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SAN SEBASTIÁN 2021 San Sebastián Industry

REPORT: San Sebastián Industry 2021

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- We take a look at the winning projects of this year's Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, as well as the works-in-progress awarded in the WIP Europa and WIP Latam sections

REPORT: San Sebastián Industry 2021
A mood picture for Where the River Begins by Juan Andrés Arango

The industry section of the 69th San Sebastián International Film Festival, held both online and on site, has awarded a selection of interesting projects in the development and the work-in-progress phase that will very likely be part of future festival selections (read news). We take a look at these winning projects.

Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum

(The article continues below - Commercial information)

Award for Best Project
CamioneroFrancisco Marise (Spain/Argentina)
Camionero is a film that happens when the truck drivers switch off their engines and stop driving. Service areas, tyre shops, grills, motels and hard shoulders. A film of (mis)encounters between the bodies of truck drivers and bodies in places of passage and rest, which explores their joys and loneliness, their long-distance relationships.

The film is written by Marise alongside his regular collaborator Javier Rebollo (the Spanish filmmaker responsible for titles such as Lo que sé de Lola [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
and El muerto y ser feliz [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
), and produced by both, for Amateur Cinéma (Argentina) and Lolita Films (Spain). 20% of financing is already in place for the project, on the writing stage, and looking for exchanges with other professionals to move forward.

DALE! Award (EFAD+CAACI Award)
Where the River BeginsJuan Andrés Arango (Colombia/Canada/France)
Yajaira, a young Emberá, her daughter María, and Jhon, a young white boy, member of one of most feared gangs in the centre of Bogotá, set out on a long journey by land and sea from the capital to Río Andágueda in the forests of the Pacific. While Yajaira travels with the hope of returning to the place where she grew up to shake off the demons that follow her in her dreams, Jhon is fleeing from a terrifying reality in the city. On the way they must confront their realities.

The film is written by Arango (read our interview with him here), and is produced by Colombia's Paola Andrea Pérez Nieto (who has already produced César Augusto Acevedo's Caméra d’Or winner Land and Shade [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
) for Inercia Películas. Two co-producers are already on board: France's Ciné Sud Promotion (Thierry Lenouvel) and Canada's Midi La Nuit (Maria Gracia Turgeon). The film, with 20% of financing in place and at an advanced writing stage, is looking for new co-production partners, investors and sales agents from anywhere in the world.

Artekino International Award
Alemania [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: María Zanetti
film profile
]
María Zanetti (Argentina/Germany)
Sixteen-year-old Lola is not doing well in school, and she gets the chance to study six months in a German school. She wants to go, but her family, absorbed by her elder sister's psychological troubles, has debts and can't pay for the trip. The instability and declining relationship with her sister drives Lola to look for new experiences, clinging to them as a way to go on the trip and escape from the exhausting family dynamic for a while.

The film is written by Zanetti and produced by Juan Pablo Miller (who was a co-producer of Pablo Giorgelli's Caméra d'Or winner Las acacias [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
) for Tarea Fina (Argentina) and Paula Alamillo Rodriguez for Amard Bird Films (Germany). With 50% of financing in place, the film is looking for co-producers to cover the remaining 50% of the funding and an international sales agent.

WIP Europa

WIP Europa + Premio WIP Europa Industry Award
Carbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
- Ion Borș (Moldova/Romania)
Moldova in the early '90s: Dima, a tractor driver, wants to enlist for the military troops taking part in the local war on the Transnistrian border. Vasea, an Afghan war veteran, joins him. While on their way to the front, they find a carbonised body. The authorities ignore them and won't help them to identify the body. Dima and Vasea decide to bury the corpse according to the proper Christian rituals, but not before setting out, together with the body, on an absurd journey to discover his identity.

The film is written by Mariana Starciuc and produced by Sergiu Cumatrenco for Youbesc, the director Ion Borș for Kantora Film Production, Sergiu Pascaru for Pascaru Production and Romania's Maya Films Studio and Marin Cumatrenco for Badeamic.

WIP Latam

WIP Latam Industry Award
Daughter of Rage [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Laura Baumeister
film profile
]
- Laura Baumeister (Nicaragua/Mexico/Netherlands/Germany/France/Norway)
A vast garbage dump of Nicaragua's capital, immersed in a dense fog, is the home to María, a unique and imaginative girl. She lives with her mother Lilibeth, a herd of dogs and the newborn puppies about to be sold. When María accidentally poisons them, Lilibeth takes the desperate decision to leave her at a recycling factory where she is forced to work with other children. After this punishment the girl experiences great loneliness that soon turns into rage. She becomes friends with Tadeo, a sickly and faithful boy with a peculiar wisdom. María will learn to cope with her mother's abandonment using her dreams as a way to explain what happened.

The film is written by Baumeister (who we have interviewed when she participated in the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum in 2019 – read here) and produced by Rossana Baumeister and Bruna Haddad for Felipa Films (Nicaragua), Martha Orozco for Martfilms (Mexico), Christine Anderton for Halal (Netherlands), Samuel Chauvin for Promenades Films (France), Bettina Brokemper for Heimatfilm (Germany), Dag Hoel for Dag Hoel Filmproduksjon (Norway) and Eri Levin for Cardon Pictures (Nicaragua).

EGEDA Platino Industry Award for Best WIP Latam Project
Vicenta B. [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
- Carlos Lechuga (Cuba/Colombia/Norway/France)
Vicenta B. lives in today's Havana and has a special gift enabling her to see people's future. When her only son decides to leave the country, Vicenta finds herself thrown into a crisis that prevents her from seeing not only what's happening in her life, but also from understanding why she has been left alone in a country where everyone seems to have lost their faith.

The film is written by Lechuga alongside Fabián Suárez, produced by Claudia Calviño for Cacha Films (Cuba), Consuelo Castillo for Romeo: Laboratorio + Películas (Colombia), Samuel Chauvin for Promenades Films (France) and Dag Hoel for Dag Hoel Filmproduksjon (Norway), and sold internationally by Brazil's Habanero Film Sales.

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