21/08/2025 - The sections of the Basque gathering will present avant-garde titles as well as films produced in Latin America, some with significant participation from Europe

The San Sebastián Film Festival has just announced the films that will form part of the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera and Horizontes Latinos sections at its 73rd edition (19-27 September). The first of these sections concentrates on avant-garde audiovisual works, while the second is the perfect focal point for recent productions from the Central and South American continent, with considerable involvement of European countries on the production side.

A total of 23 films – 15 feature-length, six shorts and two medium-length – will compete in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, with seven world premieres and several pieces chosen from other festivals such as Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Locarno: Madrid-based Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Oksman will open the section with Una película de miedo/A Scary Movie, while the closing film will be Fiume o morte! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the third feature-length effort from Croatia's Igor Bezinović, which came away with the Tiger Award and the FIPRESCI Prize at IFFR this year.

Known for his performance in Triangle of Sadness [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ruben Östlund
interview: Ruben Östlund
film profile] and Baby Girl, British actor Harris Dickinson will present his directorial debut with Urchin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], winner of the FIPRESCI prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes. Another first is from Catalan Jaume Claret Muxart with Estrany riu/Strange River after its upcoming premiere in the Orizzonti section of the Venice Mostra (see news).

Lucile Hadzihalilovic will present The Ice Tower [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucile Hadžihalilović
film profile], winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at the Berlinale, a dark tale in which Marion Cotillard plays a mysterious actress who seduces an orphaned girl: the French director received the New Directors Award with her first feature film, Innocence (2004), and the Special Jury Prize on the two occasions that she has competed in the San Sebastián Official Section with Évolution [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (2015) and Earwig [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucile Hadzihalilovic
film profile] (2021).

György Pálfi will present Kota/Hen, whose absolute star is the hen: a film selected in 2020 for the Europe-Latin America Co-production Forum, which will screen in this year's Zabaltegi-Tabakalera following its premiere in Toronto. Short filmmaker Sophy Romvari will also bring her first feature film, Blue Heron [+see also:
film review
film profile], which recently won the Swatch First Feature Award in the Cineasti del Presente contest at Locarno. The film follows the experience of a family of Hungarian immigrants who move to a new house in Vancouver.

Hlynur Pálmason from Iceland will come to this section at San Sebastián with the world premiere of Joan of Arc, alongside the winner of the FIPRESCI Prize in the Panorama Dokumente section of the Berlinale Under the Flags, the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], the debut film from visual artist Juanjo Pereira, and Portuguese Paula Tomás Marques with her first feature, Two Time João Liberada [+see also:
film review
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interview: Paula Tomás Marques
film profile], seen recently in Berlin.

These two titles will join the four Spanish-produced films announced a few weeks ago (read more), including  The Good Sister [+see also:
film review
interview: Sarah Miro Fischer & Marie …
film profile], the first feature from Sarah Miro Fischer, which premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Festival; the aforementioned Una película de miedo/A Scary Movie; and El último arrebato/The Last Rapture, from Marta Medina and Enrique López Lavigne (more details here).

The Horizontes Latinos section, meanwhile, will include the world premieres of Limpia, the new film by Dominga Sotomayor, which will open the competition, and Dolores, by Maria Clara Escobar and Marcelo Gomes. The section will include twelve feature films not yet screened in Spain, from among all those produced totally or partially in Latin America, directed by filmmakers of Latin American origin or with Latin American communities from around the world as their framework or theme. The section will close with The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+see also:
film review
interview: Diego Céspedes
film profile], the feature film debut from Chilean Diego Céspedes, winner of the Un Certain Regard award at Cannes 2025.

The co-productions between Latin America and Europe in this section include Cuerpo celeste [+see also:
film review
film profile], directed by Nayra Ilic García (Chile/Italy); The Message [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iván Fund
film profile], by Iván Fund (Argentina/Spain/Uruguay); Hiedra/The Ivy, by Ana Cristina Barragán (Ecuador/Mexico/France/Spain); Elder Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], by Cecilia Kang (Argentina/France); Nuestra tierra/Landmarks, by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/US/Mexico/France/Netherlands/Denmark); Un cabo suelto/A Loose End, from Daniel Hendler (Uruguay/Argentina/Spain); and A Poet [+see also:
film review
interview: Simón Mesa Soto
film profile], from Simón Mesa Soto (Colombia/Germany/Sweden).

Selected titles:

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

A Scary Movie - Sergio Oksman (Spain/Portugal - opening film)
God Is Shy – Jocelyn Charles (France) (short)
Strange River - Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain/Germany)
Brand New Landscape – Juiga Danzuka (Japan)
Urchin [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Harris Dickinson (UK)
Happiness – Paz Encina (Paraguay) (short)
The Ice Tower [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lucile Hadžihalilović
film profile] - Lucile Hadzihalilovic (France/Germany)
No One Knows – Bo Hanxiong (China) (short)
The Spectacle – Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary/France) (short)
The Last Rapture – Marta Medina, Enrique López Lavigne (Spain)
The Good Sister [+see also:
film review
interview: Sarah Miro Fischer & Marie …
film profile] - Sarah Miro Fischer (Germany/Spain)
Two Seasons, Two Strangers – Sho Miyake (Japan)
Variations – Lur Olaizola (Spain) (short)
Always Night – Luis Ortega (Argentina) (medium-length)
Hen – György Pálfi (Germany/Greece/Hungary)
Joan of Arc – Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland/Denmark/France)
Under the Flags, the Sun [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Juanjo Pereira (Paraguay/Argentina/USA/France/Germany)
Blue Heron [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Sophy Romvari (Canada/Hungary)
Lurker – Alex Russell (USA)
April Tune – André Silva Santos (Portugal) (short)
The Strike – Gabrielle Stemmer (France) (medium-length)
Two Times João Liberada [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paula Tomás Marques
film profile] - Paula Tomás Marques (Portugal)
Fiume o morte! [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Igor Bezinović (Croatia/Italy/Slovenia - closing film)

Horizontes Latinos

Limpia – Dominga Sotomayor (Chile) (opening film)
The Ivy – Ana Cristina Barragán (Ecuador/Mexico/France/Spain)
Olmo – Fernando Eimbcke (USA/Mexico)
Dolores - Maria Clara Escobar, Marcelo Gomes (Brazil)
A Loose End – Daniel Hendler (Uruguay/Argentina/Spain)
The Message [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Iván Fund
film profile] – Iván Fund (Argentina/Spain/Uruguay)
Cuerpo celeste [+see also:
film review
film profile] – Nayra Ilic García (Chile/Italy)
Elder Son [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] – Cecilia Kang (Argentina/France)
Landmarks - Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Netherlands/Denmark)
A Poet [+see also:
film review
interview: Simón Mesa Soto
film profile] - Simón Mesa Soto (Colombia/Germany/Sweden)
Copper – Nicolás Pereda (Mexico/Canada)
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+see also:
film review
interview: Diego Céspedes
film profile] - Diego Céspedes (Chile/France/Germany/Spain/Belgium) (closing film)

(Translated from Spanish)