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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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WIP Europa will run on 21 and 22 September in the framework of industry activities at the San Sebastián Festival
Kirpilerin Savaşı /The Battle of Hedgehogs, by M. Tayfur Aydin; Me Fjalë Tjera / In a Manner of Speaking, by Val Jashari; Sentimentos familiares / Familiar Feelings, by Mónica Lima; and Prvi Tjedan u Kolovozu / The First Week of August, by Filip Mojzes, are the four feature films at the post-production stage to be presented to an audience of professionals in the framework of Industry activities at the 74th San Sebastián Festival. The productions, three debut films and one feature film will compete for the WIP Europa Industry Award and the WIP Europa Award.
The Turkish director and producer M. Tayfur Aydin will present his fourth feature film, Kirpilerin Savaşı /The Battle of Hedgehogs, narrating the explosion of family conflicts over an inheritance in an Anatolian village. After beginning his career as a short filmmaker, he made the leap to feature films, and Far Away, his latest non-fiction film, was selected for Tallinn Black Nights.
Me Fjalë Tjera / In A Manner of Speaking is the debut from the Kosovar filmmaker Val Jashari, following a man accused of murder in the USA, who has been hiding in Pristina for three years. Jashari won Best Film and Director at the University of California Los Angeles film school’s UCLA Spotlight Festival with The Evans Girl, her graduation film.
The Portuguese director Mónica Lima will also present her first feature film, Sentimentos familiares, which tells the story of an unsuccessful actress' eventful return to her childhood home. Lima, a graduate in film studies at the FAMU in Prague and the DFFB in Berlin, she boasts a successful career as a maker of short films, particularly including Human Nature (2023), winner of the Ammodo Tiger Short Award at Rotterdam Festival and nominated for the European Short Film Audience Award 2024/2025.
Completing the selection is Prvi Tjedan u Kolovozu / The First Week of August, debut film from the Croatian filmmaker Filip Mojzes, Master’s Degree from the Béla Tarr Film Factory in Sarajevo. Having made several short films, in his feature debut he narrates the descent into chaos of an apparently model upper-middle-class family following a violent incident.
This year’s New Directors competitors are Sieben Tage Februar / February, Seven Days, by Tatjana Moutchnik, WIP Europa Industry and WIP Europa Awards in 2025, and Lovers Sleep Alone, by Massih Parsaei. In addition, China Sea, by Jurgis Matulevicius, carried off the Best Film Award in the Critics Picks Competition at Tallinn Black Nights in 2025, while Aldığımız Nefes / As We Breathe, by Seyhmus Altun, and Schwesterherz / The Good Sister, by Sarah Miro Fischer, participated in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, the latter having had its premiere in the Berlinale Panorama section. Filmmakers like María Trénor, Michael Fetter Nathansky and Arantza Santesteban, among others, have premiered their works both at the San Sebastián Festival and at other competitions in the international circuit. For more information, click here.
Awards
The WIP Europa Industry Award, given by the companies A Contracorriente Films, Deluxe Content Services Spain, Elamedia Estudios, Laserfilm Cine y Vídeo, Nephilim Producciones and Pecera Estudio, consists of the post-production of a film until obtaining a DCP subtitled in English and Spanish and its distribution in Spain.
The WIP Europa Award consists of 10,000 euros for the winning film of the WIP Europa Industry Award.
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Following the death of their father, seven siblings return home after years apart. While her brothers seek to divide and sell the family property, Zerin refuses to surrender the inheritance she has earned through years of sacrifice. Her resistance ignites a conflict that exposes hidden secrets, shifting loyalties, and traditions that have shaped the family for generations. Set in Southeastern Anatolia, Kirpilerin Savaşi / The Battle of Hedgehogs is an intimate and emotionally charged family drama about justice, belonging, and the courage to challenge inherited rules.
For three years, Albanian-American fugitive Zeka has hidden in Prishtina, running a bar with fellow exiles. Speaking English and romanticizing New York, they sustain the illusion of lives left behind. That illusion collapses when an extradition treaty triggers a violent police raid. Cornered, Zeka leaps onto Vlora's balcony-a woman from a remote village trying to disappear for reasons of her own. Both confined in a tight space, strangers to one another, they begin to face all that they have suppressed, setting off on an unexpected journey toward redemption.
Prvi tjedan u kolovozu / The First Week of August is a family drama centered around the summer vacation of a middle-class married couple, Zoran and Ivana, a journalist who, after experiencing psychological trauma, unexpectedly and violently attacks their ten-year-old son, David, while slowly beginning to lose control over his behavior. As the vacation progresses, deeper issues in the relationship between Zoran and Ivana begin to surface, and these problems eventually extend to their interactions with the four-member family of their neighbors.
Lia, once a promising actress, unexpectedly returns to her drought-stricken homeland in rural Portugal. She expects an empty house, but finds her family gathered to receive her. Startled, she hides in the pantry, overhearing unsettling remarks, until she finally slips away, postponing the confrontation. While the children's excitement fills the house, tension builds among the adults, unable to face their own wounds. Against a landscape marked by drought and decay, Lia drifts between distance and belonging until a fragile reunion forces them all to confront unfulfilled dreams, inherited fractures, and the desperate longing for connection.
The WIP Europa initiative is possible thanks to the collaboration of A Contracorriente Films, Deluxe Content Services Spain, Elamedia Estudios, Laserfilm Cine y Vídeo, Nephilim Producciones and Pecera Estudio.
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