San Sebastián Selects 15 Films for Its 2026 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum
The San Sebastián Film Festival has chosen 15 projects for its 2026 Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum, the Spanish festival's largest industry event, where directors and producers pitch films seeking partners and funding. The forum runs 21–23 September 2026, within the festival's 74th edition, and the lineup doubles as a tribute to outgoing festival director José Luis Rebordinos (Variety; San Sebastián Festival).
The forum works on a simple premise: film-makers pre-record a pitch, then meet one-on-one with producers, sales agents and financiers from across Europe and Latin America. Since 2012, the forum has selected 230 projects; 114 of those have been completed and screened at festivals and in cinemas, including at Berlin, Cannes, Locarno and San Sebastián itself. The winning project receives a EUR 10,000 prize, paid to its lead producer (San Sebastián Festival; San Sebastián Festival).
This year's directors bring serious festival pedigree. Argentine film-maker Celina Murga arrives with The Rehearsals, a follow-up to The Freshly Cut Grass, which was presented by Martin Scorsese and won a best screenplay prize at Tribeca. Murga's earlier credits include Ana and the Others (2003), A Week Alone (2007) and The Third Side of the River, which competed at Berlin (Variety).
Venezuela's Mariana Rondón, who won San Sebastián's top prize — the Golden Shell — in 2013 for Bad Hair, brings Looking for Sam. Her recent film It Would Be Night in Caracas stars Edgar Ramírez and Natalia Reyes. Chile's Christopher Murray, who competed at Venice in 2016 with The Blind Christ and at Sundance in 2024 with Sorcery, pitches Giant Stones (Variety).
Brazilian director Matias Mariani, whose Shine Your Eyes played Berlin's Panorama section and was picked up by Netflix for worldwide release, returns with Nature Boy. Argentina's Santiago Loza brings Diario Inconsciente, an Argentina-Uruguay co-production from Varsovia Films and Uruguay's Monarca Films, with Compañía de Cine handling international sales — the companies that shop a finished film to distributors in each territory (Variety).
Two Chilean projects highlight cross-border collaboration. The Amateurs (Los Inexpertos), by Felipe Solari Yrigoyen, is a Chile-Argentina co-production from Chile's Quijote Films and Argentina's Gentil Cine. Ash Mother (Mamá Ceniza), by Tana Gilbert — whose Malqueridas won the Grand Prize at Venice Critics' Week in 2023 — pairs Chile's Errante with Germany's Dirk Manthey Film. Selma Cervantes rounds out the announced slate with Mourning Sound, set up at Teorema, the company founded by Mexican director Michel Franco and Eréndira Núñez Larios (Variety).
What makes the forum matter is its track record of turning pitches into finished films. Roughly half of all selected projects since 2012 have reached a screen. For the 15 teams heading to the Basque coast in September, those odds are the point.
