The industry section of the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival has rewarded a selection of projects currently in their development or work-in-progress phases (see the news). We take a look at these winning projects:

Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum

Best Project Award
These Were All Fields (Todo esto eran mangas) - Daniela Abad Lombana (Colombia)
1990s Medellín, during Colombia's most violent decade. Sofía (15) and her mother, Lorena (45), live a life of luxury, but their reality changes when Carlos, the father and husband, doesn't return from a journey. His absence makes them poor in a way they had never experienced, and Lorena will undertake all sorts of illegal endeavours to keep the family economy afloat while trying to be the mother she never has been, and Sofía will have to learn to accept her father is someone she didn’t know.

Produced by Mirlanda Torres for Colombia’s La Selva Cine S.A.S, the film is the first fiction feature by the Colombian director, already co-director of the documentary Letter to a Shadow with Miguel Salazar. With 20% of the financing in place, the project is at an advanced development stage, and looking for funding, as well as European co-producers (with special interest in Spain, France and Italy) and sales agents.

Dale! (Development Latin America-Europe) Award
Little War - Bárbara Sarasola-Day (Argentina/Netherlands)
Argentina, 1982. An Anglo-Argentine family sees how a whole country prepares for the war about to break out against the United Kingdom. Judy, a young 55-year-old grandmother with a last-stage cancer she decides to keep secret, starts saying goodbye to the world by passing on her memories and conveying her knowledge to her granddaughter Bárbara.

Produced by Federico Eibuszyc for Argentina’s Pucará Cine, and co-produced by Marleen Slot for the Netherlands’ Viking Films, the film is the Argentinian filmmaker’s third feature after Berlinale Panorama entry Belated [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film] and White Blood, having also produced titles such as Rojo [+leggi anche:
recensione
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intervista: Benjamín Naishtat
scheda film] and this year’s Golden Shell competitor Puan [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Benjamín Naishtat e María …
scheda film]. With 20% of the financing in place, the project is in the screenplay rewriting and advisory stages and is looking for co-producers from other Latin American and European countries as well as sales agents and other possible partners.

Artekino International Prize
The Days Off (Los días libres) - Lucila Mariani (Argentina/Brazil)
Buenos Aires, during the summer. Bego (11) navigates the typical challenges of a socio-economic crisis, and is sent by her parents to a public summer holiday camp, where she is forced to realise her financial limitations. She discovers that she can change realities by shifting, a technique viral on TikTok, but when everyone around her starts to faint and fall ill, she realises things are more complicated than she believed.

Produced by Paula Zyngierman and Leandro Listorti for Argentina’s Maravillacine and co-produced by Tathiani Sacilotto for Brazil’s Persona Non Grata, the film is the first feature by the Argentinian director. With 46% of the financing in place, the project is at an advanced stage of development and is looking for international co-producers and sales agents after having visited Cannes.

Ventana Sur award
Three Dark Nights (Tres noches negras) - Théo Court (Spain/Chile)
A couple of Haitian workers marry on a ranch in the Chilean countryside. In the midst of the party and the workers’ revelry, the groom disappears, only to be found dead the next morning. The investigation point towards one of the employers, and doubts are cast on the family image.

Produced by Marina Alberti for Spain’s El Viaje Films and Giancarlo Nasi for Chile’s Quijote Films, this is the Chilean filmmaker’s third film, after IFFR entry Ocaso and Venice’s Orizzonti Best Director winner White on White [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Théo Court
scheda film]. With 22% of the financing in place including Ibermedia support, the project is looking for national and regional funding and a co-producer from a third country, while closing its casting, locations and revising the screenplay.

WIP Europa

WIP Europa Industry Award + WIP Europa Award
Every You Every Me [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Michael Fetter Nathansky
scheda film] - Michael Fetter Nathansky (Germany)
Nadine is a factory worker. When she begins to perceive her colleague Paul, she discovers her great love for him. But years later, her love for him dissolves and she starts to question her own gaze.

Produced by Virginia Martín for Contando Films and Lucas Schmidt for Studio Zentral, the German title the second fiction feature by the German filmmaker, after You Tell Me [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film]. The story is set against the industrial backdrop of Europe's largest brown coal mining area, and features Aenne Schwarz, Carlo Ljubek, Sara Fazilat, Youness Aabbaz and Sammy Schrein in its cast.

WIP Latam

Most People Die on Sundays (Los domingos mueren más personas)

WIP Latam Industry Award + Egeda Platino Industria Award for Best WIP Latam
Most People Die on Sundays - Iair Said (Argentina/Italy/Switzerland)
David, a young middle-class Jewish boy, overweight, homosexual, and afraid of flying, returns to Buenos Aires from Europe when his uncle dies. During his time there, David learns that his mother has decided to disconnect his father from the ventilator. He returns to his childhood home where he fluctuates between an intimate coexistence with his mother and a voracious appetite for filling his existential anguish.

Produced by Nicolás Avruj for Argentina’s Campo Cine, and co-produced by Luigi Chimienti for Italy’s dispàrte, Juan Pablo Galli for Argentina’s Patagonik, Natali Sussman for Switzerland’s My Gosh, and Giorgina Mesiano, the film is the first fiction feature by the Argentinian filmmaker, after his documentary Flora's Life Is No Picnic. The director stars in the film alongside Rita Cortese, Antonia Zegers and Juliana Gattas.

Ikusmira Berriak

Elamedia - Euskadi Postproduction Award
After the Night, the Night – Naomi Pacifique (Switzerland/Netherlands)
Naomi’s partner tells her he will return to monogamy with one of his recent relations. Confronted with the harsh reality of non-monogamy, Naomi heads out onto the streets of Amsterdam for a night of diverse intimacies, to remember why she committed to this kind of relationship in the first place.

Produced by Yan Decoppet and Gabriela Busman for Switzerland’s Golden Egg Production and Albert Kuhn for the Netherlands' Idle Eye, the film is the first feature by the Swiss-Dutch artist. The project is at the scene-by-scene treatment stage and is planning to start financing development soon, as well as meeting co-producers, primarily from France and the Benelux area, sales agents, and other partners.