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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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WIP Latam will run from 23 to 25 September as part of the industry activities at the San Sebastian Festival
El mensaje / The Message, by Iván Fund; Un cabo suelto / A Loose End by Daniel Hendler; Cuerpo Celeste, by Nayra Ilic; Muña Muña, by Paula Morel Kristof; Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche / If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light up the Night, by Kim Torres, and Piedras preciosas / Gemstones, by Simón Vélez, are the six Latin American feature films at the post-production stage to screen for an audience of professionals at the 72nd edition of the San Sebastian Festival. The six titles, four of which are first or second films, will compete for the WIP Latam Industry Award and the EGEDA Platino Industry Award.
The Argentinian Iván Fund returns to San Sebastian with El mensaje / The Message, which participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2023. The film is a road movie through the Argentinian countryside, where a girl and her guardians get by thanks to the girl’s ability to communicate with animals. Marcelo Subiotto, winner ex-aequo of the Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance for Puan (2023), features in the cast alongside Mara Bestelli and Anika Bootz. Fund’s earlier film, Piedra Noche / Dusk Stone (2021), participated in Horizontes Latinos after winning the WIP Latam Industry Award in 2020 and having its premiere in the Giornate degli Autori section of the Venice Festival.
This is also the case of the Uruguayan actor and director Daniel Hendler, who will show Un cabo suelto / A Loose End, a Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum project in 2023. This will be his fifth participation in the Festival following La emboscada / The Ambush (Films in Progress, 2015), selected for the Forum in 2012 with the title El palomar, which was later released as El candidato, and Norberto apenas tarde / Norberto’s Deadline (Films in Progress, 2009). Starring Sergio Prina, the lead character of Un cabo suelto is a low-ranking police officer who arrives at the border between Uruguay and Argentina as he escapes from a hidden past.
Cuerpo Celeste, second feature from the Chilean Nayra Ilic, participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2021. The film follows the coming of age of Celeste, a teenager mourning her father’s death while dealing with a mother in crisis. Her first movie, Metro cuadrado (2011), was selected for the Palm Springs Festival.
Muña Muña, first feature from the Argentinian short films director Paula Morel Kristof, narrates the love story between a nurse and a French tourist younger than herself while preparing her son’s move abroad.
Piedras preciosas / Gemstones is the first inroads to feature-length films by the Colombian producer Simón Vélez whose shorts have played to international acclaim at festivals including Locarno, Valdivia and the Viennale. The film follows Machado, a Colombian migrant and seasonal worker commissioned by a gemstone collector to come home and steal a valuable emerald.
In the debut feature from the Costa Rican Kim Torres, which participated Proyecta 2022, Si no ardemos, cómo iluminar la noche / If We Don’t Burn, How Do We Light up the Night, an introverted teenager is forced to start a new life in a secluded rural town with a chilling legend about a beast that preys on women. Her short films have been selected for Cannes, Locarno and Mar del Plata, among other festivals.
Many of the films recently presented in WIP Latam have gone on to enjoy a successful international career: La piel en primavera / Skin in Spring (formerly Sandra), by Yennifer Uribe Alzate, and Reas, by Lola Arias, premiered in the Forum at the Berlinale in 2024. In addition, the following films will participate in Horizontes Latinos: Quizás es cierto lo que dicen de nosotras / Maybe It’s True What They Say About Us, by Sofía Paloma Gómez and Camilo Becerra, and Los domingos mueren más personas / Most People Die on Sundays, by Iair Said, WIP Latam Industry Award and Egeda Platino Industry Award in 2023, which premiered at the ACID Cannes, among other titles to be announced in the coming days. More information on the success stories of participants in this initiative can be found here.
AWARDS
WIP Latam Industry Award. Bestowed by the companies Best Digital, Deluxe Content Services Spain, Dolby Labs, Laserfilm Cine y Vídeo, Nephilim Producciones, No Problem Sonido and Sherlock Films, the prize consists of the post-production of one of the films presented a DCP subtitled in English and the distribution in Spain of the winning film.
EGEDA PLATINO INDUSTRY Award for Best WIP Latam. Coming with 30,000 euros for the main production company of the winning film.
The WIP Latam initiative is possible thanks to the backing of the Ibermedia Programme and the collaboration of Best Digital, Deluxe Content Services Spain, Dolby Labs, EGEDA – the service-providing association for audiovisual producers, Laserfilm Cine y Video, Nephilim Producciones, No Problem Sonido, Projeto Paradiso and Sherlock Films.
Celeste is only 15 years old when her life changes unexpectedly. Not only is the young girl faced with painful mourning, but she also has to cope with a family in crisis. The desert that once embraced her has now become a foreign place. In a world of adults, Celeste works through her changes while the country rocks between the dictatorship and the return to democracy.
At the height of the economic crisis, a 9-year-old girl with the gift of communicating with animals and her opportunity-grabbing guardians survive by offering services as a pet medium. The travelling family must address their own inability to communicate while driving through the Argentinian countryside in a small motorhome on their way to visit the girl's mother in a mental institution. An emotional road movie along dusty roads showing us that innocence is a treasure. A supernatural business, where the transcendental earns money and opportunism rubs shoulders with the truth. Gift or racket, one thing is certain: the service is real, and nobody is alone.
Olga is a 60-year-old nurse who lives in El Mollar, a beautiful valley in Argentina’s Tucumán province. For years she has lived alone with her son Rubén, a young boy full of dreams who is on the verge of leaving to study abroad. While Olga helps her son to find the money to go, she meets Stefano, a French tourist younger than herself. Her fast-approaching loneliness and recent love affair awaken contradictions in Olga while raising questions about her own neglected desire.
Machado is a Colombian immigrant who has been living in France for years, where he works as a grape-picker. He barely earns enough to cover Europe's high cost of living. An acquaintance introduces him to Madame Chiara, gemstone collector who hires him to go to Colombia and steal an emerald. Despite Machado's insistence of the danger involved in his returning to Colombia, Chiara convinces him to go by offering him a sum of money he can't refuse. In Colombia he will have to cope with the bustling life of central Medellín and nature in the mountains. While travelling through Colombia he is involved in a crime committed by a pilot and will try to double-cross Chiara by looking for someone else to buy the emerald.
Laura, an introverted thirteen-year-old girl, arrives in a small, secluded town enveloped by eerie palm plantations and an imposing forest. As she starts her new life there with a reconfigured family, Laura glimpses a hidden world where a chilling legend about a forest-dwelling beast that preys on women circulates. At first, she dismisses it as a childish fantasy, but when she meets the radiant Daniela, their friendship quietly ―but surely― takes her on a journey that unravels the true nature of the beast.
Santiago, an Argentinian police constable, crosses the border to Uruguay on the run from the other police officers on his trail. Putting his uniform to good use, he inspects regional food stalls, testing milk products and cold cuts to survive, while trying to go unnoticed among the locals. With neither money nor a place to stay, but with kindness and wit, he starts to carve out a new life for himself, receiving help from the local characters who cross his path, and even meeting the person he believes could be the love of his life.
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