22/08/2006

Europe will invade the Zabaltegi-New Directors sidebar section of the upcoming San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 21-30), with 11 films (of a total of 18) competing for the Altadis-New Directors Award and for the Montblanc Award for New Screenwriters. Films by new filmmakers presented in the Official Section will also compete for these awards.

With a programme made up exclusively of first and second feature films, Zabaltegi this year once again confirms its reputation as a space for promoting new trends and discovering talented young directors.

Besides the four, previously announced Spanish titles (53 días de Invierno, La Distancia [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Kutsidazu Bidea, Ixabel and Spanish/UK/French co-production The Backwoods [+see also:
trailer
film profile] – see news), one of the most anticipated films of the section comes from the UK and is directed by 36 year-old Sean Ellis.

Produced by Left Turn Films, Cashback is the tale of an insomniac art student who decides to take a late-night shift at a supermarket. It was developed from Ellis' previously Oscar-nominated short film, also entitled Cashback.

From Germany comes Sven Taddicken's Emma's Bliss, recently released in its home country (see news), and German-Swiss co-production So Long by Oliver Paulus and Stefan Hillebrand, a duo who received a Special Mention from the New Directors Jury at San Sebastian in 2003 for their directorial debut When The Right One Comes Along.

Northern European cinema is also represented in Zabaltegi by Ragnar Bragason's tragicomic Born/Children (Iceland), Peter Schønau Fog's grotesque fable The Art of Crying (Denmark) and Erik Richter Strand's child abuse drama Sons (Norway).

Lastly, the eleventh European film in the programme is the French/Belgian/Czech co-production Fair Play, directed by Lionel Bailliu (see news).

The other seven non-European Zabaltegi titles are Jorge Durán's Proíbido proibir (Brazil), Daniela Goggi's Visperas (Argentina), Rubén Imaz Castro's Familia Tortuga (Mexico), Mes de Guzman's Ang Daan Patungong Kalimugtong (Philippines), Yen Yen Woo's Singapore Dreaming (Singapore), Chen Daming's One Foot Off the Ground (China) and Aaron J. Wiederspahn's The Sensation of Sight (USA).