The 63rd San Sebastian Festival will offer, as part of its Pearls section, the Spanish premiere of some of the most important films presented during the year at different international festivals.
Among the films selected are the Golden Bear-winner at the Berlin Festival, Taxi Teheran by Jafar Pahani; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Alfonso Gómez-Rejón, Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival; Nie yinniang / The Assassin, by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the Jury Grand Prix-winner and Best Director Award at the Cannes Festival, Saul Fia / Son of Saul, by László Nemes. The section will similarly include works by directors such as Arnaud Desplechin, Jia Zhang-ke, Charlie Kaufman, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nanni Moretti, Pablo Trapero and Denis Villeneuve.
Woody Allen’s new film, Irrational Man (pictured above), will also be screened out of competition in the section. The remaining Pearls will compete for the Audience Award, decided according to the votes cast by attendees of the first public screening of each film in the section. The Audience Award comes with two prizes: a First Prize for the Best Film, with €50,000, and a Second Prize for the Best European Film, with €20,000. The Audience Award goes to the distributor of the film in Spain.
ANOMALISA
CHARLIE KAUFMAN, DUKE JOHNSON (USA)
Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson tell the tale of a man who struggles with his inability to connect with other people. Spanish premiere following its screening at the Venice Festival.
BLACK MASS
SCOTT COOPER (USA)
Johnny Depp, Joel Edgerton and Benedict Cumberbatch star in this film presented out of competition at the Venice Festival. FBI Agent John Connolly persuades Irish mobster Jimmy Bulger to collaborate with the FBI and eliminate a common enemy: the Italian mob. This unholy alliance spirals out of control.
EL CLAN (THE CLAN)
PABLO TRAPERO (ARGENTINA – SPAIN)
Pablo Trapero’s new movie is a competitor at the Venice Festival. Argentina, in the early 80s. Behind the facade of a typical family from the upmarket San Isidro neighbourhood lurks a sinister clan that kidnaps and murders for a living.
HITCHCOCK / TRUFFAUT
KENT JONES (FRANCE – USA)
Fifty years after the publication of François Truffaut’s book “Cinema According to Hitchcock” filmmaker Kent Jones invites some of the best directors of our time (Martin Scorsese, David Fincher, Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, James Gray, Olivier Assayas…) to share their thoughts on the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock.
ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL
ALFONSO GÓMEZ-REJÓN (USA)
The amusing and moving tale of Greg, a student in his last year of high school who navigates the minefield of adolescent social life by steering away from all close relations. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
MIA MADRE
NANNI MORETTI (ITALY – FRANCE – GERMANY)
Nanni Moretti competed at the Cannes Festival with this film about Margherita, a director shooting a film with a famous American actor, who is quite a character on set. Away from the shoot, Margherita tries to hold her life together while feeling powerless when facing her mother’s illness and her daughter’s adolescence.
NIE YINNIANG / THE ASSASSIN
HOU HSIAO-HSIEN (TAIWAN)
Hou Hsiao-Hsien won Best Director at the Cannes Festival with his latest work. China, 9th century. Nie Yinniang comes home after years in exile, now a trained vigilante. When her mistress orders her to kill her cousin, she will have to choose between the man she loves and her loyalty to the “order of the Assassins”.
SAUL FIA / SON OF SAUL
LÁSZLÓ NEMES (HUNGARY)
Winner of the Jury Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival, this debut by Hungarian moviemaker László Nemes is set in Auschwitz, 1944. Saul Auslander is a Hungarian prisoner assigned to one of the Auschwitz crematorium ovens. He tries to save the body of a young boy he believes to be his son from the flames.
SHAN HE GU REN / MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART
JIA ZHANG-KE (CHINA – FRANCE – JAPAN)
Spanish premiere of Jia Zhang-ke’s latest movie following its screening in the official competition at the Cannes Festival. China, 1999, two childhood friends court a young girl from Fenyang. One has his future mapped out for him, but not the other. The young girl’s heart is divided between the two, but she must take a decision that will mark her life, and that of her son.
SICARIO
DENIS VILLENEUVE (USA)
In the border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an FBI agent is enlisted by an elite North American government task force official to aid in the escalating war against drugs. The new film by Denis Villeneuve competed in the Cannes Official Selection 2015.
TAXI TÉHÉRAN
JAFAR PANAHI (IRAN)
Golden Bear-winner at the last Berlin Festival. A yellow taxi drives through the hustling, bustling streets of Teheran. The taxi picks up all sorts of passengers, each one more colourful than the last. All talk frankly to the driver. What they don’t realise is that the person interviewing them is none other than the director Jafar Pahani, one of the biggest names in today’s Iranian cinema.
TROIS SOUVENIRS DE MA JEUNESSE / MY GOLDEN DAYS
ARNAUD DESPLECHIN (FRANCE)
Arnaud Desplechin revisits the rich emotional landscape of Comment je me suis disputé… (My Sex Life…) and Un conte de Noël (A Christmas Tale) with this film presented at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. Paul remembers his youth and his first, and only, true love…
UMIMACHI DIARY / OUR LITTLE SISTER
HIROKAZU KORE-EDA (JAPAN)
A film by Japanese moviemaker Hirokazu Kore-eda which competed in the Cannes Official Selection. Three sisters share a house in the city. They haven’t seen their father for 15 years. When he dies, the three travel to the countryside for his funeral. There they meet their shy teenage half-sister. It won’t be long before they grow fond of the girl.
Not in competition
IRRATIONAL MAN
WOODY ALLEN (USA)
Not in competition
Woody Allen’s new film, presented at the last Cannes Festival, is about a tormented philosophy professor who finds a will to live when he commits an existential act.