Fifteen offerings from nine countries have been selected for the San Sebastián International Film Festival’s 14th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, from among the 268 works submitted. This year’s edition will run from 22-24 September, during the festival’s 73rd edition (19-27 September), and the projects will be presented to potential partners with a view to completing their financing and accessing international markets.

Among the renowned filmmakers in the selection, the leading names are Uruguay’s Álvaro Brechner, who partook in Venice’s 2018 Orizzonti section with his previous, Goya Award-winning A Twelve-Year Night [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Álvaro Brechner
scheda film]; his fellow countryman Pablo Stoll, selected for Sundance and in Cannes’ 2004 Un Certain Regard, bagging the Award for Original Vision, with Whisky, co-directed by Juan Pablo Rebella; and Argentina’s Valeria Pivato, with her first solo feature, after having competed in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2017 with The Desert Bride and in last year’s San Sebastián New Directors section with Surfacing [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], both co-directed by Cecilia Atán.

Eleven of the works will be the first or second films by their helmers. Among the sophomore projects and their directors, we find Colombia’s Andrés Martínez Pulido, whose first film, La Jauría [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laura Baumeister
scheda film], after being rewarded at the Co-Production Forum and WIP Latam, San Sebastián’s work-in-progress platform. Bringing their feature debuts are Chilean writer and screenwriter Alejandra Moffat (known for her work on The Wolf House and The Hyperboreans by Joaquín Cociña and Cristóbal León, and 1976 by Manuela Martelli), and Romania’s Roxana Stroe, who won the Generation 14plus Special Prize at the 2016 Berlinale with her short film A Night in Tokoriki, among others.

The directors participating in the forum will be vying for the Best Project Award (€10,000), the DALE! Award (€10,000, handed out by EFAD and CAACI), the ArteKino International Award (€6,000) and the Casa Wabi-Escine Prize, comprising a five-week residency.

Since its creation in 2012, the Forum has selected 215 projects, 106 of which have since been completed and commercially premiered at festivals including Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Sundance, Locarno and San Sebastián. Participating films that premiered this year include Iván Fund’s The Message [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Iván Fund
scheda film], which won the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the Berlinale; Laura Casabé’s The Virgin of the Quarry Lake [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Laura Casabé
scheda film], selected for Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition; and Daniel Hendler’s A Loose End, selected in the Venice Spotlight section of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

Here is a list of the selected projects:

Patrimony - María Astrauskas (Argentina)
Production: Pablo Giorgelli Cine

What Follows Is My Death - Laura Baumeister (Mexico)
Production: Tarco Estudio

La piel del león - Alvaro Brechner (Spain/Uruguay/Brazil)
Production: Tornasol Media

The Boa and the Bamboo - Maitane Carballo Alonso (Spain/Switzerland)
Production: Gariza Films

Victoria in the Clouds - Ana Endara (Panama/Chile)
Production: Mente Pública Inc.

Pacto sublime - Ignacio Juricic (Chile)
Production: Araucaria Cine

Mother of Gold (Mãe do ouro) - Madiano Marcheti (Brazil/Germany)
Production: Multiverso Produções

Not A River - Diego Martínez Ulanosky (Mexico/Argentina)
Production: CAPONETO

El atletismo y el amor - Alejandra Moffat (Chile)
Production: Globo Rojo Films SpA

An Illusion of Paradise - Valeria Pivato (Argentina)
Production: Tarea Fina

Praise for Crime - Andrés Ramírez Pulido (Colombia)
Production: Valiente Gracia

Do Not Let Me Die Alone - Francisco Rodríguez Teare (Chile/Belgium)
Production: Axolotl SpA

Dad is No Punk Rocker - Pablo Stoll (Uruguay)
Production: Temperamento Films

Houses Are Silent - Roxana Stroe (Romania)
Production: Atelier de Film

Hijas del agua - Jacques Toulemonde (Colombia)
Production: 64A FILMS