The Official Selection of the San Sebastian Festival’s 72nd edition will include the out-of-competition participation of Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness, second movie as a director from Johnny Depp, while the documentary Lumière!, l'aventure continue / Lumiere! The adventure continues by Thierry Frémaux joins the Special Screenings. In addition, Bagger Drama, second feature by Piet Baumgartner, and Min Evige Sommer / My Eternal Summer, the debut from Sylvia Le Fanu, complete the New Directors section.

Modi, Three Days on the Wing of Madness marks the return to directing by Johnny Depp, who made his debut behind the camera with The Brave (1997) and received the Donostia Award for his lifetime achievement at the San Sebastian Festival in 2021. Riccardo Scamarcio plays the Bohemian artist Amedeo Modigliani at the head of a cast also featuring Stephen Graham, Al Pacino and Antonia Desplat. The film, a tale of art, love and rejection, follows a 72-hour whirlwind of chaotic events through the streets and bars of a Paris torn apart during World War I.

Thierry Frémaux (Tullins, 1960), General Delegate of the Festival de Cannes and Director of the Lumière Institute, returns to San Sebastian to present Lumière!, l'aventure continue / Lumiere! The Adventure Continues. This is the sequel to Lumière! L'aventure commence / Lumière! The Adventure Begins (2016), a journey through the universe of the founders of cinema narrated by Frémaux with passion and humour. The screening of this film, programmed at the Festival in 2017, was the starting point for the Klasikoak section.

As already announced, the Official Selection will also include the out-of-competition participation of the series Querer, directed by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, while the Special Screenings will include the feature film by Paula Ortiz, La virgen roja / The Red Virgin, and the series Yo, adicto / I, Addict, directed by Javier Giner and Elena Trapé.

New Directors to include twelve titles

The Swiss director Piet Baumgartner (Dieterswil, 1984) has helmed the short films Alle Werden (2011), screened at Locarno, Elite (2013) and Inland (2015), having made his feature-length directorial debut in 2023 with the documentary The Driven Ones, screened at Zurich Festival. Bagger Drama narrates the story of a family whose idyll is blown apart when their daughter is killed in an accident. 

Sylvia Le Fanu (London, 1990), a Danish filmmaker with British roots, brings her feature debut with the Danish production Min Evige Sommer / My Eternal Summer, about a 15-year-old girl who has to spend the summer trying to say goodbye to her dying mother, whose final wish is to be together in their summerhouse. Le Fanu has shown short films at festivals including  Clermont-Ferrand, Indy Shorts and Odense, among others.

These two titles are joined by the ten previously announced. La guitarra flamenca de Yerai Cortés, the debut from Antón Álvarez (C. Tangana), will open New Directors, while Hiver à Sokcho / Winter in Sokcho, by Koya Kamura, will close the section. The other films selected are Azken erromantikoak (The Last Romantics), by David Pérez Sañudo; Brûle le sang / In the Name of Blood, by Akaki Popkhadze; Gülizar / Gulizar, by Belkis Bayrak; La llegada del hijo / Surfacing, by Cecilia Atán and Valeria Pivato; Por donde pasa el silencio / As Silence Passes By, by Sandra Romero; Regretfully at Dawn, by Sivaroj Kongsakul; Stars and the Moon, by Yongkang Tang, and Turn Me On, by Michael Tyburski. All twelve features will compete for the Kutxabank-New Directors Award, coming with 50,000 euros, in a competition including the participation of thirteen moviemakers from Argentina, China, France, Georgia, Spain, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the UK and the USA.