San Sebastián Film Festival highlights directorial debuts and industry investment

The 74th San Sebastián International Film Festival is underway, featuring high-profile premieres and significant industry discussions. Actor Jaime Lorente has made a notable directorial debut with ‘El mal hijo’, a social drama adapted from a novel by Salvador S. Molina. Filmed on analog celluloid, the film explores themes of addiction, masculinity, and the role of women in breaking cycles of violence.

Other featured works include Javier Ruiz Caldera’s ‘5 minutos más’, a genre-bending comedy involving time loops, and Fatih Akin’s ‘Geister’, which examines the lives of Turkish-origin families in Germany. The festival has also seen appearances by international stars such as Orlando Bloom and Naomi Watts on the red carpet.

On the economic front, SETT, a sovereign venture capital fund backed by Spain’s Ministry for Digital Transformation, is a central topic of industry discussion. Utilizing European Union NextGeneration funds, SETT aims to catalyze growth and innovation within the Spanish audiovisual sector through public-private co-investment models, focusing on high-impact projects that preserve intellectual property rights for production companies.