The 74th San Sebastian International Film Festival will showcase 15 projects in its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, which runs September 21-23.
Of the projects on show, eight are first or second features, and seven are directed by women. The themes of family memory, bereavement and care recur across a line-up that spans drama, historical essay and ensemble comedy. Together, the 15 projects represent €17.8m in proposed production, with budgets ranging from €240,000 to €3m.
While some of the projects - Dirty Face, Isabel Hernández, The Illusions and The Amateurs - will arrive with established financing structures, others are earlier-stage titles that are using San Sebastian to secure their first European partner.
Screen selects six of the titles with strong international potential.
The Amateurs (Chile- Mexico-Argentina)
Dir: Felipe Solari Yrigoyen
Giancarlo Nasi’s Quijote Films is producing Chilean director Felipe Solari Yrigoyen’s debut feature, a comedy that takes place at a dilapidated Patagonian hotel hosting an international film memorabilia convention. Costumed fans dressed as the Joker, Marilyn Monroe and Iron Man gather for an auction, only for the original Maltese Falcon statuette to disappear alongside a mysterious Russian guest. The project is in advanced development and screenplay rewriting, with 50% of financing secured. Argentina’s Gentil Cine and Mexico’s Panorama Global are coproducing with support secured from the Chilean Audiovisual Fund, Chile’s IFI cash rebate, BA Audiovisual Development and Argentina’s INCAA debut film fund. Nasi is one of Latin America’s leading international producers, with credits including The Settlers and The Blue Trail.
The Last Cruise (Brazil)
Dir: Rachel Daisy Ellis
Brazil-based UK filmmaker Rachel Daisy Ellis is making her fiction feature debut with The Last Cruise, about an elderly couple who find living aboard a cruise ship cheaper than residential care. Ellis plans to combine material filmed over a year with a diary shot by the protagonists, suggesting a hybrid treatment of ageing, autonomy and end-of-life choices.
Led by Brazil’s Desvia Filmes, The Last Cruise is co-produced by Spain’s Nanouk, Portugal’s Olhar de Ulisses and Argentina’s Gema Films. It is the most financially advanced project in the selection, with 57% in place, including support from the Brazilian film agency Ancine and Portuguese broadcaster RTP.
Mourning Sound (Mexico)
Dir: Selma Cervantes
Mexican director Selma Cervantes’ debut feature Mourning Sound (El Último Sonidero) brings together grief, migration and Mexico City’s sonidero music culture. It follows a woman who returns to Mexico after years abroad following her mother’s death. Alienated from a country she no longer considers home and facing family tensions, she reconnects with her brother through sonidero music. Set between Mexico City and Montreal, it is produced by Teorema partner Eréndira Núñez Larios, whose credits include Michel Franco’s Memory and Fernando Eimbcke’s Flies. Cervantes previously directed the Sundance 2023 short Sweatshop Girl.
The Rehearsals (Argentina-Uruguay)
Dir: Celina Murga
Argentinian filmmaker Celina Murga, whose credits include the Martin Scorsese-executive-produced drama The Freshly Cut Grass in 2024, will explore dementia, care and family responsibility in The Rehearsals. The film is about a woman who accompanies her mother, a renowned doctor, through Alzheimer’s disease. María Laura Berch and Joaquín Romero Vercellino produce for Uruguay’s Alterna, with Murga’s Tres Mil Mundos Cine and Lucía Vela in Argentina. The project is seeking a European co-producer, sales representation and international partners, with filming to take place in an old mansion in rural Paysandú, Uruguay.
They’re Taking Your Congos Away (Dominican Republic-Spain)
DIr: Nelson Carlo De los Santos Arias
Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo De los Santos Arias, winner of Berlin’s 2024 Silver Bear for best director for Pepe, is following up with this historical essay. The project frames Santo Domingo as “the first laboratory of modernity” and examines the continuing legacy of Caribbean colonisation and the territory’s role in constructing racial categories and imperial power. Tanya Valette is producing through the Dominican Republic’s Monte y Culebra with David Baute of Spain’s Tinglado Film.
They’re Taking Your Congos Away (Dominican Republic-Spain)
DIr: Nelson Carlo De los Santos Arias
Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlo De los Santos Arias, winner of Berlin’s 2024 Silver Bear for best director for Pepe, is following up with this historical essay. The project frames Santo Domingo as “the first laboratory of modernity” and examines the continuing legacy of Caribbean colonisation and the territory’s role in constructing racial categories and imperial power. Tanya Valette is producing through the Dominican Republic’s Monte y Culebra with David Baute of Spain’s Tinglado Film.
This Is The Memory I Would Like To Have Of Mom (Mexico)
Dir: Ernesto Martínez Bucio
Ernesto Martínez Bucio hopes to shoot his second feature about a woman who reconstructs her dead mother through cassette recordings, fabricated audio and invented memories in Jalisco, Mexico next year. This Is The Memory I Would Like To Have Of Mom follows Bucio’s The Devil Smokes (And Saves The Burnt Matches In The Same Box), which played at the 2025 Berlinale. Written by Karen Plata, who won best screenplay at Morelia in 2025 for The Devil…, it is being produced by Daniel Loustaunau through Mexico’s Colectivo Colmena alongside Marian Fernández Pascal of Spain’s Txintxua Films.
No comments yet