Mekas returns to Las Palmas this year with a lineup that reinforces its penchant for author-driven projects that traverse the realms of fiction, nonfiction, and hybrid.
The 9th edition of the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival brings together 14 titles from Europe, Africa and Latin America, divided into eight projects from Cine Casi Hecho and six projects from Terrero Lab. MECAS stands for Mercado del Cine Casi Hecho and is literally a market for almost finished films.
New selection logic
The main change this year is in the way Mecas chooses projects. Rather than holding a standard open call, the platform invited directors and producers who have participated in the previous five editions to submit new works and recommend other projects that they think belong there. According to the organizers, this approach attracted more than 70 applications for Cine Kasi Hecho.
“It wasn’t exactly a direct invite model,” says Mecas director Lorena Morín. She said the invitations went out to filmmakers who were already aware of the platform and, in some cases, were part of what she called the “Mekas family.”
“We want to preserve a formula that felt fresh in the moment but is now repeated in many working spaces,” Morin says. “We wanted to come up with an idea that may not be very conventional for the film market, but that excites us and reinforces the energy we want to convey with this event.”
What emerges is a platform that is less concerned with scale and more concerned with sharpening its own profile.
Mecas continues to define itself as a space for films with “no commercial mission,” and its structure includes prizes of 8,000 euros ($9,359) for nearly completed projects, 5,000 euros ($5,850) for films in development, and the ISLA MECAS honor for Canary Islands-related works.
“We are a ‘non-market’ market,” Morin says.
cross-border projects
This year’s Cine Casi Hecho lineup, from Las Antiguedades, To the Future, and La Belleza to titles like La Question Detective and Karl Marx, Luanda, oscillates between hybrid formats, personal narratives, and more overtly political propositions.
The official selection also highlights strong analog elements. Several projects were shot in whole or in part in 16mm, including “Las Antigüedades,” “La Belleza,” “Point and Shoot,” and “Leandro Flores.” The first three titles featured are “Point and Shoot,” “Karl Marx, Luanda,” and “Leandro Flores.”
“Mekas is looking for a theater where they can escape label and industry pressures,” Morin said.
She added that the team has become increasingly aware that growth can reduce the room for experimentation. In her words, it “shaked herself up” and led to her decision to move away from what she considered standard market behavior.
This reset will also shape the balance of filmmakers in the 2026 lineup. Mekas includes directors with established international careers, such as Paz Fabrega and Nele Wolatz, but also leaves room for new voices and debutants. Fabrega’s “Agua fría de mar” won the Tiger Prize in Rotterdam, while Vohratz broke through with “The Future Perfect” and won the Locarno Award for Best First Feature.
“Authors with a trajectory who bring us projects mean a lot to Mekas,” Morin says. “They are always looking for new ways to express themselves honestly and authentically.”
At the same time, she says the team didn’t try to impose a preset ratio between the existing name and the new name. “We were guided by what moved us most from within,” Morin says. “The selection came about this way very organically.”
The same internal logic manifests itself in the way she describes the project itself. “These projects reflect what Mekas embraces,” Morin says. “A film that is particular about the radicality of its gestures.” She points to films that challenge established formats, and cites “La Cuestión Criminal” as a project that proposes an alternative reality from fiction, something that could have been approached through documentary.
Latin America has a particularly large presence within this framework. Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Brazil are all participating in this year’s edition, and Morin argues that the region’s film industry continues to explore new forms of political engagement despite difficult production conditions. It can be seen both in the near-complete selection and in the Terrero Lab. For example, “Omagua Cambeba” comes after winning two awards at Brazil Cinemundi in 2025.
On the local side, Terrero Lab maintains the clearest link between Mecas and its production sites in the Canary Islands. Conceived as a space to foster artist-led projects connected to the island, it once again combines local works with invited projects received through Galicia’s Terra Lab and Cinemundi. Titles identified this year also include “La Mala Gent” and “Rua Barcelona.”
Across the market itself, the Encuentro de Coproducción Isla Mecas on April 29 aims to connect Canary Island producers and service companies with international companies, while the wider program will include meetings with distributors, sales agents, producers and festival programmers associated with TIFF, Cinema du Lille, New York Film Festival, Rotterdam, Rartanativa, Gothenburg and Festival dei Popoli.
Below we take a closer look at the projects participating in MECAS 2026.
Cine Kashi Hecho
“The Spoon” (“Der Löffel”, Nelle Vorats, Germany)
A young Taiwanese woman arrives at an alternative farming project in rural northern Germany to find a swastika carved into a spoon. From there, the film unfolds through a series of episodes shaped by migration, awkward encounters, and friction in modern Germany. Vorats previously broke out with The Future Perfect, which won the Locarno Award for Best First Feature.
“Karl Marx, Luanda” (Kiluanji Quia Henda, Angola)
In his first full-length novel, Kiluanji Kia Henda imagines the return of Marxism to Angola through public debate, urban intervention, and personal narratives. The project combines satire and documentary to navigate memory, ideology and political contradictions. Kia Henda is a Luanda-based artist whose work spans photography, video, and performance.
“La Belleza” (Marina Lameiro, Spain)
Blurring between documentary and fiction, the film follows five people bound by insecurity, desire, and a shared vulnerability. We look for forms of community and kindness through conversation, everyday gestures, and reflective daydreams. Lameiro previously directed “Young and Beautiful.”
“La Cuestión Criminal” (Matías Italo Scarvaci, Argentina-Chile)
Actor Marcelo Subiotto and a group of citizens are secretly assembled to form a parallel jury that deliberates alongside official jurors in real criminal cases. As the two processes move towards different verdicts, the film places the verdict itself at the center of the story. Skarvaci’s project “Hijas” won the Cine Casi Hecho Award in Las Palmas in 2024.
“Las Antiguedades” (Manque la Banca, Argentina)
Set between La Plata and Berlin, the film begins with the sale of the family home after the death of his grandmother and the search for the director’s missing transgender sister. Family memories, migration, and absence drive project location and intergenerational movement. Produced by Argentina’s Pionella Cine and Un Puma, whose credits include “Esquí” and “El auge del humano 3”.
“Leandro Flores” (Mateo Kesselman, Spain/Argentina)
This first feature explores death and vulnerability through the memories of a close-knit group of teenagers as they try to absorb the loss of a charismatic friend. Rather than centering around a single protagonist, the film is built from shared grief and collective memory. It had previously passed through the Institute Semiller in Gijón and the Ventura development program in Galicia.
“Point and Shoot” (Antonia Holman, Columbia)
Holman’s first feature begins with a grim premise: “This is a movie about the past. Everything must die.” This project is centered around memory, disappearance, and endings.
“To the Future” (“Al futuro”, Paz Fabrega, Costa Rica-Spain-Uruguay)
Caught between raising children, financial pressures, and creative impulses, a filmmaker turns her camera on her life and the lives of her children. The film shifts between documentary and fiction, asking how creativity survives motherhood, and whether it can be inherited. Fabrega, who is supported here by Temporal Films, La Mayor and Edna Cinema, previously won the Rotterdam Tiger Award for “Agua fría de mar.”
telero lab
“La Mala Gent” (Amat Valmajor del Pozo, Spain)
Set in Barcelona during the housing crisis, the film follows a delivery worker who is at risk of being evicted after being abducted by a criminal group connected to the city’s real estate market, and must search for his missing apartment mate and landlord. This premise marries urban instability, intrigue, and the mechanics of the genre. This is Valmayor del Pozo’s second feature film, following “Mission a Marte.”
“Omagua Cambeba” (Adaniro, Brazil)
The film spans the years 1542, 1988, and 2023 and follows three generations of the Cambeba people as they resist the long consequences of European invasion and dispossession. Its contemporary story centers on Inha Cambeba, who represents Brazil in the World Archery Championships. The project won two awards at the 2025 Brazilian Cinemundi, including the Mekas Award.
“Barcelona Street” (Angela Andrada, Spain)
Set in A Coruña during the 2012 economic crisis, the film follows a 52-year-old woman whose daily life is disrupted when her orphaned niece returns from Australia. Grief paves the way to cleansing with places, stagnation, deferred desires. Andrada won the 2023 SGAE Julio Alejandro Screenplay Award for Adeus, Berta, which he co-wrote with Fernando Tato.
