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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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At today’s press conference, the San Sebastian Festival Director, José Luis Rebordinos, and the representative of Kutxabank Idoia Elurbe revealed the titles of the fourteen first or second works by European, American and Asian filmmakers to compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award at the 67th edition.
Family conflicts and relations between parents and their children are the recurring themes of the feature films included this year in New Directors, the section conceived to disseminate the works by new filmmakers. Other tales focus on a Lithuanian television contestant who pretends to be blind, a man with cerebral palsy who sets out to find his lost faith in Lourdes, two lovers at a crossroads in today’s Tunisia, a family trapped on an island in Chile and a world dance champion who has a nervous breakdown.
From the total number of works selected, eight are debut films and six second movies. In the latter case, several of their makers have already participated in previous editions of New Directors. Ignas Jonynas (Vilnius, Lithuania, 1971), who participated with Losejas / The Gambler (2013), now returns with Nematoma, starring a man who pretends to be blind in a dance contest. Last year, this project filmed in the Lithuanian language won the Glocal in Progress awards.
For her part, the Bulgarian director Svetla Tsotsorkova (Burgas, 1977) also participated in New Directors with Jadja / Thirst (2015), whose actresses Monika Naydenova and Svetlana Yancheva once again work under her orders in Sestra / Sister. The film shows how the lie told by a teenage girl destroys her elder sister’s life and enables both of them to discover the truth about their mother.
Set in the terrible drought which destroyed the Swiss countryside in 1976, Le milieu de l’horizon / Beyond the Horizon portrays a young girl whose family environment and innocence collapse around her. Laetitia Casta and Clémence Poésy are members of the cast on this work by Delphine Lehericey (Lausanne, Switzerland, 1975), who returns to Donostia four years after screening Puppy Love (2013) in New Directors.
Also presenting their second works are the following filmmakers. In Disco, Jorunn Myklebust Syversen (Oslo, Norway, 1978) follows a young dance champion and poster girl for an evangelical movement (Josefine Frida Pettersen, from ‘Skam’ series) who after collapsing at a competition stars looking for answers in an even more radical church. In Algunas bestias / Some Beasts (winner of several awards at Films in Progress 35 Toulouse), Jorge Riquelme Serrano (Santiago de Chile, 1981) directs Paulina García and Alfredo Castro, members of a family faced with their demons on a desert island. For her part, the Tunisian Hinde Boujemaa (1971) participates with Le Rêve de Noura / Noura Dreams, where a woman on the point of divorce meets the love of her life coinciding with her husband’s imminent release from jail.
Eight debut films
Following her short films made with the collective Las chicas de Pasaik, Maider Fernandez Iriarte (San Sebastian, Spain, 1988) presents her first feature, the non-fiction film Las letras de Jordi / Jordi’s Letters, a project developed as part of the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme (REC Grabaketa Estudioa Post-Production Grant) about a 51 year-old man (Jordi Drassanes) with cerebral palsy who is worried because God no longer speaks to him. Her debut film will also be shown by another maker of short films, Lucía Alemany (Traiguera, Valencia, Spain, 1985) who, having worked on the production teams of Icíar Bollaín, Daniel Sánchez Arévalo and Borja Cobeaga, now directs La inocencia / The Innocence. The film, with a cast including Laia Marull and Sergi López, stars an adolescent (Carmen Arrufat) involved in a secret relationship with a boy older than her.
Ana García Blaya (Buenos Aires, 1979) debuts with Las buenas intenciones / The Good Intentions, a project which carried off several awards in the Primer Corte section at Ventana Sur, looking at how the conflicts between parents affect their children. A similar plot is followed in the first feature film by Kim Sol (Buyeo, 1992) and Lee Jihyoung (Bucheon, 1988), young South Koreans who debut with Scattered Night (Grand Prix in the Korean competition category at the Jeonju Festival in 2019 and Best Actress Award for Moon Seunga).
The Giant by American David Raboy (1989) is based on his own short film made in 2012, where the young Charlotte (Odessa Young) will try to put her past behind her in the last summer spent in her native city, while the British director Fyzal Boulifa (Leicester, 1985), whose short film The Curse (2012) was nominated for a Bafta, will present Lynn + Lucy, a study of violence and social hysteria shown through the relationship between two lifelong friends.
Japan’s Koichi Doi (Yokohama, 1978) will participate with Yoake No Takibi / Bonfire At Dawn, the contemporary story of a father who educates his son in the ways of the Kyogen, a branch of classic Japanese theatre. Lastly, Oren Gerner (Petah-Tikva, Israel, 1984), who competed in Cannes in 2018 with his short film Gabriel, will show in San Sebastian his first full-length project, Africa, in which a retired engineer sets out on a silent voyage to reconstruct himself. The young filmmaker returns to the Festival, at the 62nd edition of which he received the Nest Film Students Award for his short film, Greenland.
Established in 1985, the New Directors section reflects the Festival’s engagement with emerging talents. In their day, Olivier Assayas, Nicolas Winding Refn, Laurent Cantet, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Walter Salles, Kevin Smith, Lee Daniels, Ciro Guerra, Isabel Coixet, Alberto Rodríguez, Telmo Esnal and Asier Altuna, among many other filmmakers, presented their debut works in this section.
Following their screening in San Sebastian, the last winners of the Kutxabank-New Directors Award have been selected for other festivals and have enjoyed their commercial release in Spain. Specifically, Jesus, the film by Hiroshi Okuyama, winner of an award at the 2018 edition, had its release in commercial cinemas on 26 July.
The Kutxabank-New Directors Award, to be decided by an international jury, comes with 50,000 euros for the director and distributor of the film in Spain. The sponsorship of the New Directors section by the financial institution corresponds to a broader participation by Kutxabank, which is yet another year an official collaborator of the Festival.
The titles in this section are also candidates for the Youth Award, decided by a jury of 150 students between the ages of 18 and 25 years.
When retired 68 year-old Meir discovers that his 30 years of planning the annual village celebration have been summarily discarded and the job has been given to inexperienced local teens instead, the ground beneath his feet begins to give way. In his effort to restore a sense of meaning and vitality, Meir begins to rebel against the inevitable: the betrayal of his physical body, the growing distance from his children, and the loss of relevance. First feature film by Oren Gerner, winner of Nest Film Students Best Short Film Award with Greenland (2014).
A family enthusiastically disembarks on a deserted island on Chile’s southern coast with the dream of building a tourist hotel. When the man who brought them across from the continent disappears, the family is trapped on the island. Suffering from the cold, with no water or assurances, the spirits and good manners start fading to reveal the beasts hidden within the family. Second feature film by its director.
On the surface 19-year-old Mirjam's life seems perfect. She's a world champion freestyle disco dancer and the pride of her modern, evangelical church. Yet her body is calling out for help and at the dance world championships, where she is defending her title, she collapses on stage. Her family's solution is for her to focus more on her faith. In search of answers, she turns to a stricter, more conservative church. Second feature film by its director.
Lis is a teenager whose dream is to become a circus artist and leave her hometown, even if she knows that to do it she’ll have to fight her side against her parents. It’s summer and she spends her days playing with her friends and flirting with her boyfriend, a few years older than herself. The lack of privacy and the neighbours’ constant gossip force Lis to keep their relationship secret so that her parents won’t find out. A relationship which change her live forever. Debut film.
The early 90s in Buenos Aires. Amanda is 10 years old; she has two younger brothers and separated parents with whom the children alternately live. When they’re with their father, Amanda has to act like an adult and take care—as she can—of everyone, since Gustavo is a rather peculiar character who barely loves his children any more than he loves himself. But one day, their mother suggests an alternative outside the country, far from her father’s messy existence, throwing Amanda into turmoil. Debut film.
Jordi was born 51 years ago with cerebral palsy. Although he can’t speak, he tries to communicate using his letter chart. That’s how he tells Maider, the director of the film, that at the age of 21 he felt God talking to him for the first time. But today, now that he has moved out of his parent’s house into a home, he no longer feels God. Once a year, Jordi makes a pilgrimage to the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, where he searches for his connection with God, despite not knowing if God will come back one day. Debut film. Project developed at the Ikusmira Berriak residencies programme. REC Grabaketa Estudioa Post-Production Award.
Summer 76', there's a heatwave and the Swiss countryside is drying out at top speed. In this stifling environment, Gus who is thirteen years old and son of a farmer, sees both his family environment and his innocence relentlessly breaking. He's living the end of a world. Second feature film by its director.
While her husband is in jail, Noura meets Lassad. They are in love and want to live together, but Jamel is released from jail and the law says that Noura must go back and live with him. Second feature film by its director.
Lynn and Lucy are life-long best friends, their relationship as intense as any romance. Neither has ventured far from where they grew up. Lynn, who married her first boyfriend and whose daughter is fast growing up, is delighted when the charismatic, volatile Lucy has her first baby boy. Lucy, however does not react to being a mother as Lynn expects. Soon, they find their friendship is tested in extreme circumstances. Debut film.
Jonas pretends to be blind and enters a TV dance contest where he meets his attractive dance partner, Saulé. They soon become the show’s most popular contestants. Meanwhile, Vytas, an old acquaintance of Jonas, is released from jail hungry for revenge, firm in the belief that he isn’t the only person responsible for his wife’s death, but that her former lover, Jonas, shares the guilt. Second feature by its director, winner of Glocal in Progress 2018.
Siblings Sumin and Jinho live together. One day, their parents announce their imminent divorce. They tell them that they haven't yet decided how the four members of the family will be divided up and ask them to wait for some two weeks. Sumin is worried that she'll be separated from Jinho and wants to know if she'll live with her father or her mother. Until one day, her parents make a suggestion. Debut film.
A small town in present-day Bulgaria. A mother and her two daughters are struggling to survive. The dreamy and distracted younger daughter often invents stories in order to make life more interesting. Unwittingly, she eventually gets caught in the trap of her own lies and destroys her older sister's well-ordered materialistic world. Meanwhile, the two sisters find out the truth about their mother. Second feature film by its director.
On her graduation day, Charlotte learns that her first love has returned to her small Georgia town for the first time since vanishing the year before, in the midst of an awful trauma in her life. But that night, a girl her age is found dead, and then another. Something terrible is happening in the place and Charlotte's final summer speeds towards a nightmarish conclusion. Debut film.
Motonari Okura comes from a family of artists with 650 years of history as performers of Japan's traditional stage art, Kyogen. One winter he and his 10-year-old son leave for a house deep in the mountains to train in a strict regime that includes rehearsing and cleaning. One day they are visited by an old friend and his granddaughter. Debut film.
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