Emilia Pérez, which earned Jacques Audiard the Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival, will open the Perlak competition of the 2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival. The female protagonists featuring Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz also jointly won the Best Actress Award Cannes Film Festival for this film in which a Mexican cartel leader decides to change sex in a cast also starring Edgar Ramírez.
Marco, the latest feature film by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi will close Perlak out of competition. Actor Eduard Fernández brings life to the true character of Enric Marco, the man who faked his biography to make himself appear to be a survivor of the Flossenbürg concentration camp.
Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Francis Ford Coppola, Emmanuel Courcol, Adam Elliot, Coralie Fargeat, Payal Kapadia, Mohammad Rasoulof, Walter Salles, Hong Sangsoo, Paul Schrader and Paolo Sorrentino will also show their new features in the Perlak section, which will also include three films out of competition: Marco by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi which will close Perlak; the animated feature film The Wild Robot, from Chris Sanders, and the non-fiction Maria Callas: Letters and Memories, from Tom Volf and Yannis Dimolitsas.
Andrea Arnold will present Bird, the film tells the tale of a 12-year-old teen who lives with her father and brother in a squat in North Kent. Anora by Sean Baker follows the odyssey of a young sex worker in Brooklyn who marries a Russian oligarch. This will be Sean Baker’s third participation in the section after The Florida Project (Perlak, 2017), and Red Rocket (Perlak, 2021).
Francis Ford Coppola will compete with Megalopolis, an epic Roman fable set in an imaginary America starring, among others, Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza and Shia LaBeouf.
The Marching Band (En fanfare), the third feature from French filmmaker Emmanuel Courcol, is a comedy about a famous orchestra conductor who discovers the existence of a brother who shares his passion for music.
Australian director Adam Elliot will bring to Perlak his winning film of the Cristal for Best Feature Film at the Annecy Festival, Memoir of a Snail, the tale of a lonely misfit with a passion for collecting ornamental snails and a deep love for romance novels.
Coralie Fargeat will show The Substance, winner of the Best Screenplay Award in Cannes. Starring Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley and Dennis Quaid, the second movie from the French moviemaker focuses on a revolutionary cell-replicating product that creates a younger, more beautiful, more perfect version of yourself.
The Indian director Payal Kapadia will present her second film in San Sebastian, All We Imagine as Light, winner of the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes. The film follows the steps of a nurse who buries herself in her work to escape from painful memories until an unexpected gift reopens the wounds of the past.
Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof will appear in Perlak with The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Daney Anjir Maabed), the winning film of the Special Jury Prize and FIPRESCI Prize in Cannes, in which a judge grapples with paranoia amid the political unrest in Teheran.
Walter Salles will return to Perlak with I’m Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui), following the wife of a labour party politician forced into activism when he disappears during the Brazilian dictatorship.
A Traveler’s Needs (Yeohaengjaui pilyo), winner of the Silver Bear-Grand Jury Prize at the last Berlin Festival, is the latest film from Hong Sangsoo, in which Isabelle Huppert plays a French woman who moves to Korea.
Paul Schrader will participate in Perlak with Oh Canada, starring Richard Gere, Uma Thurman and Jacob Elordi. The movie follows a documentary filmmaker who decides to tell the whole truth about his life. Paolo Sorrentino will participate with Parthenope, a feminine epic premiered at Cannes.
These thirteen films from the Perlak section will compete for the City of Donostia / San Sebastian Audience Award.
In addition to closing film Mostra by Jon Garaño and Aitor Arregi, films in out competition include Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot, an epic adventure from DreamWorks Animation about a robot lost on a desert island where she adopts an orphaned gosling. This animation movie features the voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Bill Nighy, Kit Connor, Stephanie Hsu, Mark Hamill, Matt Berry and Ving Rhames.
Perlak will also host the out-of-competition screening of the non-fiction Maria Callas: Letters and Memories, an intimate journey through the legendary soprano Maria Callas, portrayed by actress Monica Bellucci. The film directed by Tom Volf and Yannis Dimolitsas (Chania, 1986) uses never-before-seen memories, letters and exclusive images to recall the icon of bel canto.
Perlak Lineup of 2024 San Sebastian International Film Festival
Emilia Pérez
Jacques Audiard (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, Édgar Ramírez, Mark Ivanir
Opening Film (In competition)
Overqualified and undervalued, Rita is a lawyer at a large firm that is more interested in getting criminals off the hook than bringing them to justice. One day, she is given an unexpected way out when cartel leader Manitas hires her to help him withdraw from his business and realize a plan he has been secretly preparing for years: to become the woman he has always dreamt of being.
Marco
Jon Garaño (Spain), Aitor Arregi (Spain)
Country(ies) of production: Spain
Cast: Eduard Fernández, Nathalie Poza
Closing film out of competition
Based on true events, Marco explores the story of a concentration camp deportee who never existed. Enric Marco, an immensely charismatic man who, for years, was able to maintain, before public opinion and his own family, a deeply complex lie: that he had been a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. A man who rose to the presidency of the Spanish Association of Holocaust Victims, who became a prominent and admired figure for his supposed bravery and suffering. Until one day, a historian discovered that his survival story was, in fact, a complete lie.
In Competition
Ainda Estou Aqui / I’m Still Here
Walter Salles (Brazil)
Country(ies) of production: Brazil – France
Cast: Selton Mello, Fernanda Montenegro,
Rio de Janeiro, early 1970s. Brazil faces the tightening grip of a military dictatorship. We are introduced to the Paivas: a father, Rubens, a mother, Eunice, and their five children. They live by the beach, in a rented house with doors constantly open to friends. The affection and humor they share among themselves are their own subtle forms of resistance to the oppression that hangs over the country. One day, they suffer a violent and arbitrary act that will forever change their lives. In the aftermath, Eunice is forced to reinvent herself and carve out a new future for herself and her children. The moving story of this family, based on Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s memoir, helped to reconstruct an important part of Brazil’s hidden history.
All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia (India)
Country(ies) of production: France – India – Netherlands – Luxembourg
Cast: Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha, Chhaya Kadam, Hridhu Haroon, Azees Nedumangad
In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha’s routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.
Anora
Sean Baker (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA
Cast: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan
Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as his parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
Bird
Andrea Arnold (United Kingdom)
Country(ies) of production: UK
Cast: Barry Keoghan, James Nelson-Joyce, Franz Rogowski, Jasmine Jobson, Joanne Matthews
Twelve-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Daney anjir maabed / The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran)
Country(ies) of production: Iran – Germany – France
Cast: Misagh Zare, Soheila Golestani, Mahsa Rostam, Setareh Maleki, Niousha Akhshi
Investigating judge Iman grapples with paranoia amid political unrest in Tehran. When his gun vanishes, he suspects his wife and daughters, imposing draconian measures that strain family ties as societal rules crumble.
En fanfare / The Marching Band
Emmanuel Courcol (France)
Country(ies) of production: France
Cast: Benjamin Lavernhe, Pierre Lottin
Thibaut is an internationally renowned conductor who travels the world. When he learns he was adopted, he discovers the existence of a younger brother, Jimmy, who works in a school cafeteria and plays the trombone in a small marching band. Everything seems to set them apart, except their love of music.
Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA
Cast: Adam Driver, Giancarlo Esposito, Nathalie Emmanuel
New Rome must change, causing conflict between Cesar Catilina, a genius artist who seeks to leap into a utopian, idealistic future, and his opposition, Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who remains committed to a regressive status quo, perpetuating greed, special interests, and partisan warfare.
Memoir of a Snail
Adam Elliot (Australia)
Country(ies) of production: Australia
In 1970s Australia, Grace’s life is troubled by misfortune and loss. When her family unit falls to pieces and she is separated from her twin brother, Gilbert, she turns to hoarding ornamental snails to ease her loneliness. Grace finds hope when she strikes up a friendship with an elderly eccentric woman called Pinky, who gives her the courage to come out of her shell and step away from the things that overcrowd her home and her mind.
Oh Canada
Paul Schrader (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA
Cast: Richard Gere, Jacob Elordi, Uma Thurman, Michael Imperioli, Kristine Froseth
Oh Canada is the story of Leonard Fife, an exile who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. In the winter of his life, Fife gives a final interview to one of his former students to tell the whole truth about his life. A confession filmed in front of his wife. Based on the text by Russell Banks, the film explores the life of an erratic and cowardly man who sought refuge in Canada without political intentions. Schrader weaves a tale of memory and repentance, reflecting errors of the past and the desire for redemption.
Parthenope
Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Country(ies) of production: Italy – France
Cast: Celeste Dalla Porta, Gary Oldman, Stefania Sandrelli
The long journey of Parthenope’s life, from her birth in 1950 till today. A feminine epic, devoid of heroism but brimming with an inexorable passion for freedom, Naples, and the faces of love, all those true, pointless, and unspeakable loves. The perfect Capri summer, the lightheartedness of youth, which ends in ambush. And then all the others: the Neapolitans, men and women, observed and loved, disillusioned and vital, their waves of melancholy, their tragic ironies.
The Substance
Coralie Fargeat (France)
Country(ies) of production: UK
Cast: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Gore Abrams, Tom Morton
“You, only better in every way”. That’s the promise of The Substance, a revolutionary cell-replicating product that creates a younger, more beautiful, more perfect version of yourself.
Yeohaengjaui pilyo / A Traveler’s Needs
Hong Sangsoo (South Korea)
Country(ies) of production: South Korea
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Lee Hyeyoung, Kwon Haehyo
Iris, a mysterious traveller, wanders around in the outskirts of Seoul. There she convinces a series of people to receive French classes using a method as unorthodox as it is seductive, despite her lack of experience. Between walks in the park and bottles of makgeolli rice wine, Iris soon feels like one of the family. With a straw hat, floral dress and green cardigan, her carefree character adopts an aura of trust, fun and learning that leads to hilarious moments sparked by her cheek and the odd misunderstanding.
Not in Competition
Maria Callas: Letters and Memories
Tom Volf (France), Yannis Dimolitsas (Greece)
Country(ies) of production: France – Italy – Greece
Cast: Monica Bellucci
Not in competition
An intimate journey through the life of the legendary soprano Maria Callas, portrayed by Monica Bellucci. Through never-before-seen memoirs, letters, and exclusive footage, Callas opens up about her modest childhood in New York to the zenith of her global career. Surrounded by spectral memories of her past, we discover the woman behind the icon, bridging the gap between her public and private personas. A timeless homage to an enduring legend.
The Wild Robot
Chris Sanders (USA)
Country(ies) of production: USA
Not in competition
An epic adventure from DreamWorks Animation follows the journey of a robot who is shipwrecked on an uninhabited island and must learn to adapt to the harsh surroundings, gradually building relationships with the animals on the island and becoming the adoptive mother of an orphaned gosling.