The Mexican production “50 o Dos Ballenas se Encuentran en la Playa” directed by Jorge Cuchí was awarded the Films in Progress Toulouse Award and the Special Ciné+ in Progress Award at the 2020 Films in Progress Toulouse organized by the San Sebastian Festival and Cinélatino, Rencontres de Toulouse.
The San Sebastian Festival and the Filmoteca España organize, in collaboration with the Filmoteca Vasca and the San Telmo Museum, a retrospective on the golden age of South Korean cinema, to be accompanied by a monographic book published by the Festival and the Filmoteca Española on the more than twenty titles dating from the 50s and 60s making up the season.
The Brazilian film Pacificado / Pacified, directed by Paxton Winters, is the winner of the Golden Shell for Best Film at the 67th edition of the San Sebastian Festival and the first Brazilian production to win the prize in the history of the Festival. Darren Aronofsky, Paula Linhares, Marcos Tellecheak, Lisa Muskat and Winters himself are the producers of this film set in the favelas of Brazil. As well as carrying off the Festival’s highest accolade, Pacified garnered another two recognitions: the Best Actor Silver Shell for Bukassa Kabengele and the Award for Best Cinematography going to Laura Merians.
Zeroville, the film directed James Franco, will be screened out of competition in the Official Selection and will not be able to compete for the Golden Shell, due to having been released in commercial cinemas in Russia only a few days prior to its screening at the 67th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.
The San Sebastian Festival will join calls for approval of the abortion law in Argentina by filling itself with green scarves and screening the film La ola verde (Que sea ley) / Let It Be Law by Juan Solanas out of competition in its Horizontes Latinos section.
The animated film Turu, The Wacky Hen (La gallina turuleca), and the documentary Sua – Irabazi arte, about the week leading up to the day that the Real Sociedad team won the Copa de la Reina (Queen’s Cup), will World Premiere at the San Sebastian International Film Festival in the Velodrome
Culinary Zinema, the San Sebastian Film Festival section combining cinema and gastronomy, returns for its ninth edition. Last year in Culinary Zinema Alfred Oliveri presented his debut film: Tegui: Un asunto de familia / Tegui: A Family Affair.This year Culinary Zinema 2019 will open with his latest film La leyenda de Don Julio: corazón & hueso (The Legend of Don Julio: Meat & Bones), about three generations of a family who turn a local grill into a hugely popular steakhouse.
Twenty-one Basque films are selected for the 67th edition of the San Sebastian Festival, and nine of these, feature films having their world premiere at the Festival, will compete for the Irizar Basque Film Award. Zinemira, the section specifically dedicated to Basque cinema, contains ten films.
The International Federation of Film Critics, FIPRESCI picked ROMA as best film of 2019. The organization considers all films released after 1 July 2018. The other finalists were Dolor y Gloria (Pain and Glory), by Pedro Almodóvar, for which Antonio Banderas won the best actor award at Cannes, Gisaenchung / Parasite, by Bong Joon-ho, Golden Palm at the Cannes Festival, which will participate in Perlak, and The Favourite, by Yorgos Lanthimos, winner of an award at Venice 2018 and for which Olivia Colman won the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Sixteen Spanish films including a number of debut films and works by directors with an extensive career, such as Pedro Almodóvar and David Trueba will be showcased in Made in Spain program at the 2019 San Sebastian Festival.
Three modern classics, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985), by Paul Schrader; Dao ma zei / The Horse Thief (1986), by Tian Zhuangzhuang, and Sátántangó (1994), by Béla Tarr, are the films featuring in this year’s Klasikoak section of the 2019 San Sebastian International Film Festival. Following last year’s screening of Ladri di biciclette / Bicycle Thieves (1948), the section increases from one to three films programmed for screening in their restored versions in the Tabakalera cinema.
