72nd San Sebastian Festival - 20/28 September 2023
71SSIFF - 22/30 September 2023
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Z365" or "Festival all year round" is the new strategic point of the Festival in which converge investigation, accompaniment and development of new talents (Ikusmira Berriak, Nest); training and cinematic knowledge transfer (Elías Querejeta Zine Eskola, Zinemaldia + Plus, Filmmakers' dialogue); and investigation, disclosure and cinematic thought (Z70 project, Thought and Discussion and Research and publications).
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Agenda
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Official Selection
Films
Films
Official Selection
Official Selection
Susanne Bier
Denmark - Sweden
105 min.
How far are decent people willing to go, when tragedy blurs the line between just and unjust? Director Susanne Bier (winner of the Foreign Language Film Academy Award in 2011 with Hævnen / In a Better World) and screenwriter Anders Thomas Jensen have crafted another startling yet moving drama, about how easily we lose our grasp on justice, when we face the unthinkable and life as we know it is hanging by a thread. A thrilling story about real people forced into incredible circumstances.
Christian Petzold
Germany
110 min.
Christian Petzold, winner of the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin Festival in 2012 with Barbara, presents in San Sebastián's Official Selection his new film, once again starring Nina Hoss. A singer was betrayed and sent to a concentration camp. She returns with her face completely disfigured and asks a distinguished surgeon to reconstruct it in order to regain her former appearance as closely as possible. Having recovered from the operation, she sets out to find her husband, a pianist. But their reunion will not go the way she expected.
Bille August
Denmark
98 min.
The prestigious Danish filmmaker Bille August, winner of an Academy Award and two Palme d'Or in Cannes, returns with a highly personal drama. Three generations of a family gather over a weekend. The sisters Sanne and Heidi have accepted their terminally-ill mother’s desire to die before her disease worsens; but, as the weekend progresses, their mother's decision becomes harder and harder to deal with, and old conflicts come to the surface.
François Ozon
France
107 min.
The latest film by François Ozon, winner of the Golden Shell in 2012, is the tale of two women who have been friends since childhood. The two marry and one has a baby. Shortly afterwards, the mother falls seriously ill and makes her friend promise that she will take care of the baby and her husband. When she dies, the friend decides to visit the father and the baby, but a tremendous surprise awaits her.
Opening Film
Antoine Fuqua
USA
132 min.
Denzel Washington stars in Antonie Fuqua's new film. McCall believes he has dedicated himself to beginning a new, quiet life, but when McCall meets a young girl under the control of ultra-violent Russian gangsters, he can’t stand idly by.
Not in competition
Closing Film
Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache
France
115 min.
Samba migrated to France 10 years ago from Senegal, and has since been plugging away at various lowly jobs. Alice is a senior executive who has recently undergone a burnout. He'll do whatever it takes to get working papers, while she tries to get her life back on track by volunteering with an association. Both struggle to get out of their dead-end lives... until fate draws them together.
Not in competition
Anahí Berneri
Argentina
103 min.
Argentinian director Anahí Berneri returns to competition in the Official Selection with this film which was presented in the first San Sebastian Co-Production Forum in 2012. A young married couple, Lucía and Manuel, seem to have forgotten the desires and projects that brought them together. Separately, Lucía and Manuel come back into touch with their personal desires while they draw further apart. They feel like teenagers and discover their immaturity. With no common roof, in the open air, they no longer know how to get home.
Gabe Ibáñez
Bulgaria - Spain
110 min.
Gabe Ibáñez directs a futuristic thriller starring Antonio Banderas. A sci-fi film somewhere between a detective movie and a western set against the argument of Technological Singularity, the theory that speculates on the moment when artificial intelligence may develop to the point of matching and even overtaking human intelligence.
ALFAMA FILMS
© ALFAMA FILMS
Michael Sturminger
France - Austria - Germany
118 min.
John Malkovich stars in the unique project that captures the myth of the greatest seducer of all times, Casanova. Based on Histoire de ma vie by Giacomo Casanova and with arias from W.A. Mozart and Lorenzo Da Ponte. His story is told both through fiction and on-stage performances that unravel the tale of his adventures, his passions, and ultimately his fear of death.
Michaël R. Roskam
USA
107 min.
In his Hollywood debut, Belgian filmmaker Michaël R. Roskam (Bullhead) adapts a novel by Dennis Lehane in a film starring Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace and James Gandolfini in his last role for the cinema.The Drop takes an inside look at organized crime’s use of local New York City bars as money-laundering “drops”. When lonely Brooklyn bartender Bob Saginowski uncovers a drop of a different sort in the form of a battered pit bull puppy that he rescues from certain death, he comes into contact with Nadia, a mysterious woman hiding a dark past.
Mia Hansen-Løve
France
131 min.
In her latest film, moviemaker Mia Hansen-Løve recreates the French house period. In the 90's, French electronic music is developing at a fast pace. In the exciting Paris nightlife, Paul is taking his first steps as a DJ.
Maxime Giroux
Canada
105 min.
In his third feature, Canadian director Maxime Giroux narrates the story of Félix, an eccentric and penniless young man whose wealthy father is dying, and Meira, a Hasidic woman married with a child. They were not meant to meet, let alone fall in love.
Shim Sung-bo
South Korea
111 min.
Bong Joon-ho co-writes and produces the directorial debut of Shim Sung-bo, screenwriter of Memories of Murder. A fishing ship’s crew attempts to smuggle in illegal migrants which ends in a catastrophe with the crew driven into madness.
Alberto Rodríguez
Spain
105 min.
Alberto Rodríguez (Grupo 7) returns to film noir with this thriller starring Raúl Arévalo, Javier Gutiérrez and Antonio de la Torre. Two cops, ideologically miles apart, are reprimanded and sent as punishment to a remote town in the swamps to investigate the disappearance of two teenagers. There they will measure their wits against a savage killer in a community anchored to the past.
Jon Garaño, Jose Mari Goenaga
Spain
99 min.
Jon Garaño and Jose Mari Goneaga compete in the Official Selection with this tale of three women, three lives changed by nothing but a few bunches of flowers. Flowers that make each one feel emotions they'd thought were long gone...
Carlos Vermut
Spain - France
127 min.
The new film from Carlos Vermut (Diamond Flash) is a tale of crossed destinies starring José Sacristán, Bárbara Lennie and Luis Bermejo. Alicia, an ailing child who dreams of the dress in the Japanese series Magical Girl Yukiko; Luis, her father, who will do anything he can to make her dream come true; Bárbara, a pretty young girl with psycholgical issues; and Damián, a teacher who has retired from everything except his stormy past. All will be trapped in a net of obscure blackmailing where instincts and reason spar with one another in a tragic struggle.
Danis Tanovic
India - France - UK
90 min.
A based-on-fact drama from Academy Award-winning director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land). Devastated when he discovers the effects of the infant formula he's peddling, a young salesman takes on a multinational corporation.
Cédric Kahn
France
106 min.
The new film by French director Cédric Kahn focusses on Philippe Fournier, a man who lives with his 2 sons, having decided not to give them back to their mother after she won custody of the children. The children Okyesa and Tsali must grow up in the shadow, hunted by the police but always free and on the move.
Cristián Jiménez
Chile - France - Canada
97 min.
Chilean director Cristian Jiménez returns to San Sebastián with the tale of Sofia, a 35 year old woman who has two children she loves. But everything has been going wrong for her lately. Looking for peace after her recent separation, she decides to take a vote of silence in reverse: no mobile phone, no TV, no Internet, no books for a year. But her peace is short-lived.
Films in Progress 25
Pablo Malo
Spain
106 min.
Pablo Malo reconstructs in his latest movie the true story of Lasa and Zabala, two Basque refugees who were kidnapped, tortured and murdered in 1983. Twelve years later, lawyers Iñigo and Fede will struggle to identify the murderers, putting their convictions and even their own lives on the line.
Not in competition
Isaki Lacuesta
Spain
100 min.
Isaki Lacuesta presents a social satire in which five common or garden citizens, from a country pretty much identical to our own, see their lives ripped apart by the economic crisis. With nothing more to lose, they come up with a crazy plan to save the Spanish and world economy: kidnap the chairman of the Central Bank and demand that he return everything to the way it used to be. An impressive cast headlines the film: Sergi López, Ariadna Gil, Emma Suárez, Raúl Arévalo, Imanol Arias, Eduard Fernández, José Coronado, Jordi Vilches, Josep Maria Pou, Ángela Molina and Albert Pla, among many others.
Not in competition
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Opening hours
Monday to Thursday: 09:00h - 15:00h
Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
Monday to Thursday: 09:00h - 15:00h
Friday: 10:00h - 14:00h
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