Yahoo Lifestyle San Sebastian Fest’s Ikusmira Berriak Unveils New Projects, Including a Mermaid Horror Thriller and a Queer Cowboy Tale
Ikusmira Berriak, the San Sebastian-based development program behind Cannes Directors’ Fortnight hits “The Water” and “Creatura” and Sundance standout “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” has announced six projects for its 2025 residency program, as the initiative soars in popularity, applications sky-rocketing 34% to 487 for this current year.
Reasons for that cut several ways. As markets contract for movies, Ikusmira Berriak, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, has supported 50 film projects since 2015. 23 of those have premiered at international festivals which are proving must-have platforms for films to cut through the slew of features made every year in Europe and beyond. Of other Ikusmira Berriak alums, Jaione Camborda won San Sebastian’s top Golden Shell with “The Rye Horne,” developed at Ikusmira Berriak. Nele Wohlatz’s “Sleep With Their Eyes Open,” at the facility in 2018, won last year the Fipresci Prize at Berlin’s Encounters.
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Drawn from the world over, though with two berths reserved for Spain and the Basque Country, Ikusmira Berriak features also often hint at current trends in cutting edge arthouse cinema. This year, for example, at least four of the six projects register warped societal pressures via physical metamorphosis, enrolling genre to depict such correlatives such as collapse (“La Koreana”), disappearance (“900 Tons), trans-gender transformation (“Cowboy Billi”) and even literal bestialization (“Mermaids”).
Organised by the San Sebastián Film Festival, the city’s Tabakalera, a contemporary culture center and Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Ikusmira Berriak offers a double backed residency, its first part running March 24 thru May 4. During this time, the six residents will receive counseling on their projects. Having received development assistance in June, in September, they return during the San Sebastian Festival to present projects to the industry, both in a pitching session and tailor-made meetings.
From Jan. 25, as part of the San Sebastián Festival all year round program, retrospective Ikusmira Berriak 10 Years will begin presenting at the Tabakalera 21 films developed at the program and screened at festivals including San Sebastián, Cannes, Venice, the Berlinale, Sundance, Locarno, the Viennale, Madrid’s Márgenes, the Torino Film Festival and Mar del Plata.
Ikusmira Berriak should have further movies at festivals in 2025. Among potential bows: “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” from Chile’s Diego Cespedes, a Cannes Cinefondation winner; “Anekumen,” from on-the-rise Basque cineaste Irati Gorosmidi; the anticipated “Last Night I Conquered the City of Thebes,” from Gabriel Azorín, and “Strange River,” from Jaume Claret, a 2024 winner at Les Arcs Industry Village.
Ikusmira Berriak’s six projects for its 2025 residency are drawn from students of the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, contenders at the last five editions of San Sebastián’s international film school forum Nest, the Basque Country, Spain and the rest of the world. A breakdown:
Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola Category
“Mermaids,” (“Sirenas,” Alexandra Latishev, Costa Rica)
The third feature from Latishev, whose “Medea” (2017) and “Delirio” (2024) both explore genre violence. “Mermaids” explores one reaction, in the tale of a woman who, entering water, is transformed into a half-crocodile creature. “Mermaids,” says Latishev, is about women “who transition as a way of surviving their circumstances” in a film mediated by elements of fantasy typical of legend, revolving around the figure of the siren.”
Nest Category
“The Dance of Shadows,” (“La Danza de la Sombras,” Kathy Mitrani, Colombia)
Ivonne’s husband dies during a storm on an island north of Colombia. The building constructed by her dead husband collapses, strengthening Ivonne’s conviction that she is cursed. “At its heart, ‘La Danza de Las Sombras’ is an intimate perspective into the difficulty of a woman feeling present in her pain,” says U.S.-based Colombian Mitrani, whose feature expands on the themes of the Nest short “Sombras Nada Más,” elected for 2023’s Nest.
Basque Category
“La Koreana,” (“La Koreana, un poema ferromagnético de luz y memoria,” Joana Moya, Spain
Inspired by her grandmother’s journey in 1959 from her native Malaga to join her husband at the huge open-pit iron mine in La Arboleda, Bizkaia, the story of the mine, now submerged in reservoirs, from the point of view of its inhabitants. The film, is “a place for reflection for those who live there: Where does a people keep its memory? ask the miners amid their ruins. I ask myself how our memory continues to alter both the past and the future,” says Moya. Developed at Madrid’s Matadero and now at Noka, a Tabakalera program to mentor emerging women directors in the Basque Country and Navarre.
Spanish Category
“Return to the Valley,” (“Retorno al Valle,” Jaime Puertas, Spain)
The second feature from Jaime Puertas, whose debut, the Rotterdam-selected “Tale of Shepherds,” charted not only the physical but mental landscape of fast-disappearing rural Spain. Set again in rural Spain, in this case a village in Jaén province, north of Granada, a story based on the figure of Spanish mystic poet San Juan de la Cruz and the friendship between two young queer people, Luz and Pedro, and the dying Omar. “In a climate of study and sensuality, deep in Jaén province, these three people will gradually discover the part played by the Divine in their relationship,” the synopsis runs.
International Category
“900 Tons,” (900 Toneladas,” Daniel Soares, Portugal)
Sandro, a 33-year-old garbage worker, cleans the streets of Lisbon at night. Despite financial struggles, Sandro drives a luxury sports car. Unable to separate himself from this object that gives him visibility, Sandro begins to sell himself, and little by little becomes invisible. “‘900 Tons’ is a tragicomedy that deals with appearance, reality and how far we’re willing to go, to keep our self-constructed narratives alive,” comments Soares whose short “Bad for a Moment” won a special jury mention at Cannes. Backed by Som e a Fúria, a producer on Ira Sachs “Frankie” and Miguel Gomes’ “Arabian Nights.”
International Category
“Cowboy Billi,” (“Il Cascatore,” Fede Gianni, Italy)
On the outskirts of 1960s Rome. Whose fields double as Western locations, 12-year-old Balnca dreams of becoming a stunt rider, which requires her to pretend to be Billy, “a dangerous performance that could shatter the only world she knows,” says the synopsis. From Italy’s Kino Produzioni, which co-produced Alcarràs and Puan, an expansion of Giani’s short of the same name. “As I navigate uncharted territories constructing my identity as a trans man, I felt drawn to a reliable archetype: the cowboy. Compelled by its power as a symbol of freedom, I wanted to queer it and make it my own,” Gianni comments.
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