Catalan films also take in the latest from Isaki Lacuesta, a double San Sebastián Golden Shell winner, and a chance to catch up on co-productions , such as Berlin title 'Narciso,' and Isabel Coixet’s ’Three Goodbyes’ Barcelona’s soccer players packed out Spain’s FIFA World Cup winning team. Now Catalonia, the northeast region of Spain counting on Barcelona as its capital, accounts for a very significant chunk of the Spanish films playing this year’s San Sebastián Festival, one of its principal draws. Some 150 Catalan companies, no less, will be in San Sebastián.
The bullish Catalan presence can be put down to an exciting new generation of Catalan directors and producers exploding on the scene over the last decade, since Carla Simón’s “Summer 1993.” Key, also is Catalonia’s drive into pan-regional co-production, as many movies tap funding from around Spain. Also at play is a step-up in ambition among Catalan films at large and far larger mobility on the part of talent. So “Saints,” one of the big new Catalan films, is directed by Basque but Barcelona-based Mikel Gurrea, and one of the standout films by a Catalan director at San Sebastián, Carla Simón’s short feature “Flamenco,” is produced by Madrid’s Mamma Team.
Here are just some standouts from the far ranging Catalan presence at the 2026 San Sebastián Film Festival: “5 More Minutes” (Javier Ruiz Caldera, Movistar Plus, El Terrat, Ikiru Films, Spain) An on-the-rocks couple is caught in a time loop at a rural getaway. Part sometimes excruciating dark comedy, part sci-fi mindwarp and part suspense thriller whose grip bids fair to surprise at San Sebastián. Written and starring Berto Romero, one of Spain’s top stand-ups, playing opposite Belen Cuesta (The Endless Trench”) and an ineffable Javier Camara (“Talk to Her”).
Spanish pay TV/SVOD colossus Movistar Plus, El Terrat, a Mediapro Studio company, and Ikiru Films, produce a typical genre cocktail for Romero, much directed with virtuosity by Javier Ruiz Caldera as a series of millimetrically calculated five-minute sequence shots. Filmax handles world sales. JH “Saints,” (“Sants,” Mikel Gurrea, Lastor Media, Nocturna Pictures, Deloris Films, Kino Produzioni, Spain, Italy) Played by Victoria Luengo, who starred opposite Javier Bardem in “The Beloved,” Lali cares for her dying mother Glòria, as she falls in with a gang who steals statues of saints, giving much of the proceeds to the needy and forsaken.
Gurrea’ second feature, a step-up in style, shot with a continuous visual pulse, varying in tone from scene to scene. Produced by Barcelona’s Nocturna Pictures, Deloris Films and Lastor Media and Kino Produzioni, the latter two both behind Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” another exploration of an alternative economy. JH “Pray for Us,” (“Ruega for nosotras,” Daniel Monzón, Arcadia Motion Pictures, Ikiru Films, Spain) The latest from the still underrated Monzón, director of the breakout blockbuster “Cell 211” and the memorable “The Laws of the Frontier,” a five-time Goya winner that played out of competition at 2021’s San Sebastián.
Set in 1974, after a night on the tiles, Ana, 19, is dispatched by her wealthy family to Spain’s Women’s Protection Board, a Francoist state-backed institution confining young women in the guise of moral “reform.” Arcadia Motion Pictures, behind the Oscar-nominated “Robot Dreams” and Sorogoyen’s “The Beasts,” produces. Picked up by Film Factory Entertainment for international, Elastica for Spanish distribution. JH “Ashes,” (Diego Luna, La Corriente del Golfo, Animal de Luz Films, Inicia Films, Perro Azul) Lauded actor Diego Luna (“Y tu mamá también,” “Andor”) steps behind the camera to helm the adaptation of Brenda Navarro’s critically acclaimed feminist novel “Eating Ashes.” The film stars Anna Diaz (“La Cocina”) and Adriana Paz, who shared the Cannes best actress award with Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón for “Emilia Pérez.” The heartfelt drama trails Lucila, a young woman who leaves Mexico with her young brother to reunite with their distant mother in Madrid.
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