Flies

Source: SSIFF

‘Flies’

Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke’s Flies has won the WIP Latam Industry Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival, while German-Ukrainian director Tatjana Moutchnik’s February, Seven Days grabbed both the WIP Europa Industry Award and the WIP Europa grand prize. 

WIP Latam showcase supports Latin American films in their post-production stages, while WIP Europa showcases films that are majority European at post-production stage.

Eimbcke’s Flies is produced through Mexico’s Kinotitlán and Teorema. It centres on a woman who retreats into isolation after a traumatic loss, until a nine-year-old boy enters her life, forcing her to face her deepest fear, emotional connection.

At San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos strand, Eimbcke is also presenting Olmo – a co-production between Eréndira Núñez and Michel Franco’s Teorema (Mexico) and Brad Pitt’s Plan B. The prolific director is known for Duck Season (2004), a winner of 11 Ariel Mexican Academy Awards, and Lake Tahoe (2008), which won the Alfred Bauer and Fipresci prizes in Berlin.

The WIP Europa Industry Award went to Moutchnik’s debut February, Seven Days, which also took the Europa award. Produced by Germany’s Wood Water Films and Austria’s Wega Film, the film follows two Ukrainian brothers who reunite after years apart to mourn their mother. Their father insists on observing Jewish mourning rituals, though no one knows how to perform a shiva. But when war breaks out, their world unravels.

Meanwhile, Do Not Let Me Die Alone by Chile’s Francisco Rodríguez Teare took the top honours at the festival’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. Artist-filmmaker Rodríguez Teare previously won the Latin American feature prize at Mar del Plata in 2023 with Otro Sol. 

The film, about the trafficking of Chinchorro mummies from construction sites, is produced by Chile’s Axolotl in partnership with Belgium’s Michigan Films and Chile’s Mimbre Producciones.

Elsewhere, We Were No Longer Five by Esteban Hoyos García and Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez, won the EGEDA Platino industry award for best WIP Latam. It centres on a mother looking to trace the remains of her son, and is produced by Colombia’s Selva Producciones, Chicamocha Films, Andante Producciones and the US’s Redline Enterprises.

San Sebastian Industry Awards 2025

WIP Latam Industry Award
Flies (Mex)
Dir: Fernando Eimbcke
Prod cos: Kinotitlán, Teorema

Egeda Platino industry award for best WIP Latam
We Were No Longer Five (Col)
Dir. Esteban Hoyos García, Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez
Prod co: Selva Producciones

WIP Europa industry award
February, Seven Days (Ger-Austria)
Dir: Tatjana Moutchnik
Prod co: Wood Water Films Gmbh

WIP Europa award
February, Seven Days (Ger-Austria)
Dir: Tatjana Moutchnik
Prod co: Wood Water Films Gmbh

Latin America Co-Production Forum best project award
Do Not Let Me Die Alone (Chile-Bel)
Dir: Francisco Rodríguez Teare
Prod co: Pionera Cine

Dale! award (Development Latin America-Europe)
What Follows Is My Death (Mex-Sp)
Dir: Laura Baumeister
Prod co: Tarco Estudio

Artekino international prize
La Piel Del León (Sp-Braz)
Dir: Alvaro Brechner
Prod co: Tornasol Media

Ikusmira Berriak Award (Sideral - Euskadi post-production award)
La Koreana, Un Poema Ferromagnético De Luz Y Memoria (Sp)
Dir: Joana Moya Blanco
Prod co: Sirimiri Films

Casa Wabi and Escine award
Do Not Let Me Die Alone (Chile-Bel)
Dir: Francisco Rodríguez Teare
Prod co: Pionera Cine

Qcinema award
What Follows Is My Death (Mex-Sp)
Dir. Laura Baumeister
Prod co: Tarco Estudio

Lau Haizetara documentary co-production forum awards
Music Library Award
Mariana X BHP (Brazil-Chile)
Dir: Renan Flumian
Prod cos: Droma Productions – Quijote Films

EPE-IBAIA Award
La Increíble Historia De Una Película Que No Hemos Visto (Peru-US)
Dir. Claudia Chávez
Prod cos: Amazona Producciones, Eleven Hands

Topics