Die MEDIA Filme in San Sebastian

Das San Sebastian Film Festival an der baskischen Atlantikküste geht in diesem Jahr in seine 74. Ausgabe. Insgesamt 16 Filme, die in der einen oder anderen Form MEDIA Förderung erhalten haben, werden gezeigt und hoffen darauf, mit einer der renommierten Muscheln des A-Festivals ausgezeichnet zu werden. Einen alphabetischen Überblick finden Sie hier: 

BLOQUES ERRÁTICOS

Regie: Thomas Woodroffe, Chile/Frankreich/Argentinien

Freeing himself after spending a hundred years trapped in a glacier, the ghost of the filmmaker Lucien Castelnau wanders through a futuristic Patagonia, where technological progress clashes with forgotten stories. Unable to rest while his cinematic legacy remains unseen, he crosses a world that has deleted him from its memory, in search of a place in history and of spectators, who can finally bring his lost work back to life. 

➔ Der Film wurde durch den Co-Production Fund des Torino Film Lab sowie 2025 im Darkroom des Internationalen Film Festivals Rotterdam unterstützt. Beide Initativen sind MEDIA gefördert.

COWARD

Regie: Lukas Dhont, Belgien/Frankreich/Niederlande

Surrounded by brutality but bound by tenderness, two World War I soldiers find a fragile sanctuary of love and art amid the shadows of the Belgian trenches. Lukas Dhont’s Coward asks a profound question for a generation sent to war: when the world demands violence, is walking away the truest act of bravery?

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus dem Aufruf European Film Distribution für den Kinoverleih gefördert. 

EL SER QUERIDO

Regie: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spanien/Frankreich

The acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez is a legend both for his films and for his past marked by violence and excess. For his new project, he offers his daughter Emilia a role under the pretext of helping her with her stalled acting career. Living together on set will foster a closeness they haven’t shared for years, but it will also reopen old wounds that never healed.

➔ Der Film war 2023 Teil einer European Slate Development-Förderung und wurde mit Mitteln aus dem Aufruf European Film Distribution für den Kinoverleih gefördert. 

FJORD

Regie: Cristian Mungiu, Rumänien/Frankreich/Norwegen/Schweden/Dänemark

The Gheorghius, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple, settle in a village in a remote fjord where they strike up a close relationship with their neighbours, the Halbergs. Their children bond despite the differences in their education. When the teenage Elia Gheorghiu turns up at school with bruises on her body, the community asks itself if the traditional education the children receive from their parents might have anything to do with it.

➔ Der Film wurde 2023 als Teil der Projektpaket-Förderung European Slate Development unterstützt. 

IVÁN & HADOUM

Regie: Ian de la Rosa, Spanien/Belgien/Deutschland

In a greenhouse in southern Spain, Iván falls in love with his newly hired co-worker, Hadoum. But his long-awaited promotion interferes with their relationship, forcing Iván to decide what kind of person he wants to be.

➔ Der Film wurde 2023 als Teil der Projektpaket-Förderung European Slate Development unterstützt. 

KARATEKA

Regie: Aritz Moreno, Spanien/Belgien

This is the story of Sandra Sánchez, a woman who defied all conventions to become the best female karateka ever to have existed. With the guidance of Jesús del Moral, her trainer and life companion, Sandra set out on an impossible journey: to win an Olympic gold medal at the age of 39 in a sport dominated by the Japanese and where the oldest retire at the age of 30. A tale of love, greatness and struggle that goes way beyond karate and grows into a legend.

➔ Der Film wurde 2023 als Teil der Projektpaket-Förderung European Slate Development unterstützt. 

LE FAUX SOIR

Regie: Michaël R. Roskam, Belgien/Frankreich

1943. The Nazis occupy Belgium and have turned the national daily Le Soir into their propaganda tool. With 1918 Armistice Day commemorations forbidden, a group of Resistance fighters comes up with a wild idea: what if, to lift the spirits of the Belgian people, they could print a fake edition of Le Soir? Same paper, same nameplate, same format, but packed with articles mocking the occupier. A true story. A fake newspaper. The world's first media hack.

➔ Der Film wurde 2023 als Teil der Projektpaket-Förderung European Slate Development unterstützt. 

MARSUPILAMI

Regie: Philippe Lacheau, Frankreich

To save his job at the zoo, David agrees to a risky mission in South America: to bring back a mysterious package. The assignment sees him embark on a cruise ship with his ex, their son, and his clumsy colleague Stéphane. Things get completely out of hand when the box opens.

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus dem Aufruf European Film Distribution für den Kinoverleih gefördert.

NARCISO

Regie: Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay/Portugal/Deutschland/Spanien/Frankreich/Uruguay

Paraguay, 1959. Under a suffocating military regime, Narciso returns from Buenos Aires with rock & roll in his veins. Charismatic, mysterious and the object of desire for both men and women, he soon becomes a radio sensation and a symbol of freedom. But after his final show he is found dead. In a country where silence reigns and fear smothers the truth… who killed Narciso?​

➔ Der Film wurde 2019 durch den MEDIA geförderten World Cinema Fund Europe unterstützt. 

SUCCEDERÀ QUESTA NOTTE

Regie: Nanni Moretti, Italien/Spanien

Matteo is playing tennis when a woman in a bride's dress runs onto the court. It's Greta. She kicks off her shoes, grabs a racket and invites him to play. For seven years, the woman will never be far from Matteo's mind. As they follow their paths and parallel lives, fate seems determined to keep them apart. But one day they run into each other again and now, perhaps, their time has come. Will it happen tonight?

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus der Verleihförderung European Film Distribution unterstützt. 

SEIS MESES EN EL EDIFICIO ROSA CON AZUL

Regie: Bruno Santamaría Razo, Mexiko/Brasilien/Dänemark

Mexico City, early 90s. On the day of his 11th birthday, Bruno falls in love with his best friend Vladimir. That night his father receives an HIV-positive diagnosis that will change family life. Like in salsa songs, his family tries to sing and dance to keep the pain at bay. Thirty years later, Bruno films and revisits the memories he couldn’t quite fathom as a child. 

➔ Der Film wurde durch den Hubert Bals Fund des MEDIA geförderten Filmfests Rotterdam unterstützt. 

SIEMPRE SOY TU ANIMAL MATERNO

Regie: Valentina Maurel, Belgien/Frankreich/Mexiko

After years studying in Europe, Elsa returns to Costa Rica to reunite with her family. She finds her younger sister living alone in the family home, growing increasingly distant and reclusive, as if slipping into a world of her own. Their parents, meanwhile, are absorbed in their own lives. Her father drifts through a series of affairs, while her mother is immersed in republishing the erotic poems of her youth, neither fully grasping the urgency of the situation.

➔ Der Film wurde 2024 als Teil der Projektpaket-Förderung European Slate Development unterstützt. 

SUPER CHARLIE

Regie: Jon Holmberg, Schweden

Wille dreams of being a superhero like his dad, but the arrival of his brother Charlie changes his life. When they discover that the baby has superpowers, the two will have to team up as a super duo against a dangerous villain.

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus den Aufrufen European Film Distribution und Film Sales gefördert. 

TAFITI

Regie: Nina Wels, Deutschland

When Tafiti, a young meerkat, meets Bristles the bush pig, he knows they can't be friends. But when Bristles is attacked by an eagle, it's Tafiti who runs to his rescue. Tafiti's grandfather is bitten by a deadly venomous snake. Only a mythical blue flower found in the desert can save him.

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus den Aufrufen European Film Distribution und Films on the Move für den Kinoverleih gefördert. 

THE LONELIEST MAN IN TOWN

Regie: Rainer Frimmel, Tizza Covi, Österreich

Al Cook lives surrounded by memories. His apartment is packed with books, video tapes and vinyl records: remnants of a life that he once lived to the full. Here time seems to have stopped, while outside the world carries on without him. When his home is slated for demolition by a ruthless estate agency, they strip him of his refuge. As Al is forced to part with his treasures one by one, he asks himself a painful question: how do you move forward when memories are all you have left? Faced with total loss, he chooses a radical new beginning.

➔ Der Vertrieb des Films wurde durch die Films on the Move-Förderung unterstützt.

VATERLAND

Regie: Paweł Pawlikowski, Polen/Deutschland/Italien/Frankreich 

Fatherland centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika - actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins - from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.

➔ Der Film wurde mit Mitteln aus dem Aufruf European Film Distribution für den Kinoverleih gefördert.