San Sebastián Industry Awards Crown Latam Filmmakers — SkimNews
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- Juan Sebastián Mesa won WIP Latam for "Lovers Go Home!," a Canada-Colombia co-production about a single mother webcam performer and her bond with a disabled war veteran, following his 2019 Sundance short "Swamp" and "La Roya" at San Sebastián's New Directors.
- Tatiana Huezo won WIP Latam for "Galerna," produced by Pimienta and Elastica Films, about casting directors in remote Mexico — building on her Cannes 2023 Special Mention for "Prayers for the Stolen" and Berlin 2025 Best Director for "The Echo."
- Felipe Solari Yrigoyen took the Best Project Award at the 15th Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum for "The Amateurs," produced by Chile's Quijote Films (behind Cannes 2025 Un Certain Regard winner "The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo") and Argentina's Gentil Cine.
- Selma Cervantes won the Artekino International Prize for "Mourning Sound," backed by Michel Franco's Teorema and marking her first feature after her Sundance 2023 short "Sweatshop Girl" starring Yalitza Aparicio.
- Ekain Albite's "Akira" took a double win at Ikusmira Berriak — a Spain-Georgia-France co-production following a Georgian scrap dealer on the Basque coast, his first solo feature after co-directing Locarno 2023 selection "Negu Hurbilak."
- Festival director José Luis Rebordinos has built San Sebastián into, alongside Cannes, Europe's most significant Latin American meet-and-mart at a moment when the region's film industries are "often beleaguered" by reduced state aid, underscoring the vital role of co-production financing.
Why it matters: With Latin American film industries facing reduced state aid, San Sebastián has become an essential co-production gateway — and this year's award slate shows top regional production houses (Roma's Pimienta, Teorema, Quijote, Elastica) doubling down on first- and second-time directors, giving emerging filmmakers a viable financing path when domestic support is shrinking.
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