A total of fourteen productions programmed at San Sebastian Festival’s 69th edition will compete for the XXII Sebastiane Award given by GEHITU, the Basque Association of Gays, Lesbians, Transsexuals, Bisexuals and Intersexuals, to the film that best reflects the realities, freedoms and social progress of the LGBTI collective.
This award will be presented on September 25 and it will be chosen from among fourteen candidates: Benediction (Terence Davies), Camila saldrá esta noche / Camila Comes Out Tonight (Inés Barrionuevo), La abuela / The Grandmother (Paco Plaza), The Eyes of Tammy Faye (Michael Showalter) y Vous ne désirez que moi / I Want to Talk About Duras (Claire Simon), from the Official Selection; Ese fin de semana / That Weekend (Mara Pescio), from New Directors; Madalena (Madiano Marcheti), from Horizontes Latinos; Competencia oficial / Official Competition (Mariano Cohn and Gastón Duprat), Benedetta (Paul Verhoeven), The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion), The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes), Titane (Julia Ducournau) and Guzen to sozo / Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Ryusuke Hamaguchi), from Perlak, and Sedimentos (Adrián Silvestre), from Made in Spain.
On the other hand, after being held online in 2020, this year the VII Meeting of Latin American LGTBI Film Festivals will take place on September 23 and it will be in-person. Between 20 and 22 September, representatives of 21 festivals from 10 countries will take part in the event, whereas another seven festivals from six countries will participate online. From this year on, the meeting will also be open to industry delegates attending the Festival.
SAIL OFIZIALA |
Siegfried Sassoon was a complex man who survived the horrors of fighting in the First World War and was decorated for his bravery but who became a vocal critic of the government's continuation of the war when he returned from service. His poetry was inspired by his experiences on the Western Front and he became one of the leading war poets of the era. Adored by members of the aristocracy as well as stars of London's literary and stage world, he embarked on affairs with several men as he attempted to come to terms with his homosexuality. At the same time, broken by the horror of war, he made his life's journey a quest for salvation, trying to find it within the conformity of marriage and religion. His story is one of a troubled man in a fractured world searching for peace and self acceptance, something which speaks as meaningfully to the modern world as it did then.
When her grandmother falls seriously ill, Camila must move to Buenos Aires, leaving her friends and an easy-going comprehensive school for a traditional private institution. Camila’s ferocious but immature temperament will be put to the test.
Susana has to leave her life in Paris working as a model to return to Madrid. Her grandmother Pilar has just had a stroke. Years ago, when Susana’s parents died, her grandmother had brought her up as if she were her own daughter. Susana needs to find someone to take care of Pilar, but what should have been only a few days with her grandmother will end up turning into a terrifying nightmare.
An intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker. In the 1970s and 80s, Tammy Faye and her husband, Jim Bakker, rose from humble beginnings to create the world’s largest religious broadcasting network and theme park, and were revered for their message of love, acceptance and prosperity. Tammy Faye was legendary for her indelible eyelashes, her idiosyncratic singing, and her eagerness to embrace people from all walks of life. However, it wasn’t long before financial improprieties, scheming rivals, and scandal toppled their carefully constructed empire.
A man involved in a passionate relationship with a celebrated writer of 30 years his senior needs to talk. He is fascinated by her and yet he feels he just cannot go on anymore. He opens up, in an attempt to put into words the intensity of his love and he describes it with great clarity.
NEW DIRECTORS |
Julia returns to her neighborhood, from which she left years ago after a scam. She has to sign a permission to authorize her daughter to emigrate with her father; but, above all, she needs to recover the money she left there, that would solve many problems for her. This reunion with her past will not turn out as expected.
HORIZONTES LATINOS |
Luziane, Cristiano, and Bianca have almost nothing in common, beside the fact that they all live in the same rural city surrounded by soy fields in western Brazil. While they don't know one another, each of them is affected by Madalena's disappearance. In different parts of the town, each in their own way, they react to her absence.
PERLAK |
In search of significance and social prestige, a billionaire businessman decides to make a film to leave his mark. To do it, he hires the best: a stellar team made up of the famous filmmaker Lola Cuevas and two renowned actors, both with enormous talent, but with even bigger egos: the Hollywood actor Félix Rivero and the radical thespian Iván Torres. Both are legends, if not exactly the best of friends. Through a series of increasingly eccentric challenges set by Lola, Felix and Iván must face not only each other, but also their own legacies.
In the late 15th century, with plague ravaging the land, Benedetta Carlini joins the convent in Pescia, Tuscany, as a novice. Capable from an early age of performing miracles, Benedetta's impact on life in the community is immediate and momentous.
Three stories driven by chance and the imagination in which the lives of the female characters are marked by their choices and regrets. An unexpected love triangle, a failed seduction trap and an encounter resulting from a misunderstanding lend shape to a triptych connected by memory, deceit and fate.
Charismatic rancher Phil Burbank inspires fear and awe in those around him. When his brother brings home a new wife and her son, Phil torments them until he finds himself exposed to the possibility of love.
The Velvet Underground created a new sound that changed the world of music, cementing its place as one of rock ’n’ roll’s most revered bands. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Todd Haynes, The Velvet Underground shows just how the group became a cultural touchstone representing a range of contradictions: the band is both of their time, yet timeless; literary yet realistic; rooted in high art and street culture. The film features in-depth interviews with the key players of that time combined with a treasure trove of never-before-seen performances and a rich collection of recordings, Warhol films and other experimental art that creates an immersive experience into what founding member John Cale describes as the band's creative ethos: “How to be elegant and how to be brutal.”
Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for 10 years. TITANIUM: A metal highly resistant to heat and corrosion, with high tensile strength alloys.
MADE IN SPAIN |
Like the Earth, our interior is composed of different strata, which forge our identity and tell our life story. What circumstances intervene in this process and make us become who we are today? Six trans women travel to a small town in León where they will explore unusual landscapes, as well as the ins and outs of their own personalities. Looking for answers to what connects them as a group, they will learn to deal with their differences. An engaging and entertaining story about empathy, individuality and the need to belong. An X-ray set in the present, which looks back into the past and projects itself into the future, celebrating the extraordinary possibility of being unique and unrepeatable.