Four films by Elías Querejeta Film School students to participate in the San Sebastian Festival

Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola will once again be well represented at the San Sebastian Festival (SSIFF). A significant number of projects developed at the school by students from the first five intake years will be featured in the multiple activities scheduled for the 71st Festival.

After being included in the WIP Europe section during the 69th SSIFF, Misión a Marte by Amat Vallmajor del Pozo (Verges, 1996) will be screened on 24 and 25 September within the Zinemira section, which is specifically dedicated to Basque cinema. This film, made by a student from the second intake year at EQZE, premièred in 2022 at the 60th FICX International Film Festival in Gijón/Xixón, where it received a Special Mention from the Jury within the Spanish Film section. Misión a Marte also participated in the Pontevedra International Film Festival - Novos Cinemas (where it won Best Film in the Latexos section) and the D’A Festival in Barcelona. Its international première took place during the 9th Berlin Critics’ Week, which is held at the same time as the Berlinale. The film will be screened at cinemas throughout Spain on 29 September.

Once again, the film student section of the SSIFF, Nest Film Students, will feature a film made by a student at EQZE. The short film Las estatuas, directed by Natalia García Clark (Mexico, 1994), a student from the fifth intake year, was selected along with another 12 films from the 421 proposals received from 209 film schools in 53 different countries. It will be screened on 28 September. The world première of Las estatuas took place in Switzerland, at the Visions du Réel Festival. In October, the short film will participate in the Morelia International Film Festival, one of the most important festivals in Latin America.

Another two film projects will also feature in this year’s SSIFF, in this case as works in progress. The first is Ulysses by Hikaru Uwagawa (Japan, 1996) from the fourth intake year, which will form part of the last Ikusmira Berriak programme; and the second is Tres balas by Génesis Valenzuela (Dominican Republic, 1988), from the second intake year, which will be presented in the Europe-Latin America Coproduction Forum. This project won three major awards (the Open Doors Grant, the Prix ArteKino International and the Berlinale Open Doors World Cinema Fund prize) at the industry section of the Locarno Open Doors event, held within the framework of the Locarno Festival in August. Tres Balas is one of the projects selected to particulate in the fifth Film Academy Residencies programme.

Alumni and students from the school will also participate in other areas of the festival (industry, programming, technical field, communications and public relations, to name but a few), through both the professional work experience programme and as the result of direct contracts with the SSIFF.

The 71st San Sebastian Festival will commence four days after the start of the 2023-2024 academic year at Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola. Students from the fifth and sixth intake years will follow a specific agenda, attending screenings, masterclasses and the Nest International Film Students Meeting and engaging in other activities, as well as gaining a first-hand glimpse into the festival's inner workings and organisation.

EQZE also forms part of the new Kabia initiative together with Tabakalera and SSIFF. Kabia is a day dedicated to emerging film talent that on the 25th will bring together teams from the films in the Nest section with residents from the Ikusmira Berriak residency programme, the filmmakers selected in the Noka programme and the students of Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola. The purpose of Kabia is to create a space where filmmakers can exchange ideas and share projects.

Created and funded by the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council, EQZE is a unique educational initiative comprising three postgraduate courses (Film Preservation Studies, Film Curating Studies and Filmmaking Studies) which stem from the specialist knowledge areas of the three film institutions involved in its running: the Basque Film Archive, the Tabakalera International Centre for Contemporary Culture and the San Sebastian Festival. Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola is formally part of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU).