grant to continue working on their project between the two periods of their stay. In September, coinciding with the dates of the Festival, they will return to San Sebastian to complete the two last weeks of the residency. During that stage they can present their project to industry professionals and will have a personalised schedule of meetings with potential partners interested in participating in their projects.

Golden Shell, award at the Quinzaine des cinéastes and forecasts for 2024

Ikusmira Berriak is experiencing a moment of great international consolidation: after the selection of El agua / The Water by Elena López Riera in 2022, in 2023 the Quinzaine des Cinéastes programmed Creatura by Elena Martín, winner of the Europa Cinemas Label. Last year, Manuel Abramovich and Mikel Gurrea became the first Ikusmira Berriak filmmakers to compete in the Official Section of the San Sebastian Festival, respectively receiving the Jury Prize for best photography, and the Irizar Prize for Basque Cinema and the FIPRESCI Prize. In 2023, it was the turn of All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, by Raven Jackson, which, after its premiere at Sundance, won the Signis Award and a RTVE-Otra Mirada Award special mention in San Sebastian, and O Corno / The Rye Horne, by Jaione Camborda, which was awarded the Golden Shell by the jury chaired by Claire Denis.

Since its first edition in 2015, Ikusmira Berriak has supported the development of 44 audiovisual projects, of which 20 have been premièred and presented at international festivals, twelve have won awards, and the rest are in the development phase. Dormen os peixes de olhos abertos? / Do Fish Sleep With Their Eyes Open?, by Nele Wohlatz (Ikusmira Berriak 2018), is in post-production and, in 2024, the shootings of Diego Céspedes’ La misteriosa mirada del flamenco / The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Ikusmira Berriak 2020), Eduardo Crespo’s La gruta del viento / The Wind’s Cave (Ikusmira Berriak 2021) and Irati Gorostidi’s Anekumen (Ikusmira Berriak 2022) are planned.