What a 'work in progress' award at a film festival is for

San Sebastián's WIP competition showcases take in ten projects this year, selected from hundreds of submissions. Six of those are competing for the WIP Latam Industry Award. The films are, by definition, not finished — that is what a work-in-progress section means — and the festival frames the awards as a way to help the winning projects jump their last hurdles towards release. So the prize is less a verdict on a completed work than a push on a work still in the shop: industry attention delivered at the moment a film can still use it.