'Sparrows' surprises in San Sebastián by winning the Golden Shell

The Jury Prize for best photography went to Manu Dacosse for his work on 'Evolution', a co-production between France, Belgium and Spain directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic.

The Icelandic film Sparrows has surprised the 63rd edition of the San Sebastián Festival by winning the Golden Shell. This co-production between Iceland, Denmark and Croatia directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson, who debuted with his first feature film, Volcano, at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes in 2011 and was nominated for the Camera d'Or. The film became one of the festival's favorites and has won 17 awards. Rúnarsson is one of the most awarded short film directors in the world, and his Crossroads Trilogy It has won around 100 international awards. Its short The Last Farm (2008) was nominated for an Oscar.

Sparrows presents a coming-of-age story about a 16-year-old teenager, Ari, who, after having been living with his mother in Reykjavík, is sent back to the remote region of the Westfjords to live with his father, Gunnar. There he has to deal with the difficult relationship with his father and finds his childhood friends changed. In this hopeless environment, Ari has to work hard to find his way.

On the other hand, the Silver Shell for best director went to Joachim Lafosse for The White Knights, which narrates the feat of Jacques Arnault, president of the NGO Sud Secours, who plans to take 300 orphans victims of the civil war out of Chad and hand them over to French people who have processed adoption applications.

In acting, the actors Ricardo Darín and Javier Cámara have received ex-aequo the Silver Shell for Best Actor in the film Truman, while Yordanka Ariosa has won the Silver Shell for her role in The King of Havana.

The jury has awarded a special prize for the French film Evolution, a science fiction enigma, co-produced between France, Belgium and Spain, and directed by Lucile Hadzihalilovic. The film presents the life of Nicolas, a ten-year-old boy who lives with his mother on a remote island, in a town inhabited exclusively by women and children. In a hospital by the ocean, all the children are subject to a mysterious medical treatment. Nicolas is the only one who questions what is happening around him. He feels that his mother is lying to him, and he is willing to find out the truth... What he discovers is the beginning of a nightmare into which he is irremediably dragged...

Evolution's director of photography, Manu Dacosse, has won the festival's award for best photography.

The jury's special mention went to the film The apostate, a co-production between Spain, France and Uruguay, directed by Federico Veiroj.

The Chilean film Paulina, directed by Santiago Mitre, has won the Horizontes Latinos award and the TVE Otra Mirada Award. For its part, the Film in Progress Award has gone to Era o Hotel Cambridge.

The Audience Award for Best European Film, worth 20,000 euros, presented by the director of Culture Tabakalera, went to the film Mountains may depart, directed by Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang Ke.