FIDMarseille and Karlovy Vary to host films developed at the EQZE

Four films made at the Elías Querejeta Film School have been included in the programme of two of the most important events of the European summer film season: the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF), which celebrates its 60th edition from 3-11 July this year, and FIDMarseille, which will be holding it 37th edition this year, from 7-12 July.

FIDMarseille is set to host the world première of Bingham Bryant's El espejismo. The film will be participating in the festival's main section: the Compétition Internationale. This feature film by a Filmmaking Studies student from the 2023-2024 intake year at the EQZE, tells the story of a young French woman who follows a series of strange mirages all the way to San Sebastián. The film stars Francisca Alarcão, Maria Novo and Jan Baeta, all students at the school, along with Constance Rousseau and filmmaker Rita Azevedo Gomes. Coincidentally, last year, Azevedo Gomes won the festival’s top prize, the Grand Prix de la Compétition Internationale, with Fuck the Polis, another film developed at the school, which also featured Bryant in its cast.

Also premièring at Marseille in the Compétition Flash is Ezkutuko materialak by Luis Esguerra Cifuentes, a Filmmaking Studies student from the 2022-2023 intake year. The short film reflects on the clandestine teaching of Basque during the repressive period of Franco’s dictatorship. Celeste Rojas, one of Esguerra's classmates, participated in the writing, cinematography, editing and sound of the film. Rojas received a special mention from the jury in 2024 for Una sombra oscilante, another film developed at the EQZE.

FIDMarseille will also host the premiere of Crónicas del cansancio, by filmmaker and lecturer Natalia Marín, a film shot in San Sebastián with the support of EQZE.

Two films at Karlovy Vary

For its part, the Karlovy Vary Festival will feature Estrany riu, the first feature film by Jaume Claret Muxart, a student from the very first intake year at the EQZE, and Olivia, the first feature film by Sofía Petersen, a student from the second intake year. Estrany riu arrives in Karlovy Vary, in the Horizons section, after a remarkable journey: following its première in the Orizzonti section of the Mostra de Venecia 2025, it was screened at festivals such as Busan, the SSIFF, the Viennale and New Directors/New Films in New York, and has garnered eight nominations for the Gaudí Awards and two for the Goya Awards (Best New Director and Best New Actor). Olivia will feature in the Imagina section after its world première at the Locarno Festival's Concorso Cineasti del Presente in 2025 and its run at the Seville Festival.

Other student films

2026 began with the international première of Francisca Alarcão's short film o at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR). Next, Rodrigo Soares's Sono solto and Francisco Borges's Como mover uma casa were screened at IndieLisboa, and Adrià Expòsit-Goy's Vegetare premièred at the Punto de Vista festival in Navarre. Moreover, Daniel Alegrete's High River was selected by the ICAA's 2cool4school initiative, which annually brings together a selection of works from film schools across Spain at the Cannes Film Festival's Short Film Corner. High River was recently selected for the 29th edition of Kimuak, the Basque short film dissemination programme.