Younger talents won out at San Sebastian’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum this year which allotted two top awards to Do Not Let Me Die Alone, from Chile’s Francisco Rodríguez Teare and Nicaraguan Laura Baumeister’s What Follows Is My Death. 

The second feature by Rodriguez Teare turns on miserable delivery boy who gets by disposing of mummies recovered in Iquique, North of Chile. “The Chinchorro mummies emerge as figures that guide the characters’ journey, says producer Rodrigo Díaz. Project teams Chile’s Axolotl and Mimbre Films with Belgium’s Michigan. 

Baumeister’s second feature after the high-profile Toronto player and San Sebastián winner Daughter of Rage begins on a full moon night in the Mexican desert. Virginia, a young Nicaraguan migrant, falls in love with Aurora as Virginia completes her transformation into a nahual woman. The project is a “transgender story, narratively speaking: risky and entertaining” Baumeister has told Variety.

Two Latin American star auteurs were also in the prize hunt, Uruguay’s Álvaro Brechner winning the Artekino International Award for La piel de león, re-teaming Brechner (Bad Day for Fishing, Mr. Kaplan) and Oscar winner Tornasol Media (The Secret in Their Eyes).

Also at San Sebastián to present Olmo, backed by Brad Pitt’s Plan B Ent, in Horizontes Latinos, Eimbcke  (Duck Season) won the top WIP Latam award out for Flies, about a loner woman, Olga, who suddenly is left to care for a nine-year-old boy. Renowned Mexican character actor Teresita Sánchez plays Olga; top Mexican producer Michael Franco produces, as on Olmo.    

The Egeda Platino Industria Award went to We Were No Longer Five, from Colombian directorial duo Esteban Hoyos García and Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez, a fantasy-tinged tale of a mother who has lost track of her son in Colombia’s armed conflict.  

German-Ukrainian director Tatjana Moutchnik swept WIP Europa with her feature debut February, Seven Days, a family drama about two estranged brothers reunited by their mother’s funeral, just as Russia invades the Ukraine. 

The Ikusmira Berriak Award, backed by Spanish production-distribution-sales company Sideral, went to buzz title La Koreana, un poema ferromagnético de luz y memoria, which looks likely to be backed by a major Spanish company, after runs at Porto/ Post/Doc, Berlinale Visitors plus the San Sebastián’s Ikusmira Berriak residency, where 2023 Berlin winner Estíbaliz Urresola boarded as a producer.

SAN SEBASTIAN INDUSTRY AWARDS 2025

14th EUROPE-LATIN AMERICA CO-PRODUCTION FORUM AWARDS

Best Project Award

Do Not Let Me Die Alone, (Francisco Rodríguez Teare, Chile, Belgium)

Dale! Award

What Follows Is My Death, (Laura Baumeister, Nicaragua, Mexico, Spain)

Artekino International Prize

La Piel del León, (Álvaro Brechner, Uruguay, Spain, Brazil)

Casa Wabi-Escine Award

Do Not Let Me Die Alone, (Francisco Rodríguez Teare, Chile, Belgium)

QCinema Award

What Follows Is My Death, (Laura Baumeister, Nicaragua, Mexico, Spain)

WIP LATAM

WIP Latam Industry Award

Flies, (Fernando Eimbcke, Mexico)

Egeda Platino Industria Award For Best WIP LATAM We

Were No Longer Five, (Esteban Hoyos García, Juan Miguel Gelacio Ramírez, Colombia, USA)

WIP EUROPA

WIP Europa Industry Award

February, Seven Days, (Tatjana Moutchnik, Ukraine, Germany, Austria)

WIP Europa Award

February, Seven Days, (Tatjana Moutchnik, Ukraine, Germany, Austria)

IKUSMIRA BERRIAK AWARD

Sideral Award

La Koreana, un poema ferromagnético de luz y memoria, (Joana Moya Blanco, Spain)

Callum McLennan contributed this article.

John Hopewell