“A European powerhouse” was how Berlinale Pro director Tanja Meissner described Spain when the European Film Market (EFM) revealed which territory had been chosen as the EFM’s Country in Focus for 2025.
Meissner went on to praise the territory’s “creative excellence, targeted investments and technological innovations, enjoying a strong international presence with high-quality content and originality”. She also highlighted the “competitive tax incentives, co-production agreements and strong industry infrastructure”.
The fruits of this investment are being showcased in a fresh crop of projects — both completed and in various stages of production —presented throughout the festival and EFM.
Eva Libertad, whose debut feature Deaf premieres in Panorama, is the latest in a line of exciting Spanish female filmmakers on the rise including Carla Simón, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren and Alauda Ruiz de Azua. Deaf is a love story that explores the conflicts that arise when a couple - a hearing-impaired mother and her partner - have a baby. Miriam Garlo, the director’s sister and inspiration behind the film, stars alongside Alvaro Cervantes. Latido Films is handling the sales.
“Some time ago, my sister started thinking about becoming a mother,” explains Libertad. “She shared her anxieties and expectations about motherhood as a hearing-impaired person in a world made by and for people who can hear.”
Libertad turned her sister’s story into a short film, which she
co-directed with Nuria Muñoz in 2021. It caught the attention of Distinto Films’ producer Miriam Porté, who took on the feature-length project while it was still at script stage and then teamed up with co-producers Nexus CreaFilms and A Contracorriente Films.
“The film opens a world that is largely unknown to most audiences,” asserts Porté. Financing, she says, “came quite easily.”
Deaf is the only 100% Spanish production at the Berlinale this year, and is joined by five co-productions. Ivan Fund’s Argentina-Spain-Uruguay co-production The Message is in Competition, while the India-Spain-US-France co-production Shadowbox (Baksho Bondi), directed by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi, premieres in Perspectives. Danish director Robin Petré’s Only On Earth, screening in Generation Kplus, has Spanish backing, as does Panorama entry The Good Sister, the debut film of German director Sarah Miro Fischer, while Juan Daniel Fernandez Molero’s Peru-Spain co-production Punku screens in Forum.
Looking for partners
In the market, Spanish sales companies are showcasing titles across multiple genres, with market screenings of 25 films. These include recent festival successes such as Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude, winner of the Golden Shell at San Sebastian International Film Festival in 2025; and Arantxa Echevarria’s thriller Undercover, which grossed $8.7m (€8.4m) in Spain last year.
The Spanish Producers Spotlight brings 10 companies and their producers looking for collaborators on projects at various stages. These are Aintza Serra Verdaguer (Escandalo Films), Alba Sotorra (Alba Sotorra), Clara Santaolaya (Batiak Films), Emilia Fort (Avalon), Jose Esteban Alenda (Solita Films), Odile Antonio-Baez (Pecado Films), Roberto Butragueño Sanchez (Sideral Cinema), Rodrigo Espinel Martinez (Morena Films), Valérie Delpierre (Inicia Films) and Ricard Sales (LaCima Producciones).
“We will be looking for partners in Europe and Latin America,” says Sales, who co-produced Serra’s Afternoons Of Solitude. “We focus on auteur projects and it’s good to help them reach a wider audience, and to have creative input from a different perspective.”
LaCima’s slate of six projects in post-production includes Face To Face, the second feature from Javier Marco, whose debut Josefina premiered at San Sebastian in 2021.
Spain also has three features in the Berlinale Co-Production Market. Girl, Don’t Play, directed by Ainhoa Rodriguez and produced by France’s Les Films du Worso and Spain’s Tentacion Cabiria, is at financing stage and aims to shoot in 2026. Writer/director Rodriguez, whose 2021 debut Mighty Flash was a festival favourite, says it has “touches of mystery, surrealism and horror”.
Men And Days is the first feature from Arnau Vilaro, who co-wrote Alcarràs, and is produced by Nanouk Films with veteran producer Lluis Miñarro and France’s Local Films. The story is based on the diaries of the late Catalan queer studies academic David Vilaseca, and set in 1992 with Barcelona in the grip of summer and the Aids crisis.
Pedro Collantes’ Konbini, produced by Aqui y Alli Films with Japan’s Culture Entertainment, is the director’s follow-up after 2020 debut The Art Of Return; it is due to shoot in Japan next year.
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