Make & Mark and the San Sebastián Festival introduce a new award recognising the role of the cinema as an engine of social change

The feature films competing for the accolade are ‘Tender Loving Care’, ‘Garrat du váimmu / Brace your heart’, ‘Ceniza en la boca / Ashes’, ‘Cinco años, cuatro meses / Five Years, Four Months’ and ‘Fatherland’

Make & Mark, official sponsor of the San Sebastián Festival, has created the Transforma Make & Mark Award, recognising the role of the cinema as an engine of social change and highlighting the work of directors whose films show a solid commitment to achieving a more just society. The award, to be decided among five candidate films from the different Festival sections, will be given at the closing gala of the 74th edition.

At the press conference held today in Tabakalera, the executive director of Make & Mark, Alexandra Petrarota Cabrera, presented the award in the company of the Festival director, José Luis Rebordinos, and of his successor from 2027, Maialen Beloki. As she explained, the jury will be made up of the actor Miguel Ángel Muñoz, the director of the Málaga Festival, Juan Antonio Vigar, and the filmmaker and member of the San Sebastián Festival selection committee, Ione Hernández. The jury will have the task of choosing the winning feature film after having studied both the quality of the works and the relevance of their impact on society. The award, coming with 10,000 euros, will go to the distributor of the film in Spain.

The candidate films are the result of a pre-selection made by the Festival from three competitive sections. Thus, contenders for the award in the Official Selection are Tender Loving Care and Garrat du váimmu / Brace Your Heart, by Mike Leigh and Amanda Kernell, respectively: in Horizontes Latinos Ceniza en la boca / Ashes, by Diego Luna, and Cinco años, cuatro meses / Five Years, Four Months, by Esteban Hoyos García and Juan Miguel Gelacio, and in Perlak, Fatherland, by Pawel Pawlikowski.

“For Make & Mark it is an honour to take this step together with the San Sebastián Festival in promoting an award focused on showcasing the transformative power of culture. We firmly believe that the cinema is one of the most powerful tools for raising awareness on global challenges, inspiring empathy and connecting realities. With the Transforma Make & Mark Award we aim to recognise and support creators who use art to invite reflection and advocate a more just and inclusive society” Christian Septien, CEO and Founder of Make & Mark

José Luis Rebordinos recalled that “the cinema occupies a fundamental place as a space for reflection, dialogue and social transformation, thanks to its capacity to bring diverse realities to the public and to generate an impact that extends beyond the screen”. As he said on introducing the award, the aim is to reward films which “as well as displaying cinematography excellence”, also “foster a gaze committed to the major challenges of our time”. “We refer to films that help to generate reflection and raise critical awareness, that address issues related to inclusion, equality, diversity, human rights, social justice and any other aspect helping to promote a positive change in society through culture”, added Maialen Beloki, who thanked Make & Mark for its commitment to films capable of “inspiring positive changes and encouraging a critical stance”.

The creation of this award strengthens the collaboration between the San Sebastián Festival and Make & Mark which this edition becomes official sponsor of the event. The company will also, for the second year running, sponsor the Horizontes Make & Mark Award, going to the best film in the Horizontes Latinos section.

About Make & Mark

Make & Mark is a business group with presence in Spain, the USA and Mexico specialising in the generation of value for brands and bodies through marketing and communication strategies, advertising, media buying, the production of events and premium experiences for some of the world’s widest known brands.

Premio Transforma Make & Mark Award / Saria #74SSIFF

Candidate films for the Transforma Make & Mark Award

Official Selection

Garrat du váimmu / Brace Your Heart

Amanda Kernell (Sweden)

Country(ies) of production: Sweden - Norway - Denmark - Iceland - Bulgaria

Cast: Elli Sara Valkeapää, Andte Gaup-Juuso, Vincent Niia

Ejva inherits her late father’s reindeer herd. As she struggles to keep the herd thriving, local leader Heaika falls for her, and though hesitant, she feels compelled to accept. But everything changes when Nejla, Heaika’s cousin, arrives, and Ejva discovers true love for the first time. Betrayed and jealous, Heaika reacts harshly, leaving Ejva with a condition that makes her hands shake uncontrollably, threatening her ability to care for the herd.

Tender Loving Care

Mike Leigh (United Kingdom)

Country(ies) of production: United Kingdom

Cast: Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O’Flynn, Alice Bailey Johnson

Cannes Festival’s Palme d’Or winner and Academy Award nominee Mike Leigh returns with his next feature film, continuing his insightful exploration of the contemporary world.

Horizontes Latinos

Ceniza en la boca / Ashes

Diego Luna (Mexico)

Country(ies) of production: Mexico - Spain

Cast: Anna Díaz, Adriana Paz, Luisa Huertas, Guillermo Rios, Sergio Bautista, Benny Emmanuel, Teresa Lozano, Adriana Jacomé 50 years of freedom

Searching for a better life, Lucila leaves Mexico for Madrid with her brother Diego to join their mother who has been working there illegally for 8 years to support them. When they finally arrive, the reality that awaits them proves far harsher than they had imagined.

Cinco años, cuatro meses / Five Years, Four Months

Juan Miguel Gelacio (Colombia), Esteban Hoyos García (Colombia)

Country(ies) of production: Colombia - USA

Cast: Jenny Nava, Carmiña MartínezWIP Latam 2025

Martha, a mother who lost trace of her son in the Colombian armed conflict, receives the news that no bone match was found in the last exhumation in which she had taken part. Having exhausted the institutional options, she turns to a group of women, where she meets Sandra, who tells her a rumour: “in a remote village in the plains, you can ask a dead person for a favour”. The two set out on a journey in search of answers.

Perlak

Fatherland Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland)

Country(ies) of production: Poland - Germany - Italy - France

Cast: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Devid Striesow, Anna Madeley50 years of freedom

Fatherland centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika - actress, writer and rally driver. In the summer of 1949, at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins - from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. Returning home after sixteen years of exile in the US, Thomas Mann has to face not only a divided fatherland, but also a deep fracture within his own family.