18 titles of Spanish production, at the 70th San Sebastián Festival: Official Competition, New Directors…

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed the 18 Spanish production titles that will be screened from September 16 to 24 at the San Sebastian Festival.

In total, there will be 18 titles (fifteen feature films, two shorts and one television series) those that can be seen in the Official Section and in the sections New Directors, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, Perlak and Velódromo of the 70th edition of the San Sebastian Festival. Of them, four become part of the official section to compete for the desired Golden Shell.

Fernando Franco (Seville, 1976) returns to the official competition in San Sebastián with his third feature film, The Rite of Spring, after being recognized with the Special Jury Prize and the Silver Shell for actress Marian Álvarez for The wound (2013) and be selected as a special screening with to die (2017). The Rite of Spring narrates the meeting between an 18-year-old girl (Valèria Sorolla) and a young man with cerebral palsy (Telmo Irureta). The second of the tapes is Suro, debut of Mikel Gurrea (San Sebastián, 1985) in the feature film, after his short about to arrive It was premiered last year at the Venice Film Festival and programmed at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera. Starring Vicky Luengo and Pol López, who play a couple who moves to the country, Suro It is the first project of the Ikusmira Berriak residences that competes for the Golden Shell.

The third of the tapes is The maternal, second film Pilar Palomero (Zaragoza, 1980) after winning the Goya for best film, best new director and best original script for his debut feature film, The girls (Made in Spain 2020, after passing through Berlin and Malaga). Palomero focuses on a 14-year-old teenager (Carla Quílez) and her process of learning to be a mother. Finally, Jaime Rosales (Barcelona, ​​1970) returns to the official competition in San Sebastián after Headshot (2008) was awarded the Fipresci Prize and presented several of her films in Made in Spain and in Perlak (Petra, 2018). In wild sunflowers, Anna Castillo plays a mother in search of a better life. In addition, it enters the Official Section as a special screening The groc sostre (The yellow roof), a non-fiction directed by Isabel Coixet (Barcelona, ​​1962) about the sexual abuse committed in the Lleida Theater Classroom between 2001 and 2008.

Out of competition will participate in the series of Movistar Plus+ Blackout, composed of five chapters directed by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Raúl Arévalo, Isa Campo, Alberto Rodríguez and Isaki Lacuesta, which has as its starting point a solar storm that causes a general outage of the energy supply. In addition, Alberto Rodríguez will also present the inauguration film in San Sebastián, the already announced Model 77.

New Directors and Zabaltegi-Tabakalera

The section New Directors, dedicated to first and second films, will host I sing to books and women of Maria Elorza. Elorza (Vitoria-Gasteiz, 1988), whose first short films as part of the Las Chicas de Pasaik collective, Our Walls (Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, 2016) y The girl of light (Velódromo, 2016), premiered in San Sebastián, and is also the author of the multi-award-winning short films Fireflies again (2018) y Brokenness (2020), will present her first feature film at the Festival, built around an anonymous and unarmed army of women who take care of books.

At the same time, the section Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will host the presentation of another project of the residences of New Sights, The water, of Elena Lopez Riera, which was selected in the last Cannes Directors' Fortnight. Likewise, it will be programmed Little pig, the debut of Carlota Pereda, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Two short films of the program are also part of the section. Buds: The third notebook, of Land of Olaizola, which will participate out of competition after its premiere at Cinéma du Réel, and ropes, of Estibaliz Urresola, which will be screened after passing through Cannes Critics' Week.

Perlak and Velodrome

The section the pearls will welcome One year, one night, of Isaki Lacuesta, which competed at the Berlinale, and The Beasts, of Rodrigo Sorogoyen, after passing through the Cannes Festival. Both aspire to City of Donostia / San Sebastián Public Award. In addition, it will close the out-of-competition section The crooked lines of God, the adaptation of the homonymous novel by Torcuato Luca de Tena, signed by Oriol Paulo and starring Bárbara Lennie and Eduard Fernández.

Finally, the Velodrome, a room with a 400 square meter screen equipped for almost 3,000 spectators, will host the premieres of Rainbow, the look of Paco Leon about the classic The Wizard of Oz, with Dora Postigo, Carmen Maura and Carmen Machi; Feeling very sorry, the documentary Fernando León de Aranoa about Joaquín Sabina, and the latest animated film by Fermin Muguruza, Black is Black II: Ainhoa, whose first part Zinemira closed in 2018.

https://youtu.be/-vUV50fCd8Q