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Valladolid’s Seminci International Film Festival will host its 69th edition from October 18-26 and, along with it, the second edition of its new industry sidebar.

Below, we highlight three key events hosted under this year’s Valladolid Industry banner.

Merci Valladolid

Among the myriad of activities aimed at filmmakers, producers, buyers and sellers, this year’s industry strand will host the Merci Valladolid (Mercado de Cine Independiente Valladolid).

For three days, Oct. 23-25, Merci will serve as a meeting point for 140 screen industry business professionals, including programmers, exhibitors and distributors. Valladolid will invite the accredited professionals to screenings of 22 of the most highly anticipated releases scheduled to hit cinemas through the end of 2024 and all of 2025.

According to organizers, the screenings will help “maximize the titles’ circulation and promote a better exploitation in the run-up to their release.”

In addition to the screenings, Merci will hold a series of...

The European Film Academy has announced that documentaries and animated features will now be considered for the European Film prize at its annual awards.

The category had previously only included fiction films. “The aim of this change is to better reflect the fact that documentaries and animated feature films are an essential part of European cinema culture, adding much to its great diversity,” a press release states. “Both documentary and animated films come in a plethora of genres, storytelling traditions and narrative forms, for any audience.”

The change is effective starting this year. The 37th European Film Awards are set to take place on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

“Simply said, the best film of Europe can from now onwards also be a feature-length documentary film or animated feature film, and not only a fiction film,” European Film Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol said in a statement. “The decision of the...

Zum zweiten Mal in Folge hat ein spanischer Filmemacher den Hauptpreis des San Sebastián International Film Festival gewonnen: Albert Serra erhielt die Goldene Muschel des 82. Ssiff für seine Stierkämpferdoku „Tardes de soledad“. Der Regiepreis geht an zwei Regiedebütanten.

Albert Serra mit der Goldenen Muschel (Credit: Ssiff / Jorge Fuembuena)

Das 82. San Sebastián International Film Festival hatte seinen feierlichen Abschluss mit der Verleihung der Preise, die von einer Jury um die letztjährige Goldene-Muschel-Gewinnerin, die tatsächlich aus San Sebastián stammende Jaione Camborda („O corno“), übergeben wurden (zur Jury gehörten u. a. die Filmemacher Ulrich Seidl aus Österreich und Christos Nikou aus Griechenland).

Der Dokumentarfilm „Tardes de soledad“ (Spanien-Frankreich-Portugal) unter der Regie von Albert Serragewann in diesem Jahr die Goldene Muschel als bester Film – eine nicht ganz unumstrittene Entscheidung, denn der Film spaltete die Gemüter. Die offizielle Jury vergab die Silberne Muschel für die beste Regie ex aequo an die Debütanten Laura Carreira und...

Spanish director Albert Serra’s bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude has won the Golden Shell for best film at the closing ceremony of the 72nd edition of the Spanish festival tonight (Saturday September 28).

The special jury prize was awarded to Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl which stars Pamela Anderson as a Vegas showgirl facing the end of her career.

’Afternoons Of Solitude’ review

The official competition jury, presided over by Spanish filmmaker Jaione Camborda – who was last year’s Golden Shell winner for The Rye Horn, also awarded top prizes to new filmmakers. The Silver Shell for best director...

Spanish producer Maria Zamora of Elástica Films, who has championed emerging and mostly female filmmakers through most of her 20-year career, received this year’s annual National Cinematography Award at the 72nd San Sebastian Festival on Saturday, Sept. 21.

On hand to introduce her were filmmakers Elías León Siminiani, Paula Ortiz and Spanish Culture Minister Ernest Urtasun.

Siminiani, who worked on two documentaries with Zamora in the span of 10 years, said: I’ve seen her career rise like a hot air balloon. After we stopped working together, she promptly snagged a Berlinale Golden Bear for ‘Alcarràs,’ a San Sebastian Golden Shell for ‘O Corno,’ a Goya for ‘Libertad’ and a Cannes Directors’ Fortnight award for ‘Creatura,’” he quipped.

“Indeed, in these uncertain times, we need a stabilizing force like Maria,” said Ortiz, a multi-Goya nominated filmmaker whose film “La Virgen Roja” (previously titled “Hildegart”), Elástica’s co-production with Prime Video, premieres on Sept.

Das San Sebastian International Film Festival hat jetzt die Jurymitglieder für seine von 20. bis 28. September stattfindende 72. Ausgabe bekannt gegeben.

Einige der Jurymitglieder beim San Sebastian International Film Festival (Credit: San Sebastian Film Festival)

Der österreichische Regisseur Ulrich Seidl ist eines von sechs Mitgliedern der Wettbewerbsjury beim San Sebastian International Film Festival.

Wie das Festival jetzt bekannt gab, übernimmt Jaione Camborda, die in San Sebastian im vergangenen Jahr für „O Corno“ als erste spanische Regisseurin mit der Goldenen Muschel ausgezeichnet wurde, den Vorsitz der Wettbewerbsjury.

Weitere Mitglieder des sechsköpfigen Gremiums sind die argentinische Schriftstellerin und Journalistin Leila Guerriero, der US-Schauspieler und Regisseur Fran Kranz, der griechische Regisseur Christos Nikou und die französische Produzentin Carole Scotta.

Weitere Jurys beim San Sebastian International Film Festival:

Kutxabank-New Directors Award

• Philippe Bober, Produzent und Verleiher, Frankreich (Präsident)

• Eduardo Crespo, Regisseur und Programmer, Argentinien

• Jessica Kiang, Kritikerin und Programmerin, Irland

• Izibene Onederra, Filmemacherin, Spanien

• Aulona Selmani,...

The jury for the 2024 San Sebastian Festival will be chaired by director Jaione Camborda, who was the first Spanish female filmmaker to win the Golden Shell last year with The Rye Horn.

She will be joined on the jury by Greek director Christos Nikou who competed at San Sebastian last year Apples And Fingernails, which won the Fipresci Award; Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl, who presented Sparta in the Official Selection in 2022 and is a prize-winner at Berlin and Venice; and French producer Carole Scotta, founder of Haut et Court.

Also on the jury are actor Fran Kranz, whose first film as a director,...

Otros de los títulos seleccionados incluyen ‘Bird’, ‘Emilia Perez’, ‘Kinds of Kindness’ y ‘The Substance’.

La Academia de Cine Europeo ha anunciado la primera selección de títulos que optan a las nominaciones de los Premios del Cine Europeo. Se han seleccionado 29 producciones y en septiembre se ampliará la lista con una nueva tanda de títulos.

En esta primera lista se encuentran tres películas españolas: Un amor, de Isabel Coixet, con siete nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024, O Corno, de Jaione Camborda, ganadora de la Concha de Oro en el Festival de San Sebastián 2023, y Volveréis, de Jonás Trueba, premio a la Mejor Película europea en la Quincena de Realizadores de Cannes.

La ceremonia de los Premios del Cine Europeo tendrá lugar el 7 de diciembre en Lucerna (Suiza). Pueden optar a los Premios del Cine Europeo los largometrajes europeos que, entre otros criterios, hayan tenido su primera proyección oficial entre el...

The first wave of titles in contention for the 2024 European Film Awards include Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness and Sundance award-winner Kneecap.

Cannes premieres feature predominantly in the 29 titles unveiled today (August 14), including Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Perez; Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig; Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour; Halfdan Ullmann Tønde’s Armand and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance – all of which picked up prizes on the Croisette.

Other films from Cannes include Andrea Arnold’s Bird; Emanuel Pârvu’s Three Kilometers To The End Of The World; The Count Of Monte-Cristo; and Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle.

The European Film Academy has revealed the first tranche of film titles that members can consider for nominations for the European Film Awards, which take place on Dec. 7 in Lucerne, Switzerland.

The academy’s selection of 29 titles covers films that had their first official screening between June 1, 2023, and May 31, 2024. Further titles will be announced in September, which will include films that had their premieres in the summer and early autumn festivals, such as Locarno and Venice.

Among the selection are Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” Cannes’ best actress and jury prize winner, Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour,” Cannes’ best director winner, Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds Of Kindness,” best actor winner at Cannes, Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” jury special prize winner at Cannes, Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” best screenplay winner at Cannes, “Armand” by Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, the Golden Camera winner at Cannes, Matthias Glasner’s “Dying,...

Die European Film Academy hat 29 Spielfilme bekannt gegeben, die ins Rennen um eine Nominierung in den Kategorien der European Film Awards, die am 7. Dezember in Luzern verliehen werden, gehen. Weitere sollen im September folgen.

Die ersten Filme der Spielfilmauswahl für die European Film Awards stehen fest (Credit: European Film Academy)

Der Vorstand der European Film Academy hat die ersten 29 Spielfilme bekannt gegeben für eine Nominierung in den Kategorien der European Film Awards bekannt gegeben. Weitere sollen nach Efa-Angaben im September folgen.

Wie die European Film Academy heute mitteilt, waren die Filme von den Akademiemitgliedern für eine Nominierung empfohlen worden.

Den rund 5.000 Akademiemitgliedern obliegt es nun auch, die Filme zu sichten und die Nominierten in den Kategorien „Europäischer Film“, „Regie“, „Schauspielerin“, „Schauspieler“, „Drehbuch“, „Dokumentarfilm“, „European Discover“ und „Young Audience Award“ zu benennen, die am 5. November bekannt gegeben werden.

Die Gewinner werden am 7. Dezember in Luzern zusammen mit den Gewinnern der...

Cannes Competition titles The Substance, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Emilia Perez are among the first set of titles recommended for nominations at this year’s European Film Awards.

Overall, 29 titles have been selected for the first stage of nominations by the European Film Academy Board. The selection includes films from 26 countries. In the coming weeks, the 5,000 members of the European Film Academy will start to vote on the selected films. The winners will be announced at the European Film Awards ceremony in Lucerne, Switzerland, on December 7.

To be eligible for a European Film Awards, films must be European feature films which, among other criteria, had their first official screening between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024 and have a European director. The rule book states that should a film director not be European, exceptions can be made if the filmmaker is “provided they have a European refugee or similar status...

Protagonizada por la debutante Kiara Arancibia, junto a Julián Villagrán, Janet Novás y Petra Martínez. © Avalon

Arranca en Barcelona el rodaje de la película “Harta”, de la cineasta Júlia de Paz (“Ama”) y basada en su cortometraje homónimo de 2021.

En “Harta”, tras la separación de sus padres, Carmela y su madre se mudan a casa de la abuela. Mientras intenta adaptarse a su nueva situación, Carmela anhela pasar más tiempo en casa de su padre, un artista plástico al que admira e idolatra. La sombra de éste llevará a las tres generaciones de mujeres de la familia a decidir el futuro que se merecen.

La película está protagonizada Kiara Arancibia, en su debut como actriz, Julián Villagrán (“Tratamos Demasiado Bien a las Mujeres”), Janet Novás (“O Corno”) y Petra Martínez (“Cerrar los Ojos”).

En palabras de su directora, Júlia de Paz: «la película nace de la necesidad de reclamar un...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Kinds Of Kindness, Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, are among the films that will screen in CineMasters, the main competition of this month’s Munich International Film Festival (Miff), taking place from June 28 to July in Germany.

Fourteen films are in the running for CineMasters’ €50,000 Arri Award which is presented to the producers of the best international film. Further titles include Jia Zhang-ke’s Caught By The Tides, Rúnar Rúnarsson’s When The Light Breaks, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section last month, as well as Jaione Camborda...

The Mediterrane Film Festival announced its complete program ahead of its second edition, taking place in Malta’s capital of Valetta from June 22-30. New titles selected include recent Cannes highlights in Coralie Fargeat’s Demi Moore-led body horror “The Substance” and Roberto Minvervini’s “The Damned,” which join previously announced films like Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Kinds of Kindness” and Jane Schoenbrun’s “I Saw The TV Glow.”

Further program additions include Mahdi Fleifel’s Directors’ Fortnight standout “To a Land Unknown,” which Variety labeled “a confident, angry, fully-realized drama,” and Truong Minh Quy’s Un Certain Regard breakout “Viet and Nam.” An extended version of the Malta-shot “Jurassic World: Dominion” will play as part of the Malta Expanded strand, while on the retrospective end of the program, the festival will honor David Bowie with screenings of Nicolas Roeg’s “The Man Who Fell to Earth” and Lisa Azuelos’s “My Way,...

The Mediterrane Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its second edition (June 22-30), with Cannes premiere The Count Of Monte Cristo set to open the event.

Scroll down for the full line-up

Directed by Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière, the film is among seven titles in the out of competition strand, which also includes Jane Schoenbrun’s Sundance title I Saw The TV Glow and Tarsem Singh’s Dear Jassi.

The 15-strong competition section features Cannes competition titles Kinds Of Kindness and The Substance, and Berlin premiere The Strangers case starring Omar Sy,

Seven films compete in the environment-themed Mare Nostrum section,...

Malta’s Mediterrane Film Festival has set the full competition and industry lineup for its second edition, which runs June 22 to 30 in the country’s capital, Valletta.

The programme includes 15 films in competition, seven out-of-competition, and seven films competing in the environment-themed Mare Nostrum section, topped up by 14 immersive projects.

Select competition titles include Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest Kinds of Kindness, Coralie Fargeat’s body horror The Substance, and The Damned by Italian filmmaker Roberto Minvervini. All three films debuted at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Scroll down to see the full lineup. Deadpool and Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller will serve on the competition jury.

The festival has also set its industry lineup, featuring a series of masterclass sessions. Speakers include editor Yorgos Mavropsaridis, production designer Nathan Crowley, casting director Margery Simkin, and composer Simon Franglen...

Over June 10-14, Madrid is welcoming 300-plus industry delegates for the inaugural Ecam Forum, which is shaping up as the next go-to market for Spanish projects and co-productions, considering the stellar list of projects and attendees lined up.

Hosting the event is not a private company nor the industry arm of an A-list festival, but a film and audiovisual school-Madrid’s prestigious Ecam.

Founded in 1994, the school, which offers undergraduate and postgraduate courses to more than 300 students a year, is Spain’s leading breeding ground for some of the country’s biggest names in film, television and advertising such as filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen and regular writing partner Isabel Peña or cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe.

The reasons for Ecam being so industry-facing comes down to the school’s status and founding principles, as explained by Rafa Alberola, head of Ecam Industria (formerly known as ‘The Screen’), the umbrella regrouping the school’s...

“I’m Nevenka,” a Movistar Plus+ original film and the awaited next feature from Spain’s Iciar Bollaín, has closed its earliest pre-sales, struck by Film Factory Entertainment, including a bellwether deal in France.

The deals come as “I’m Nevenka” has wrapped production, shooting in the Basque city of Bilbao before transferring to rural Zamora, western Spain.

Daniel Chabannes’ Epicentre Films, a classic 30-year-old distributor and producer of non-English language art pics, especially from Europe and Latin America, whose recent acquisitions take in San Sebastian Gold Shell winner “The Rye Horn” and Amos Gitai’s “It’s Not Over,” has acquired French rights.

A distributor of both big Cannes winners – “Triangle of Sadness,” “Rosetta,” “The Child” – and slightly more out-there propositions, such as Pablo Berger’s silent movie “Blancanieves,” Xenix Film Distribution has clinched rights to Switzerland.

Iciar Bollaín: A Broader Audience Auteur

The early pre-sales are hardly surprising. Since her big breakout,...

Two new Australian films, both enjoying their world premiere, are among the first titles confirmed to play at the Sydney Film Festival in June.

“In Vitro,” a sci-fi mystery thriller set on a remote cattle farm in the near future, hails from directors Will Howarth and Tom McKeith (“Beast”) and stars Ashley Zukerman (“Succession”).

With “The Pool,” director Ian Darling (“The Final Quarter”) paints a cinematic portrait of a year in the life of the iconic Bondi Icebergs, the pool and the people who cherish it.

They will be joined by New Zealand actor Rachel House (“Hunt for the Wilderpeople”), who makes her feature directorial debut with “The Mountain,” which centers on three children discovering friendship’s healing power through the spirit of adventure as they trek through spectacular New Zealand landscapes. It is executive produced by Taika Waititi and will be eligible for Sydney’s recently announced First Nations Award,...

Ja Bayona’s Society Of The Snow was the big winner at Spain’s Goya awards on Saturday night (February 10), scooping 12 prizes including best film and director to become the third-most garlanded film in Goya history.

Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall, was named best European film, and Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams won the prizes for best adapted screenplay and feature animation.

20,000 Species Of Bees, the feature debut of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, received three Goyas for best new director and original screenplay for Solaguren, and best supporting actress for Ane Gabarain. The 15 nominations for Bees were the...

Screen shines a light on 30 European titles that look set to grab the attention of festival directors in 2023, including new features by Tom Tykwer, Paz Vega, Paolo Sorrentino, Cecilia Verheyden and Baltasar Kormakur.

For our separate list of French festival hopefuls for 2024, click here.

Ariel (Sp-Por)

Dir. Lois Patiño

Patiño won the Encounters special jury prize at Berlin last year for Samsara and picked up the emerging director prize at Locarno in 2013 with Coast Of Death. His latest is a free adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Tempest, shot in Galicia and The Azores islands. Ariel stars Goya winner Irene Escolar...

“20.000 especies de abejas”, “La sociedad de la nieve”, “Saben Aquell” y “Cerrar los Ojos” encabezan las nominaciones a los premios Goya 2024.

El pasado jueves se anunciaron los nominados de la próxima edición de los prestigiosos Premios Goya, el destacado evento anual que celebra lo mejor del cine español. La gala de los Goya 2024 se celebrará el 10 de febrero en Valladolid, con la actriz y cantante Ana Belén y por Los Javis como presentadores. Aquí os dejamos con la lista de los nominados de esta edición:

Mejor PELÍCULA

20.000 especies de abejas

Cerrar los ojos

La sociedad de la nieve

Saben aquell

Un amor

Mejor DIRECCIÓN

Víctor Erice, Cerrar los ojos

Elena Martín, Creatura

J.A. Bayona, La sociedad de la nieve

David Trueba, Saben aquell

Isabel Coixet, Un amor

Mejor PELÍCULA Europea

Aftersun (Reino Unido)

Anatomía de una caída (Francia)

Las ocho montañas (Italia)

Safe Place (Croacia)

Sala de profesores...

Valladolid International Film Week’s Independent Film Market saw Spanish distributors showcase acquired films to local streamers, TV networks and exhibitors.

Merci, Valladolid International Film Week’s Independent Film Market, enjoyed a 20% rise in the number of professionals attending this year.

Merci, which ran from October 25-27, provides an opportunity for Spanish independent distributors to meet with platforms, TV networks and distributors, and to show them selection of their recent acquisitions.

Among the 24 titles being screened by distributors at Merci Valladolid this year were Tran Anh Hung’s The Pot Au Feu, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak, Aki Kaurismäki...

Cementing its reputation as a harbinger of emerging talent, Madrid-based Latido Films has acquired the international sales rights to “Tras el Verano,” the debut film from Yolanda Centeno picked out as one of Variety’s 10 Women Directors to Watch from Spain, compiled in 2021.

Alfa Pictures is handling distribution in Spain.

Following on hits such as Colombia’s “Killing Jesus” and “Carmen & Lola” and “Lullaby” from Spain, this acquisition not only underscores Latido’s interest in nurturing and promoting fresh, innovative voices in cinema but also highlights the strength of a new generation of talent emanating from the Spanish-speaking world.

Centeno’s debut feature has attracted strong talent in the form of Goya and Gaudi winners Ruth Gabriel (“Numbered Days”) and Alexandra Jiménez (“The Distances” “100 Metres”).

Joining them is actor Juan Diego Botto whose own directorial debut “On The Fringe” reaped recognition at the Goyas, Venice and other festivals.

Spanish distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, broadcasters and platforms st the Merci market.

Seminci, the Valladolid International Film Week, will host an expanded third edition of Spain’s Independent Film Market for the first time from October 25-27.

Known as Merci Valladolid, the market is jointly organised by Seminci and the Association of Independent Film Distributors (Adicine).

The market used to be held at the Seville European Film Festival, which was previously run by Seminici’s new director José Luis Cienfuegos.

Sixteen Spanish independent distributors will present their international titles to exhibitors, television networks and platforms at Merci Valladolid.

Indie films have scored some impressive figures at Spanish box office this year.

As the Spanish film industry comes together at Valladolid International Film Week (known locally as the Seminici), one of the big talking points will be how to make independent films stand out at the local box office.

Although Spain’s box office in the year to mid-October has grossed €400m, 35% higher than the same period in 2022, it is still 17% lower than the 2015-2019 pre-Covid average.

US studio blockbusters led the charge, headed by Barbie ($35.2m), Super Mario Bros. Movie ($29m), Avatar: The Way Of Water, ($26.9m) Oppenheimer...

Rather than horns, they look like tiny black catkins clinging to the grains on swaying stalks of rye. These little clusters — actually a fungus known as ergot — are a disease that affects the ovaries of their host plants, but can be made into an infusion that induces abortion in women. That kind of resonance, between the natural world and the female human experience, is very much at the heart of Jaione Camborda’s second film, “The Rye Horn,” which began its festival journey in Toronto and won top honors in San Sebastian.

But as symbiotically involved with nature as the film is, particularly in Portuguese master cinematographer Rui Poças’ earthen imagery, which is so tactile you can almost feel the wet gray sand of the Galician island setting under your toes, its somber narrative is comparatively undernourished. Atmospherics can only do so much to engage with a central character this wary and stoic.

The Golden Shell winner at the San Sebastián––the Basque film festival’s top prize––went to home-grown filmmaker Jaione Camborda for this absorbing and sensual Galician-language abortion drama The Rye Horn, an urgent film about women in a totalitarian environment that has potent echoes today.

It’s 1971 and the late stages of the Franco regime on an island off the northwest coast of Spain, the same Galicia region that provided the untamed landscapes of The Beasts and Olivier Laxe’s Fire Will Come. Maria, perhaps in her late 30s or early 40s, makes a living in this rustic part of the world picking shellfish, in touch with nature and the tactile world of her surroundings. But in this tight-knit community, she’s also an unofficial midwife, perhaps a symbol of how the centralized, male-led Spain of the regime has neglected this far-flung end of the country––only women protect women here.

There’s something fittingly appropriate about the way that The Spirit Of The Beehive director Victor Erice became the first Basque director to receive a lifetime achievement Donostia Award at the 71st San Sebastian Festival, while the Golden Shell for Best Film also went to San Sebastian-born Jaione Camborda for The Rye Horn, which is scripted in Galician and Portuguese. It encapsulates not just the way that the old meets the new at the festival but how, under José Luis Rebordinos’s directorship since 2011, it has continued to champion home-grown voices and non-hegemonic languages. Erice brought Close Your Eyes, his first film […]

The post The Public Experience: San Sebastian International Film Festival 2023 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

There’s something fittingly appropriate about the way that The Spirit Of The Beehive director Victor Erice became the first Basque director to receive a lifetime achievement Donostia Award at the 71st San Sebastian Festival, while the Golden Shell for Best Film also went to San Sebastian-born Jaione Camborda for The Rye Horn, which is scripted in Galician and Portuguese. It encapsulates not just the way that the old meets the new at the festival but how, under José Luis Rebordinos’s directorship since 2011, it has continued to champion home-grown voices and non-hegemonic languages. Erice brought Close Your Eyes, his first film […]

The post The Public Experience: San Sebastian International Film Festival 2023 first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

San Sebastián, Spain, native Jaione Camborda took the top prize, the Golden Shell for best film, at the 71st San Sebastián Film Festival, for her The Rye Horn, a 1970s-set drama about a midwife forced to flee Galicia, Spain, to Portugal when, after a tragedy strikes, a teenage mother asked her for an abortion.

The audience award for best film went to J.A. Bayona’s Netflix real-life survival thriller Society of the Snow, while San Sebastián viewers voted Matteo Garrone’s migration drama Io Capitano the best European film at the festival. Both Society of the Snow and Io Capitano are in the running for the 2024 Oscar in the best international feature category.

The best performance award went to both Marcelo Subiotto for his performance as a philosophy teacher at the University of Buenos Aires battling a bitter rival over a professorship position in the dramedy Puan and Tatsuya Fuji...

Janet Novás in The Rye Horn Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival Jaione Camborda's The Rye Horn took the top award of the Golden Shell as San Sebastian Film Festival drew to a close last night. The San Sebastian-born director's second film is set in 1970s Galicia and relates the struggles of a woman who finds herself forced to flee on a smugglers' route between Spain and Portugal.

The Best Director Silver Shell went to to Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang for Taiwanese film A Journey In Spring and the Silver Shell for Best Screenplay went to María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat for Argentinian comedy Puan. Its star Marcelo Subiotto also won a Silver Shell for his portrayal of the hapless philosophy professor at the film's heart, which he shared, ex-aequo, with Tatsuya Fuji for his role in Japanese dementia drama Great Absence.

Jaione Camborda with her Golden...

The San Sebastian Film Festival awarded O Corno (The Rye Horn) with the Golden Shell for Best Film. San Sebastián native Jaione Camborda took the top prize of the night for the feature she directed.

Additionally, the jury gave the Silver Shell for Best Director to Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang for Chun xing / A Journey in Spring (Taiwan), while the Best Screenplay Award went to María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat for Puan (Argentina-Italy-Germany-France-Brazil).

The Silver Shell for Best Leading Performance fell ex aequo upon Marcelo Subiotto and Tatsuya Fuji for their respective roles in Puan, by Alché and Naishtat, and Great Absence (Japan), by Kei Chika-ura, while the Silver Shell for Best Supporting Performance went to Hovik Keuchkerian for his character in Un amor (Spain) by Isabel Coixet.

Check out the full list of winners below.

San Sebastian 2023 Award Winners List Golden Shell For Best Film

O Corno (The Rye Horn...

It’s now the fourth year in a row that a female filmmaker has won San Sebastián’s prestigious Golden Shell award. After Déa Kulumbegashvili’s Beginning, Alina Grigore’s Blue Moon and last year’s Laura Mora’s The Kings of the World, it is Jaione Camborda‘s The Rye Horn wins the biggest prize of them all. The film had its world premiere in the Platform section at the Toronto Intl. Film Festival. Isabella Eklöf’s Kalak and María Alché plus Benjamín Naishtat’s Puan doubled up with wins – Kalak grabbed a Special Jury Prize and Best Cinematography, while Puan nabbed Best Screenplay and Best Leading perf for Marcelo Subiotto.…...

Spanish director becomes the fourth consecutive woman director to win the festival’s top prize

The Rye Horn (O Corno), the second feature by Jaione Camborda, has won the top prize, the Golden Shell, at the 2023 San Sebastian Film Festival.

Set on an island off the coast of Galicia in 1971, the film tells the story of a woman who earns a living harvesting shellfish. She is also known on the island for helping other women in childbirth but has to flee and try to cross the border into Portugal after an unexpected event.

Camborda, who was born in San Sebastian,...

A predictably spectacular sunset spreads streaks of pink and orange across a northern Spanish late September sky, heralding the end of another packed edition of the San Sebastian Film Festival, where at the closing gala, “The Rye Horn” the second feature from Spanish director Jaione Camborda has just been handed the Golden Shell, the festival’s top award.

It is perhaps a surprising win, but does now mark the fourth consecutive year that the festival’s most prestigious prize has gone to a female director. But in another way it has to be a first: the international jury, comprising French director Claire Denis, alongside Chinese actor and producer Fan Bingbing, Colombian producer-director Cristina Gallego, French photographer Brigitte Lacombe, Spanish actor Vicky Luengo, Canadian producer and distributor Robert Lantos and German director Christian Petzold, has chosen to award not just a Spanish film, but one from a female director who was...

San Sebastian — Blessed by blowsy sun, two Conferences and a Co-Pro Forum, which brought the highest caliber and number of U.S., European execs and Latin American producers ever seen in festival history, San Sebastian rounded its final bend Friday after a packed, busy and upbeat event, also suggesting a stability in contrast to other major European events, such as Berlin.

Below, eight takeaways, some 24 hours before Saturday night’s closing gala and prize ceremony.

Women Rule Still

Coming into the festival, many of the biggest main competition buzz pictures were directed by women. Many now figure, according to a El Diario Vasco Spanish critics’ poll, as Golden Shell frontrunners: Isabel Helguera’s animated pic “Sultana’s Dream,” Raven Jackson’s Sundance hit “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” Jaione Camborda’s Toronto platform screener “The Rye Horn” and Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang’s “A Journey in Spring.”

New...

Films by Carolina Markowicz, Isabel Coixet, Jaione Camborda and Isabel Herguera all have international potential.

Highly anticipated features from Isabel Coixet, Lucía Puenzo and Jaione Camborda are among the buzziest Spanish and Latin American titles screening across all strands of this year’s San Sebastián film festival. Here is a flavour of what festival audiences can expect.

Blondi (Argentina)

Dir: Dolores Fonzi

The debut feature from Argentinian actress Dolores Fonzi plays in the Horizontes Latinos section, which screens premieres entirely or partially produced in Latin America and not yet released in Spain. Fonzi also stars in the film which is...

In what marks a departure in her filmmaking, Carla Simon, director of Berlin Golden Bear winner “Alcarràs,” is preparing a flamenco musical for her fourth feature.

Like “Alcarràs,” the project is set to be produced by María Zamora at her Valencia-based production-distribution house Elastica Films.

“Romería,” the third part of Simón’s trilogy begun by 2017’s “Summer 1993,” is still set to shoot in Summer 2024, Zamora told Variety.

“But we can’t wait to start shaping this fascinating proposal that excites me as a producer,”she added.

Simón describes the new film as a “neorealist flamenco musical in the neighbourhood of La Mina, Barcelona.”

“Since I discovered that my biological mother was passionate about flamenco, a great curiosity began to grow in me for this genre, because of its history and its exceptional capacity to connect directly with emotion,” she explained to Variety.

“This time music and dance will become the...

Spanish cinema has undoubtedly been making a strong imprint on the international film festival circuit throughout the last few years and, crucially, there’s a new wave of female filmmakers that are driving this charge.

Carla Simon’s Alcarràs took the Golden Bear in Berlin last year, while Elena Lopez Riera and Clara Roquet debuted their respective films The Water and Libertad in Cannes as well as Elena Martin’s feature debut Creatura, which played in the festival’s Directors Fortnight section this year.

So at this year’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, it’s unsurprising that the trend is continuing as three Spanish films in official competition this year are directed and produced by women: Isabel Coixet’s Un Amor, based on a bestselling novel by Sara Mesa, which is produced by Marisa Fernández Armenteros and Sandra Hermida; Sultana’s Dream, the debut feature from Isabel Herguera which...

The San Sebastian International Film Festival has long been considered the most intimate of the A-list festivals, neatly wrapping up a hectic fall festival season as delegates descend on the enchanting seaside city in Northern Spain. But in the last few years, the event has cemented itself into a festival reputed for championing new talent and emerging voices across all sections of its programming.

Indeed, in the last four years, San Sebastian has awarded its top prize, the Golden Shell, to either directorial debut titles or second features, a sure sign that it takes its role as a promoter of rising talent seriously.

This year’s edition, which takes place September 22-30, is no different, with the official competition having 11 films from first or second-time directors including: Raven Jackson’s debut All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, which premiered in Sundance; Isabel Herguera’s animation Sultana’s Dream; Noah Pritzker’s second feature Ex-Husbands,...

“American Fiction” has won the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced at an awards brunch on Sunday.

The Orion/MGM film by first-time director Cord Jefferson is a barbed satire that stars Jeffrey Wright as a writer who, to his dismay, achieves enormous success after as a joke writing a book filled with what he feels are the worst and most pandering cliches of Black representation. In its review, TheWrap called the film “an outlandishly assured directorial debut, a beautifully modulated film that takes a great actor, Jeffrey Wright, and gives him a spectacular showcase.”

While the film did not come into the festival as one of its highest profile selections, it was an immediate sensation after its Friday night premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, drawing some of TIFF’s most positive reviews. It currently stands at 86% positive on Rotten Tomatoes...

Toronto’s Platform is set to be enriched by Jaione Camborda’s poignant second feature “The Rye Horn.” The film, set against the backdrop of 1970s Galicia, unravels the tale of María, a midwife thrust into a life on the run following a devastating incident. Her path to freedom takes her from Galicia to Portugal, retracing ancient smugglers’ trails.

The film, supported by the Galician broadcaster Tvg and the region’s Agency of Cultural Industries (Agadic), was brought to life under the banner of Andrea Vázquez’s Miramemira and Camborda’s own label, Esnatu Zinema, and Elástica Films, behind “Alcarràs” and “Creature.” Portugal’s Bando à Parte and Belgium’s Bulletproof Cupid co-produce. Elastica also distributes in Spain.

With the film also bound for San Sebastian main competition, for its European premiere, Camborda’s return to her hometown is particularly poignant. “For me, it’s like a gift… I grew up in the Basque Country,...

Thomas Lilti’s A Real Job will premiere as a special screening.

Films from Xavier Legrand and Kitty Green are among the new titles in the competition line-up of the San Sebastian International Film Festival.

French director Legrand, whose 2017 feature Custody won best film at the Cesars and best director in Venice, brings The Successor, about a designer who discovers a shocking secret after his father dies.

Australian director Green follows up her fiction feature debut hit The Assistant (2019) with The Royal Hotel, about two backpackers who start working at a pub in the remote Australian outback. Julia Garner once again stars in the film,...

Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi, 2023).The lineup is being unveiled for the 2023 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, starting with 60 selections from the Gala and Special Presentations programs. The festival takes place from September 7–17, 2023.Gala PRESENTATIONSConcrete Utopia (Um Tae-Hwa)Dumb Money (Craig Gillespie)Fair Play (Chloe Domont)Flora and Son (John Carney)Hate to Love: Nickelback (Leigh Brooks)Lee (Ellen Kuras)Next Goal Wins (Taika Waititi)Nyad (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)Punjab ’95 (Honey Trehan)Solo (Sophie Dupuis)The End We Start From (Mahalia Belo)The Movie Emperor (Ning Hao)The New Boy (Warwick Thornton) The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green)The Holdovers.Special Presentationsa Difficult Year (Éric Toledano, Olivier Nakache)A Normal Family (Hur Jin-ho)American Fiction (Cord Jefferson)Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)Close to You (Dominic Savage)Days of Happiness (Chloé Robichaud)The Rescue (Daniela Goggi)Ezra (Tony Goldwyn)Fingernails (Christos Nikou)Four Daughters (Kaouther Ben Hania...

Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s ‘The Monk And The Gun’ plays in Toronto’s Centrepiece programme next month.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has boarded international sales for Bhutanese director Pawo Choyning Dorji’s The Monk And The Gun, which has its international premiere at Toronto next month in the festival’s Centrepiece programme

Dorji previously directed Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom, which was nominated for best international feature at last year’s Academy Awards. Lunana premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in 2019, played widely on the festival circuit and secured multiple distribution deals including with Samuel Goldwyn for North America.