The San Sebastián Festival and the Sociedad Estatal Loterías y Apuestas del Estado have announced the third edition of the Loterías Award for short films on social issues, carrying a first prize of 10,000 euros for the winning work and a second of 5,000 for the runner-up. The submission period opens today, May 4 and closes on June 16.

This morning in Madrid, the Film Academy hosted an event where the competition was announced, attended by the Festival director, José Luis Rebordinos, and the president of Loterías, Jesús Huerta. Both stressed the strong interest enjoyed by the previous two calls of a competition whose aim is to use the audiovisual medium to send positive and encouraging messages in the endeavour to foster the redistribution of wealth, eradicate inequalities and achieve social justice. 

According to the competition rules, the short films must focus on social issues such as well-being, the fight against loneliness and improved quality of life in the elderly, as well as support for women victims of gender-based violence, those in a situation of vulnerability and cancer patients.

The short films, which can be submitted online from today through the Festival website, must have at least 51% of Spanish production and a runtime of no longer than 10 minutes. The selected works must be submitted in a format complying with the Festival’s technical requirements, as indicated in the competition rules.

The Loterías Award for short films on social issues will be decided by a jury specifically created for the purpose, selected by the Festival direction and Loterías. It will be made up of three representatives of the audiovisual and/or social sectors. The two winning works of the year will screen at the Festival’s 74th edition, to run from 18-26 September 2026.

Having thanked Loterías for its loyal backing of the Festival, José Luis Rebordinos went on to recall the quality of the works submitted for the previous editions, while highlighting “the important role played by the cinema in bringing complex realities to the fore and raising audience awareness”. “This competition is precisely intended to turn the focus on pressing social situations which must not be ignored by a film festival such as our own”, said the director of the San Sebastián Festival. 

For his part, the president of Loterías, Jesús Huerta, emphasized that “with this third edition we consolidate a project enabling us to raise awareness of the social realities that we cannot turn our backs on and which we have the obligation to stand by and draw attention to in order to continue advancing as a society”. “Loterías and the Festival share that social sensitivity, and are united by the certainty that culture provides a vehicle for generating social cohesion and a critical gaze that allows us to have both our own criteria and to call for equality and social justice”, said the president of Loterías.   

Following announcement of the competition, the Film Academy hosted the screening of the short films Antón, by Mikel González Beorlegui, and Maruja, by Álvaro G. Company, respective winners of the first prizes in the 2024 and 2025 editions.

To access the Terms & Conditions and submit a project, click here.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: JUNE 16

Loterías with Culture

Within its commitment to culture, Loterías y Apuestas del Estado has collaborated closely with the San Sebastián Festival in recent years. As well as hosting special screenings as part of the event, from 2019 to 2022 it sponsored Zinemaldia 70. All possible stories, the Festival’s historical archive project. Thanks to the backing of Loterías, the Festival has been able to offer access by the general public to more than 4,000 digital documents (photographs, posters, dailies…), having also compiled a catalogue of more than 27,000 descriptive files on materials available for examination by specialists. In 2024 the institutions strengthened their relationship by creating the Loterías Award for short films on social issues, based on their shared values. This collaboration falls within the public company’s longstanding ties with culture and its pledge to foster and disseminate the cultural elements that enable us to advance as a society.