San Sebastian Film Festival celebrates women filmmakers
We come back very happy from the 65th San Sebastian Film Festival, as we have seen a record number of female directors competing in the official competition (22%), as well as in the "Horizontes latinos" and "New Directors" departments (33-34%). Female directors were awarded important prizes, such as the award for Best Director, which went to Anahí Berneri for "Alanis", or Marine Francen’s "The Sower" which was awarded at New Directors. Another Argentinian title, “A Sort of Family”, was awarded for its screenplay co-written by Maria Meira and the director of the film, Diego Lerman. Marcela Said’s "Los Perros" won at Horizontes Latinos and Laura Mora’s "Killing Jesus" won the Youth Award. Honorary Donostia Awards went to Agnès Varda and Monica Bellucci.
FADs-CAACI EUROPE-LATIN AMERICA CO-PRODUCTION GRANT went to Maite Alberdi’s "The Mole Agent" and Eurimages Development Award to Claudia Pinto’s "The Consequences".
For the 2nd year, EWA Network had the opportunity to present its activities and projects in a Networking event alongside the Basque association (H)emenHere.
Following the presentation of the panEuropean research performed in 2016, this year we focused on the current activities, as the Scriptwriter Residency and EWA’s Mentoring Programme for Producers, to be launched very soon.
San Sebastian Film Festival was also remarkable in terms of Gender Equality as the FIACINE Forum, the meeting of the Ibero-American female filmmakers was launched. During the first working session, the head of Swedish Film Institute, Anna Serner explained step by step how they have overcome the gender inequality in cinema.
A working session tackling specific gender issues in the Ibero-American industry was held afterwards with the presence of the Spanish Academy reps, GM Joan Álvarez, Secretary Azucena Rodríguez, Members of the Board Ana Amigo and Esther García, FiaCine GM María Fernanda Céspedes, Head of SFI Anna Serner, San Sebastian Dep. Director Maialen Beloki, the Spanish Film Fund ICAA represented by Angela Sereno and Jacobo Martín, Basque Women Institute Director Izaskun Landaida, Cima-Spanish Women in Film Ines Paris, Juana Macías, Nieves Maroto and Miriam Porté, Caiman Magazine Director Carlos F. Heredero, Director of Mexican Academy Dolores Heredia, (H)emenHere president Izaskun Arandia and EWA Network’s Deputy Alexia Muíños discussed and compared strategies to define a route map.
Conclusions after the FiaCine Forum on Gender Equality were presented at the Kursaal by Anna Serner.
From R to L: Izaskun Arandia, President of (Hemen), Anna Serner, Head of SFI, Alexia Muiños, EWA Network Dep.Director
Sala Keler, EWA-Hemen Networking event
