Director Itziar Leemans wins the 2026 Writer's Journey Support Scheme

As part of its policy to structure professional career paths in film and audiovisuals, the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine and ALCA are creating dedicated funding entitled "Career Support Scheme" (Aide au parcours), intended for experienced writers and writer-directors from Nouvelle-Aquitaine. Itziar Leemans and four other successful applicants are receiving this mentoring and financial support from October 2026 to October 2028.

Biography

In 2005, Itziar Leemans obtained a Master's degree in History from the University of Toulouse-Le Mirail. In 2012, she graduated from the International Film and Television School of San Antonio de los Baños (EICTV) in Cuba. Between 2015 and 2020, she directed two feature-length documentaries about Cuba: Parque Lenin and Boca Ciega. The first film explores a crucial dilemma that has torn the island's inhabitants apart for 50 years: whether to leave or stay. The second attempts to understand the creative process of a French painter working in Havana. In 2018, she directed a fiction short: Bainera (The Bathtub), as a tribute to the work of Basque poet Joseba Sarrionandia. In 2023, she completed her third feature-length documentary: Olatuak (The Waves). A film that gives voice to seven women tortured during incommunicado police custody in 2000s Spain. She also directed a fiction short: Ximinoa (The Monkey), which tells the story of June, a young Basque girl who discovers class relations and the denial of her identity during her first summer job.

Filmography

• Ximinoa (The Monkey) (2023), fiction, 25 min. Gastibeltza Filmak.
• Bainera (The Bathtub) (2018), fiction. 6 min. Gastibeltza Filmak.
• Olatuak (The Waves) (2023), documentary. 78 min. Mairietxe Elkartea.
• Parque Lenin (2015), documentary. 75 min. Nómadas Films.