The 69th edition of the San Sebastián Festival begins

One more year, Donostia will once again host the San Sebastian Festival, an essential event for Spanish and international cinema, from September 17 to 25.

In this edition, about 200 películas competirán en torno a six competitive sections (Sección Oficial, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak y Nest) y en siete no competitivas (Culinary Cinema, Made in Spain, Zinemire, Velódrom, Cine Infantil, Retrospectiva and Classics). The entire city will be dedicated to an event in which spaces like the Kursaal, Victoria Eugenia Theater, Principal Theater, Tabakalera, Truba, Príncipe y Old New They will once again be made available to the top creators of world cinema, who continue to see Zinemaldia as one of their favorite festivals to present their latest proposals.

The official section competition will be inaugurated by the film Yi miao zhong / One Second (Un segundo) of Zhang Yimou. Yimou, one of the most renowned Chinese filmmakers of recent decades, will compete for the first time in the Official Selection with his particular tribute to cinema, starring a prisoner who escapes from the labor camp in the middle of the Cultural Revolution and who is looking for some images of his daughter, whom he has not seen for years. Several of the director's previous films, who presided over the Official Jury at the San Sebastián Festival in 1997, have passed through the pearls como, por ejemplo, Huozhe (Live!, 1994), You hua hao hao shuo / Keep Cool (keep calm, 1997), Yingxiong / Hero (2003) o Shi mian maifu / The House of Flying Daggers (The House of Flying Daggers, 2004).

Sello español

This year, fourteen Spanish productions have been selected in the Official Section, New Directors, Horizontes Latinos, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera y the pearls at the 69th edition of the San Sebastián Festival. Four of them will compete for the Golden Shell: Maixabel, of Iciar Bollaín; The good boss / The Good Boss, of Fernando León of Aranoa; The grandmother, of Paco Plaza; y Who lo impide, of Jonás Trueba. The four creators join the already announced list of filmmakers in the official competition, among which are Inés Barrionuevo, Laurent Cantet, Terence Davies, Alina Grigore, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Zhang Ji, Tea Lindeburg, Claudia Llosa y Claire Simon.

In addition, out of competition, they will also participate in the Official Section the daughter / The Daughter, de Manuel Martín Cuenca; la serie La Fortuna, by Alejandro Amenábar; the short Rosa Rosae. La Guerra Civil / Rosa Rosae. A Spanish Civil War Elegy by Carlos Saura, who will be part of the opening gala; and The laws of the border, by Daniel Monzón, who will close the Festival.

New Directors, the section of the Festival dedicated to the first and second films of its filmmakers, will host the presentation of Josefina / Josephine, the debut feature of the tandem formed by director Javier Marco and screenwriter Belén Sánchez-Arévalo. Emma Suárez and Roberto Álamo star in this love story.

Johnny Depp and Marion Cotillard, Donostia Awards

The days 17 y 22 de septiembre, respectively, the French actress Marion Cotillard and the American actor Johnny Depp recogerán el Premio Donostia, San Sebastián's most important honorary award in recognition of his career.

Cotillard, winner of the Oscar, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award for her performance as Édith Piaf in The Kid / La vie en rose (La vida en rosa, Olivier Dahan, 2007), has shone brightly in European and American productions that have led her to play dramatic, comedic and action roles with equal talent alongside filmmakers such as Michael Mann, Christopher Nolan, Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh, James Gray, the Dardenne brothers, Arnaud Desplechin, Nicole Garcia, Leos Carax and her partner, the director and actor Guillaume Canet. Su último trabajo es Annette (2021), an unclassifiable musical that recently inaugurated the official competition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Depp He has been nominated three times for the Oscars, has won a Golden Globe and has been a candidate ten times. A performer in more than 90 audiovisual productions, he has also produced a dozen films, including the most recent, Minamata (The Minamata Photographer, 2020), by Andrew Levitas; Hugo (La invención de Hugo, 2011), directed by Martin Scorsese, the Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds With Shane MacGowan (Crock of Gold: Bebiendo con Shane MacGowan, 2020), directed by Julien Temple, which won the Special Jury Prize at the last San Sebastián Festival. Likewise, he has directed shorts and the feature film The Brave (1997), which he also wrote and which featured Marlon Brando as a performer.

Un evento transversal

Beyond the exhibition itself, whether in competitive or non-competitive sections, San Sebastián will once again be a node for the entire film industry with different activities distributed throughout the city.

In this way, the European Film Forum will reflect the present and future of the European film industry in a series of events and conferences; he Europe-Latin America co-production forum will once again have bridges between both audiovisual industries; WIP will be present in various extensions to help finalize films in the post-production phase; the Foundation SGAE will present the V Duna Ayaso Award within the framework of the event; the Conversaciones, this year focused on equality and gender identities, will feature James Mockoski, Céline Sciamma and Laura Wander; Paolo Sorrentino will offer a master class in which he will reflect his knowledge and experience; and the Startup Film Festival Challenge will once again bet on innovation, among other initiatives.