The film Wuhai, by the Chinese filmmaker Ziynag Zhou, will complete the list of films competing in the Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival’s 68th edition, while Spagat / Grand Écart, by the Swiss moviemaker Christian Johannes Koch, will close the New Directors competition as its last addition. Furthermore, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will include a last title, Simon Chama / Simon Calls, by the Portuguese director Marta Sousa Ribeiro.

The Chinese director Ziyang Zhou (Ordos City, 1983) will compete with his second work, Wuhai, whose title refers to the small Inner Mongolian town providing the backdrop for the action, focussed on a happily married couple mired in serious financial difficulties. With his first work, Old Beast (2017), he garnered various acknowledgements inside his country and out.

Wuhai therefore closes the list of thirteen films competing for the Golden Shell, including established filmmakers such as Pablo Agüero (Akelarre), Danielle Arbid (Passion simple), Sharunas Bartas (In the Dusk), Naomi Kawase (Asa Ga Kuru / True Mothers), Antonio Méndez Esparza (Courtroom 3H / Sala del Juzgado 3H), François Ozon (Été 85 / Summer of 85), Julien Temple (Crock of Gold: A Few Rounds with Shane MacGowan) and Thomas Vinterberg (Druk / Another Round). Also competing in the Official Selection are filmmakers with shorter careers, such as Eduardo Crespo (Nosotros nunca moriremos / We Will Never Die), Dea Kulumbegashvili (Dasatskisi / Beginning), Harry Macqueen (Supernova) and Takuma Sato (Nakuko wa ineega / Any Crybabies Around?).

Out of competition we can see Rifkin’s Festival, Woody Allen’s new comedy and opening film of the Official Selection, and Antidisturbios, the series by Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Special screenings of other films not participating in the competition have also been programmed, including a full-length documentary by Matt Dillon, El gran Fellove, and two series: Patria, created by Aitor Gabilondo, and We Are Who We Are, by Luca Guadagnino.

TWELVE FIRST AND SECOND FILMS IN NEW DIRECTORS

For its part, Spagat / Grand Écart, the feature film directed by Christian Johannes Koch, completes the New Directors competition at San Sebastian Festival’s 68th edition. This last incorporation closes the list of the section screening the first and second films by their authors. In total, this year twelve titles will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, coming from Brazil, China, France, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Vietnam.

Swiss director Christian Johannes Koch (Lucerne, 1986), who previously participated in Nest with his short film Über Uns Elektrizität (2013), returns to debut his feature film, Spagat / Grand Écart.The story is set in rural Switzerland, where a teacher’s seemingly quiet family life conceals her secret affair with the father of one of her students.   

This film joins another first works in New Directors signed by moviemakers with projects previously gestated, presented with awards or programmed at San Sebastian: Isabel Lamberti will participate with La última primavera / Last Days of Spring after bagging the Nest Torino Award with the short film Volando Voy (2015); David Pérez Sañudo, author of Ane, presented the short film Aprieta pero raramente ahoga (2017) in Zinemira-Kimuak; Joäo Paulo Miranda Maria won the European Distributors and Exhibitors Award at Films in Progress 37 Toulouse and will now show Casa de antiguidades / Memory House; while Grigory Kolomytsev, who participated in the 2018 Ikusmira Berriak residencies, returns with Chupacabra.

The other first films in New Directors are Gal-mae-gi / Gull, by Kim Mi-jo; Gē shēng yuán hé màn bàn pāi / Slow Singing, by Xingyi Dong, and 16 printemps / Spring Blossom, by Suzanne Lindon. The four remaining titles are second works: Limbo, by Ben Sharrock; Hil kanpaiak / Death Knell, by Imanol Rayo; Jak Najdalej Stad / I Never Cry, by Piotr Domalewski, and Umibe no kanojotachi / Along the Sea, by Akio Fujimoto.
The twelve titles compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, coming with 50,000 euros distributed equally between the director and the distributor of the film in Spain, and are also candidates for the TCM Youth Award.

TWENTY TITLES IN ZABALTEGI-TABAKALERA

Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will also include his latest title, Simon Chama / Simon Calls, taking the total number of feature and short films making up the Festival’s most open section to a total of 20. Its director is Marta Sousa Ribeiro (Lisbon, 1992) who, after directing several short films and series and founding the production company VIDEOLOTION, makes her feature with a film about a young boy tired of waiting for his life to change.

Worthy of note among the eleven feature films in Zabaltegi-Tabakalera are several coming from the Berlin Festival, such as Domangchin yeoja / The Woman Who Ran, by Hong Sang-soo; La sel des larmes / The Salt of Tears, by Philippe Garrel; Rizi / Days by Tsai Ming-Liang; Los conductos, by Camilo Restrepo; A metamorfose dos pássaros / The Metamorphosis of Birds, by Catarina Vasconcelos; The Trouble with Being Born, by Sandra Wollner, and Ping Jing / The Calming, by Song Fang. The section will also screen the latest works by Nicolás Pereda (Fauna) and Adilkhan Yerzhanov (Zheltaya koshka / Yellow Cat), which will film respectively at Toronto Festival and the Venice Mostra, as well as the world premiere of Un efecto óptico / Un Optical Illusion / Interval, by Juan Cavestany.

Lastly, Zabaltegi-Tabakalera will include nine short films directed by Peter Strickland(Cold Meridian), Leonardo van Dijl (Stephanie), Sameh Alaa (I am Afraid to Forget Your Face), Naïla Guiguet (Dustin), Pedro Peralta (Noche perpetua / Perpetual Night), Bell Zhong (Huan le shi guang / Having a Good Time), Carla Simón and Dominga Sotomayor (Correspondencia / Correspondence), Marina Palacio(Ya no duermo) and Laida Lertxundi(Autoficción / Autofiction).