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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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Six films join the list of Golden Shell hopefuls at the 71st San Sebastian Festival. The Official Selection incorporates the latest films from the directors of The Assistant (Kitty Green), Holiday (Isabella Eklöf), Jusqu’à la garde / Custody (Xavier Legrand), Complicity (Kei Chika-Ura) and Apples (Christos Nikou), and the debut from Tzu-Hui Peng and Ping-Wen Wang, A Journey in Spring. In addition, the French production Un métier sérieux / A Real Job, directed by Thomas Lilti, will be part of the special screenings of the Official Selection.
Chung xing / A Journey in Spring is the first feature film from the filmmakers Tzu-Hui Peng (Taichung, Taiwan. 1989) and Ping-Wen Wang (Taipei, Taiwan. 1987). This Taiwanese production follows a man overcome with remorse as he mourns his wife’s death.
Following the critically acclaimed Apples, which was selected for Telluride, Toronto and Venice, director Christos Nikou (Athens, Greece. 1984) now showcases actors Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson and Annie Murphy in his second movie and first English-language film, Fingernails, a thought-provoking romantic drama about an institution that tests the presence of romantic love between couples.
The first feature from the Japanese moviemaker Kei Chika-Ura, Complicity, was selected for the Berlinale and won the Young Critics Award at the CinemAsia Festival. In his second film, Great Absence, a young actor reconnects with his father after the disappearance of his second wife.
Isabella Eklöf (Storholmen, Sweden. 1978) directed Holiday (2018), selected for Sundance and winner of an award in Austin. She joined the director Ali Abbasi to write the screenplay of Border (2018), winner of the Un Certain Regard Award at the Festival de Cannes. Her second movie as a director, Kalak, follows a Danish nurse who moves to live in Greenland.
Xavier Legrand (Melun, France. 1979) returns to San Sebastian Festival after the success of Jusqu'à la garde / Custody (2017), winner of Best Director at Venice Festival, of the Audience and RTVE-Otra Mirada Awards in San Sebastian, and of the Césars for Best Film and Screenplay. He will compete for the Golden Shell with Le successeur / The Successor, the tale of a designer who discovers a terrible secret in his family home when his father dies.
Also eagerly awaited is the second film from Kitty Green (Melbourne, Australia. 1984), who once again places her trust in the actress Julia Garner, star of her popular earlier film, The Assistant (2019), winner of awards at Deauville Festival and from the New York Film Critics Circle. The Royal Hotel tells the tale of two backpackers (Garner and Jessica Henwick) who take a job in a pub in the remote Australian Outback.
As well as the films to compete for the Golden Shell, the Festival brings a special Official Selection screening of the film Un métier sérieux / A Real Job, directed by Thomas Lilti (La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France. 1976). The director of Hippocrate / Hippocrates: Diary of a French Doctor works with actors François Cluzet, Adèle Exarchopoulos and Vincent Lacoste to portray everyday life at a French school.
This announcement adds to the list of ten previously announced candidates for the Golden Shell: María Alché and Benjamín Naishtat, Jaione Camborda, Robin Campillo, Isabel Coixet, Isabel Herguera, Raven Jackson, Joachim Lafosse, Noah Pritzker, Cristi Puiu and Martín Rejtman. Also programmed, out of competition, is the series La Mesías by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo and the special screening of They Shot the Piano Player, by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. Hayao Miyazaki will open the 71st edition with Kimitachi wa Do Ikiruka / The Boy and The Heron and James Marsh will bring it to a close with Dance First.
An old man with a limp, Khim-Hok, has depended on his wife over the years. They live in an old house on the urban fringe of Taipei. After his wife suddenly passes away, Khim-Hok puts her into an old freezer and goes on living a seemingly peaceful life. But their long-estranged son and his new partner suddenly appears, so Khim-Hok has to face his wife's death when the end finally comes.
Anna and Ryan have found true love. It's been proven by a controversial new technology. There's just one problem: Anna still isn't sure. Then she takes a position at a love testing institute, and meets Amir.
Actor Takashi has been estranged from his father Yohji, a retired university professor, ever since the tumultuous divorce with his mother ripped the family apart 20 years ago. They remain barely in contact until one day, a call from the police prompts Takashi to visit Yohji, who is struggling with dementia in his home in southern Japan. Upon arriving, Takashi discovers Yohji's second wife Naomi is missing. Asked where she went, Yohji replies she committed suicide. Takashi must find out if there is any truth to his father's words.
Jan is on the run from himself after being sexually abused by his father. Living in Greenland with his little family, he yearns to be a part of the open, collectivist culture and become a Kalak, a "dirty Greenlander".
Ellias Barnès, 30, is the newly-announced artistic director of a famous Parisian fashion house. But as expectations are high, he starts experiencing chest pain. Out of the blue he is called back to Montreal to organise his estranged father's funeral and discovers that he may have inherited much worse than his father's weak heart.
Americans Hanna and Liv are best friends backpacking in Australia. After they run out of money, Liv, looking for an adventure, convinces Hanna to take a temporary live-in job behind the bar of a pub called 'The Royal Hotel' in a remote Outback mining town. Bar owner Billy and a host of locals give the girls a riotous introduction to Down Under drinking culture but soon Hanna and Liv find themselves trapped in an unnerving situation that grows rapidly out of their control.
It's a new school year. Benjamin is a PhD student without a grant. Given his lack of future prospects, he accepts a position as a contract teacher in a Parisian middle school. Without training or experience, he soon realises just how tough the teaching profession can be in an education system crippled by a chronic lack of resources. With the support and commitment of the other teachers, and a bit of luck, he will reconsider his vocation.
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