‘Six Months,’ ‘The Castle,’ ‘Hesitation Wound’ Win San Sebastian Forum, WIP Latam, WIP Europa

John Hopewell
·4 min read

Mexico’s Bruno Santamaría, Argentina’s Martín Benchimol and Turkey’s Selman Nacar proved three of the big winners among San Sebastian Industry Awards, announced Wednesday.

João Paulo Miranda, already a young star on Brazil’s film scene after “Memory House,” meanwhile won the Ikusmira Berriak Award.

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A Chicago Golden Hugo winner for doc feature “Things We Dare Not Do,” Santamaría swept two awards at the fest’s Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, a Mecca for Latin America auteurs and their producers seeking vital co-production partners as state funding prospects have plunged across the region.

Also written by Santamaría, its heavily autobiographical story, set in the ’90s, follows 10-year-old boy Bru, whose father is diagnosed with HIV, sparking his parents break up.“I want to film the glances and conversations that my parents had in silence and which I couldn’t observe as a child and find some sense [in what happened],” Santamaría told Variety.

Armando Espitia (“Heli”) and Sofia Espinosa (“Gloria”) are attached to star in the comedy drama with a tragic undertow,

In further Forum awards, Sofía Quirós’ “Madre Pájaro” – reuniting the same creative team behind her feature debut, 2019 Cannes Critics’ Week player “Land of Ashes” – won the Artekino International Award for a story about Oliver, 7, who, when his mother falls gravely ill, becomes increasingly attached to Paloma, a 25-year old neighbor. Producers are Mariana Murillo at Costa Rica’s Sputnik Films and Sazy Salim of Argentina’s Murillo Cine.

The Film Center Award went to “The Fire Doll,” from Chilean director-to-track Niles Atallah (“Rey”), about a nine-year-old girl who battles to help her father free himself from ghosts of the past. Chile’s Globo Rojo Films produces with Raphael Berdugo’s Paris-based Cité Films, which handles world sales.

In San Sebastian’s pix-in-post competitions, the big winner in WIP Latam was “The Castle,” in which Justina is given a colossal mansion deep in the Argentinian Pampa on the condition that she never sells it. Produced by Gema Juárez Allen at Gema Films, which has “Pornomelancholy” in main competition, the film, a documentary, marks the first feature from Benchimol whose “The Dread,” co-directed by Pablo Aparo, scooped best medium-feature doc at 2017’s IDFA.

“A Strange Path,” from Brazil’s Guto Parente, (“The Cannibal Club”), won a Projeto Paradiso First Prize from the non-profit promotion org for Brazilian talent and movies. Its Second Prize went to Davi Pretto (“Castanha”), another social issue rural drama for Pretto after “Rifle,” which won the Grand Prize at Jeonju Film Festival.

Nacar won his second WIP Europa Award in three editions for “Hesitation Wound,” an ethical thriller set among Turkey’s middle class, a wining set-up in 2020’s WIP Europa laureate  “Between Two Dawns.”

Catching attention with “Memory House,” the only Latin American movie in Cannes 2020 Official Selection, “Bandeira” (“Flag”) from João Paulo Miranda won a coveted post-production award from top Basque production house Irusoin, given to one of the projects at San Sebastian’s prestigious Ikusmira Berriak development residency.

Hesitation Wound
Hesitation Wound

SAN SEBASTIAN INDUSTRY AWARDS 2022

XI EUROPE-LATIN AMERICA CO-PRODUCTION FORUM AWARDS

XI Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum Award

“Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” (Bruno Santamaría Razo, Mexico)

Dale! Award (Development Latin America-Europe)

“Six Months in the Pink and Blue Building,” (Bruno Santamaría Razo, Mexico)

Artekino International Prize

“Madre Pájaro,” (Sofía Quirós Ubeda, Costa Rica, Argentina)

Film Center Serbia Award

“The Fire Doll,” (Niles Atallah, U.S., Chile, France)

WIP LATAM

WIP Latam Industry Award

“The Castle,” (Martín Benchimol, Argentina, France)

Egeda Platino Industria Award

“The Castle,” (Martín Benchimol, Argentina, France)

Projeto Paradiso First Prize

“A Strange Path,” (Guto Parente, Brazil, Portugal)

Projeto Paradiso Second Prize

“A House in the Country,” (Davi Pretto, Brazil, France, Argentina)

WIP EUROPA

WIP Europa Industry Award

“Hesitation Wound,” (Selman Nacar, Turkey, France, Romania)

WIP Europa Award

“Hesitation Wound,” (Selman Nacar, Turkey, France, Romania)

IKUSMIRA BERRIAK AWARD

Irusoin Post-Production Award

“Bandeira,” (João Paulo Miranda Maria, Brazil, France)

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