Basque prodco Tximu Filmak set up to target local projects, emerging talent

L-R: Néstor López, Kevin Iglesias and Pilar Sancho

Producers Néstor López, Kevin Iglesias and Pilar Sancho have joined forces to launch Tximu Filmak, a new production company based in Spain’s Basque Country that will develop fiction, documentary and animation projects, with a special focus on films in Basque, debut feature films and creatively daring projects.

Iglesias, who is also affiliated with Escándalo Films, joins López and Sancho – both formerly of Filmakers Monkeys – to promote projects with an auteur vision and international potential. Their previous works include Jone Batzuetan, Sacamantecas, Semillas de Kivu and La Gran Obra.

“Given the projects we’ve done together, and the projects we were planning to undertake in the immediate future, Tximu Filmak is the logical conclusion to a long-standing friendship and shared vision,” said Iglesias.

The production company kicks off its activities with Canina, a documentary short directed by López that will premiere in the official selection of the Amsterdam International Documentary Film Festival.

In fiction, it is developing Morder a un Perro, an adaptation of a short story by Hungarian writer Attila Veres that will mark López’s debut as a feature film director, with a screenplay by Pedro Rivero (El Hoyo, Psiconautas, Birdboy).

The company is also working on Principiantes, directed by Manuel Martín Cuenca (El Autor, Caníbal); Los Perros, Fele Martínez’s directorial debut, in coproduction with ProduccionesOFF; and Ehiza, a period thriller in Basque directed by Aitzol Saratxaga and based on his short film of the same name, in coproduction with Amania Films.

In animation, it is preparing Conej Goi-Goian (Conej in Style), the latest instalment in the Chuminadas Animadas franchise set in the universe of the short film La Gran Cita de Conej. In documentaries, it is developing 24 Lies Per Second, the upcoming project by Javier Horcajada (Capitolio vs Capitolio, From My Cold Dead Hands).

According to Sancho, the new production company is committed to an approach “that isn’t afraid to take creative risks and that sees coproduction as an opportunity to grow without losing its identity.”

López said: “Thanks to this expansion, we can focus on more ambitious and daring projects – something that, as a filmmaker, I consider the most important and that sometimes seems at risk of disappearing.”