SAN SEBASTIAN, Spain — An intense, sometime sunny San Sebastián Film Festival rounded its final bend on Friday with large Spanish-world production announcements, and a balance of stars – Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence, Colin Farrell – premieres and industry platforms, such as a Creative Investors’ Conference co-organized by CAA Media Finance, which fest director José Luis Rebordinos has made his hallmark.
Eight takeaways and deals from a classic Rebordinos edition.
Stars
Angelina Jolie talked about a performance in a way which she’s never been heard before, speaking French in San Sebastián competition player “Couture.” She also said she “loves” but “doesn’t recognize” her home country, the U.S. Farrell reflected on how past addiction affected his “Ballad of a Small Player” performance: “I’m glad I only damaged my body and brain, not my bank account.” A serious and immensely polite Jennifer Lawrence, a San Sebastián Donostia Award honoree, teased out bigger-picture issues in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love”: “Recently mothers have been seen as human, and enduring a great deal of work daily,” she said.
Trading
If it had more hotels and wanted, San Sebastián could hold a powerful formal market, stealing some of Toronto’s firepower as it bows its own market in 2026. As it was, San Sebastián’s informal market found fair momentum. “There were a lot of foreigners, French execs all over, Italians, Germans,” says Antonio Saura at sales agency Latido Films, which took a three-member team to San Sebastián. “It might not be a formal market, but there is one.” That said, it will take some time for many of the deals to be made public. “How many of your films sold to the U.S. at Toronto?” 193’s Patrick Wachsberger asked CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland at the Creative Investors’ Conference. “They all will,” Sutherland answered.
Buzz Titles
Dolores Fonzi’s “Belén” played very, very well with the crowd — and has just been picked as Argentina’s Oscar submission. Dark Czech comedy “Ungrateful Beings” got a lot of raucous laughter and applause at its premiere. Of Spanish films, Alauda Ruiz de Azua’s, “Sundays” charting family frailty and teen vulnerability, scored highest of any film from anywhere on a El Diario Vasco local critics pool, followed by José Luis Guerin’s “Happy Valley Stories,” which discovers global resonance in a supposedly humdrum Barcelona suburb.
U.S Dominance Wanes?
When San Sebastián’s still highly successful Creative Investors’ Conference launched in 2023, there was an underlying assumption that Europe could learn from U.S. market expertise and benefit from its distribution muscle. Just two years and one Hollywood strike later, and the boot is seems to be moving towards the other foot. This year’s stellar session turned on European Powerhouses, with top execs from Fremantle, Mediawan, Studio TF1 and Vuelta in attendance. “The world’s being centered on American films is gone,” said CAA Media Finance’s Roeg Sutherland, saying he was quoting Goodfellas’ Vincent Maraval and asking 193’s Wachsberger where he was shooting his next film. Symptomatically, 193 has just started production on Lazlo Nemes’ French-language movie “Moulin” starring Gilles Lellouche as the French resistance hero.
The Rub: U.S. Distribution
Why is U.S. importance declining? “We have a little problem in the U.S. in that it’s very difficult to get tax credit paid back,” said Sutherland. “Louisiana’s difficult, New York impossible. And that’s coupled with the fact that making a movie there is that much more expensive.” Another bugbear: Bigger U.S. distributors now rarely pre-buy movies, taking them out of the film financing equation. That’s also one good reason why, as as Studio TF1’s Rodolphe Buet noted, that it’s “challenging to finance films from Europe at $20 million-$25 million to $50 million.” A new U.S. cavalry may be riding into sight, however: four new U.S. distributors, Sutherland noted. One, Row K Ent., made one of the big deals at Toronto, buying the “Cliffhanger” reboot.
Spain and Latin America Hold Sway
Since fest directors Diego Galán and Manuel Pérez Estremera from the 1980s, San Sebastián has emerged as the world’s most prominent platform for Spanish-speaking cinema. This has rarely been felt with such force as in 2025. All five movies topping Spanish critics’ poll in El Diario Vasco are Spanish-language: “Sundays,” “Happy Valley Stories,” “Maspalomas,” “The Currents” and “Los Tigres.” Many big world premieres – “She Walks in Darkness,” “Karmele,” “Belén,” “27 Nights” and “Clean” – come from Spain and Latin America.
And Why….
Why is another question. Principally, the most ambitious movies in industry terms in both territories are increasingly driven by SVOD operators, led this year by Movistar Plus+ behind “Sundays” and “Los Tigres,” and Netflix, which produced “She Walks in Darkness,” “27 Nights” and “Clean”; “Belen” is an Amazon MGM Studios production. All three operators are aiming for local market impact. A big Cannes win can do wonders for home audiences, of course: Think Movistar Plus+’s “Sirât.” But all three streaming services are holding back some of their biggest and best Spanish-language swings for San Sebastián, the local market’s most impactful movie event.
Palestine
Pedro Almodóvar, Javier Bardem, Alex de la Iglesia, San Sebastián Festival director José Luis Rebordinos and Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun joined thousands of other Gaza protestors Wednesday after a screening of “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” carrying banners banners reading: “Stop the Genocide, Cinema with Palestine” and “Urgent Aid for Gaza.” Another mass protest took place Saturday. Spanish film casts and creators of “Sundays” and “Romería” walked the red carpet bearing badges “Genocide Stop” in Basque: “Genozidioa Stop.” Already, in the Festival run-up, San Sebastián management committee had published an open letter denouncing Gaza “genocide” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s military forces. This hot button issue looks set to continue at all festivals while the barbarity it denounces continues.
The Deals
Here’s an around score from San Sebastián, announced by Variety:
*Wagner Maura, a Cannes best actor winner for “The Secret Agent,” has boarded as an executive producer Sandra Delgado’s “The Outsider” about activist-artist Claudia Andujar. Fast-expanding Maria Farinha Filmes produces.
*Daniel Burman is shooting a feel-good dramedy series ‘So Far So Good,’ starring Benjamín Vicuña and co-produced by Flow and the Mediapro Studio.
*’House on Fire’s’ Spanish director Dani de la Orden is set to helm ‘El Director,’ based on David Jiménez’s lid-lifting non-fiction book. Beta Fiction Spain produces and distributes in Spain.
*Lali Espósito, Esteban Lamothe and Marcelo Subiotto are set to star in Benjamín Naishtat’s ‘Glaxo,’ produced by RT Features and Rei Pictures.
*More news from Brazil’s busy Rodrigo Teixieira at RT Features: Caleb Landry Jones, Peter Sarsgaard and Andrea Riseborough are to star in Michael Almereyda’s “Zero K,” from RT Features and Keep Your Head.
*”The House of the Spirits” author Isabel Allende revealed to Variety that the Prime Video adaptation will release in 2026.
*Toasting 25 years in the biz, Spain’s Atrescine has announced a multi-year deal with Santiago Segura’s hugely successful Bowfinger Int’l Pictures.
*Go-getting Catalan public broadcaster 3Cat, Minoría Absoluta and FishCorb have set “Gènesi,” a Ferran Adrià bio about the chef who turned El Bulli into the most famous restaurant in the world. David Pujol directs. Netflix has acquired rights to Spain and Latin America.
*Film Factory has boarded director Daniel Monzón’s “Pray for Us,” from “Robot Dreams” producer Arcadia Motion Pictures.
*Paulo Branco is producing “Aqui,” based on J.M. Coetzee’s “Jesus” trilogy and starring Manolo Solo and Patricia López Arnaiz.
*Bitters End has acquired sales rights to San Sebastian’s main competition contender “Sai: Disaster,” also playing Busan.
*‘Emilia Pérez’ star Adriana Paz and “Society of the Snow” lead Agustín Pardella are to head “My Life With Him (Che),” about Hilda Gadea, the first wife of revolutionary Ernesto “Che” Guevara.
*Filmax announced at San Sebastián the acquisition of both Basque historical epic “Karmele,” directed by Asier Altuna, and series “Mouths of Sky,” a gritty slice of Basque Noir from Kold Almandoz. Both ar produced by Txintxua Films (“Intimacy”)
*Spain’s Amore Cine has joined Chile’s Maquina on “Dæmon” by Valeria Hofmann, the Sundance-winning helmer of short “AliEN0089.”
*Brazil”s Sambaqui Cultural has boarded Chilean Camilo Becerra”s “The Sky That We Paint,” from Chile’s Story Board Media, as the country punches above its weight at San Sebastián.
*Argentina’s Tarea Fina has joined “Las Acacias” editor María Astrauskas’ directorial debut, “Patrimony.”
*Hotly courted, “Gloria” lead Paulina García will topline Panama-set drama “Victoria in the Clouds” and Argentine domestic abuse thriller “La ilusión de un paraíso,” which was sparking good word of mouth at San Sebastián.
*Buzzy Busan, San Sebastián title ‘Shape of Momo’ has been boarded by Celluloid Dreams.
* Maboroshi took sales to San Sebastián title “Before The Bright Day.”
*Italy”s The Open Reel snagged Brazilian drama “Dolores” in the run-up to the festival.
Guy Lodge and Callum McLennan contributed to this article.