Jabi Elortegi’s Dear Grandma will open the Zinemira strand of the 70th San Sebastian International Film Festival (SSIFF, September 16-24), which honours cinema produced in the Basque country.
Elortegi’s follow-up to his debut Perfect Happiness, which competed in Sab Sebastian’s 2009 New Directors selection, will have its world premiere at the festival. Barcelona-based Filmax acquired international rights to the comedy, which follows a man who moves to Argentina upon his uncle’s request and gets caught up in the village’s antics.
Scroll down for Zinemira line-up
The line-up features four world premieres in total, including documentary My Way Out from Izaskun Arandia. The film looks back at the past three decades of the famous transgender club The Way Out and is also competing for the Sebastiane Award that honours films surrounding LGBTQ+ themes.
Closing the strand is Out Of Competition title Lullaby from Alauda Ruiz de Azúa about a new mother who seeks guidance from her parents. The film has previously screened at Berlin, Malaga and Karolvy Vary, and is shortlisted for Spain’s Oscar submission for best international feature.
Zinemira is organised by the San Sebastian Festival and the Basque Government Department of Culture.
Basque award
Out of SSIFF’s entire line-up, 17 films feature Basque participation and 10 of those titles will be competing for the Irizar Basque Film Award of €20,000.
These include Competition titles The Rite Of Spring from Fernando Franco and Suro from Mikel Gurrea; Maria Elorza’s To Books And Women I Sing from New Directors, and Fermin Muguruza’s Black Is Beltza II: Ainhoa which has its world premiere in the Velodrome section.
Also up for the award is Alberto Gastesi’s debut film Alberto Gastesi which will have its world premiere as the Basque Cinema Gala and Fermin Aio’s documentary Kepa Junkera Come to Life Again.
The four world premieres in the Zinemira strand eligible for the Izirar Basque Film Award are noted below.
Zinemira 2022 line-up
*competing for Irizar Basque Film Award
Dear Grandma* (Sp-Arg) opening film
dir. Jabi Elortegi
Lullaby (Sp) closing film, out of competition
dir. Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
918 Nights (Sp)
dir. Arantza Santesteban
Bi Arnas (Sp)
dir. Jon Mikel Fernandez Elorz
Gesto* (Sp)
dir Xuban Intxausti
Blue Files* (Sp-Fr)
dir. Ander Iriarte
My Way Out* (Sp)
dir. Izaskun Arandia
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