San Sebastian Film Festival Unveils 2025 Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Lineup

The San Sebastian Film Festival has locked the lineup for Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, the event’s most competitive section, which will feature 23 titles across its 73rd edition. The selection includes 15 features, six shorts and two medium-length films, with seven world premieres alongside entries previously seen at Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Rotterdam, Toronto and Locarno.

The program brings together established international filmmakers and newcomers. Paz Encina, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Luis Ortega, Hlynur Pálmason and Gabrielle Stemmer will debut new works, joined by first-time directors including actor Harris Dickinson, Jocelyn Charles and Yuiga Danzuka. Several filmmakers who developed projects through festival programs such as Nest, Ikusmira Berriak, WIP Europa and the Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum — among them Paula Tomás Marques, Jaume Claret Muxart, Sarah Miro Fischer and György Pálfi — also return with new titles.

Sergio Oksman will open the section with “Una película de miedo” (“A Scary Movie”). Croatian director Igor Bezinović closes with “Fiume o morte!” (“Fire or death!”), a nonfiction feature revisiting the 16-month occupation of the port city of Fiume by Italian poet and army officer Gabriele D’Annunzio in 1919 and 1920.

Highlights of the lineup include Sho Miyake’s “Tabi to Hibi” (“Two Seasons, Two Strangers”), which won the Golden Leopard at Locarno; Hadzihalilovic’s “La tour de glace” (“The Ice Tower”), which earned the Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution at the Berlinale and features Marion Cotillard; Dickinson’s directorial debut “Urchin,” starring Frank Dillane; and Pálmason’s world premiere “Jóhanna af örk” (“Joan of Arc”), a film that expands on his recent body of work exploring visual art and cinema.

Other entries include Danzuka’s “Miharashi Sedai” (“Brand New Landscape”), first seen at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight; Charles’ animated short “Dieu est timide” (“God is Shy”), presented in Cannes Critics’ Week; Bo Hanxiong’s “No One Knows I Disappeared,” which premiered in Shanghai; and Bálint Kenyeres’ “The Spectacle,” selected this year at Cannes.

Luis Ortega returns with the world premiere of “Siempre es de noche” (“Always Night”), following his 2023 San Sebastian competition entry “El Jockey” (“Kill the Jockey”). Paraguayan filmmaker Paz Encina presents her short “La felicidad” (“Happiness”), a personal nonfiction work that premieres in the section. Other features include György Pálfi’s “Kota” (“Hen”), which premiered in Toronto; and Juanjo Pereira’s “Bajo las banderas, el sol” (“Under the Flags, the Sun”), a Berlinale FIPRESCI Prize winner on Paraguay’s Stroessner dictatorship.

Debuts also feature prominently. Canadian filmmaker Sophy Romvari presents her first feature “Blue Heron,” which screened at Locarno; Alex Russell, known for work on series such as “Beef” and “The Bear,” brings “Lurker,” premiered at Sundance; Marques presents “Duas vezes João Liberada” (“Two Times João Liberada”); and Jaume Claret Muxart’s “Estrany riu” (“Strange River”) arrives after its Venice debut. Portuguese filmmaker André Silva Santos also screens his short “Sol menor” (“April Tune”).

The lineup also includes Stemmer’s medium-length film “La grève” (“The Strike”), adapted from Ovidie’s “La chair est triste hélas,” and Spanish premieres such as “El último arrebato” (“The Last Rapture”), the debut of Marta Medina and Enrique López Lavigne, and Lur Olaizola Lizarralde’s short “Bariazioak” (“Variations”), which screens out of competition.

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera is jointly organized with Tabakalera-International Centre for Contemporary Culture. All films in the section, with the exception of Olaizola Lizarralde’s, will compete for the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award. The prize carries €20,000, divided between the winning director (€6,000) and the film’s distributor in Spain (€14,000).

The 73rd San Sebastian International Film Festival runs Sept. 19–27.

Scroll down for full lineup details.

“Una película de miedo” (“A Scary Movie”)

Director: Sergio Oksman

Countries of production: Spain/Portugal

Opening Film

During the summer holidays, a documentary-maker and his 12-year-old son stay at an abandoned hotel in Lisbon: an empty hotel like the one in the movie The Shining.

“Fiume o morte!” (“Fire or death!”)

Director: Igor Bezinovic

Countries of production: Croatia/Italy/Slovenia

Closing Film

On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war-loving Italian poet Gabriele D'Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka (Croatia), wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time, his official photography team captured over 10,000 images.

“Dieu est timide” (“God is Shy”)

Short film

Director: Jocelyn Charles

Country of production: France

During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.

“Miharashi sedai” (“Brand New Landscape”)

Director: Yuiga Danzuka

Country of production: Japan

Cast: Kodai Kurosaki , Kenichi Endo , Haruka Igawa , Mai Kiryu

In the ever-changing landscape of Tokyo, two siblings navigate the city, haunted by the absence of their mother. The return of their estranged father, a renowned architect, may be their last chance to reconcile.

“Urchin”

Director: Harris Dickinson

Country of production: UK

Cast: Diane Axford , Frank Dillane , Murat Erkek , Karyna Khymchuk , Amr Waked , Megan Northam

In the streets of London, Mike, a young homeless man, struggles to survive as he deals with his past and attempts to turn his life around. His life revolves around marginalisation and brief glimmers of hope. As he progresses along a road to self-discovery, unexpected chances come up that could mean a new start. Urchin is an intimate and moving portrait of human fragility and the possibility of redemption.

“Estrany riu” (“Strange River”)

Director: Jaume Claret Muxart

Countries of production: Spain/Germany

Cast: Jan Monter Palau , Nausicaa Bonnín , Jordi Oriol , Francesco Wenz , Bernat Solé Palau, Roc Colell Moncunill

Ikusmira News 2022

Sixteen-year-old Dídac travels by bicycle along the course of the Danube with his family. In these hot days, an unexpected meeting changes the direction of the trip: a mysterious boy appears in the water. His enigmatic presence not only awakens something new in Dídac, it also threatens to change the relationship with his family.

“La felicidad” (“Happiness”)

Short film

Director: Paz Encina

Country of production: Paraguay

Cast: Martina Cabrera Dos Santos , Aquiles Rauddi Dos Santos

“La felicidad is a short film about nostalgia and the memory of my late brother. Since then, I only think of him and try to recreate some kind of image that can still unite us, that can still make me feel, some notion of happiness, some kind of resemblance, that gives me back his image and my own, together, beautful, eternal.” (Paz Encina)

“La tour de glace” (“The Ice Tower”)

Director: Lucile Hadzihalilovic

Countries of production: France/Germany

Cast: Marion Cotillard , Gaspar Noé , August Diehl , Clara Pacini

The 1970s. Dawn by the city lights, Jeanne runs away from a children’s home high in the mountains. She takes refuge in a film studio which she secretly explores at night. By day, the film The Snow Queen is being shot there, starring the enigmatic Cristina in the title role. Jeanne falls instantly under the spell of the beautiful, tormented star. A mutual fascination develops between the actor and the girl.

“No One Knows I Disappeared”

Short film

Director: Bo Hanxiong

Country of production: China

Cast: Li Aoyang , Li Yun , Chen Yusha , Zhang Zhaohong

In the shadow of China's growing erasure of marginalized lives and the tightening state surveillance, the sudden disappearance of an elderly woman in the frigid winter propels her caregiver, Lin, into a relentless search. As Lin's quest deepens, the boundaries between herself and the mystery blur, entwining her fate with the vanishing enigma she seeks to resolve.

“The Spectacle”

Short film

Director: Balint Kenyeres

Countries of production: Hungary/France

Cast: Jonas Vilmos , Jolika Józsefné Oláh , Timea Udvari-Kardos , Sandor Soma , Gabor Varadi

A young Roma boy is chosen for a television feature after word spreads of his unusual gift. As expectations rise, his quiet talent faces the harsh glare of media scrutiny. What follows is a quiet unraveling-for him, and for those around him.

“The Last Rapture”

Directors: Marta Medina, Enrique López Lavigne

Country of production: Spain

Arrebato (1980) is the greatest cult movie of today’s Spanish cinema and Iván Zulueta, its director, an accursed filmmaker. Arrebato was the film that forecast the end of the movida, a dark and harrowing reel whose history and intra-history are intimately linked. Arrebato acts as a premonition of the director’s own life. Just like his actors, Zulueta will end up being brought down by drugs and the cinema and, like them, will also disappear.