The Ikusmira Berriak film project development and residency programme, which closed the registration period of its fourth edition last week, has received 155 proposals from 31 countries. This figure consolidates the number of proposals received last year, which in turn was a fourfold increase over those received in the first two editions.

Specifically, 12 proposals have been received from participants in the last five years of the International Film Students Meeting in San Sebastian, 9 from directors from the Basque Autonomous Community, 40 from directors from the rest of Spain and 94 from foreign directors.

In this last category, most are from Latin America, topped by Argentina and Mexico, though there have been projects from Germany, Belgium, USA, Slovakia, Slovenia, France, Israel, Italy or Switzerland, and for the first time, there are proposals from Canada, Russia, China and India among the candidates.

The four projects selected for Ikusmira Berriak will be announced in May.

Irish producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly and the Italian director of the Program of the Biennale College – Cinema Savina Neirotti, who are joining the project, and Brazilian filmmaker Sergio Oksman, for the third year, will pre-select the projects. The authors of the works selected will enjoy a six-week residency at the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture.

During the first four weeks, the producers will develop their projects in Tabakalera’s Artist’s Space and take master classes with professionals from the film industry while receiving guidance from members of the expert committee. In the fifth week of the residency, the participants will prepare the pitching session, which involves a project presentation to the industry during the sixth and final week of the residency. The session is part of the San Sebastian International Film Festival. The residents will have the opportunity to arrange meetings with attending professionals who are interested in collaborating in their projects, and will receive an access pass to screenings and the Festival's other industry activities.

The programme will also provide financial support amounting to 20,000 euros, which will be distributed amongst the projects selected. In addition, REC Grabaketa Estudioa will offer as a prize its post-production services for a short film, valued at 10,500 euros, and for a feature film, valued at 35,000 euros.

Ikusmira Berriak seeks to involve new talent as well as producers and people from the audiovisual industry who support innovation and new languages. It is organised by Tabakalera and the San Sebastian International Film Festival, in collaboration with REC Grabaketa Estudioa and the Basque Film Library, and is part of the San Sebastian 2016 European Capital of Culture legacy.

Three projects chosen during the first editions of Ikusmira Berriak have been completed and have been screened at the Festival: the short films El extraño by Pablo Álvarez, Calipatria by Leo Calice and Gerhard Treml and Gwendolyn Green by Tamyka Smith were presented at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera in 2016 and 2017. This year is expected to see the launch of two feature-length films from the first edition, Trote, directed by Xacio Baño, and Muga deitzen da Pausoa, by Maider Oleaga, which have already been completed.

EXPERTS COMMITTE BIOGRAPHIES

FODHLA CRONIN O’REILLY

Born in Ireland, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly moved to England to study film production after starting out as a special-effects trainee on productions including The Wind That Shakes The Barley. At the National Film and Television School , she began to develop short Head Over Heels with writer-director Timothy Reckart, the film premiered at Cannes and had a successful festival run, culminating in an Oscar nomination in 2013.

After producing various commercial and short projects, Cronin O’Reilly began working on her debut feature Lady Macbeth with writer Alice Birch and director William Oldroyd. The film was shot in September 2015, with Florence Pugh, Christopher Fairbank and Cosmo Jarvis among the cast.

Lady Macbeth premiered in the prestigious Platform section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. Lady Macbeth had its European premiere in San Sebastián, where competed at the Official Selection and won the FIPRESCI International Critic’ prize. It also won the FIPRESCI at Thessaloniki, the Critics’ Choice at Zurich, the Cineuropa prize for outstanding cinematic contribution at Les Arcs, the Discovery Award at the 2017 European Film Academy Awards and five 2017 British Independent Film Academy Awards.

In 2017 has produced a documentary project called My Generation, which feature Michael Caine reflecting on the 1960s over archive footage, driven by iconic music of the decade.

SAVINA NEIROTTI

Born in Genova, she graduated in Philosophy and completed the first year of Master in Aesthetics at the University of Pennsylvania.

After returning to Italy, she became Head of the Press and Communication Office of the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, where she was also in charge of the Educational Department.
In the same years she founded Scuola Holden in Torino together with Alessandro Baricco. She has recently been appointed as CEO of Scuola Holden.

In the last ten years she has written articles and interviews on narration and classical music, book reviews and film reviews for Italian and international newspapers.

She has ideated and directed Script&Pitch Workshops since 2005, and TorinoFilmLab -an international lab supporting emerging talents mainly working on their first and second feature films, through training, development and funding activities- since 2008. She is also Head of Programme of Biennale College – Cinema and Biennale College Cinema Virtual Reality. Neirotti was member of the Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Award jury at the last edition of the San Sebastián Film Festival.

SERGIO OKSMAN

A Brazilian resident in Madrid for the past twenty years, Sergio Oksman is a director and a teacher at ECAM. His career is closely tied to documentaries, and Elías Querejeta has produced six of his works. Films he has directed include A Esteticista (2004), Goodbye, America (2006), Notes on the other (2009), A story of the Modlins (2012) or O Futebol (2015).