GEHITU, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender association of the Basque Country and, as its representatives, a jury of seven people, have, since the last edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival, viewed almost all Latin American LGBTI films produced over the year. The criteria of the jury in taking its decision was "the cinematic quality of the film and its defence of the values and rights of the LGBTI collective".

The jury has therefore decided to give the 2nd SEBASTIANE LATINO AWARD to the film Praia do futuro, a Brazilian production by the director Karim Ainouz, for being a visual poem on the courage needed to accept our personal fears and desires. In the film, the hero, played by Wagner Moura, will set out on a difficult flight in search of freedom, leaving him without roots as he abandons his home with no possibility of return. The image, music, silence, the tale told by the bodies and ellipses help the spectator to build this story and to become involved in it, always based on a narration that describes a relationship between two men in a completely natural and simple way.

Because Praia do Futuro confronts its leading character with his two great passions: his fondness for his brother and his love for a German boy on the Brazilian beaches of ten years previously. In this context, his fears and reality prompt him to flee to a cold Berlin, where he will find a little warmth. And because Karim Ainouz decides not to stop there but to recover our characters ten years later in order to show us that sometimes it is necessary to "waste" so much time in order to reencounter oneself and those who love us. Also, because we hope that this film will mean that fewer people will have to exclaim, like its leading man: "Here in this city under the water, everything makes sense. I don't have to hide in the sea to be in peace. I don't need to submerge myself to feel free."

The San Sebastian Festival has always been characterised for being a great showcase of support for Latin American cinema. The Sebastiane Latino Award represents yet another contribution to this aspect. We can forward the news that this film, Praia do Futuro, will be one of the films in the Horizontes Latinos section of the 62nd San Sebastian International Film Festival.

We would like to thank the Festival for its backing by including all kinds of cinema and all kinds of stories, and we hope that awards such as the Sebastiane and Sebastiane Latino Awards help to promote the appearance in cinemas of increasingly greater numbers of productions on the subject of quality LGBTI.

Please note that we will announce the XV Sebastiane Award on September 26. Fifteen years of selecting the film that best reflects the values of respect and normality with regard to sexual and affective diversity from among those programmed in any of the San Sebastian Festival sections.