The San Sebastian Film Festival has locked the lineup for its “Made in Spain” section, the annual non-competitive showcase highlighting notable Spanish titles from the past year. The 73rd edition of the festival runs Sept. 19–27.
This year’s selection includes 28 films — four features and one short bowing as world premieres, alongside titles that have already screened at major festivals or opened theatrically in Spain. Directors featured in the program include Albertina Carri, Arantxa Echevarría, Belén Funes, Cesc Gay, Oliver Laxe, Eva Libertad, Julio Medem, Javier Rebollo, Celia Rico Clavellino, Carla Simón and Helena Taberna..
Among the new works, visual artist Miguel Ángel Delgado makes his narrative feature debut with “San Simón,” revisiting the history of the Franco-era concentration camp located on the Galician island of the same name. Sara Sálamo — known for acting turns in Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “Strange Way of Life” — directs her first feature, “En silencio” (“Silent Struggle”), a documentary on footballer Isco Alarcón’s recovery from an injury that sidelined him from the European Championship.
Mexican filmmaker Horacio Alcalá will premiere “Fragmentos,” about two couples confronting the roots of their unhappiness. Rounding out the world premieres are “Las delicias del jardín” (“The Delights of the Garden”) from Fernando Colomo — returning to the autobiographical comedy tone of earlier work like “Isla bonita” — and the short “Abril, hoy no es invierno” (“Abril, It’s Not Winter Today”), from documentary filmmaker Mabel Lozano.
The section also includes Oliver Laxe’s Cannes Jury Prize winner “Sirāt” and Carla Simón’s Palme d’Or contender “Romería,” alongside Eva Libertad’s “Sorda” (“Deaf”), which took audience prizes in Berlin and Málaga, and Belén Funes’ “Los tortuga” (“The Exiles”), which premiered in Toronto before collecting multiple awards in Málaga.
Several Málaga Film Festival titles will screen, including Gemma Blasco’s “La furia,” Ana Lambarri Tellaeche’s “Todo lo que no sé,” Alberto Morais’ “La terra negra,” Gerard Oms’ “Molt lluny,” Avelina Prat’s “Una quinta portuguesa,” Celia Rico Clavellino’s “La buena letra,” and Julio Medem’s “8.” Documentary selections include Álvaro Longoria’s “The Sleeper. El Caravaggio perdido,” Laura Hojman’s “Un hombre libre” and Azucena Rodríguez’s “Almudena.”
Additional entries range from Albertina Carri’s “¡Caigan las rosas blancas!” (“White Roses, Fall!”) and Rafa Cortés’ “Amanece en Samaná” (“Samaná Sunrise”) to Gonzalo Hergueta’s “The Designer is Dead” — which will close the section — and Javier Rebollo’s “En la alcoba del sultán” (“Close to the Sultan”). The Col·lectiu Vigília’s “L’edat imminent” (“The Imminent Age”) and Arantxa Echevarría’s commercial hit “La infiltrada” (“Undercover”), which won best film and best actress at the Goyas, are also featured.
Other titles arriving after theatrical runs include Cesc Gay’s “Mi amiga Eva” (“My Friend Eva”), Agustina Macri’s “Miss Carbón” (“Queen of Coal”), and Helena Taberna’s “Nosotros” (“The Story of Us”).
This year’s section is sponsored by UNIVERSAE (the Higher Institute of Vocational Education), which is also launching the Universae Film Lab: SSIFF Short Film Competition. Open for submissions through Sept. 1 through the UNIVERSAE website, the competition under the motto of Education and Society focuses on works exploring the impact of education on society from an artistic and critical stance, with finalists to be screened during the festival and winners chosen by an industry jury.
More details on the San Sebastian's ‘Made in Spain' lineup below:
“Abril, hoy no es invierno” (“Abril, It's Not Winter Today”)
Short film
Director: Mabel Lozano
Country of production: Spain
Opening Film
Ángeles Blanco is the lawyer of an association that helps people with cerebral palsy. One day she receives a message on her phone, saying: SOS. Nothing else. Ángeles immediately replies. She asks for more information, insistently, but to no avail. After several days without news she receives another message: yet another SOS, this time followed by a crying emoji. Ángeles knows that somebody on the other side of that telephone needs her, but if they want her to help they'll have to find a way to communicate with her.
“Las delicias del jardín” (“The Delights of the Garden”)
Director: Fernando Colomo
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Fernando Colomo, Pablo Colomo, Carmen Machi, Antonio Resines, Brays Efe, María Hervas, Luis Bermejo, Javier de Juan
Opening Film
An ageing artist in the twilight of his career, Fermín's hand has started to shake. On the brink of financial ruin, he will have to move into the studio he shares with his friend Javier de Juan in an old garage, to which his son Pablo, also a painter, arrives on his return from a long trip to India, intending to stay with him. Their widely differing approaches to art and life will soon spark arguments between the two. Pepa, Pablo's mother and Fermín's ex, makes a suggestion: that they enter a competition to create their own version of Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights, which could solve their financial problems.
“The Designer Is Dead”
Director: Gonzalo Hergueta.
Director: Gonzalo Hergueta
Countries of production: Spain/USA
Closing Film
The Designer Is Dead follows Miguel Adrover, the groundbreaking New York designer who reshaped fashion with bold statements on multiculturalism, sustainability, and politics. Once hailed as the future of fashion, he faded from the spotlight and sought new inspiration in Mallorca. The documentary revisits his rise, fall, and creative rebirth through rare archival material, unseen shows, and interviews with collaborators like Jennifer Hoffman and Pulitzer-winning critic Robin Givhan.
“8”
Director: Julio Medem
Countries of production: Spain
Cast: Ana Rujas, Javier Rey, Álvaro Morte, Tamar Novas, Loreto Mauleón, Carla Díaz, Mateo Medina, Kandido Uranga, Andoni Agirregomezkorta, Asier Hernández, María Isasi
Octavio and Adela were born in neighbouring towns on the same morning as the proclamation of the Second Republic in Spain. From that day on, without them realising it, their lives will be connected, intertwined in the shape of an “8”, during 8 crucial moments in the 90 years of their lives. Meanwhile, in the background, is the Spain of their day. Their fates, separate but united, on opposing sides, gradually start attracting one another until finally completely merging in their late but well-deserved love story.
“Almudena” (“The Writer: Almudena Grandes)
Director: Azucena Rodríguez
Country of production: Spain
Over the years, in her own words, Almudena Grandes describes her way of seeing the world, of understanding life and writing. But Almudena is no longer with us. The aim of this film is to keep her memory alive. To celebrate her life and her work, without forgetting the painful void left by her death. Luis García Montero, her husband, ventures into that void and, in doing so, completes the intimate portrait of a writer who knew, like few others, knew how to tell us the story of our own lives.
“Amanece en Samaná” (“Samaná Sunrise”)
Director: Rafa Cortés
Countries of production: Spain/Dominican Republic
Cast: Luis Tosar, Luisa Mayol, Luis Zahera, Bárbara Santa-Cruz
Two couples and friends, Ale and Santi and Natalia and Mario, are celebrating their twenty years together by holidaying in the Caribbean. They catch up with each other's news, drink, reconnect… Ale, tipsy on the rum, decides to admit that the night the four met one another, she had played her hand to end up with Santi, who had initially fancied Natalia. The news doesn't get the expected response. The following morning, Ale gets up with a horrible hangover and absolutely no idea of the extent to which she will have to face the consequences of her action.
“¡Caigan las rosas blancas!” (“White Roses, Fall!”)
Director: Albertina Carri
Countries of production: Argentina/Brazil/Spain
Cast: Carolina Alamino, Maru Marcet, Rocío Zuviria, Mijal Katzowicz, Luisa Gavasa
Violeta, a young film director who, at one stage in her life, made a porn, lesbian and delectable film, is hired to make a mainstream porn movie. Her take on the gender system – cinematic and sexual – prevents her from making it. Together with her girlfriends, she leaves the southern climes of Buenos Aires for the warmth of São Paulo, finding new ways to tell the story on the way. Nothing satisfies her, until she plunges into the Atlantic Ocean for a swim and comes across an island.
“En la alcoba del sultán” (“Close to the Sultan”)
Director: Javier Rebollo
Countries of production: Spain/France/Tunisia
Cast: Pilar López De Ayala, Félix Moati
“The Venerable Sultan of the Land of Nour is looking for a person to introduce him to the mysteries of the camera obscura and the cinematograph”. 1901, during a country outing, the famous camera operator for the Lumière brothers, Gabriel Veyre, reads this advert in a newspaper and two weeks later sets foot in the Land of Nour to introduce the Venerable Sultan to the cinematograph technique. Science and magic, love, humour and phantoms.
“En silencio” (“Silent Struggle”)
Director: Sara Sálamo
Country of production: Spain
En silencio has no interviews, spotlights or contrived sagas. When an injury rules him out of the European Championships, Isco Alarcón trains away from the noise. Sara Sálamo films from the closest intimacy, while the camera listens to what isn't said. The rhythm of the wounded body also marks the narration: at first slowly, later obstinately. An independent film proposal combining the emotion of sport with the intimacy of the human portrait.
“Fragmentos”
Director: Horacio Alcalá
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Manu Vega, Asia Ortega, Emma Suárez, José Luis García-Pérez
Diego decides to travel to Lanzarote with his wife Alba to try and save their marriage for the umpteenth time. A toxic relationship, with no sexual chemistry and constant arguments, amidst comings and goings with other people, not caring how much they hurt one another. Alba keeps her shell drawn tightly around herself, not realising that her attitude is the cause of their failed relationship.
“L'edat imminent” (“The Imminent Age”)
Director: Col·lectiu Vigília
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Miquel Mas Martínez, Antonia Fernández Mir
Bruno's (18) life is increasingly limited by the growing dependence of his grandmother Nati (86). The young boy juggles between providing her increasingly more intensive care needs, working and spending time with his friends. When he receives a phone call from a public nursing home offering his grandmother a place, Bruno will try to keep the balance in order not to lose the only family he has ever known.
“La buena letra” (“The Good Manners”)
Director: Celia Rico Clavellino
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Loreto Mauleón, Enric Auquer Sardá, Roger Casamajor, Ana Rujas, Teresa Lozano, Sofía Puerta
Set in a Valencian village against the backdrop of the post-War period, Ana and her family struggle to get by; the Civil War has left them all deeply wounded, and especially her brother-in-law, Antonio. Ana tries to cure that wound on the basis of stews, secrets and silences, but when Antonio moves in with his new wife, Isabel, Ana's care and attention will mean little or nothing to her: sacrifice doesn't always pay.
“La Furia” (“Fury”)
Director: Gemma Blasco
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Ángela Cervantes, Àlex Monner
Having been raped on New Year's Eve, Alex seeks refuge in her brother Adrián. But he, consumed with rage, follows an ever-darker path. His reaction distances them and she channels the pain through the theatre, playing the vindictive character of Medea.
“La infiltrada” (“Undercover”)
Director: Arantxa Echevarría
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Carolina Yuste, Luis Tosar, Víctor Clavijo, Nausicaa Bonnín, Pedro Casablanc
After years as an undercover agent amongst the nationalist left-wing as just another sympathiser of the ETA terrorist group, a police officer achieves her holy grail when ETA gets in touch with her. They need her to take in two members of ETA while they prepare a series of attacks. This is the start of the most difficult mission of her life: to keep her superiors informed whilst living with terrorists who won't think twice about killing her if they have any suspicions whatsoever.
“La Terra Negra” (“The Black Land”)
Director: Alberto Morais
Country(ies) of production: Spain/Panama
Cast: Laia Marull, Sergi López, Andrés Gertrúdix
María works with her brother Ángel in a family business, the industrial mill in the town she left years back. She, completely disconnected from everything, works methodically in order to get by, while Ángel's friends are delighted to see María return, relishing her failed life. When Ángel hires Miquel, he and María strike up a mutual admiration. The presence of this outsider sparks fear; not only has Miquel spent time in prison, but he also has a mystical side that gives him sway over the others.
“Los Tortuga” (“The Exiles”)
Director: Belén Funes
Countries of production: Spain/Chile
Cast: Antonia Zegers, Elvira Lara, Mamen Camacho
Delia and her daughter Anabel each mourn the father's death in their own way. Between the olive groves of Jaén and the streets of Barcelona, the two women confront the uncertainty of their future in a balancing act between love and pain, tenderness and harshness.
“Mi amiga Eva” (“My Friend Eva”)
Director: Cesc Gay
Countries of production: Spain
Cast: Nora Navas, Rodrigo de la Serna, Juan Diego Botto
About to turn 50, Eva has been married for more than twenty years and has two teenage children. During a business trip to Rome, she realises that she wants to fall in love again before it's “too late”. Back in Barcelona, Eva embarks on a new life, single and open to the game of seduction and romance. For a whole year, we will follow this woman who has turned her world upside down in search of a feeling. An impossible one, but perhaps chance can save us.
“Miss Carbón” (“Queen of Coal”)
Director: Agustina Macri
Countries of production: Spain/Argentina
Cast: Lux Pascal, Paco León, Laura Grandinetti, Romina Escobar, Simone Mercado, Federico Marzullo
Taking its inspiration from true events, Miss Carbón is a tale of perseverance, passion and dreams that defy gender boundaries. Carlita became the first female miner in a town where women were forbidden from entering the main source of local income: the coal mine. Superstitous belief considered that women meant the threat of cave-ins and that mining work was exclusively for men.
“Molt lluny” (“Away”)
Director: Gerard Oms
Countries of production: Spain/Netherlands
Cast: Mario Casas, David Verdaguer, Ilyass El Ouahdani, Jetty Mathurin, Hanneke van der Paardt, Reinout de Vey Mestdagh, Raúl Prieto
Sergio travels to Utrecht with his family for a football match. Before getting onto the flight back to Barcelona, he has a panic attack and decides to stay in the Netherlands. Unable to come up with a logical explanation for those around him, he cuts all ties with his past. From then on he will have to get by with no money, no home and without speaking the language.
“Nosotros” (“The Story of Us”)
Director: Helena Taberna
Country of production: Spain
Cast: María Vázquez, Pablo Molinero
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2022
The Story of Us reconstructs a love story starting with its end. Ángela and Antonio are a couple who, like so many others, fell in love, shared dreams, had children, tried hard not to give up and fell several times. When love ends, the questions arise: Where did it all go wrong? How did we end up like this? On a journey through the highs and lows of their relationship, Ángela and Antonio struggle against the passing of time, the interferences of desire and the idealisation of love.
“Romería” (“Romeria”)
Director: Carla Simón
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Llúcia Garcia, Mitch , Tristán Ulloa, Miryam Gallego, Alberto Gracia, Janet Novás
Marina (18), adopted at a very young age, travels to Vigo to meet the family of her biological father for the first time. Her arrival rekindles a past that had been long buried. Guided by her mother's diary and through a special connection with her new cousin, Marina will discover the family wounds and can at last relive the fragmented memory of the parents she can barely remember.
“San Simón”
Director: Miguel Ángel Delgado
Countries of production: Spain/Portugal
Cast: Flako Estévez, Alexandro Bouzó, Guillermo Queiro, Ana Fontenla, Mª del Carmen Jorge Veiga, Manuel F. Landeiro, Lucía Amarelle Torrado, Javier Varela, Tatán , Darío Fernández Raposo, Andrés Giráldez, Miguel Borines, Nuno Preto
50 years of freedom
October, 1936. Concentration camps are being opened throughout the territory by Franco's followers. They use convents, factories, schools, bullrings, monasteries… San Simón stands out for its insular nature. The regime turns the former leper hospital into a place of death, where the prisoners are subjected to repression in a place of astounding beauty. Seven years later, Lamas recalls the story of the men and women who, like himself, suffered repression on this small island off the coast of Galicia.
“Sirāt”
Director: Oliver Laxe
Countries of production: Spain/France
Cast: Sergi López, Brúno Nuñez, Stefania Gadda, Joshua Liam Henderson, Tonin Janvier, Jade Oukid, Richard Bellamy
A man and his son arrive at a rave in the Moroccan outback. They're searching for Mar, the daughter and sister who vanished months ago at one of these sleepless parties. Surrounded by electronic music and an unfamiliar sense of freedom, they hand out her photo time and again. Meeting a group of ravers, they decide to follow them to a party in the desert, where they hope to find the missing girl.
“Sorda” (“Deaf”)
Director: Eva Libertad
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Míriam Garlo, Álvaro Cervantes, Elena Irureta, Joaquín Notario
Ángela, a deaf woman, is expecting a baby with Héctor, her hearing partner. The arrival of their daughter changes the relationship between the couple as Ángela confronts the task of raising a child in a world not made for her.
“The Sleeper. El Caravaggio Perdido” (“The Sleeper. The Lost Caravaggio”)
Director: Álvaro Longoria
Countries of production: Spain/Italy
For years the Pérez de Castro family lived with a lost Caravaggio in their living room, not realising that it was worth more than 300 million euros. Appearing in an auction for a mere 1,500 euros, it unleashes a frantic race to get their hands on the work amongst experts, collectors and dealers. This documentary thriller reveals the market secrets of ancient art and shows how a casual discovery can turn a whole sector on its head.
“Todo lo que no sé” (“Everything I Don't Know”)
Director: Ana Lambarri Tellaeche
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Susana Abaitua, Franceso Carril, Natalia Huarte, Ane Gabarain, Andrés Lima, Stephanie Magnin, Iñaki Ardanaz
At her 35 years of age, Laura leads a monotonous life: she helps her sick father, works in a shop, shares a flat and spends time with her on-off boyfriend. This strange calm is turned upside-down when a former colleague invites her to return to an old project in the technology sector. She accepts, setting her sights on success. On this road to recovering part of herself she had thought lost, she makes a series of decisions that sends shockwaves through those around her as she pays the price of putting herself first.
“Un hombre libre” (“A Free Man”)
Director: Laura Hojman
Country of production: Spain
Cast: Marisol Membrillo
Agustín Gómez Arcos made a name for himself as a playwright in the 50s, but the modern approach and freedom of his work earned him censorship and drove him into exile. In France he became a successful author while remaining a great unknown in Spain. After decades of oblivion, in 2006, the Cabaret Voltaire publishing house started to translate and publish his novels for the first time in our country. Today he has been recovered by a new generation of readers.
“Una quinta portuguesa” (“The Portuguese House”)
Director: Avelina Prat
Countries of production: Spain/Portugal
Cast: Manolo Solo, Maria de Medeiros, Branka Katić
His wife's disappearance leaves Fernando, a quiet geography professor, completely devastated. Aimless, he assumes another man's identity as a gardener on a Portuguese estate, where he forms an unexpected friendship with the owner, stepping into a new life that isn't his own.
