Sixteen titles in San Sebastian's Zabaltegi
by Vitor Pinto
With only two titles officially vying for the Golden Shell of the 55th San Sebastian International Film Festival (September 20-29) announced so far – the eagerly anticipated Mataharis by Iciar Bollain and Gracia Querejeta's Siete mesas de billar francés (see news) – the festival has already made public the 16 films of the Zabaltegi-New Directors section.
Three local titles – Max Lemcke’s Casual Day, Cosmos by Diego Fandos and Tom Fernández’s La torre de Suso – and eight European productions or co-productions are part of the list, which is rounded out by films from the US, Iran, Korea and Israel (see list below).
First and second-time filmmakers will compete for the €90,000 Altadis-New Directors Award, which is also open to emerging directing talent running in the festival's Official Section. These will be announced separately.
The sub-section Zabaltegi Specials will explore the boundaries between documentaries and television formats, with works that include Carmen Castillo's French/Chilean/Belgian co-production Calle Santa Fé, Per Fly's Danish series Performances, US/Danish documentary Lynch and Mimi Freedman and Leslie Greif’s Brando, a biography on the infamous actor.
ZABALTEGI – NEW DIRECTORS
10+4 (Dah be alaveh chahar) - Mania Akbari (Iran)
Die Anruferin - Felix Randau (Germany)
The Bird Can't Fly - Threes Anna (South Africa, The Netherlands, Ireland)
The Blue Hour - Eric Nazarian (US)
Brick Lane - Sarah Gavron (UK)
Casual Day - Max Lemcke (Spain)
Cosmos - Diego Fandos (Spain)
Darling - Johan Kling (Sweden)
Ekko - Anders Morgenthaler (Denmark)
Les fourmis rouges - Stéphan Carpiaux (Luxembourg, Belgium, France)
Gidam - Jung Bum-Sik, Jung Sik (Korea)
The Walking Man - Aurélia Georges (France)
Soul carriage - Conrad Clark (China, UK)
Tnuah Meguna (Foul Gesture) - Itshak (Tzahi) Grad (Israel)
La torre de Suso - Tom Fernández (Spain)
Where God left his shoes - Salvatore Stabile (US)
ZABALTEGI – SPECIALS
Brando - Mimi Freedman and Leslie Greif (US)
Calle Santa Fé - Carmen Castillo (France, Chile, Belgium)
Performances - Per Fly (Denmark)
Lucio - Aitor Arregi, Jose Mari Goenaga (Spain)
Lynch - blackANDwhite (US, Denmark)
Madres - Eduardo Félix Walger (Argentina)
The Princess of Nebraska - Wayne Wang (US)
Querida Bamako - Omer Oke, Txarli Llorente (Spain)
Young Yakuza - Jean-Pierre Limosin (France)
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