Once, only a few years ago, one question was how the San Sebastian Festival could help the Basque film industry. Now, increasingly, the question might be the other way round. Over the last week, a series of news announcements and events have underscored how the Basque industry has scaled up in budgets, ambition and international reach:

“2 Guns” and “Everest” director Baltasar Kormakur’s set to co-produce Basque Koldo Sierra’s Red Fjords, a large-scale crime thriller, set in 1615 Iceland, originated and produced by Bilbao-
based Eduardo Carneros and also produced by Tornosal Films, which backed Academy Award winner The Secret in their Eyes.

Entertainment One’s Seville Intl. has acquired world sales rights to Basque Aritz Moreno’s Advantages of Travelling By Train, produced by San Sebastian-based Señor y Señora and Madrid’s Morena Films.

Basque Fermin Muguruza is set to direct, adapting his own graphic novel, Black is Beltza, an original adult-targeting animated feature, chronicling 1967 U.S. counterculture - its icons, milestones and tumult - through the eyes of a young Basque observer.

Bilbao-based Abra Producciones has clinched Mexican co-production for Operacion Concha, a scam caper set at the San Sebastian Festival in the line of Ocean’s Eleven, said producer Joxe Portela.

Irusoin and Moriarti, producers of Loreak, are in post on Aundiya, a literal step-up in scale, turning on Mikel Jokin Eleizegi Artega, born in 1818 and the tallest man in Europe. A VFX-laden
period piece about “sacrifice for the family, according to producer Xabi Berzosa, Aundiya is directed y Loreak’s co-director Jon Garaño and co-writer Aitor Arregi.

One 2016 San Sebastian highlight has been the Moriarti-produced Kalebegiak, a 12-part omnibus feature in which three generations of San Sebastian directors - among them, Imanol
Uribe, Julio Medem, Daniel Calparsoro and Gracia Querejeta - deliver a personal take on San Sebastian.

Employing a 450-crew, Kalebegiak is a calling card for the depth of San Sebastian talent which punches far above its weight for a city of just 186,000 inhabitants, Berzosa said.

Launched in 2009, the San Sebastian Festival’s Zinemira Basque sidebar boasts this year its biggest line-up ever.

Basque Cinema’s surge this decade is undeniable. Explaining it is another matter. Several factors are at play.

Despite the crisis, the Basque government maintained its direct subsidy support for Basque films, which is crucial, said Joxean Muñoz, the Basque government’s deputy culture minister.

In contrast, Spain’s central government funding for new directors has been slashed.

ETB, the Basque public broadcaster, has become from about a decade ago a proactive partner in production, investing about €5 million ($5.6 million) a year.

From the ‘90s, Basque directors - Alex de la Iglesia, Julio Medem are just two - abandoned the Basque Country to pursue a film career.

“ The big difference now is that there is a new generation committed to making folms here,” Berzosa said.

The challenge now, to take the Basque industry to other level, is double-fold: Strengthening of financing links with the private sector; support to increase Basque cinema’s international
reach, including that of Basque-language films, Muñoz argued.

That is already happening. Red Fjords will be co-financed with 30% Basque tax breaks, up-and-running in its Vizcaya province, said Carneros. Its co-pro pact was announced
at the San Sebastian’s Focus on Glocal Cinemas, a meet-mart network of policy makers, producers and creatives from European territories not using one of Europe’s big five languages which will host a pix-in-post showcase, Glocal in Progress, from 2017.

“Advantages of Travelling by Train” twins a Basque company with Morena Films whose Juan Gordon tutored Basque producers in the art of pitching international projects.

The Basque government has put in place a bank guarantee scheme for the cultural and creative industries channelled through a Basque guarantee specialist, Elkargi, and supported by the Triodos Bank, which offers low-interest (1%) credit lines.

The program will be presented today at San Sebastian.

One huge injection of confidence for the Basque film industry has been “Loreak,” the first Basque-language movie to play in competition in San Sebastian, picked up for world sales by Film Factory and acquired by Music Box Films for U.S. release.

Kimuak, a shorts exhibition program has acted as a new talent hothouse, highlighting talent. “I think the difference is the [increased] ambition of creators and producers, both economic and artistic,” said Leyre Apellaniz at Señor y Señora.

Expect more significant international deals to be announced on Aundiya and Operacion Concha, maybe in the near future.

JOHN HOPEWELL
EMILIO MAYORGA