28/09/2026 - Akira by Ekain Albite and The Spirit Healer Is Away for the Weekend by Inês Nunes emerged as the award-winning projects among those partaking in the Basque festival’s residency

The Ikusmira Berriak participants

The 12th edition of Ikusmira Berriak, a residency spearheaded by the San Sebastián International Film Festival, the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture and the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola (EQZE), selected six projects from the many submitted, reaffirming the programme’s commitment to supporting new audiovisual voices and perspectives.

The residency spanned eight weeks, split into two stays. The selected group arrived on 9 March at Tabakalera, where, in its Film and Audiovisual Laboratory, they worked on developing their project until 19 April. During that time, they received guidance from professionals chosen expressly for each project based on its specific needs. In June, each resident received development funding to continue working on their project between the two stays. And in September, coinciding with the festival, they returned to the Basque city to complete the final two weeks of the residency and presented their work to industry professionals, in search of partners.

Below, we detail all of the European projects (two of them rewarded in the festival’s industry strand) that have been taking part in this programme alongside the Dominican-Brazilian co-production La canícula, set to be directed by US filmmaker Rod Llaverías.

Casa Wabi - Escine Award
The Spirit Healer Is Away for the Weekend - Inês Nunes (Portugal)
Every summer, the residents of a coastal town witness a familiar ritual: luxury cars speed through the streets at dawn, taking the pulse of the year’s economy. The heat and overcrowding drive locals into the air-conditioned refuge of the shopping centre. The Portuguese director’s debut feature is a production by Catarina de Sousa for Foi Bonita A Festa.

Tanta and Sideral Awards
Akira - Ekain Albite (Spain/Georgia)
Vakhtang, a Georgian scrap dealer living among abandoned warehouses on the Basque coast, receives an unexpected visit from his cousin Giorgi. After venturing together into the decommissioned Lemóniz nuclear power plant, a strange force compels them to leave everything behind and press on through an endless night. The sophomore feature by the Basque filmmaker, who previously co-helmed the Locarno-selected Negu hurbilak (Special Mention in the Filmmakers of the Present section) with the rest of the Negu Collective, is a production by Ana Julia Silvino and Ritxi Lizartza for Spanish outfit Maluta Films, in co-production with Tekla Machavariani for Nushi Film.

Los animales magnéticos - Gala Hernández López (France/Spain/Germany)
Berlin, the near future. Hedda has just arrived to study a strange phenomenon in bat behaviour. She will soon be besieged by nightmares and the symptoms of an impossible pregnancy. More than two centuries earlier, in the 18th century, Berthe, a French aristocrat, has the same birthmark on her neck. The debut feature by the filmmaker, acclaimed for her short films (she won the César Award in 2022 with The Mechanics of Fluids), is a production by Eve Robin for New Sight, with co-production by María Zamora for Elastica Films.

Daemon - Valeria Hofmann (Spain/Chile)
In a city devastated by wildfires, Liz, a solitary content moderator, discovers that her virtual lover is a being trapped inside her computer. As the boundaries between the real and the digital blur, Liz becomes obsessed with giving it a physical body via a blood-fed bioprinter, putting her humanity at risk in the process. The Chilean director’s debut feature is a production by Paz Lázaro, Edson Sidonie and Juan Pablo Félix for Spanish company Amore, together with Augusto Matte, Fernando Bascuñan and Úrsula Budnick for Chilean outfit Máquina.

Chas Khouch Kmeng Ropus (Bad Man Good Boy) - Kavich Neang (Cambodia/France)
In Phnom Penh, Sinoun rushes her half-paralysed husband to hospital after he suffers a stroke, and has to face fear, medical bills and the return of her estranged eldest son, Tola. Her younger son, Arun, soon joins them, which further exacerbates the strained family dynamics. The new feature by the Cambodian director, whose previous title White Building took part in Venice’s Orizzonti section, is a production by Davy Chou for Cambodian company Anti-Archive and by Marine Arrighi de Casanova for French outfit Apsara Films.

(Translated from Spanish)