01/03/2021 - Lur Olaizola Lizarralde and Zuri Goikoetxea have been selected to take part in the gathering involving up-and-coming filmmakers from all over the world, which is unspooling online

Directors Lur Olaizola Lizarralde and Zuri Goikoetxea

Berlinale Talents (see the news) is taking place as an integral part of the 2021 Berlinale, from 1-5 March. Two of the directors selected to take part in this year’s gathering hail from the Spanish Basque Country: Lur Olaizola Lizarralde and Zuri Goikoetxea.

Lur Olaizola Lizarralde has worked as a visual artist and cultural producer in New York, where she collaborated with production outfit Horns & Tails and programmed the Architecture & Design Film Festival, among other events. In addition, she served as an audiovisual documentarian and editor at the Barcelona Centre of Contemporary Culture, and currently organises the audiovisual programmes at Tabakalera – International Centre of Contemporary Culture in her home town of San Sebastián. Furthermore, she is the coordinator of Noka Mentoring, the Basque government’s programme aimed at female filmmakers.

As a director, she has helmed the short films Xulia (2019) and Zerua blu (2020), which scooped the Best Spanish Short Film Award at the Zinebi Festival. Presently, she has a new project in the works, entitled Tercer Cuaderno, and the Basque government has given her a grant for the promotion and development of activities in the domain of visual and plastic arts, within the sub-category of creative production.

“My objective as I take part in Berlinale Talents is to make contact with other professionals in order to get to know their experiences and points of view, and be able to learn from them,” states the filmmaker. “And my main question with respect to the movie theatres has to do with the audience: how to create a relationship with viewers and how to develop new audiences.”

For her part, Zuri Goikoetxea has been working as a screenwriter, director and producer since 2010, and has been collaborating with Doxa Producciones since 2016. Her works fall chiefly into the category of experimental video art and non-fiction film. In 2017, she produced the film 163 días: La Huelga de Bandas by Larraitz Zuazo, about the longest Franco-era protest, for EITB. In 2018, she immersed herself in the production of the short film 592 metroz goiti by Maddi Barber, which, after its international premiere at Visions du Réel and its national bow at San Sebastián (in the Zabaltegi section), formed part of the Kimuak catalogue, picking up a Special Mention at Alcances and the Audience Award at Curtocircuito, as well as being a candidate for the Goya Awards.

That same year, she produced Inland [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], a movie directed by Juan Palacios that premiered internationally at CPH:DOX, where it scooped the Jury Special Mention. More recently, she co-wrote and produced Fantasía [+see also:
film review
film profile], the second feature by actor Aitor Merino (Asier ETA Biok), a project selected for Tabakalera’s Ikusmira Berriak programme and for Mecas (the Las Palmas Film Festival). Right now, she is engrossed in editing División de Honor by Ainhoa Andraka, developing the feature Itoiz_Udako Sesioak by Larraitz Zuazo and producing Laida Lertxundi’s short Working From Home.

Discussing her participation in Berlinale Talents, she remarks: “I want to learn from the experiences and knowledge of professionals based in other parts of the world, who therefore have different points of view. I’d like to engage in an active and continuous dialogue with them, get to know the projects they’re working on, and be able to forge new alliances and collaborations.”

(Translated from Spanish)