Awards

San Sebastian Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum, organised by EPE-IBAIA, receives once again the support of ELKARGI and thanks to this agreement and alongside other measures, the San Sebastian LAU HAIZETARA Documentary Co-Production Forum will grant an award of €5,000 for the best pitch.

The main objective of this award is to take another step forward in the development process of quality documentary genre projects and in the collaboration to set them in motion.

This award is open for all the projects that will participate in the pitching sessions, on the 24 of September 2025.

The Panel of Commissioning Editors, acting as the jury, will choose the winning project, based on the presentation, originality, treatment and dissemination potential.

The name of the winning project will be revealed during the Forum’s closing ceremony, which will take place on September 24.

The two organisations have had an agreement in place for many years offering discounts on their catalogues and services, both to the Association itself and to its members. The new collaboration framework, which is valid for 2 years and is linked to the Lau Haizetara Forum, will help to strengthen the development of the projects participating in the forum through consultancy and mentoring on musical matters offered by representatives of the Music Library&SFX.

In addition, the company will award two prizes, one consisting of a cash prize of 2,000 euros and the other consisting of a flat rate that allows unlimited downloading of the production music from catalogues for synchronisation, as well as the licensing of the music for the project’s promotional content.

The San Sebastián Lau Haizetara Documentary Co-Production Forum and DOGWOOF, an agency specialising in distribution, sale and production of documentary films and series, have reached and agreement to promote and strengthen their commitment to the documentary industry. It will be an international festivals and sales consultancy prize.

DOGWOOF is a London-based documentary film company founded in 2003 integrating film production, financing, sales and distribution around the world and which has become a leading global brand in the documentary field. So far they have released 31 Oscar-nominated documentaries, with five wins and an additional four BAFTA winners.

Currently, they are increasing their production and development activities, with their brand offering the highest quality content.

The Lau Haizetara Documentary Coproduction Forum of San Sebastian and the Preciosa Media distribution company have renewed their collaboration agreement with the aim of continuing to boost and consolidate their backing of the documentary industry. For the second consecutive year, the distribution company will grant the Distribution, Festival Route and Screen consultancy prize consisting of 4 hours of online consultancy.

The aim of this initiative is to offer the best commercial distribution strategy and to define the best internationalization route for the winning project.

The EPE-IBAIA – Bilibin Circular Prize will be awarded to one of the projects presented in the San Sebastián LAU HAIZETARA Forum, which will be held on September 24 and will consist of an environmental consultancy, through several online work sessions, with the aim of helping the project to fulfil the necessary requirements established by the different administrations to gain access to the corresponding aid packages.

Bilibin Circular is a circular economy consultancy involved in the transformation process of companies towards sustainability. In the field of the audiovisual sector, it is responsible for the Technical Secretariat of the Project “Basque Green Film”, set in motion by the Department of Culture of the Basque Government.

EPE-IBAIA (Association of Independent Audio-Visual Producers of the Basque Country) and the FIPADOC Biarritz strengthen their relationship within the framework of the activities carried out in both events to boost the audiovisual industry.

As a result of this agreement, a project that has been present at FIPADOC Biarritz, will be chosen by our Selection Committee and will have the possibility to participate in the San Sebastian Lau Haizetara Forum. Furthermore, one of the projects participating in the Lau Haizetara Forum will also be present at the next edition of FIPADOC Biarritz (January 2026).

DocsBarcelona and the San Sebastian Lau Haizetara Forum mantain their collaboration agreement which will be favourable to the exchange of documentary projects between both events.

The aim of this alliance is to boost the presence of projects in two different complementary and specialised markets for the documentary genre, and to encourage them to complete their development and financing process.

The union of efforts between these organizing entities, allows that each year one of the projects presented at the San Sebastian Lau Haizetara Forum and one of the projects participating in the speed meetings of DocsBarcelona, are present in both markets. These projects will be selected by the respective Selection Committees.