The San Sebastian Festival creates WIP Latam and WIP Europa, two new works in progress (WIP) for Latin American and European productions at the post-production stage.

WIP Latam substitutes the pioneering Films in Progress after running for 18 years with the Cinélatino festival, Rencontres de Toulouse. As well as the post-production grants offered by the collaborating companies (Ad Hoc Studios, Deluxe, Dolby, Laserfilm Cine y Vídeo, Nephilim Producciones and No Problem Sonido), WIP Latam, which will present six films, will have a cash prize of 30,000 euros, sponsored by the service-providing association for audiovisual producers, EGEDA.

WIP Europa is an evolution of the Glocal in Progress programme, which will increase from presenting three to a maximum of six films. The WIP Europa Industry Award winning film will be distributed in Spain by Bteam Pictures. The initiative is now open to all films with European production, although preference will be given to first or second works by their filmmakers or to those shot in non-hegemonic languages.

The call for submissions for both WIPs will open on June 1 and close one month later, on July 1. The San Sebastian Festival selection committee will choose six Latin American and up to a maximum of six European films to be presented to distributors, sales agents and producers with a view to fostering their international dissemination.

Redefinition of the Festival

The San Sebastian Festival is configured into three major areas: a festival that selects and programmes films; a festival that promotes the development of projects and films at the postproduction stage (Films-to-Be); and a festival that reflects on cinema from a broad perspective: industrial, creative, vocational (Reflection and discussion). 

On the one hand, San Sebastian's film programme, consisting of some 200 films selected for six competitive sections (Official Selection, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak and Nest) and seven non-competitive sections (Culinary Zinema, Made in Spain, Zinemira, Velodrome, Movies for Kids, Retrospective and Klasikoak).

On the other hand, the proposals included in Films-to-Be: movies at the post-production stage presented to film industry professionals in the shape of its two works in progress and projects submitted for the three calls promoted by the Festival. These calls are the Ikusmira Berriak residency for project development, offering space, context and time (eight weeks) to five audiovisual proposals; the Co-production Forum for film projects in development from Europe and Latin America, which helps producers to find partners on both sides of the Atlantic and to foster their access to the international market; and Zinemaldia Startup Challenge, a competition for new European companies with technology-based projects applied to the audiovisual sector.

Furthermore, the Festival organises Proyecta –a presentation of film projects seeking co-production partners between Europe and Latin America– together with Ventana Sur, Latin America's biggest film market, and the Producers Network–Marché du Film at the Festival de Cannes, and collaborates in the Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, promoted by IBAIA (Association of Audiovisual Producers of the Basque Country).

Lastly, the Festival wishes to highlight its nature as a place to meet and convey knowledge through Reflection and discussion, an umbrella for activities promoting discussion on the cinema from an industrial, creative and vocational point of view and programmes generating opportunities of agreements and business for creators, producers and distributors. Figuring in this scope are initiatives ranging from masterclasses, the Zinemaldia Meetings and the Horizontes Breakfasts, open to badge holders and to the general public, including activities specifically focussed on film industry professionals and the specialised media and conversations on relevant subjects for the sector, the Zinemaldia & Technology presentations, the meetings between festival programmers and debates on the phenomenon of series.  

The area for reflection and discussion on the cinema runs throughout the year at the Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, promoted by the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, where the Festival, with Tabakalera and the Filmoteca Vasca, has conceptualised a centre for thought, research, experimental practice and pedagogical innovation on the subject of the past, present and future of the cinema. One of the results of the collaboration with the EQZE is the research project Zinemaldia 70. All possible stories, created to generate a living archive to foster reflection and discussion on the past, present and future of the Festival through its document collection (letters, photographs, reviews and mentions published in newspapers and magazines, books, etc.) compiled since 1953.  

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