SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain - An intense San Sebastián Film Festival rounded its final bend on Friday with large Spanish-world production announcements and a balance of stars – Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Colin Farrell – premieres and industry platforms, such as a Creative Investors’ Conference co-organized by CAA Media Finance, which fest director José Luis Rebordinos has made his hallmark.

If it had more hotels and wanted, San Sebastián could hold a powerful formal market, stealing some of Toronto’s firepower as it bows its own market in 2026. As it was, San Sebastián’s informal market found fair momentum. “There were a lot of foreigners, French execs all over, Italians, Germans,” says Antonio Saura at Latido Films. “It might not be a formal market, but there is one.” That said, it will take some time for many of the deals to be made public.

“How many of your films sold to the U.S. at Toronto?” 193’s Patrick Wachsberger asked CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland at the Creative Investors’ Conference. “They all will,” Sutherland answered.

Spain and Latin America Hold Sway

Since fest directors Diego Galán and Manuel Pérez Estremera from the 1980s, San Sebastián has emerged as the world’s most prominent platform for Spanish-speaking cinema. This has rarely been felt with such force as in 2025. All five movies topping Spanish critics’ poll in El Diario Vasco are Spanish-language: Sundays, Happy Valley Stories, Maspalomas, The Currents and Los Tigres. Many big world premieres – She Walks in Darkness, Karmele, Belén, 27 Nights and Clean – come from Spain and Latin America. 

And Why….

Why is another question. Principally, the most ambitious movies in industry terms in both territories are increasingly driven by SVOD operators, led this year by Movistar Plus+ behind Sundays and Los Tigres, and Netflix, which produced She Walks in Darkness, 27 Nights and Clean; Belen is an Amazon MGM Studios production. All three operators are aiming for local market impact. A big Cannes win can do wonders for home audiences, of course: Think Movistar Plus+’s Sirât. But all three streaming services are holding back some of their biggest and best Spanish-language swings for San Sebastián, the local market’s most impactful movie event.

The Deals

Here’s an around score from San Sebastián, announced by Variety:

• Wagner Maura, a Cannes best actor winner for The Secret Agent, has boarded as an executive producer Sandra Delgado’s The Outsider about activist-artist Claudia Andujar. Fast-expanding Maria Farinha Filmes produces.

• Daniel Burman is shooting a feel-good dramedy series So Far So Good, starring Benjamín Vicuña and co-produced by Flow and the Mediapro Studio.

• House on Fire’s Spanish director Dani de la Orden is set to helm El Director, based on David Jiménez’s lid-lifting non-fiction book. Beta Fiction Spain produces and distributes in Spain.

• Lali Espósito, Esteban Lamothe and Marcelo Subiotto are set to star in Benjamín Naishtat’s Glaxo, produced by RT Features and Rei Pictures.

• More news from Brazil’s busy Rodrigo Teixieira at RT Features: Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Sarsgaard and Andrea Riseborough are to star in Michael Almereyda’s Zero K, from RT Features and Keep Your Head.

• “The House of the Spirits” author Isabel Allende revealed to Variety that the Prime Video adaptation will release in 2026.

• Toasting 25 years in the biz, Spain’s Atrescine has announced a multi-year deal with Santiago Segura’s hugely successful Bowfinger Int’l Pictures.

• Go-getting Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat, Minoría Absoluta and FishCorb have set Gènesi, a Ferran Adrià bio about the chef who turned El Bulli into the most famous restaurant in the world. David Pujol directs. Netflix has acquired rights to Spain and Latin America.

• Film Factory has boarded director Daniel Monzón’s Pray for Us, from Robot Dreams producer Arcadia Motion Pictures.

• Paulo Branco is producing Aqui, based on J.M. Coetzee’s Jesus trilogy and starring Manolo Solo and Patricia López Arnaiz.

• Bitters End has acquired sales rights to San Sebastian’s main competition contender Sai: Disaster, also playing Busan.

• Emilia Pérez star Adriana Paz and Society of the Snow lead Agustín Pardella are to head My Life With Him (Che), about Hilda Gadea, the first wife of revolutionary Ernesto Che Guevara.

• Filmax announced at San Sebastián the acquisition of both Basque historical epic Karmele, directed by Asier Altuna, and series Mouths of Sky, a gritty slice of Basque Noir from Kold Almandoz. Both ar produced by Txintxua Films (Intimacy)

• Spain’s Amore Cine has joined Chile’s Maquina on Dæmon by Valeria Hofmann, the Sundance-winning helmer of short AliEN0089.

• Brazil”s Sambaqui Cultural has boarded Chilean Camilo Becerra"s The Sky That We Paint, from Chile’s Story Board Media, as the country punches above its weight at San Sebastián.

• Argentina’s Tarea Fina has joined Las Acacias editor María Astrauskas’ directorial debut, Patrimony.

• Hotly courted, Gloria lead Paulina García will topline Panama-set drama Victoria in the Clouds and Argentine domestic abuse thriller La ilusión de un paraíso, which was sparking good word of mouth at San Sebastián.

• Buzzy Busan, San Sebastián title Shape of Momo has been boarded by Celluloid Dreams.

• Maboroshi took sales to San Sebastián title Before The Bright Day.

• Italy”s The Open Reel snagged Brazilian drama Dolores in the run-up to the festival. 

John Hopewell