Running within the laid-back yet vibrant framework of the Tarragona International Film Festival – December 3rd to 8th, 2025 -, RECLab continues to position itself as one of Europe’s most distinctive and creator-centred development environments. Favourably placed in the international festival calendar – right after Torino Film Industry Days (November 20th to 25th) and before Les Arcs (December 13th to 20th) – it offers a timely and strategic pause for teams refining their projects ahead of the new season.

Set against Tarragona’s picturesque seaside backdrop, with its relaxed rhythm, warm hospitality and famously good food, the Lab provides an intimate yet highly professional space where filmmakers can slow down, sharpen their ideas and build meaningful connections.

Since 2014, RECLab has supported directors seeking both artistic clarity and international reach, while placing equal emphasis on helping them understand who their audiences are—and how to truly connect with them. Crucially, it targets and bridges a specific creative ecosystem: Catalan, Spanish and international filmmakers who are ready to engage with one another in a shared, open-minded environment. This intercultural blend, together with the Lab’s human-scale approach, has become one of its trademarks.

Consisting of four programmes – RECMatch, RECPush, RECVision and Primer Test – RECLab is also one of the few European initiatives structured across different sections that collectively involve the entire chain, from development to exhibition. It accompanies projects at multiple stages, from early conception to launch, with an ethos built on care, experimentation and close, thoughtful dialogue. As artistic director Xavier García Puerto explains, the Lab’s core mission is to “help participants to take good decisions on the making of their projects and hit the international circuit as best as they can”. This philosophy underpins a structure – mixing one-to-one meetings, workshops, case studies and networking – that prioritises proximity, time and tailor-made feedback over industrial speed.

What further distinguishes RECLab is its holistic view of filmmaking. Puerto stresses that the team deliberately engages with “different moments of the process, including some long-term proposals and its ultimate goal, which is to reach the audience.” By treating exhibition as part of the creative journey, the Lab expands what development support can mean and positions audience awareness not as an afterthought but as a creative driver.

Over a decade on, RECLab has nurtured a broad range of first and second features, generating an international family of alumni and collaborators and contributing to the emergence of new voices who think outside the box. Its innovative spirit remains its defining feature: a place where talent is not only supported but actively understood, challenged and empowered.

Click here in order to find out more about RECLab.

RECMatch: helping filmmakers to shape creative partnerships

RECMatch offers something few development initiatives truly address: the nuanced, collaborative relationship between director and actor. Designed as a platform that connects young filmmakers with established performers, the programme sharpens participants’ ability to articulate characters, navigate emotional registers and build the creative trust required on set. Through case studies, workshops, pitching sessions and moderated discussions, filmmakers explore how to cast strategically, adapt their vision to the performer in front of them and guide performances that genuinely elevate the narrative. As Puerto notes, RECMatch seeks “to establish a symbiotic and positive collaboration between actors and projects in the development phase, enhancing the role of performers in shaping the script and influencing how the film ultimately comes to life.”

The 2025 cohort brought together a strikingly diverse slate of projects that illuminated the range of contemporary storytelling. In The Colour Green, director Paloma Zapata and producer Mila Luengo Pavlotzky presented a story rooted in Valencian memory and resistance. Centring on estranged sisters confronted with family secrets and a neighbourhood threatened by real-estate pressure, the project examines intimate rupture against socio-political upheaval. Zapata’s established craft—interweaving documentary textures and music-driven atmospheres – requires performers capable of navigating both realism and poetic tension.

With The Past is a Mirage, actress-turned-director Laura Gómez explored the interiority of a couple at a crossroads: a Dominican performer in Madrid whose doubts about motherhood collide with her partner’s certainty. Gómez’s experience in projects ranging from Netflix series Orange is the New Black to Goya-nominated titles positions her uniquely to dissect vulnerability, emotional resistance, and the pressures of artistic survival.

In La Koreana, A Ferromagnetic Poem of Light and Memory, Joana Moya brought a sensorial, landscape-driven project that requires actors able to embody displacement, memory loss, and the erosion of time. The story of Manuela – arriving at a ghostlike mining settlement where past and present blur—demands corporeal, intuitive performance work.

Conversely, Poem of a Phantom, by director Jorge Thielen Armand and producer Mo Scarpelli, confronts actors with a crumbling Caracas, corruption, and the psychological burden of modernist ruins. The protagonist – an architect trapped between idealism and erasure – must navigate a city that behaves like a ghost.

Finally, Last Generation, the Chilean project by helmer Belén Abarza and producer Eduardo Bunster, examines new forms of family through a painful, complex custody battle between a single mother and the friend who unexpectedly develops paternal instincts.

Click here in order to find out more about RECMatch.

RECPush unites producers across borders

RECPush is designed to foster collaboration between Catalan, Spanish and international film producers, creating a dynamic space where emerging and established professionals can rethink how co-productions truly begin. Blending unconventional activities, hands-on workshops and networking sessions set against Tarragona’s singular coastal and historical backdrop, the programme encourages producers to exchange methodologies, articulate their creative identities and identify potential partners in an intimate, trust-based environment.

As Puerto explains, RECPush offers “a more human face to the usual co-production markets and forums,” bringing people together “based on who they are, not on the specific projects they are developing.” The aim is deliberately long-term: “We’re not looking for a single match or a single project, but for connections built on a more human base in an ultra-competitive industry. Those bonds need to be strong, because sometimes collaborations last for years.”

This year’s line-up brought together a compelling group of creators whose profiles reflect the breadth of contemporary independent production. Spanish producers included Eva Murgui, whose work centres on women-led stories from the suburbs; Lluís Fuentes, a Coming Soon Films producer with experience across fiction and documentary; Miguel Molina Carmona, long active in internationalisation and co-founder of Jaibo Films; Mila Luengo, whose debut feature became the most-watched Valencian-language title; and Pau Pérez, co-founder of Atomic Films and champion of emerging voices.

On the international side, France’s Anne Berjon presented her slate of first features; Argentine-Italian María Eugenia Lombardi, known for socially driven co-productions; Chile’s Maximiliano Bolados Jara, active across Latin America and Southern Europe; Brazil’s Rafael Thomaseto, specialising in female-led content and active across the Americas and Europe; and German-Slovenian producer Sarah Valerie Radu, co-founder of Matadoras Film and advocate for new feminist perspectives. Together, they embodied RECPush’s essential mission: nurturing bold collaborations across regions and creative traditions.

Click here in order to find out more about RECPush.

.

RECVision: innovative audience engagement

RECVision focuses on professionals working directly with audiences and places the public firmly at the centre of its mission. Designed to generate sector-wide synergies and strengthen innovative approaches to audience creation and communication, the programme combines presentations of pioneering initiatives with training sessions, peer exchange and meetings with international experts.

For Puerto, its purpose is crystal clear: “It’s maybe one of the most important [programmes] for us, because we keep helping, accompanying and giving form to new projects and productions in labs around the world—but who is going to watch all these movies?” RECVision therefore gives prominence to “the people who work straight with the audience: not marketing teams, but those developing exhibition projects, who connect films and audiences directly.”

This year’s selection showcased four projects redefining how film culture can grow in dialogue with its communities. Cineclub Almócita, founded by Austrian documentarian Fritz Ofner in a 210-inhabitant village in Almería, uses arthouse cinema to counter rural isolation, promote sustainability and create new social bonds. In Barcelona, La GRAN pantalla – coordinated by Paula Torné Andreu – champions the autonomy and wellbeing of older adults through cinema, challenging ageism and fostering intergenerational exchange. Mallorca’s Cineclub ACIC, revived under the guidance of journalist and curator Biel Amer, brings big-screen culture back to Inca after four decades without cinemas, uniting multiple generations through classics, contemporary titles, and post-screening debates.

Finally, the Muestra de Cine de Ascaso, directed by Miguel Cordero, offers an intimate, open-air celebration of artisanal cinema in the Pyrenees—the “smallest film festival in the world”—where filmmakers and audiences share films under the stars.

Click here in order to find out more about RECVision.

Primer Test: work-in-progress platform

Prime Test is dedicated to Spanish productions and co-productions at pivotal stages of post-production, offering a rare space where international decision-makers and emerging talent – particularly from Catalonia – can engage in rigorous, open dialogue. Each selected project receives a brief presentation followed by the screening of its current cut, before entering an in-depth conversation facilitated by the RECLab team. As Puerto explains, “we help the teams make good decisions at a really critical moment in the closing of the project and push them to enter the international circuit smoothly and in a better way”.

This year’s line-up was notable for its thematic breadth and strong personal visions. In Goodbye Rivers, Sebastián and Santiago Uría craft a Galician elegy to a disappearing rural world, exploring mortality, memory and depopulation through the final inhabitants of a mountain village. Bàrbara Farré’s Agrestes follows Atenea, a girl raised in isolation whose adoption triggers hope, belonging and fear in a tale of childhood fragility; the team sought expert feedback, sales representation and festival guidance. In Anxo, David Hernández examines labour struggle in the Vigo estuary through the eyes of a 58-year-old welder trying to balance family life and an increasingly volatile strike, with the project looking for sales, a festival premiere, and completion funding.

Meanwhile, Alejandra Cardona’s documentary Mind Control unpacks the lawfare case against Ecuadorian ex-president Rafael Correa, exposing how judicial narratives can be weaponised for political ends. Turning to the Pyrenees, The Convulsions by David Gutiérrez Camps follows a self-sufficient couple whose daughter’s mysterious fainting spells destabilise their ideals and unravel unexpected twists. Identity takes centre stage in Lóngquán: The Dragon Spring by Adrià Guxens, where a Catalan youth of Chinese descent confronts his roots during an unexpected family emergency. Next, in Radio Pati, A Truly Meaningful Festival, Pau Bacardit recounts a moving real-life initiative born during his sister’s cancer treatment, blending resilience, community and music.

Finally, Salen Las Lobas (Wolf Grrrls) by Claudia Estrada Tarascó tells the story of Luna, a teenager accused by her father and sent to juvenile detention, where friendship becomes a path toward survival and reinvention.

Click here in order to find out more about Primer Test.

Experts in attendance, five key industry talks

RECLab’s four sections will welcome a wide range of professionals who can meaningfully accompany the projects beyond the Lab, including actor Diogo Sales, talent manager Joseph Mustri, IFFR Pro Manager Alessia Acone, EAVE’s Ana Ruiz Miralles, SXSW curator Jim Kolmar, Vice Festival Director and Co-Owner of the Zurich Film Festival Reta Guetg, Jeonju Film Festival programmer Sung Kyoung Moon, Heretic’s Michallis Chochlastos, and Venice’s Giornate degli Autori representative Lorenzo Dell’Agnello, among others.

According to Puerto, participants will benefit from connections with “people already well-connected in the international industry”, who can help them refine their projects and gradually access a wider professional network. He notes that smaller industry environments like Tarragona offer a key advantage: “the bonds that you establish in these places help you to grow and to navigate better the bigger market,” providing smoother entry points instead of confronting “a big wall” when approaching major festivals for the first time.

Rounding off the programme, RECLab is set to host five industry conversations that broaden the dialogue around circulation, funding, and audience engagement. The three Primer Talks will examine how Spanish and Catalan cinema is perceived abroad, with Marge Liiske analysing European expectations; Jim Kolmar and Kyoung Moon discussing opportunities beyond Europe; and Laufey Gudjónsdóttir and Claire Willats dissecting whether festivals or platforms shape funding outcomes. Two additional Industry Talks will expand the conversation: an open town hall with Liiske and Jana Wolff on redefining audience strategies, and a panel with Agnès Bès, Patricia Mora and Alessia Acone questioning what talent labs should truly expect – and offer – to filmmakers.

Click here in order to find out more about RECLab.

All pictures on this article are of RECLab 2024, property of REC Tarragona. You can see more images in the event’s gallery.