‘A Scary Movie’ Opens Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Lineup at San Sebastián Festival

Films directed by Paz Encina, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Luis Ortega, Hlynur Pálmason and Gabrielle Stemmer are among 23 titles taking part in the competitive Zabaltegi-Tabakalera section at San Sebastián Festival‘s 73rd edition.

Sergio Oksman’s A Scary Movie ( Una película de miedo) will open the section, and closing is Fiume o morte! from Croatian director Igor Bezinović.

The line-up boasts seven world premieres including Happiness (La felicidad), a non-fiction short film from Paraguayan director Paz Encina addressing nostalgia and memories of her late brother.

A year after winning the Horizontes Award in San Sebastián with Kill The Jockey (El Jockey), Luis Ortega returns with the world premiere of Always Night (Siempre es de noche), a medium-length film about a young armed girl and a poet who live in a house with no outside connection.

Hlynur Pálmason will world premiere Joan of Arc (Jóhanna af örk), in which three siblings continually create and destroy a knight-like figure, firing arrows at it.

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will also host the world premiere of The Strike (La grève), a medium-length film from the editor and director Gabrielle Stemmer adapting in film-collage format the work La chair est triste hélas by the writer and director Ovidie.

The other three films to screen as world premieres are: A Scary Movie (Una película de miedo) from Sergio Oksman; The Last Rapture (El último arrebato) from screenwriter and journalist Marta Medina and the producer Enrique López Lavigne, joined by the new short film from Lur Olaizola Lizarralde, Variations (Bariazioak), which will participate out of competition.

These titles join The Good Sister (Schwesterherz), the first full-length film from Sarah Miro Fischer which had its premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin Festival.

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera Program at 2025 San Sebastián Festival

Una película de miedo / A Scary Movie
Sergio Oksman (Brazil)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Portugal
Opening Film
During the summer holidays, a documentary-maker and his 12-year-old son stay at an abandoned hotel in Lisbon: an empty hotel like the one in the movie The Shining.

Fiume o morte!
Igor Bezinović (Croatia)
Country(ies) of production: Croatia – Italy – Slovenia
Closing Film
On 12 September 1919, a troop of some three hundred soldiers under the leadership of the flamboyant war-loving Italian poet Gabriele D’Annunzio swooped into the Northern-Adriatic port town of Fiume, now Rijeka (Croatia), wanting to annex the city to Italy. Over the course of the next 16 months, during what is regarded as one of the most bizarre militant sieges of all time, his official photography team captured over 10,000 images.

Dieu est timide / God is Shy
Short film
Jocelyn Charles (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
During a train ride, Ariel and Paul pass the time sketching their deepest fears. Their game takes an unexpected turn when Gilda, a mysterious passenger, intrudes on their exchange. Yet, her relationship with fear seems far less innocent than their playful drawings.

Miharashi sedai / Brand New Landscape
Yuiga Danzuka (Japan)
Country(ies) of production: Japan
Cast: Kodai Kurosaki, Kenichi Endo, Haruka Igawa, Mai Kiryu
In the ever-changing landscape of Tokyo, two siblings navigate the city, haunted by the absence of their mother. The return of their estranged father, a renowned architect, may be their last chance to reconcile.

Urchin
Harris Dickinson (United Kingdom)
Country(ies) of production: UK
Cast: Diane Axford, Frank Dillane, Murat Erkek, Karyna Khymchuk, Amr Waked, Megan Northam
In the streets of London, Mike, a young homeless man, struggles to survive as he deals with his past and attempts to turn his life around. His life revolves around marginalisation and brief glimmers of hope. As he progresses along a road to self-discovery, unexpected chances come up that could mean a new start. Urchin is an intimate and moving portrait of human fragility and the possibility of redemption.

Estrany riu / Strange River
Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain)
Country(ies) of production: Spain – Germany
Cast: Jan Monter Palau, Nausicaa Bonnín, Jordi Oriol, Francesco Wenz, Bernat Solé Palau, Roc Colell Moncunill
Ikusmira Berriak 2022

Sixteen-year-old Dídac travels by bicycle along the course of the Danube with his family. In these hot days, an unexpected meeting changes the direction of the trip: a mysterious boy appears in the water. His enigmatic presence not only awakens something new in Dídac, it also threatens to change the relationship with his family.

La felicidad / Happiness
Short film
Paz Encina (Paraguay)
Country(ies) of production: Paraguay
Cast: Martina Cabrera Dos Santos, Aquiles Rauddi Dos Santos
“La felicidad is a short film about nostalgia and the memory of my late brother. Since then, I only think of him and try to recreate some kind of image that can still unite us, that can still make me feel, some notion of happiness, some kind of resemblance, that gives me back his image and my own, together, beautful, eternal”. (Paz Encina)

La tour de glace / The Ice Tower
Lucile Hadzihalilovic (France)
Country(ies) of production: France – Germany
Cast: Marion Cotillard, Gaspar Noé, August Diehl, Clara Pacini
The 1970s. Dawn by the city lights, Jeanne runs away from a children’s home high in the mountains. She takes refuge in a film studio which she secretly explores at night. By day, the film The Snow Queen is being shot there, starring the enigmatic Cristina in the title role. Jeanne falls instantly under the spell of the beautiful, tormented star. A mutual fascination develops between the actor and the girl.

No One Knows I Disappeared
Short film
Bo Hanxiong (China)
Country(ies) of production: China
Cast: Li Aoyang, Li Yun, Chen Yusha, Zhang Zhaohong
In the shadow of China’s growing erasure of marginalized lives and the tightening state surveillance, the sudden disappearance of an elderly woman in the frigid winter propels her caregiver, Lin, into a relentless search. As Lin’s quest deepens, the boundaries between herself and the mystery blur, entwining her fate with the vanishing enigma she seeks to resolve.

The Spectacle
Short film
Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary)
Country(ies) of production: Hungary – France
Cast: Vilmos Jónás, Jolika Józsefné Oláh, Tímea Udvari-Kardos, Soma Sándor, Gábor Váradi
A young Roma boy is chosen for a television feature after word spreads of his unusual gift. As expectations rise, his quiet talent faces the harsh glare of media scrutiny. What follows is a quiet unraveling-for him, and for those around him.

El último arrebato / The Last Rapture
Marta Medina (Spain), Enrique López Lavigne (Spain)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Arrebato (1980) is the greatest cult movie of today’s Spanish cinema and Iván Zulueta, its director, an accursed filmmaker. Arrebato was the film that forecast the end of the movida, a dark and harrowing reel whose history and intra-history are intimately linked. Arrebato acts as a premonition of the director’s own life. Just like his actors, Zulueta will end up being brought down by drugs and the cinema and, like them, will also disappear.

Schwesterherz / The Good Sister
Sarah Miro Fischer (Germany)
Country(ies) of production: Germany – Spain
Cast: Laura Balzer, Marie Bloching, Jane Chirwa, Proschat Madani, Giamo Röwekamp, Aram Tafreshian, Anton Weil, David Vormweg
WIP Europa 2024

Rose dotes on her beloved elder brother, Sam. When a woman accuses Sam of rape, Rose is asked to testify in a case brought against him. This will put both their relationship and her moral integrity to the test.

Tabi to hibi / Two Seasons, Two Strangers
Sho Miyake (Japan)
Country(ies) of production: Japan
Cast: EunKyung Shim, Yuumi Kawai, Shinichi Tsutsumi, Mansaku Takada, Shiro Sano
In summer, Nagisa and Natsuo, meet by the sea. Their vacant gazes reflect each other as they exchange awkward words and wade into the rain-drenched ocean. In winter, Li, a screenwriter in a creative slump, travels to a snow-covered village. There, she finds a peculiar, desolate guesthouse run by the enigmatic Benzo. Their conversations rarely connect, yet they set off on an unexpected adventure.

Bariazioak / Variations
Short film
Lur Olaizola (Spain)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Edurne Azkarate, Sonia Almarcha, Jon Ander Urresti, Gema Lizarralde
Not in competition

Alicia teaches book binding to students Maite, Unai and Merche. They share a workshop where they cut, sew and glue the pages to give the books a longer life. While each one works on their book, they talk about life, grief and its different variations.

Siempre es de noche / Always Night
Medium-length film
Luis Ortega (Argentina)
Country(ies) of production: Argentina
Cast: Ornella D’ Elia, Matías Fernández Burzaco, María Onetto, Daniel Fanego, Osqui Guzmán, Ruth Ribero, Bruno Conti
A young armed girl and a poet with a strange physical condition live in a house with no outside connection. One day a knife-grinder rings the bell and is smitten with the young girl at first sight. The poet thinks death has come for him. When she falls pregnant and has her child, she goes home to live with her mother, a woman with serious mental problems.

Kota / Hen
György Pálfi (Hungary)
Country(ies) of production: Germany – Greece – Hungary
Cast: Yannis Kokiasmenos, Maria Diakopanagioti, Argyris Pantazaras
Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum 2020
Proyecta 2020
“With great power comes great responsibility” – but what if the hero is just a hen? Escaping from a chicken farm, she finds refuge in the courtyard of a crumbling restaurant. There, she discovers love, confronts the pecking order, and fights to protect her eggs from a greedy owner. Her droll yet touching quest for motherhood mirrors the messy compromises and silent struggles of human lives.

Jóhanna af Örk / Joan of Arc
Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland)
Country(ies) of production: Iceland – Denmark – France
Cast: Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Grímur Hlynsson, Þorgils Hlynsson
Three siblings craft a knight-like figure, only to unleash a barrage of arrows upon it. Through the seasons, we observe their lives as they both construct and demolish their lifelike creation.

Bajo las banderas, el sol / Under the Flags, the Sun
Juanjo Pereira (Paraguay)
Country(ies) of production: Paraguay – Argentina – USA – France – Germany
Through rare and long-forgotten footage, this documentary uncovers the hidden machinery of Alfredo Stroessner’s dictatorship in Paraguay-one of history’s longest-running regimes. From propaganda to international broadcasts, the film exposes how media shaped power, controlled memory, and built a legacy that still lingers today.

Blue Heron
Sophy Romvari (Canada)
Country(ies) of production: Canada – Hungary
Cast: Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Amy Zimmer
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s eldest child.

Lurker
Alex Russell (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA
Cast: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe
When a twenty-something retail clerk encounters a rising pop star, he takes the opportunity to edge his way into the in-crowd. But as the line between friend and fan blurs beyond recognition, access and proximity become a matter of life and death.

Sol menor / April Tune
Short film
André Silva Santos (Portugal)
Country(ies) of production: Portugal
Cast: Tiago Schwäbl, Pedro Gil
Early Spring. A sonata, a letter, a bouquet of flowers. A train runs slowly through the landscape of São João da Madeira, a small town in the north of Portugal. Samuel, 38, devotes his days to his work as a flute teacher and the rituals of mourning the early death of his wife Luísa, with whom he shared a life dedicated to music. After a visit from his brother, Samuel faces a dilemma.

La grève / The Strike
Medium-length film
Gabrielle Stemmer (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Through the editing of archive footage and a reading of Ovidie’s La Chair est triste hélas, Gabrielle Stemmer’s collage film shatters the heterosexual model, a story that is both intimate and political.

Duas vezes João Liberada / Two Times João Liberada
Paula Tomás Marques (Portugal)
Country(ies) of production: Portugal
Cast: June João, André Tecedeiro, Jenny Larrue, Alice Azevedo, Caio Amado, Eloísa d’Ascensão, Tiago Aires Lêdo
João stars in a biopic about Liberada, a gender-nonconforming figure persecuted by the Inquisition. After the director is mysteriously paralyzed, João faces haunting dreams and struggles to honor Liberada’s story.