The world premiere of Woody Allen’s latest movie, Rifkin’s Festival, will open, out of competition, the 68th edition of the San Sebastian Festival on September 18 in the Kursaal Auditorium.  

The film, produced by The Mediapro Studio, Gravier Productions and Wildside, was shot last summer in San Sebastian and other nearby towns. It tells the story of a married American couple who go to the San Sebastian Festival and get caught up in the magic of the event, the beauty and charm of the city and the fantasy of movies. She has an affair with a brilliant French movie director, and he falls in love with a beautiful Spanish woman who lives there. 

This romantic comedy written and directed by Woody Allen stars Elena Anaya (Wonder Woman, La piel que habito / The Skin I live In), Louis Garrel (J’accuse / An Officer and a Spy, L’homme fidèle / A Faithful Man), Gina Gershon (The Insider), Sergi López (Un día perfecto / A Perfect Day, El laberinto del fauno / Pan's Labyrinth), Wallace Shawn (Radio Days, Princess Bride, Marriage Story), and Christoph Waltz (Spectre, Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds, films for which he landed two Oscars®).

This is the second time that Allen will have opened the San Sebastian Festival, having raised the curtain in 2004 with Melinda and Melinda. That year the Festival presented him with its Donostia Award and dedicated a retrospective to his work: Getting to know Woody Allen. The relationship with the New York moviemaker dates back to the late ‘70s, when films like Manhattan (1979), followed by Zelig (1983) and Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) were screened both in the Official Selection out of competition and in the sidebar sections. In 1985, the newly born Zabaltegi opened with The Purple Rose of Cairo. In recent years, a number of his films have been programmed in Perlak: Match Point (2005), Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008, which brought him back to visit the Festival, accompanied by Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz), Whatever Works (2009) and Irrational Man (2015).

Rifkin’s Festival is the fourth collaboration between Mediapro and the director and screenwriter after the Spanish company produced Midnight in Paris (2011), You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger (2010) and Vicky Cristina Barcelona (2008), films which have earned two Oscar® Awards, among many other recognitions and accolades. The film will be distributed in Spain by TriPictures, and The Mediapro Studio Distribution will look after its international sales.