Eight films screening across the official sections of the 73rd San Sebastian Film Festival will compete for the Euskadi Basque Country 2030 Agenda Award, which honors works that best reflect the values of democratic culture, sustainability, diversity and solidarity as the core symbols of the Sustainable Development Goals promoted by the 2030 Agenda at the United Nations and in the Basque Country.
Three titles from the festival’s Official Selection will be in the running: José Mari Goenaga and Aitor Arregi’s “Maspalomas,” Dolores Fonzi’s directorial effort “Belén,” and “Jianyu laide mama” (“Her Heart Beats in Its Cage”) from Chinese filmmaker Qin Xiaoyu.
The competition also extends to other sections of the festival. Lucrecia Martel’s Nuestra tierra” is included out of Horizontes Latinos, while Juanjo Pereira’s “Bajo las banderas, el sol” (“Under the Flags, the Sun”) comes from Zabaltegi-Tabakalera.
Rounding out the lineup are three films from Perlak: Guillermo Galoe’s “Ciudad sin sueño” (“Sleepless City”), Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” and “Un simple accident” (“It Was Just an Accident”) from Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi.
The selected films come from Spain, Argentina, China, Paraguay and Iran, among other countries, and address a wide scope of urgent issues: LGBTQI+ rights, abortion, reintegration, indigenous communities, authoritarian regimes, systemic exclusion, Gaza genocide and the repression of the Iranian government.
The 2030 Agenda jury will be led by actor and director Carolina Yuste, joined by author and screenwriter Harkaitz Cano and Asier Aranbarri, the Basque Government’s Director of Social Innovation. The organizers said Aranbarri’s role reflects the award’s focus on culture and artistic creation as tools to advance human rights, democratic values and the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The San Sebastian honor carries a cash prize of €20,000 for the majority producer of the winning film. The award will be presented on Thursday, Sept. 25 at 5 p.m. at the Tabakalera Prisma.
Last year’s award went to “Soy Nevenka” (“I Am Nevenka”), directed by Icíar Bollaín.